“No. Kate. Please,” Helen stammered. Looking down at Jerry’s bleeding head, she was overcome with worry. She had no idea what she needed, or wanted, to say.
“Let’s ge
t everyone inside,” Matt said calmly, looking over the shell-shocked faces around him to the riot that was still consuming the town. “First things first. We need to get indoors.”
They carried the wounded to the couches in the café area at the back of the News Store, and the twins immediately went to work assessing the severity of everyone’s injuries. Luis only had a concussion, but little Juan had four broken ribs, a broken arm, and a cracked skull. The twins looked at each other solemnly and prepared themselves for their work.
“Just stand back,” Claire warned Kate and Marivi when they gasped at the twins’ glowing hands. “It’s okay, really. Healing is one of their talents.”
“What do you mean, talents?” Kate pleaded. “Helen, you have to tell me what’s going on!”
Helen didn’t know what to say. She looked down at her father and then back up at Kate, overwhelmed. “I’m a demigod,” she finally spat out. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t have time to explain this to you just now.”
“Alrighty then!” Claire said loudly when she saw Kate’s petrified reaction. “I got this one, Helen. You are so not good at breaking the news gently, by the way. Kate, brace yourself. This is going to get messy.”
Claire started to give poor Kate a crash course in ancient mythology while Helen mouthed the words “thank you” and gestured for Matt and Lucas to join her. She told them about her encounter with Automedon, describing how she had fried him and how he’d shaken it off, molting his burnt skin right in front of her in the process.
“Is Zach okay?” Matt asked Helen.
“Last I saw he was headed down Surfside,” Helen answered, not really caring. “He was with Automedon, Matt, not getting mowed down by him like Luis and his kids, so I think he’ll be fine.”
Matt turned to Lucas. “Can Myrmidons usually withstand lightning, or throw bolts?”
“No,” Lucas said. “They don’t have talents like Scions do, but they are strong. Stronger than most Scions.”
“Even if he was ten times stronger than you, he couldn’t have survived that,” Helen said darkly. “Automedon must have become immortal somehow. Maybe he became blood brothers with a god, like Cassandra said. Lucas, I hit him with a bolt that could melt lead.”
Lucas frowned in thought. There were a million things she wanted to ask him, most of which centered on his being a Shadowmaster, but a bright flash caught her attention and she decided it would have to wait. She, Matt, and Lucas went over to check on the injured. The twins had decided to heal the little boy first so Juan could wake up without then being frightened. Ariadne and Jason spent a few moments monitoring Luis, and decided he was okay.
Wobbly, but not permanently damaged, Luis grabbed his kids and rushed out of the News Store, desperate to see if his wife was still at home. Before her father carried her out the back door, Marivi held her pointer finger to her lips as if to say “shhh,” promising never to tell.
Already exhausted and turning gray from doing so much work on Juan, the twins turned their attention to Jerry. After a quick assessment, they shared one of those looks that Helen was convinced meant that they were reading each other’s minds. But before Helen could begin to ask them how bad the damage was, Orion returned from the sea. Obviously troubled, he thudded as he walked toward them, shaking droplets of water from his hair. He went from being soaking wet to completely dry in a few seconds.
“How’s Hector?” Lucas asked, his voice shaky.
“He’s upset, but safe,” Orion answered.
Lucas dropped his head and nodded.
“How can you be here?” Jason asked him incredulously. “Why aren’t we attacking you?”
“Well, the short version is that Helen and I guessed wrong—but in the best possible way. We ended up getting—I guess you could call it a pardon from the Furies. Right, Helen?”
“But we didn’t solve the bigger problem. Yet,” Helen said, unable to meet anyone’s gaze. She felt guilty that she and Orion were free of the Furies, but the rest of her family still had to suffer.
“You’re Hector’s little sister?” Orion asked, smiling at Ariadne warmly. “He told me to tell you in particular not to worry. He said you worry about other people too much.”
Ariadne tried to smile at Orion, but instead began to choke up. She turned back toward Jerry, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Helen looked over at Lucas’s devastated expression.
He was the only one who had attacked Hector. The others had resisted when he couldn’t. The burden would always be heaviest on him. Lucas was this generation’s Paris, and he was destined to be the scapegoat in this epic. The deck had always been stacked against him, and now that he also had to bear the stigma of being a Shadowmaster, it would only get worse.
There was a darkness growing in him. Helen wondered if it had always been there—waiting to come out—or if what had happened between them had planted it. She could see he was barely holding on. He used to be so confident, so alive. He used to shine, and now he was in shadow.
Something snapped in Helen. She was sick of watching the people she loved suffer for things that were out of their control. There was nothing she could do to help her father, but there was something she could do to help the rest of her family.
“I’m done with this. Are you?” she asked Orion.
“Oh, yeah. So done,” he answered, understanding Helen’s meaning right away. Her eyes drilled into his, simultaneously swearing an oath and demanding one from him.