“Oh, hey! Sorry!” Jerry said with surprise as he ran into a scantily clad Ariadne in the hallway.
“Hi,” Ariadne growled at Jerry as she slammed the bathroom door.
Helen tossed the silly bells under the bed and looked up at her dad, who was peeking timidly around her door.
“I didn’t know Ariadne was here. Again,” he said.
“Yup,” Helen replied, like it was obvious.
“Okay,” he said wavering in and out of the doorway. “And you’ll be at her house all day, I suppose? Working on that project for school still?”
“Yup.”
“Okay,” he said, confusion scrunching his brow. “Uh... Happy birthday?”
“Thanks,” Helen replied with a nod. Then she stared at him until he went away.
“Did I hear your dad say it was your birthday?” Ariadne asked with wide eyes as she came back into the room.
“Uh-huh,” Helen said. “Not a word to anyone. I just want to practice and then come home and go to back to bed.”
“No! We should do something!” Ariadne protested. “We should take the day off and go shopping, then maybe go out for dinner!”
“I’m sorry, Ari, but I can’t. I just woke up and I’m already exhausted,” Helen replied, hearing her voice sound low. “Practice, then back to bed. That’s all I want for my birthday.”
Ariadne shook her head sadly and stared at Helen while she made up the inflatable bed she insisted on sleeping in every night. Helen could see that Ariadne wanted to argue, wanted to insist that Helen at least try to enjoy herself on her birthday, but thankfully, she gave in.
Helen could barely keep her eyes open, and she was starving. She wondered again if she actuallyhadwalked for days, like she did in her dream, or if there was something wrong with her mentally. Noel’s words about love being able to drive a person mad came back to haunt Helen. Were her all-too-vivid nightmares what Noel had meant? And then she had to consider if, at that point, it might not be a comfort to go stark, raving mad.
Creon stepped onto the dock from the private yacht his father had supplied for him and his team. The trip across the Atlantic from Spain to Nantucket had been long and tedious, but necessary. They required tools that would never make it through customs, even on a privately owned plane, and what was more, they could never fly their quarry back, anyway. That would be foolish. She needed to be properly secured no matter how much the preparation inconvenienced Creon and his team.
His father had explained it all to him—how years ago he’d had the chance to kill her, but that he had fallen under the spell of her face—theFace. Creon was surprised that his father had been weaker than him, but that, too, was a sign of the coming of Atlantis. The Scion generations were fated to get stronger and stronger, to be born with more and more talents until finally, a generation was to come that could defeat the gods. His father’s moment of weakness, as unfortunate as it was, had its benefits. In that moment, Tantalus had learned of her phobia for the water. Creon’s quarry feared and hated the ocean, and that was an advantage for the Hundred Cousins. By using a boat to transport her, she would be virtually imprisoned by an element she could not control, and considering how powerful she was, they needed to give her prison as many layers of walls as they could find.
As he disembarked, Creon turned to tell his crew to stay on the yacht and wait for his return. He wanted to make it clear to them that he was in charge by keeping them as far away from the action as possible. Any one of his dear cousins might be tempted to take whatever opportunity they could to insert themselves into the annals of Scion history by stealing his Triumph. Creon couldn’t allow that to happen, not even by accident. After all of the risks he’d taken, after all of his patience, he would finally be the one to bring his House the glory that it deserved. He was destined to be equal to the heroes of old, like Hercules or Perseus. Maybe even better, because Creon would do more than kill a hydra or a gorgon. Much more. He would be the giver of immortality to his family, and to his father.
Only one life stood in his way, and that life would be delivered to Tantalus, Head of the House of Thebes and future ruler of Atlantis, by Creon, his son and Heir, who would receive the honor for the capture. And maybe he would also be given the hauntingly beautiful prize that he deserved—his quarry’s daughter.
Ariadne and Helen drove to the compound in total silence. When they stopped behind Matt at a light in town Ariadne waved. They could both see his eyes and forehead pinched up with worry as he stared at Helen in his rearview mirror.
“I know you’re sad, but you shouldn’t ignore Matt like that,” Ariadne said with a little heat. “He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met, and you’re hurting him.”
“You’re right. I’m being selfish,” Helen said. She felt blank inside. Empty. “I know it, and I hate it, but I just can’t seem tostop.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Ariadne stammered apologetically, her eyes on the road. “I know what you’re sacrificing, and I know why. But you know what? I think you need to cry, even just once. Maybe then you could let it out and feel a little better.”
Helen had tried to cry, but no tears came. Instead, all that she felt was this creepingnothinginside her. She knew she should care about how Matt felt, but she didn’t even care howshefelt, not even when she was fighting for her life against Hector on the mat. Their workouts had become brief and brutal. Now that Helen no longer had an emotional block against using her bolts she was learning how to control them and let them out bit by bit. Only someone who didn’t mind getting fried could fight her hand to hand. Now, coupled with the power of the cestus, which made her impervious to any weapon, Helen had become nearly undefeatable.
Toward the end of their session that day Hector tried to put her in a Kimura and she electrocuted him for the third time. He dropped unconscious to the mat. After a moment, she approached him and nudged him with her toe.
“Are we done here?” she asked him with raised eyebrows when he came around.
“You still don’t know how to fight,” he mumbled as he wiped blood off of his lips.
“You bit through your tongue,” Helen said flatly. “You should probably take a break.”
Helen went to her corner to drink some water. She saw Claire, Jason, Cassandra, and Ariadne all staring at her from outside the fight cage. Jason was the first to move. He took two long strides, jumped fluidly over the metal fence, and landed next to his shaking brother.
“I think that’s enough, Hector,” Jason said. “She doesn’t need any more training.”
