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He broke off when he noticed how quickly Helen’s mood changed at the mention of her mother. She hated how he could just call her “Daphne” like that, like they were best friends or something.
“That bad, huh?” he asked quietly after a moment of tense silence.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Helen replied in an angry monotone. She turned, intending to blaze her own trail through the tall reeds, but Orion laid a hand on her shoulder and turned her back around.
“I’m a Rogue, too,” he said softly. “I know what it’s like to hate your family.”
Helen’s anger evaporated at the sight of his sad eyes. One of her hands reached out to touch him, and she had to snatch it back at the last second. She had forgotten for a moment that Rogues like her could only be claimed by one House. Half of Orion’s family would be compelled to kill him if they ever encountered him, which they were sure to do. The Furies worked like magnets, drawing opposite sides together until they eventually collided. Helen had been hidden on a tiny island, and the House of Thebes had still found her; she could only assume that something similar had happened to Orion.
“Did you and your family ever find a way around the Furies? You know, like I did with the Deloses?” she asked softly. Helen didn’t want to specifically say Lucas’s name or talk about how the two of them had fallen and saved each other, she just hoped that Daphne had filled Orion in on some parts of her history.
“No,” he said in a tight voice, understanding Helen’s meaning immediately. “I still owe my blood debt to my mother’s House, the House of Rome.”
“But you can be with her at least, right?” Helen asked tentatively.
“No, I can’t,” he said in a final way. Helen recalled that he was the Head of the House of Rome, and not the Heir. He must have inherited his mother’s title when she died.
“So you were claimed by your father’s side? The House of Athens?” she asked, making an effort to move the conversation away from his mother.
“That’s right,” he said, turning away from Helen to end the line of questions.
“Hey, I’m sorry, but I’m just trying to get this straight. You were the one who brought up the whole family thing in the first place. Asking about my mother.”
“You’re right, I brought it up.” Orion held up his hands and made a frustrated sound. “I’m good at listening, not talking, and I have no idea what you’re feeling right now because I don’t have my powers. I can’t read your heart, and it’s driving me bananas.” He shook his head at a thought. “I guess this is the way normal guys feel it, huh? It’s really scary, so just give me a second, okay?”
“Okay.” Helen couldn’t look at him. She didn’t entirely trust herself with Orion.
“I’m going to start over,” he said, almost like he was warning her. Helen nodded and found herself laughing nervously again.
“All right. Start at the start this time.” Helen steadied her voice, trying not to sound so giggly. It was annoyin
g.
“Right. Here goes. I’m Head of the House of Rome, but because I was claimed by the House of Athens, the House of Rome has been hunting me since the day I was born. But for other very complicated reasons, the House of Athens has never accepted me, either.” Orion looked at Helen like he was forcing himself to jump off a cliff. “When I was ten my father, Daedalus, became an Outcast defending me from my cousins. He had to kill one of his own brother’s sons to protect me. Since then I haven’t been able to go anywhere near him. The Furies make us try to kill—”
“Yeah.” Helen cut him off quickly so he wouldn’t have to spell out what he’d tried to do. Orion nodded at her, silently thanking her for stopping him.
The image of trying to kill Jerry flashed through Helen’s mind and she pushed it away, unable to bear the thought of attacking her own father.
“Everyone I’m related to wants me dead for one reason or another, and because of that I’ve been in hiding for most of my life. So, I’m sorry I got all aggro with you, but it isn’t easy for me to open up like this, because . . . well, it’s usually fatal for me to get close to anyone.”
“You’ve been completely on your own since you were ten, haven’t you?” Helen asked in a hushed voice, still unable to wrap her head around everything he had told her. “Running from both sides of your family?”
“And hiding the fact that I exist from the Hundred.” Orion looked at the ground to conceal the dark look in his eyes. “Daphne’s helped me out when she could. She was there the first time the House of Athens came to kill me. She tried to help my dad, and she saved my life. That paid her side of the blood debt to my House, even though I still owe the House of Atreus. Didn’t Daphne tell you any of this?”
“Like I said, my mother and I don’t talk much.” Was it too much to think that Daphne should have given her a heads-up about this? Something still bothered Helen. “How did she find you and your dad to begin with?”
“Daphne’s been on a mission to help the Rogues and the Outcasts for, like, twenty years now. She’s traveled all over the world, and because the Furies draw Scions together, whenever she finds a Scion she finds a confrontation. She has a ton of amazing stories. I can’t believe she never told you any of this.”
But, of course, Helen didn’t know what Orion was talking about. She barely knew anything about Beth Smith-Hamilton, her supposed mother, but she knew even less about Daphne Atreus.
“Anyway, she’s saved a lot of lives, mine included, and now your mother can be with any member of any House. That’s why she’s the leader of the Rogues and Outcasts.”
Helen’s jaw dropped. Her mother was a hero? Her shady, unreliable, deadbeat mom—the one Helen couldn’t even remember—was some kind of Scion savior? If that was true, then something was either not right in the universe, or not right with the way Helen understood it.
“Listen, part of the reason I told you all of this was because I thought it might make it easier for you to forgive Daphne if I did. And please trust me on this one—you have to forgive your mother, Helen. Not for her sake, but for your own.”
“Why are you defending Daphne?” Helen asked him suspiciously. She thought about the influence of the cestus and wondered if Daphne was controlling him. “Did she ask you to say all this stuff to me?”
