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R U still in 1 piece?
She waited a few minutes but didn’t get a reply. Helen wanted to fly to the mainland and check on Orion at Milton Academy, but the last thing she needed was to get into trouble for skipping. Finally, she had to let it go and start getting ready for school.
Helen stood up, and as she did, she saw that she was still wearing Orion’s jacket. She could already hear him teasing her about that one, even though this time, stealing his jacket hadn’t been her fault. She tilted her face down, slowly brushing her cheek and lower lip across the collar. It smelled like him—fresh and a little wild, but still safe somehow.
Shrugging impatiently out of the sleeves and telling herself not to be so foolish, Helen went into the bathroom to take a shower. She took her phone
with her, in case Orion tried to contact her, and reminded herself to wash her hair. She even took time to condition it.
As she toweled off and brushed her teeth she thought about how she needed to stop being at the mercy of the Underworld. She had been wandering around aimlessly for . . . well, for a lot longer than real-world time reflected. She owed it to Orion to make a better plan.
At school, the first thing Helen did was track down Cassandra.
“We need to meet this evening,” Helen told her.
“Okay,” Cassandra replied calmly. “Did something happen last night?”
“There’s something I need to tell the whole family. And I’m inviting everyone. Claire, Jason, Matt, Ari,” Helen added as she backpedaled down the crowded hallway.
“They’re not ready,” Cassandra called out in protest, but Helen cut her off.
“Then make them ready. I’m done wasting time.” Helen didn’t give Cassandra a chance to argue.
“You up for a little ancient Greek tonight?” Helen asked Matt and Claire in homeroom.
“Yeah!” Matt responded excitedly, like the über-geek he was. “Do we need to bring anything?”
“Claire?” Helen asked with a shrug, understanding that Matt was asking about what was required for them to become ordained. “You’re the one who found the scroll.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I didn’t read the whole damn thing. I’m not actively suicidal.”
“I’m sure Cassandra will know. We’ll figure it out tonight,” Helen said confidently.
“Why the big switch?” Matt asked. “Last time I checked, you were on the fence about us joining the ‘study group.’”
“And look how great that’s worked out for me,” Helen said. “Let’s face it, Matt, you and Claire have been helping me prepare for tests since we were in kindergarten. Last night I realized that I’ve been trying to take this test on my own, and that’s probably why I keep failing it.”
She would have told Matt about Orion, but she noticed Zach staring at her, and decided to wait until that night to tell everyone together. The bell rang and ended the conversation. Helen left for her first class wondering what Zach had heard, and how much of it he would be able to understand.
Orion didn’t contact Helen again until lunch, and when he did all he sent were little word-bursts like zzz and taco and H2O. Helen could relate. She didn’t know how long she and Orion had spent in the Underworld the night before, but as usual it had left her tired, hungry, and unbelievably thirsty. At least now there was someone in her life who knew what she was really going through down there. She asked him how he managed to make it out of hell with all his body parts still attached, but his reply was “It’ll give me a thumb cramp.” After that, Helen figured he was either planning to tell her in person, or that he wanted to avoid a rehash altogether, so she let it go.
That evening Cassandra agreed to ordain Matt, Claire, Jason, and Ariadne in the arena with Castor, Pallas, Helen, and Lucas as witnesses. She recited a few things in ancient Greek while she burned some resinous logs in a bronze disk thingy that Jason told her was called a brazier. Then Castor took out a cage full of small birds that started tweeting away as soon as they were uncovered.
“Wait, what are those for?” Claire said in a voice that edged dangerously close to a screech.
“Just be glad the ceremony didn’t call for something big, like a horse or a cow,” Jason said as an aside to Claire. He wasn’t kidding.
Cassandra bowed gravely to her father and held out her hands like a platter. Castor took a tiny blade from his belt and laid it on Cassandra’s palms. As he did so, she started glowing bright green, purple, and blue with the icy hues of the incalculably old, tri-part aura of the Oracle. Possessed by the Three Fates, Cassandra turned to Matt and offered the blade to him first.
“Cut off the offering’s head and throw the carcass in the fire, mortal. You have been found worthy,” the three voices chimed with creepy harmonic beauty.
After a moment’s hesitation, Matt reached into the cage and grasped a struggling bird in one hand and took the little knife in the other. In the firelight, Helen could see that Matt’s face was a mask of disgust, and his hands were shaking terribly as he cut.
Thankfully, he didn’t falter, and the sacrifice was over quickly. Ariadne and Jason followed Matt efficiently, like they had done this sort of thing before, which Helen assumed they probably had. Claire was the only one who balked, and Jason had to steady her hands the whole way through it.
When all four had been initiated, the Fates left Cassandra in a rush, and the fire went out as if it had been doused with a bucket of water. Cassandra staggered for a moment, balanced herself on Lucas, and then finally managed to stand up straight.
As they all made their way back into the library, Claire started to cry a little, shaken by what she had done. Helen wanted to run up and comfort her, but Jason pulled Claire close and bent down to whisper something reassuring in her ear. For a moment, Claire hid her face against Jason’s chest and let him guide her as she walked along blindly.
