A flaming ball catapulted past, barely missing them, but neither Helen nor Lucas paid it any mind. Another hail of arrows darkened the sky around them, but it was all background noise, easily ignored now that she had this chance to tell Lucas everything.
“And then th
ere’s all that stuff I said about you not being compassionate,” Helen continued, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. “You have to know I don’t really think that about you. I just said it because you hadn’t been tested like Orion and I were. It was the only thing I could come up with to use at the trial—the only reason the dead would vote you down.”
Lucas’s expression was still blank. Helen took that to mean that what she had said about him during the trial had made him see her differently, just as she had feared. In order to save him, she’d made him stop loving her. Tears spilled down Helen’s face.
“You hate me now, don’t you? But I had to point out your one big flaw, even if it did change the way you feel about me. I did it to get you back, even if it means I’ve lost you.”
“You couldn’t lose me, Helen. Not even if you tried,” he said, pulling on her arm to bring her closer to him. “And for the record, I agree with you. I should be more compassionate. I never expected you to think I was perfect. I know I’m not.”
“You are to me.”
“That’s all I care about,” Lucas said quietly. “Not-my-cousin Helen.”
For just a moment, Helen was scared he wouldn’t do it. She’d gotten her hopes up so many times now and been disappointed, that she doubted it would ever actually happen again. But it did happen. He buried his hands in her hair, pulled her to him, and kissed her.
The sky filled with flaming arrows and giant projectiles that smelled like melted asphalt. Everything started exploding around them, but Helen couldn’t care less. She was home, and she never wanted to leave it again.
Helen tightened her arms around him desperately, and the kiss grew frantic. Arrows flew this way and that as Orion’s soldiers retaliated against the Myrmidons. Noticing that they were caught in the crossfire, Lucas ended the kiss, but still held her close.
“We’ll finish this later,” he promised breathlessly, pressing his forehead to hers for a moment to calm down. Then he turned and led her back to earth.
They flew swiftly, avoiding the stinging onslaught of weaponry as best as they could, and landed on their side of the battle line. Archers bristled with arrows. Armor clanked and leather creaked. An army of Scions, small though it was, faced the first wave of Tantalus’s army—thirty-three Myrmidons that stood opposite them over a wide strip of sand, with Tantalus standing at the rear as their leader. Helen listened to Tantalus shout orders to the standing army and decided that she had to hand it him. He’d been her personal boogeyman for several months now, but he was no coward.
As soon as Helen and Lucas touched down, Orion and Castor ran forward to meet them.
“How did you . . . ?” Orion asked Helen as they watched Castor hug his son tightly.
“Tell you later,” Helen replied.
“Where’s Hector?” Lucas asked.
“In my tent,” Orion responded, leading Helen and Lucas to it. “He actually thinks he’s going to fight.”
“I don’t think I’m going to fight, I am going to fight,” Hector said in his grouchiest voice from inside the tent.
“Hector, if you get yourself killed again, when I take over Hades I’ll give you a really long time-out in Tartarus,” Lucas said jokingly as they entered.
Helen and Lucas went inside, and the first thing that Helen noticed were six sets of armor, hanging from their racks like hollow soldiers standing guard over the room.
Bronze for Hector, white for Orion, silver for Castor, red for Jason, and black for Lucas, Helen thought. Apart from the rest, there was a set of golden armor—the size and shape indicated that it was made for a woman. That’s mine.
Beneath the sets of armor, Jason was wrapping gauze around Hector’s chest. Jason looked pale and shaky from healing his brother.
“Lucas!” Cassandra said, and launched herself at her brother. He caught his little sister and hugged her. His cousins swarmed him, hugging him and thumping his back, but despite their happiness at seeing him, everyone had heard what he’d said.
“What do you mean, ‘when you take over Hades’?” Cassandra asked, releasing Lucas.
“What happened?” Castor asked Helen accusingly, like she’d only done half her job.
“Dad, look, there’s no way out of the vow I made. But thanks to Helen, I don’t have to take over right now. Let’s focus on the battle at hand.” Lucas squeezed his father’s shoulder, then turned to Hector. “Helen and I saw behind the enemy lines from the air. Where’s the map?” He sounded like he’d planned a battle a million times.
Cassandra led the men to a table in the corner, and Lucas immediately began breaking down the setup of the enemy camp. Helen was about to join them when she heard a familiar voice. It was distant and weak, calling out from the no-man’s-land between the two sides.
“Somebody help!” Claire was screaming.
She was in pain.