“Do you want me to stay away from you for the rest of the day?” he asked in a carefully controlled voice.
No, she thought. And yes. Both answers were completely true. Shecouldn’tlie to him, but the truth had suddenly become very slippery.
“I think that would be best,” she mumbled.
He didn’t say anything. He just turned on his heel and left her.
“Hi, Luke... bye, Luke,” Claire said as she joined them. She looked back and forth at the two of them. “Fight?”
Helen shrugged and took Claire’s hand, leading her into the locker room. “I don’t really care,” was all she had the energy to say.
As they ran the trail she asked about Claire’s day. She let Claire in on the auditorium secret, and told her to tell Matt about it, too, in order to avoid a friendship meltdown. Claire looked at her funny, but she didn’t ask any questions.
Helen felt as if the whole world had turned into some gigantic punch line that she had waited patiently for, and then when she heard it she found it insulting. If she had been in a comedy club she would have gotten up and walked out, but instead she had to go to the comedian’s house after school and let his cousin beat the crap out of her.
When track was over, Helen dutifully rode her bike to the Delos compound, arriving before Lucas, Jason, and Hector did. She went down to the tennis courts, which were in the process of being converted into a proper fighting arena with a sandy bottom, and looked around. There was a sword on the ground. She picked it up and gave it a swing to see how it felt.
It felt goofy as hell. Helen supposed she wasn’t a swordswoman.
“I think Hector wants you to learn the spear first. It’s considered traditional,” Cassandra said behind her.
“Wouldn’t want to mess with tradition,” Helen said sarcastically as she threw the sword down, point first, into the sand so that the hilt made a cross above the ground.
“Yes, you would. In fact, I think that’s what your mother had in mind for you all along,” Cassandra said in that spooky, faraway voice she had a tendency to slip into at crucial moments. “But naming you is something your mother did in the past, and I can only see the future.”
“You’re an oracle!” Helen said, astonished. She should have known all along.
Suddenly, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be alone with Cassandra. There was something wrong about her eyes. Helen started to circle around her, always keeping an equal distance between them, but subtly closing the gap between herself and the exit.
“Delphi, Delos. And the Oracle at Delphi was always one of Apollo’s chosen priests,” Helen said as evenly as she could, trying to keep Cassandra distracted.
“Close. The Oracle was always one of Apollo’s Scions, and always a priestess. A girl,” Cassandra said bitterly. “The Oracle of Delphi is the female offspring of Apollo and the Three Fates.”
“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the book you gave me,” Helen said uncertainly as Cassandra pulled the sword out of the ground, hefted it in her hand thoughtfully, and took a few steps toward her.
“It wasn’t made known to any of the ancient historians, but they did know that Apollo is the son of Zeus, and not one of the original gods. He was second generation, a kind of glorified Scion, and, like us, he was going to die eventually.” Cassandra came closer to Helen, still holding the sword.
“Then why didn’t he?” Helen asked cautiously, trying to stay calm so as not to provoke her. She circled back the other way, never taking her eyes off the bright bronze blade that Cassandra alternately lifted and let fall, as if she couldn’t entirely bring herself to raise it.
“Apollo made a deal with the Three Fates,” she said, half distracted by some darker thought. “He offered them something they couldn’t have without him. A baby girl. He swore on the River Styx to give them offspring, and in return they swore never to cut his string of life. From that day on, Apollo got his immortality, and every generation one girl who is descended from him belongs to the Fates. She’s their spiritual daughter, and occasionally she can see what her mothers have in store for the world.”
Cassandra was stalling, Helen realized. Whatever she was planning to do unsettled her, but even though she seemed uncertain, she continued to close in. As she did, light started to dance backward into her skin, and her eyes and teeth glowed with the vaguely purple hue of black light. Helen knew that she was older, larger, and stronger than Cassandra, but she also knew she was still the one in danger. Cassandra was not the only being inside that tiny body. She was being visited and maybe even partially controlled by the Three Fates.
Helen watched as Cassandra cut off her exit. Helen could always fly away, now that she knew how to get airborne, but she wasn’t sure if she could control her flight once she was aloft. She also didn’t know how to land without Lucas holding her hand. But right now she was more afraid of the Oracle with the sword than she was of falling out of the sky. Helen was about to take her chances with flight when Cassandra’s demeanor suddenly changed. She went from being the dark, fiery messenger of the Fates to being a very vulnerable teenager.
“I saw something, Helen,” she said desperately. “Then I saw it again, and again. I’ve been so ashamed and frightened that I haven’t told anyone else what I saw. And I am so sorry if I’m wrong—for all of our sakes. But I have to do this... because... this is what comes next.”
Her eyes were filling up with tears. She looked so tormented Helen would have done anything to make her feel better. She smiled understandingly at Cassandra, who tried to control her hitching breath as she nodded in return and wrapped both hands around the hilt of her sword. She swung it over her shoulder and paused, waiting for Helen to be ready.
Helen choked back the scream that was trying to climb out of her mouth.
If Cassandra, the Oracle of Delphi, had foreseen her death, was there any sense in fighting it? Did Helen really have a choice?
Cassandra swung her sword. In that millisecond Helen knew she’d had a good life, because she suddenly loved it so much that she could have wept with gratitude. She’d had amazing friends, the best dad in the world, and a strong, healthy body. She’d even experienced the joy of flight. And once, just once, in the middle of the night, she’dalmostkissed the only boy she’d ever wanted....
Helen felt a strange, vibrating tickle, like someone had pressed a gigantic kazoo against the side of her throat and blown on it. She saw Cassandra’s eyes widen as she pulled the blade back from the side of Helen’s neck and looked at it.
The sword was totally mangled in the middle section, all crunched up on itself like a squeezed piece of tinfoil. Cassandra stared at Helen in shock for a moment. Relieved tears spilled down her cheeks.
