Goddess (Starcrossed 3)

“Stand up and tell me why you did this to me.”

Daphne looked up at her, but before Helen could get an answer, they all heard a commotion coming from inside the Delos house—the sounds of gasps and shouts.

“Everyone, get in here!” Jason yelled out to them. “He’s alive! Hector’s alive!”

“He can’t be,” Daphne said, jumping up. They all sprinted inside.

Hector was laid out on the kitchen table, his armor and most of his clothes stripped away. Bowls of bloody water surrounded him, and a sponge lay next to him, stained red. Jason had already begun to wipe his brother down in preparation for the pyre. But Hector was certainly not dead. Not anymore.

He was pale and weak from blood loss. His lips were blue, and his hands shook terribly as he sat up and clutched Jason’s shoulders, trying to talk. Something clanked against his teeth, and grimacing, he spit out a gold coin. It was the obol his father had placed under his tongue to pay the Ferryman. Hector took a moment to stare at the bright disk in his hand, contemplating the Scion equivalent of his own gravestone.

“That’s a first,” he mumbled. He gave the obol to Andy. “For later,” he rasped to her, his voice weak.

“Much, much later. Don’t do that again,” she scolded, her swollen, tear-streaked face beautiful with joy.

“You got it.”

Hector’s whole body suddenly trembled as he tried to stay sitting up.

“He needs blood,” Jason said, worried, as he supported his brother and laid him back down on the table. Jason held up his hands, and they began to glow. He brought his hands over Hector to start healing him, but Hector stopped him.

“Wait, Jase,” Hector said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t knock me out yet. Where’s Helen?”

“Here,” Helen replied, stepping forward from her place behind Noel so Hector could see her. “What is it?”

“Go to the Underworld. Now. Try to talk Hades out of it,” he said, his feeble tone turning urgent.

“Out of what?” Helen asked.

“Out of the trade. Don’t let Luke stay down there for me,” he said, grabbing Helen’s arm and shaking it as if to wake her. “Luke traded himself.”

“Impossible!” Daphne shrieked, startling them all with her vehemence. “Hades doesn’t let anyone trade themselves for another. I tried a dozen times.”

“Luke didn’t trade himself for me,” Hector gasped, his eyes rolling into his head with the effort to stay conscious.

“Shhh, don’t,” Noel said, coming forward to put a soothing hand on Hector’s shoulder. “Jason. Knock him out before he kills himself again.”

“He traded himself for Hades,” Hector said over Noel. He pulled on Helen’s arm until her face was inches away from his. “Lucas took Hades’ place as the lord o

f the dead.”

FIFTEEN

Helen knew her mother was saying something repeatedly, but it took a moment for her overwhelmed mind to actually understand it.

“It was supposed to be Orion,” Daphne kept muttering to herself. When she locked eyes with Helen, like she was trying to explain herself, it looked like she was about to crack. “I mean—Orion is Hades. They look exactly the same, don’t they? Orion is the only one besides you who can go to the Underworld. He’s an Earthshaker and can ‘reduce all mortal cities to rubble’ so I thought he was the Tyrant—we all did. We all thought the Tyrant was supposed to replace Hades. All the signs were there. It was always supposed to be Orion.”

As if summoned by Daphne’s repetition of his name, Orion appeared at the kitchen door with Cassandra at his side.

“Castor,” Orion said striding in hurriedly. “The gods demand we produce Lucas, or Tantalus will send his army against us. And the Myrmidons want to kill Helen with or without Matt to lead them. I know you’re in mourning—we all are—but I need you at the front lines.”

“He’s alive!” Cassandra shouted before her father could answer, and ran to Hector.

“Stay back, Cass,” Jason said in warning as his hands glowed blue. “Let me work on him.”

“How?” Orion asked, his eyes glued to Hector’s chest as it swelled with obvious breaths. “His heart was cut in two. He was dead.”

“A trade,” Noel answered. She was so torn between feeling happy that Hector was alive and destroyed by what Lucas had done that she couldn’t finish.