“Hello, son,” Hades said softly, confirming Lucas’s suspicion.
“How?” Lucas asked, although he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Did my mother . . . ?”
“No,” Hades said firmly. “I had a child with a woman from the House of Thebes many hundreds of years ago.” He paused for a moment as a look of regret passed over his face, even though it had happened so long ago. “The blood of a god does not dilute—we are immortal and so are our . . . well, our genes, I guess you could call them. You are mine and Apollo’s, but I see more of myself than him in you.”
“Can you think yourself warm?”
“No. That trait you get from Apollo. You can withstand any heat, except Helen’s. She can get even hotter than the sun.”
“I noticed,” Lucas said with a little rueful laugh.
“But the majority of your talents, you get from me. I’m sure you find all this disturbing.”
“Not at all,” Lucas responded. “It actually makes this easier. Like it was meant to be.”
“Go home, son,” he said kindly. “Your absence is causing turmoil where it is least needed.”
“How can anyone know that I’m absent?” Lucas asked, confused. “I thought time stopped in the Underworld.”
“It does, unless you are with Morpheus or with me, in which case time passes as it does on Earth. We must live in time in order to affect lives.”
Lucas thought it through quickly and nodded. “Or you’d be trapped in one eternal moment—and no one would ever find either of you.”
“Very good,” Hades said musingly. “Not even Helen noticed that, and she is very clever.” He smiled at Lucas like he was pleased with him before continuing. “I know you grieve for your cousin, but I don’t allow people to trade themselves for dead loved ones. If I did, it would lay too much guilt on those who would rather live than sacrifice themselves for the dead. This would hurt more people than it would help.”
He even sounded like Orion, except that his way of speaking was slightly more formal. They both had a compassion for others that Lucas respected.
“That makes perfect sense,” Lucas conceded. “And I think you’re absolutely right. But I didn’t come here to trade myself for Hector. I came here to trade myself for you.”
“For me?” Hades repeated, surprised for the first time in what Lucas assumed to be millennia.
“I know you didn’t choose to be the lord of the dead. It was forced on you. I know how that feels. I feel as if the Fates are trying to force me into Poseidon’s role. But I am going to reject that fate of my own free will in favor of another.”
Lucas stepped over the border and entered Hades’ land, knowing that if he succeeded, he might never leave it again.
“Bring Hector back to life, and I’ll take your place in the Underworld for the rest of eternity.”
Helen stared up at Lucas, easily seeing inside his cloud of shadows. She knew she could follow him, but if she did she would have to leave everyone else unprotected. Orion and Jason were great fighters, Daphne was a flat-out monster, and Helen knew better than to second-guess Castor’s skills, but there were twenty times more fighters on the gods’ side than on hers. Almost all of the House of Rome and half of the House of Athens had joined her and Orion, but it still wasn’t enough to beat both the Hundred Cousins and the Myrmidons. If Helen left she knew that her side wouldn’t stand a chance.
“We wish to honor our dead,” Castor called across the arena, the sand of which was still stained with Hector’s blood . . . and with Matt’s.
Helen felt her eyes fill and her chest heat up with sobs. Two people she loved dearly were dead. That wasn’t what she’d planned.
As the gods conferred with the generals of their mortal army, resolve solidified in Helen and froze her tears in their tracks. She knew that if she allowed herself to give in to sorrow, she wouldn’t be of any use to anyone. Let Andy cry for Hector, and let Ariadne cry for Matt. Helen no longer had the luxury to mourn.
“We can’t deny you the right to prepare your dead,” Tantalus shouted back at Castor, their emotions lighting up their insides like swords being sharpened on rocks. “But the Tyrant’s champion has gone missing.” Tantalus continued in a falsely innocent tone. “How can you prove that he did not run away because he has taken a mortal injury from our champion?”
“Ridiculous!” Orion shouted. “Matt never even touched Lucas. We all saw the duel.”
Helen spun around and looked at her mother. “What’s going on?” she asked in a whisper.
“You’re in danger,” Daphne replied tersely, but she didn’t have a chance to elaborate before Tantalus continued.
“The Tyrant’s champion isn’t here to prove that he is unharmed,” Tantalus said with a forbidding shake of his head. “Produce your living champion, or hand over the Tyrant.”
“And who will enforce that?” Orion called back. “The gods can’t fight us.”
“My army will,” Tantalus replied calmly.