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“Oh, man. I gotta get a picture of this.” Her shoulders were shaking with laughter as she grabbed her phone. She snapped a quick shot of her dad before he could run away, and sent it immediately to pretty much everyone she’d ever met. “Is it Halloween today? I’ve lost track.”
“Tomorrow,” he said, sitting down to eat his pancakes. “I’ve got two whole days in drag and then I’m never celebrating Halloween again.”
Halloween was always a busy time at the News Store, and despite Jerry’s grumbling about having to wear a dress, Helen knew he loved to celebrate all the holidays. Helen asked her dad if he needed help at the store, but he told her there was no way he was letting her come in.
“You look greener than I do,” he said with worry. “Do you need to stay home from school today?”
“I’ll be all right,” Helen said with a shrug and looked down at her breakfast to hide the guilt she felt. She honestly didn’t know if she was going to be all right or not, and she couldn’t look at her father and lie.
Claire cruised up to the house in her nearly silent car, rolled down the passenger window, and blasted the song on the radio rather than honking.
“I’d better go before the neighbors call the cops,” Helen said to her father as she gathered up her stuff and ran out of the house.
“Come right home after school; you need your rest!” Jerry shouted after her. Helen waved in a noncommittal way from the door, knowing that she couldn’t. She had to train with Ariadne for her return to the Underworld. The clock was ticking for Helen, and she had a lot of promises to keep before it stopped.
Lucas watched Helen run out her front door and jump into Claire’s car. She looked exhausted and skinny, but even so, her smile for Claire was bright and beautiful and full of love. That was Helen. No matter what she was going through, she had this nearly magical way of opening her heart for others. Just being near her made him feel loved, even if he knew that her love wasn’t directed toward him anymore.
She’d almost caught him again that morning, and he was starting to suspect that he was scaring her. Somehow, she could still sense him. Lucas had to figure out why, because he certainly wasn’t going to stop guarding her. Not until he was certain that Automedon was gone for good.
Claire and Helen started shrieking as they drove off, murdering one of Lucas’s favorite Bob Marley songs. Helen had the worst singing voice. It was one of the things he liked the most about her. Every time she warbled like a cat that just got stepped on, he wanted to pick her up and . . . yeah.
Reminding himself that Helen was his cousin, he dropped his light-cloak and soared up into the air so he could switch on his phone and start his day. He had a text message waiting.
I know you were down there w/us. And I think I know how u did it, read the text. We need to talk.
Who is this? Lucas replied, already knowing who it was. Who else could it be, after all? But he didn’t want to give the guy an inch. He couldn’t. He was too angry.
Orion.
Making him text it was even worse. Seeing that guy’s name and picturing Helen say it just ate him up inside. The rage was getting worse every day, and he had to take a moment to stop himself from chucking his phone across the Atlantic.
Great. What do you want? Lucas replied when his hands had unclenched enough to type. It was bad enough he had to let Helen go, but did he also have to get texts from the guy who got to spend every night with her?
You need to be a dick—I get it. But there’s no time. Helen is dying.
“You’re in a good mood!” Helen chirped.
“I am!” Claire practically screamed.
“Ooh, don’t tell me! Flushed cheeks, dewy eyes . . . Could you be love? Oh, yeah!”
Helen sang the final part of the Bob Marley song that Claire had been howling. It perfectly summed up Claire’s ecstatic mood, and Claire joined her for the “oh, yeah” part, answering Helen’s tacit question.
“What can I say? He really is sort of a god.” Claire sighed and giggled gloriously as she careened down the street.
“What happened?” Helen screeched, vicariously giddy. It felt so good to laugh again, Helen forgot about everything else in her life but Claire’s glowing face.
“He FINALLY kissed me! Last night,” she practically sang. “He climbed up the side of my house! Can you believe it?”
“Um, yeah?” Helen grinned and shrugged.
“Oh, right, I guess you can,” Claire said, waving it off good-naturedly. “So, anyway, I opened my window to yell at him and tell him that he was going to wake my grandma—you know how she can hear a dog fart two houses down. But he said he had to see me. That he couldn’t stay away from me anymore, and then he kissed me! Is that not the best first kiss ever?”
“Finally! What took him so long?” Helen laughed. The laugh turned into a yelp as Claire stomped on the brakes to obey a stop sign. Horns honked at them from either side of the street.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Claire drove on, ignoring the fact that she’d nearly caused a horrendous traffic accident. “He thinks I’m too fragile, that I don’t know the danger I’m in—blah, blah. Like I haven’t spent my entire life around a Scion. Ridiculous, right?”
“Yeah. Ridiculous,” Helen said as she grimaced in fear at both Claire’s nonchalant attitude toward Scions and her daredevil driving. “You know what, Gig? Love doesn’t make you immune to car wrecks.”
