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“Hey!” she shouted. He ignored her. “Hey!” She ran up to him, and pushed him as hard as she could.
“What?” he said, frustrated, as he stumbled away from her.
“What do you mean, what?” she yelled back at him sarcastically.
“I mean, what do you want from me, Andy? Do you want me to go, or stay, or drop dead? What?”
His eyes searched hers. They bounced back and forth, looking for something inside of her. Andy shrugged. She had no idea what he was looking for. He sat down in the sand with his shoes in his hand, like he was giving up.
“I can’t do this with you. Not tonight,” he said quietly. “I just watched my brother get burned to a crisp right in front of me—”
He stopped and looked away from her, his shoulders swelling with a deep breath. He caught and held it before it turned into tears. Andy knelt down on the sand next to him while he struggled, feeling horrible. He was barely keeping it together, but still he’d put all his other feelings aside and risked his life to save hers. And then she’d yelled at him. Not her classiest moment.
“I’m sorry, Hector.” Andy touched his arm with the tips of her fingers. He leaned a tiny bit closer.
“The worst part is not knowing where they went or how he’s doing,” he confided. “I hate that I can’t help them. You know?”
She did. Hector was good at saving people. She had just seen for herself that Hector was the type of guy who would rather fight a god than feel useless. Not being able to do anything was probably the worst kind of torture for him.
“Can Orion find them in the Underworld? Oh! Maybe he could even bring you with him? You could go get them,” she said, trying to be helpful.
“Orion can’t find Helen. She’s the one who finds him when they meet in the Underworld,” Hector replied, shaking his head.
“They spent all that time down there together, and they don’t have a set meeting place?”
“Time and space aren’t like they are here, and Helen is the Descender, not Orion. He could look for her, but unless she knew that he was looking for her, and she went to him, they’d never meet up.” Hector pushed some sand around with his hands, swirling his fingers through it in frustration. “Helen’s the one in control.”
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.” Andy looked down at the patterns he was making in the sand and frowned. “So all we can do is wait for Helen to come back? That’s pretty annoying.”
“That’s why I needed a swim. There’s some water nymph in my family, and I’ve always felt at home in the ocean,” he said, smiling and looking down at the sand. “Helps me calm down.”
“Me too.” She stared at his profile, wondering how it was that they had so much in common already. They’d never said more than a few words to each other, but she understood him perfectly. “And almost getting in a fight with a god isn’t exactly calming. Sorry about that.”
“No. Don’t say that.”
He looked up at her, and she forgot how to breathe. He was beautiful, sure. But beauty is easy. That wasn’t what moved her. What moved her was all the life she saw inside of him. He had such a strong spirit it seemed to reach out of his eyes and grab her.
“You showing up was the best thing that’s happened to me all day,” he said, totally ruining the moment.
Andy cringed. “Yeah, well. Thanks?” she said dubiously. “But I’d be more impressed with that line if I didn’t know what a crap day you’ve had.”
They both cracked up.
“That line was pretty pathetic, wasn’t it?” he asked, making fun of himself.
“I’ve heard worse, but yeah. It was pretty bad.” She grinned at him and threw up her hands incredulously. “What happened? I had you pegged as this total smoothie.”
“What can I say? I’m off my game,” he laughed, and looked away, growing almost shy. “I am so not smooth around you.”
“Good,” she said quietly, letting the joke go. “I like you better like this, anyway.”
When he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and smiled, Andy knew she’d never mistake him for anyone else again. It didn’t matter who he looked like. Hector was unique. Andy also knew that, like it or not, from that moment on no other man would ever quite equal him in her mind.
Matt watched Apollo leave Hector and Andy on the beach and relaxed his grip on his dagger, thankful that nothing had happened. He knew he couldn’t have allowed Apollo to hurt the girl but interfering would have caused a whole mess of problems. Matt was still trying to convince himself he could live with a few misgivings as long as the greater evil was exterminated. He was just glad he didn’t have to confront those misgivings yet, and he hoped the gods didn’t put him in a position where he would have to.
Matt stole up the beach silently. Quiet as he was, he knew the only reason Hector hadn’t heard him was that he was distracted by Andy.
He and Andromache were reunited. From what Matt saw they had the same kind of love as before. A tender, humorous companionship that could survive anything—even war, famine, and the loss of other loved ones. Their love was one of the reasons Troy had withstood the siege.
