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Too tired to lift her arms, Helen let her hands drop. Matt punched her in the face.
“Yikes, Lennie! You really do suck without your lightning,” Claire yelled as she came through the door.
“Thanks, Gig,” Helen said sarcastically, hauling herself reluctantly off her butt. “What did Cassandra and Jason say?”
“That they would try to figure it out.” Claire grimaced. “Honestly? I don’t think anyone has a clue about what to do next.”
“Great,” Helen said while Matt tugged her arm and helped her to her feet.
“Come on,” he said to encourage her. “Back to work.”
Helen didn’t want to work anymore, but she knew Matt was right. Time was short. They all knew that Helen would have to go to bed eventually, and it seemed like she needed everything at once . . . fight skills, plans on how to deal with Ares, theories about what he was doing down there. She needed everyone to come together and figure certain things out for her or it would never get done. Still, Helen felt responsible, like she should be the one to handle this.
A voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Hector’s reminded her that delegating was one of the most important skills a general needed to learn.
Since when am I a general? she thought ruefully. At that moment, Helen would have given just about anything to be able to call Hector and ask him for his advice, or text Orion and joke around. And Lucas . . . here Helen stopped. There were a thousand things she needed Lucas for, none of which she would ever get. Why couldn’t she just have them in her life? Why was everything so complicated?
“Focus!” Ariadne barked.
Matt saw an advantage and shot in, sweeping Helen off her feet. Her back slammed down on the mat, and Helen stared up at the naked bulb over the cage, thinking about where she had gone astray. In one bright flash, she enumerated all the missteps that had led her to this place.
First: Hector—she knew it was her fault that he was an Outcast. She should have stopped him from killing Creon. But because she had been too afraid of the Shadowmaster’s darkness, Hector had been forced to kill her enemy for her. Now Hector was banished.
Second: Orion—he had resisted the Furies when he could have easily killed her. In payment she had stabbed him in the chest. Now it was starting to look like she had lost him. The thought hurt so deeply, she gasped and shied away from it.
Last: Lucas. Always Lucas.
Just thinking his name seemed to halt Helen’s spinning thoughts. No other thought dared come after. For one brief moment of lucidity, there was nothing but his name, clearing a bright path through her crowded mind.
“Lennie? Are you okay?” Matt asked nervously. Helen realized that she was still on her back, thinking.
“Peachy,” she said, dabbing at the fat lip he had just given her. She looked at Matt standing over her with his fists still up and ready. “You know what, Matt? You’re becoming quite a badass.”
Matt rolled his eyes and walked away with a disgusted look on his face, like he thought Helen was teasing him. But she wasn’t. He’d put on some muscle the last few weeks, and he stood like a fighter now instead of a golfer. If Helen squinted and forgot that it was Matt she was looking at, he looked almost tough. And kind of hot, she had to admit, even though it grossed her out to think of Matt as anything but a brother.
“Are you going to get up, or are you done?” Claire shouted cheerfully at Helen’s prone form.
“Yeah, I think I’m done,” Helen said to the ceiling.
“Good, ’cuz you’ve got a bunch of texts from Orion,” Claire said, unabashedly reading through them. “Wow, he seems really upset. What happened?”
Claire didn’t get a chance to finish the question. Helen flew out of the cage and snatched her phone away.
Orion had left her about half a dozen texts. They started out funny, like he wanted to diffuse the situation, and then they got increasingly more serious. The second-to-last text he sent her said, We can get past this, can’t we?
And ten minutes after that he had sent, I guess last night was a deal breaker.
“What happened last night?” Claire asked, reading over Helen’s shoulder. “Did you two . . . ?” She broke off when she saw Helen’s eyes flare with anger.
“What? What do you want to ask, Gig?” Helen said, mostly to hide her embarrassment. Helen didn’t want to talk about how Orion had touched her, not even with Claire. It was private, but more important, it might turn them against Orion.
They all knew the rules surrounding the Truce. They wouldn’t want her to see Orion again if they thought she was too attached to him. But attached or not, Helen didn’t know if she could continue in the Underworld without him. She needed him. She just hoped, for all their sakes, that she didn’t need him too much.
“Claire didn’t mean anything, Helen,” Matt said calmly. “We’re just concerned. It’s obvious from your reaction to his text that you two have grown close.”
“You know what? I’m sick of all the little looks I get every time Orion texts me,” Helen said defensively. “Of course we’re getting close! He and I are going through hell together. Actual hell, get it? And last night was bad—really bad. After what I did, I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from him again.”
“What happened?” Matt asked calmly when he heard Helen’s voice break with emotion. She regained control and continued.
