Helen paused and took a deep breath, because she knew what she was about to say would hurt Lucas, and probably change the way he saw her. Regardless, she knew she had run out of options and had to do it.
“Lucas is not fit to be the lord of the dead because he hasn’t proven to anyone that he is a compassionate man,” Helen said loudly.
Lucas’s head snapped around to look at Helen in surprise. She did not look back, even though she felt him staring at her. The Eumenides paused to speak to one another quietly. The whole time Lucas kept staring at Helen, but she wouldn’t look back at him.
“He traded himself for his cousin,” the leader of the Eumenides said in rebuttal. “That takes compassion.”
“That was guilt,” Helen said, deliberately turning to Hades so he could read the truth in her. “When Hector died I saw guilt, sorrow, and resignation in Lucas’s heart. Those were the emotions that made him willing to trade himself. Not compassion. If it’s compassion that the dead value above all other qualities, then Lucas is not fit to rule here.”
The dead conferred, the rustling and creaking of their voices reminding Helen of the sound of the wind in a field of tall marsh grass. Helen couldn’t bear to look at Lucas. She just hoped that he’d forgive her for this someday. Instead, she looked over at Hades, who was watching her with a small smile on his face. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry for working against him like this, but she knew she didn’t have to. He could read the regret in her heart.
The leader of the Eumenides tilted her head to the side, listening to the verdict of the dead.
“The candidate has been found unworthy,” she said, and Helen nearly collapsed with relief. But the Eumenides weren’t finished. “However. He must still fulfill his vow.”
“What does that mean?” Helen asked the spirits on the air, even though she couldn’t understand their whispery speech.
“It means that someday the Hand of Darkness must replace Hades,” replied the littlest of the Eumenides. “He cannot rule until he is found worthy, but someday he must offer himself up to be tested by the dead, and if he passes, he must take Hades’ place in the Underworld.”
Helen couldn’t speak. She racked her brain for a reason to object, something that would trump Lucas’s vow, but she came up with nothing.
“Helen,” Lucas whispered in her ear. “Let it go. It’s okay.”
“No it isn’t!” Helen hissed back at him. “It means that at any time you can be called down here. We won’t know when, or how, but someday the dead will call your number and you’ll have to go to Hades.”
Lucas laughed softly and shook his head. “That’s life, Helen. That’s what everyone faces. It just means I’ll have to live every day like it could be my last day on Earth. I can do that.” He looked over at Hades, his eyes shining with that inner light that Helen hadn’t seen in him in weeks. “Thank you.”
“You must go. Now,” Hades replied gravely. “The two of you are needed back on Earth. And Helen? Don’t let Zeus win. No matter what you have to do to stop him—do it.”
Helen sighed and nodded, knowing what Hades meant, but not sure if she was strong enough to go through with it now that she knew Lucas had to serve in Hades someday. Could she face the long future, knowing that if she wanted to be with Lucas she would have to do it in Hades? Would she end up like Persephone?
“Thank you again, Uncle,” she said. “Give your queen my love.”
SIXTEEN
Helen and Lucas appeared on the beach. Hoping to end up close to Orion, Helen figured that the best place to appear was near the spot of the makeshift arena where the duels had taken place. She was expecting to find that the battle lines being drawn on the beach wouldn’t be that much bigger than when she had left, so that she would instantly know which way to go to find Orion. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
When Helen and Lucas stepped out of the ring of frost, they found themselves in the middle of a gigantic camp crawling with thousands of fighters. Scions, Myrmidons, and mortals were all preparing themselves for battle.
“Son of a biscuit,” Helen said, gaping like a hick at the bustling tent city that had sprung up along the beach. Helen saw Mr. Tanis from the hardware store sharpening a sword on a large, round stone. His eyes looked blank and strange. Helen was just about to call out to Mr. Tanis and check if he was okay, when she felt Lucas yank roughly on her arm.
“Up!” he growled fearfully and threw her into the air. As she disengaged gravity, he flew past her and took her hand to pull her along. “Wrong side!” he shouted back at her, steering them inland.
From the air, Helen could see the two camps, but she still couldn’t believe the scale of it all. She and Lucas floated for a few moments, studying the new map that had been drawn over the beach on the westernmost side of Nantucket Island. From Siasconset all the way up to Sesachacha Pond, the shore was lined with the tents of Tantalus’s army. Orion and his soldiers had been backed up onto the dunes, where they huddled on the high ground, ridiculously outnumbered. Helen could hear Lucas whispering to himself, like he was memorizing a list of things for later.
“Didn’t we just leave?” Helen gasped, incredulous. There were too many people down there, too many tents. “How did this happen so fast?”
“Hephaestus has enough arms stored under Mount Olympus to put a sword in the hands of every man, woman, and child in the world,” Lucas replied distractedly. Helen watched his eyes skip around, and his lips move as he counted tents under his breath and marked supply lines.
Arrows started whizzing past them. A few of them bounced off Helen, and Lucas instinctively jerked her out of their path. They had been spotted by a phalanx of Myrmidons, and more arrows followed until the air was thick with them.
“I’m fine,” she said, knocking a shower of arrows away from her face. She touched the gold heart she wore around her neck to remind Lucas that she wore the half of the cestus that protected her from weapons. “It stings, but arrows can’t kill me. Or you, either.”
Lucas watched as arrows bounced off him, his expression blank. Helen looked at his heart and saw a dozen different emotions swirling around inside of him.
“Are you angry with me?” she asked pleadingly, placing her hand on his chest. Lucas looked up at Helen, but his eyes were so wild she had no idea what was going through his head. “I know I made you mostly immortal without even asking you first. But it’s still up to you. If you want to die, you still can whenever you want. Not that you’d want to die right now. But say someday in the future—you know, you still can.”
Lucas’s face crumpled with confusion.