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No. What they had to do was get away from her. She tried to tell them to go, but all that came out of her was a gush of blood from her neck.
“I have a knife,” Orion said, and Helen felt the bonds on her wrists cut away.
Lucas scooped her up into his arm and she fought him lamely, struggling to get him to drop her. She wanted to die in the portal, before the blood brother ritual could be completed. But as she flailed and coughed she only made it worse. She was literally spraying blood from her neck, covering Lucas and Orion. Ares might be a coward, Helen thought, but he knew everything there was to know about hurting people. The wound he had given her had made it a sure thing that anyone who came within five feet of Helen got bathed in her blood.
“I’ll lead the way,” Orion said in an urgent voice.
Helen felt a vague swaying motion, and saw the bobbing beam of Orion’s flashlight ahead as they began their ascent. She could hear just fine, and her vision wasn’t too bad, but she couldn’t move or speak. She tried to wiggle her toes or move a finger. None of her limbs responded. She told herself to blink, but she couldn’t even close her good eye. Helen was locked inside herself and completely conscious. She knew she would have to watch as the events unfolded and wondered if this was some special torture that Ares had devised for her. Maybe he’d poisoned the blade to paralyze her?
Or maybe I’m just dying, she thought hopefully. If I hurry, maybe I can still stop this.
“There’s the exit,” Orion called back over his shoulder with relief. Helen could make out his beautiful profile, backlit by a bright moon and a thousand stars winking through the dark squeeze of the cave’s mouth.
She saw Orion’s face fall as something outside the cave caught his eye. He spun around to face Helen and Lucas, crowding them back into the cave as he hunched his big shoulders over the two of them protectively. Helen saw his mouth drop open in a gasp and his bright eyes grow wide as the tip of a sword appeared under his breastbone. The ground shook. Over Orion’s shoulder, Helen saw Automedon’s shiny red insect eyes staring at her.
“Orion!” Lucas exclaimed. He reached out a hand from under Helen and grabbed Orion’s shoulder, trying to hold him up as Orion and Lucas sank to their knees together with Helen pressed between them. The tip of the blade disappeared as it was yanked out, and the shiny metal was replaced by a rush of dark blood. Helen watched as if in slow motion as a drop of Orion’s blood fell on one of her many wounds and mixed with hers.
That’s one, Helen thought helplessly. Thunder rolled across the clear, cloudless sky.
“My knife,” Orion breathed.
Lucas nodded almost imperceptibly, understanding Orion’s meaning. Helen tried to speak, hoping she had healed enough to at least warn Lucas not to fight, but instead all that came out of her was gasping cough.
“Can you take her?” Lucas whispered, looking into Orion’s eyes and begging him to be honest. In answer, Orion slid his arms under Helen and took her weight.
Lucas reached under Orion’s shirt to unsheathe the long blade. In a blindingly fast motion, he sprang to his feet, vaulted over Orion and Helen, and pushed Automedon away from the wounded pair.
Orion held Helen close to his chest as he panted for a few moments, like he was willing himself to heal faster. With a painful groan, he finally hauled him
self to his feet and shuffled out of the cave with Helen in his arms.
Outside, pressed up against the wall next to the mouth of the cave, Helen spotted Zach—his eyes wide and staring. Still paralyzed, she screamed on the inside, but nothing came out. Zach looked at Helen’s ruined face and made a desperate sound, catching Orion’s attention. Orion glared at him, and Zach stared back at Orion in terror.
Helen felt Orion’s head tilt down to look at the sword in Zach’s hands, and then back up into Zach’s eyes. Without pause, Zach held the hilt of the sword out to Orion, offering him the weapon.
“I’m a friend of Helen’s. You fight. I’ll stay and guard her,” he said in a level voice. Orion looked at Lucas, caught in a clinch and getting kneed in the gut by Automedon, and made up his mind quickly.
Helen tried to struggle when Orion put her down on the ground at Zach’s feet. She tried to spit out the word traitor but all she could do was stammer the letter T a few times and twitch.
“I’ll make sure he comes back to you,” Orion promised quietly, and kissed Helen’s forehead. Pressing on his wounded chest as if that could make it stop hurting, Orion took the sword from Zach and charged into the fray to fight alongside Lucas.
“Don’t worry, Helen, I just called Matt. They’re all coming. Hector said even your mother is on her way.” Zach tried to make her more comfortable by tugging ineffectually at the tears in her dress and smoothing her blood-soaked hair. As he looked her over, his hands started to shake and tears began to gather in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Lennie. Jesus, look at what he did to your face!”
Breathing hard and coughing up inhaled blood, she stared at Zach and focused all her energy on making her frozen tongue move.
“Khl ma,” she slurred. Zach narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out if she’d said what it sounded like she said. Helen braced herself and tried again. “K-hill me.”
Finally able to move her fingers, she scrabbled at her slit throat, looking to rip off her heart necklace so Zach would be able to kill her. Zach slowly shook his head at Helen, choosing to misinterpret what he’d heard her say. He caught her hands and held them still, took off his shirt, and pressed it against the wound at her throat.
Incensed with frustration, Helen watched helplessly from the ground as Lucas and Orion fought Automedon, all three of them moving so quickly she could barely make out their separate shapes. Automedon stood between the two of them, mechanical and accurate, every motion begun and completed with surgical precision.
Helen knew just enough about fighting to know that she was watching the perfect warrior. He was stronger, faster, and more patient than any fighter Helen had ever seen. If Orion or Lucas darted in to wound him, he took the blade into himself and let it leave again without concern. He leaked a vaguely greenish-white fluid from several places, but Helen already knew that he couldn’t be killed that way. He was just waiting for them to get tired.
Still bleeding from the chest, Orion faltered and took another wound to the stomach. As he fell back, Automedon saw his moment. Rather than attack Orion on the ground, he engaged Lucas. With a deft flick, Automedon spun Lucas’s smaller blade out of his hand, sending it flying. Then he made a move to go after Lucas while he was unarmed.
“Luke!” Orion yelled, his voice breaking with exhaustion. He tossed Lucas his sword and left himself defenseless. Automedon let Lucas catch it.
Lucas flew over Automedon and landed in front of Orion who was grimacing and clutching his newest injury. He tried to get up, and fell back down with a grunt, blood pouring out of him alarmingly fast. Lucas dug in, making it clear that if Automedon wanted to get to Orion, he would have to go through him first.
