Goddess (Starcrossed 3)

Jason and Ariadne were gifted Healers. They knew the true extent of Lucas’s injuries. They may not have shared the details while they were in the meeting, but here in the safety of Noel’s kitchen, they could express what they couldn’t in front of the other Houses. Neither of them thought that Lucas would make it.

Matt and Claire comforted the twins as best they could, but there wasn’t much they could do apart from holding them. Matt and Claire shared a grim look over Jason’s and Ariadne’s shoulders. Andy knew what they were thinking.

If Helen could kill Lucas, the person she loved the most, she could kill them all.

Andy watched her new friends hug each other for a moment, and then started to feel like she was intruding. She hadn’t really known Lucas, and she had no idea what it was like to have a brother or a sister—let alone what it would feel like to think he or she was going to die. She’d always wanted someone to love as much as they obviously loved Lucas.

Confused that she seemed to want to suffer like they were suffering, that she felt almost jealous of how deeply they all felt this, Andy made her way to the kitchen door that led out to the yard.

She was a creature of the sea, and the ocean had always been her biggest comfort. Andy figured that maybe a quick swim would clear her head enough so that she could be there to help this family that had helped her so much. For the first time since she’d been brought to the Delos house, Andy left the property and headed to the beach.

“She walks in beauty, like the night,” said a lilting voice that was deep and dark, and bright and innocent all at once. Unmistakable.

Andy froze, although she knew it was too late. He’d already seen her, so there was no point in trying to stay still like a dumb deer in the middle of the road. Apollo was not a car—he was a wolf. Deer need to run from wolves.

“You didn’t really think I’d forgotten about you, did you?” Apollo asked as he sauntered toward her, backlit by the long rays of the lowering sun.

The water’s edge was just a few steps away. Maybe she could make it?

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Apollo said, tracking her intention. She felt the back of her throat close off with a sob, convinced that this was it. This was where she was going to die a horrible, drawn-out death.

“And I wouldn’t if I were you,” said what sounded like the echo of Apollo’s voice from somewhere out in the water.

Andy’s head turned to see Hector rising up out of the waves. Bare-chested and dressed only in soaking-wet jeans, he strode through the tide easily, as if the water were his ally. His face, an exact copy of Apollo’s, was rigid with anger.

Apollo smiled at his Scion double. “Interesting talent you have over the water, son. Where did you get it?”

Hector didn’t reply. He went straight to Andy. “Are you okay?” he asked her gently. She nodded and cast wary eyes in Apollo’s direction, as if to say “For now.” Hector angled Andy behind him and faced Apollo.

“My, my. How brash you are,” the god admonished. “Aren’t you the least bit worried about challenging me?”

“No,” Hector said in

a steady voice. Apollo burst out laughing. It was a queer-sounding cackle—not human, and a little less than sane.

“You should be.” Apollo’s eyes gleamed. His skin shone with its own light, and it suddenly seemed as if the god wore full armor and carried a stout, bronze sword.

Although he was unarmed and half-naked, Hector did not flinch or show the least bit of fear. After a moment, the godly nimbus of light surrounding Apollo died down and the vision of armor vanished.

“You really are him,” Apollo said, impressed. “Hector reborn. And I should know. I rode with him in his chariot at Troy.”

Hector didn’t answer. He stared at his adversary, every muscle awake under his skin. Standing just inches away from his bare back, Andy could feel a storm churning inside of Hector. He wanted to fight this god, she realized.

Apollo’s face twitched. He was afraid of Hector. For the first time in what seemed like ages, Andy felt something close to relief.

“Soon, little son,” Apollo said, speaking about the confrontation that Hector so obviously wanted. “Soon we’ll be back on the battlefield, but this time I fight for Olympus, and you for your newly made Atlantis. And if Zeus doesn’t force us to resort to tricks like he did the last time, we’ll finally complete the Fates’ cycle and prove who is superior—the parents or their Scions.”

Apollo leapt into the sky and flew away. Hector watched him go, thinking about what Apollo had just revealed. Andy knew she should be thinking about what the god had said as well, but all she could do was watch Hector. She was wondering how she could have ever mistaken him for Apollo.

Sure, their features and build were the same, but Hector’s eyes were alive and full of emotion while Apollo’s were missing something crucial. Something human, she supposed. The god’s eyes had the dead-smooth quality of a marble sculpture while Hector’s were quick and fierce . . . so full of feeling they seemed to burn with it.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her whole life owed to him in those two words.

He glanced at her and nodded once, then abruptly turned to leave. He walked over to his shirt and shoes, heaped in a pile a ways up the beach. Andy followed his silent figure, stunned.

“That’s it?” she said, her voice pitching up incredulously at the end. “You aren’t even going to say one word to me? Just save my life, nod, and off you go like you do this every Tuesday or something?”

Hector didn’t look at her. Angling his face away, he pulled his shirt over his head and reached down to grab his shoes.