As if this weren’t bad enough, everyone was terrified Orion was going to turn into the über-bad guy, the Tyrant. The prophecy said that the Tyrant would come if the blood of the Houses mixed, and Orion was the son of two different Houses. The Tyrant was also supposed to be able to reduce all mortal cities to rubble. As an Earthshaker, Orion fit that description, too.
All the Scions had feared the Tyrant before the Trojan War. As Helen remembered it, the Trojan War had started, not because of an unfaithful wife with a pretty face who ran off with a handsome prince, but because the rest of the world believed that Helen and Paris had created the Tyrant. The Scions would stop at nothing to kill the Tyrant, then and now. The only reason Orion was still alive was because they didn’t know for sure that he really was the Tyrant.
And that’s what bothered Helen the most. The Fates were cruel to Scions in general, but Orion had been hunted, neglected, shunned, and feared since he was a small boy and he had never done anything to anyone. It was like the moment he was born, he drew the short straw and the Fates had turned the whole world against him. That amount of adversity struck Helen as unnatural, even for a Scion. What did he ever do to deserve the torture he’d lived through? And Helen was pretty sure Orion had been literally tortured. She pictured the horrific scars on his otherwise gorgeous body, and her heart broke all over again.
Orion looked down at Helen’s chest as tenderness for him welled up inside of her. It was incredibly intimate, and Helen had to admit, a thrill to be that exposed to someone.
“Tonight,” he said in a gravelly voice, averting his eyes tactfully as if Helen were suddenly topless. In a way she was, and they both knew it. Helen crossed her arms shyly over her chest. He pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight until he was at his full height over her. It struck Helen again just how big Orion was. Maybe that was another reason everyone feared him. The guy was huge. “I want to take you there tonight. Before I have to go back to school tomorrow.”
Helen nearly laughed, and then caught herself when she remembered that it was her school that had been demolished in the Halloween riots, not his. After everything, Orion still had to pretend he was a normal guy who went to prep school, did his homework, and gave a crap about what the other kids thought of him. It seemed so ludicrous, but no one could say for certain what was going to happen in the future. He was just covering all his bases.
After the big meeting of the Houses that was supposed to take place at some point over the next few days, Orion might have to go back into hiding again. Maybe Helen and Lucas would have to hide as well. The three of them were responsible for the breaking of the Truce, and there was a possibility they might have to run for their lives if the other Scions turned on them. Or they might have to face off with the gods.
“Where are you going?”
Orion and Helen both jumped at the unexpected sound. Cassandra appeared out of the shadows, slinking forward silently, her eyes unblinking as she glanced from Orion to Helen and then to the front door that they were standing before.
“Are you leaving?” she asked Orion gravely.
Cassandra’s eyes were big and shiny in the dim hallway, like two still pools of deep water in a shady forest. Distracted by a strange shim
mer, Helen glanced down at Cassandra’s chest. A single silver orb captured Helen’s eyes. Like a full moon in winter, it hung inside the midnight-dark of Cassandra’s tiny rib cage and glowed a ghost-blue color that danced across her pale cheeks.
As lonely as a rock in space, Helen thought, staring at the orb. That’s her heart.
When Helen looked at Orion, expecting to see him fixated on the silver shimmer of Cassandra’s core, she was shocked to see him smiling happily—as sunny and as bright as could be. It was as if the chill Helen saw inside Cassandra was invisible to Orion.
“Hey, Kitty,” Orion said, grinning down on Cassandra.
Cassandra didn’t object to the nickname he’d given her. In fact, she seemed to like it, which was downright baffling. She smiled up at Orion, sending the silver light in her chest out in a wavelike dance across her face and down her arms and out to the tips of her braided hair.
“You said you were staying a while.” Cassandra’s gaze was glued to Orion. “You said you were going to make me a bell.”
Orion threw back his head and laughed, his bright teeth flashing in the dim entryway. “I made it already. But I won’t force you to wear it if you don’t like it.”
He pulled a long, sparkly braid of silky purple twine from his pocket. It was studded with miniature jingle bells that were smaller than sunflower seeds. Cassandra’s eyes lit up.
“I like it,” she said enthusiastically.
“Never heard of a kitty that actually wanted to wear a bell before,” Orion said with a comical grimace. He motioned for Cassandra to hold out her wrist, and when she did, he began wrapping the long thread around and around, forming a multilayered, tinkling gauntlet as he did so.
“That’s really beautiful,” Helen exclaimed as Orion began knotting the bracelet to Cassandra’s wrist. The materials were simple, but the end result was surprisingly stylish. Helen wanted one herself. “When did you get the chance to make that?”
“Oh, you know. Here and there,” he replied with a mysterious smile, his eyes on his task. “Used to make jewelry for the tourists when I was kicking around India and Tibet. Just to make a buck. I got good at making little things like this fast.” He finished tying it off and released Cassandra’s wrist.
“When were you in Tibet?” Helen asked, surprised and a bit envious. She’d always wanted to go there.
He locked eyes with her, his lips sealed. Helen glanced down at Orion’s chest, but he was doing that thing where he snatched the colors away before Helen could really see them.
“We’ll talk about that when we go out tonight,” he said finally.
“Okay. But you gotta teach me how you do that cover-up swirly thing, or I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, pointing first to his chest, then to hers. “I’m at a serious disadvantage here.”
“So, you are leaving,” Cassandra said anxiously, turning to Orion. “You two are going on a date?”
“Not exactly,” Orion said, staring at Helen with an enigmatic smile. Helen had no idea what he had in store, so she just shrugged.
“You’re not going for long, are you?” Cassandra persisted, a desperate note creeping into her voice.