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The sound of a bullwhip snapping and the stale taste of ozone filled the air as light branched out from Helen’s hands, creating a latticed wall of electricity that protected her and Claire. The unnatural darkness created by the Shadowmaster fell back in the blue blaze and no fewer than a dozen armed Scions were revealed. Where had they all come from? Helen wondered frantically. How had so many crept up on them?
At the center and to the back of the phalanx, in the place Hector had taught Helen was reserved for infantry officers, Helen caught a brief glimpse of a terrifying, alien face. It, whatever it was, had red eyes. It looked directly at her and then fell back until it was again covered in the Shadowmaster’s gloom.
“Too many!” Hector grunted as he fought off two more men.
“Behind us!” Helen yelled as she spun around and saw that four fighters were flanking them. She sent out a bolt of weak lightning—just enough to stun and not to kill them. Unfortunately for Helen, holding back her power required way more energy than just letting the bolts go.
Helen felt dizzy. She forced her eyes to focus as three of the four men fell convulsing to the ground. The fourth kept coming toward her. She had used up most of the water in her body, which was already slightly dehydrated from running a distance race, and she didn’t have enough left to create another controlled bolt. She could still create one that would kill them all, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that.
Jumping over Claire, who was still struggling to get her wind back, Helen threw a punch at the remaining Scion. Helen had never been good at striking, and her punch barely got his attention. He hit her back hard, knocking her down to the ground on top of Claire and making her ears ring.
A dark shape streaked down from the sky, landed on top of Helen’s attacker, and sent him careening into the trees. It was Lucas. Helen’s breath caught at the sight of him. How could he have gotten here so quickly? she wondered frantically. Lucas looked down at Helen, his face impassive, and then threw himself against the main group of attacking Scions.
Helen heard Hector bellow, and saw that several men were trying to fit chains and thick metal cuffs onto his arms and legs. She scrambled over to help him wrestle the bindings off while Lucas dealt with the fighters who were left standing. In a blinding blur of movements, Lucas had disarmed and injured two men before Helen even made it to Hector’s side.
Seeing that his small army was no match for Helen, Hector, and Lucas, the creepy leader of the phalanx made a shrill chittering noise, and the onslaught ended as quickly as it began. The wounded were hiked up onto shoulders, weapons were retrieved, and the band of hit men dissolved into the trees before Helen could even brush the hair off her sweaty face.
Helen saw Lucas turn his back on them and stiffen. Hector put his hands to his temples and dug the heels of his hands into the sides of his head, as if he was trying to keep his skull from splitting in half.
“No, Hector! Don’t!” Claire yelled as she threw herself on top of him. She put her hands over his eyes and tried to block his sight so he wouldn’t see Lucas. Even with Claire nearly smothering him, Helen could see Hector’s face redden with rage.
Lucas was shaking with the effort to hold back, but finally, he gave in. He had a crazed look in his eyes as he spun around to face Hector. The Furies had him, and they were telling him to kill his cousin or die trying.
“Please, Lucas, go! Go!” Helen rasped through her parched throat. She knew he had ordered her never to touch him again, but she didn’t care. She jumped up and put her hands on his shoulders, shoving him away from Claire and Hector.
Helen pounded on his chest, but Lucas couldn’t tear his eyes away from Hector. In his urgency to kill the Outcast, Lucas threw Helen to the ground hard, and she cried out as she twisted her wrist on the uneven underbrush.
Hearing her shout of pain seemed to shock Lucas out of his frenzy. He looked down to see Helen on her knees, cradling her injured wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Before Helen could get to her feet, he jumped into the air and was gone from sight.
She stared after Lucas, his name hanging in the back of her throat, pinching it closed. She wanted to call him back to her and demand some kind of explanation. If Lucas hated her, why apologize? Why protect her in the first place?
“Len, snap out of it!” Claire yelled as she tugged on Helen’s arm. “There’s a fire!”
Helen dragged her eyes away from the bit of sky that Lucas had disappeared into and looked around while Claire hauled her to her feet. There was smoke billowing up from the dry brush and she could hear the first shouts of alarm as people made their way from the track meet over to the edge of the woods.
“Your lightning started it,” Hector explained briefly. “I have to go. I’m not supposed to be here.”
“What was that?” Helen asked, raising her voice to stop Hector from leaving.
“A battalion of the Hundred Cousins. Our dear uncle T
antalus wants revenge for Creon, and he won’t stop until I’m captured. I have no idea how they found me,” he replied, adding a foul curse at the end. “Stay safe, little cousin. I’ll be in touch.”
“Wait!” Helen yelled after him, but just then several witnesses pushed through the trees to see to the fire, and Hector had to run away. “I was talking about that thing that was giving the orders . . .” She trailed off lamely as Hector’s back melted into the distance.
Helen let Claire make up the cover story. It was almost too easy for Claire to convince everyone that there had been a freak storm. Lots of witnesses had seen lightning flashes and “dark clouds” mysteriously covering the woods. All Claire needed to do was cast herself and Helen as innocent bystanders who just happened to be the first to arrive at the scene. Helen couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw Zach grimace when Claire told her tall tale. She wondered whether Zach had seen the whole thing. But if he had, why didn’t he say anything?
On the flight home, Helen and Claire had plenty of time to get freaked out about what had happened. They couldn’t risk being overheard by one of the teammates, but they kept glancing over at each other with worried eyes. Neither of them wanted to be alone that night so they made plans for Claire to come and sleep over at Helen’s house.
As soon as Claire disembarked, she and Jason rushed to meet. He looked pale and tense, and they regarded each other with such obvious devotion it made Helen’s heart pinch.
“Luke didn’t know if you’d been injured or not,” Jason choked out as he reached inside Claire’s jacket. Under the cover of her coat, he ran his softly glowing Healer’s hands lightly over Claire’s arms and ribs, checking her for broken bones or internal bleeding. “He said you got knocked down by a Scion. . . .”
“She’s fine,” Helen said soothingly.
“Of course you’d think she’s fine. You don’t have any concept of how easy it is for her to get hurt. You’re impervious,” Jason snapped back at Helen, his voice rising slightly with every sentence.
