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Helen backed off and let Cassandra do what she so obviously wanted to do. Touch Orion. He didn’t even look at her.
“So, keep going. I’m dying to hear what is it you’re ‘too chicken’ to do,” Orion said with a doubtful look, like he didn’t really believe Helen could be chicken about anything.
“Make myself immortal,” Helen replied, her voice breaking. “And not mostly immortal—not immortal except for one tiny clause where I can let myself off the hook in a jillion years if I get sick of it all—but really, honestly, till-the-stars-wink-out immortal so I can fight Zeus one-on-one. I don’t want to be immortal.” Helen felt tears sting the backs of her eyes. “I’m terrified of forever.”
Orion broke away from Cassandra like she wasn’t there and hugged Helen.
“Okay, yeah. That would terrify me, too,” Orion said, holding her gently so he didn’t crush her against his armor.
Helen opened her eyes as Orion held her and saw Cassandra staring at them, her blue eyes wide and glassy with hurt. Helen pulled away from Orion and put some distance between them. How could Orion be so insensitive to Cassandra?
Did he simply not like her? Helen knew that wasn’t true. He was genuinely fond of his “little Kitty”—he just didn’t see her as a woman. Yes, she was a bit young for him at the moment, but there was still something weird about how he couldn’t seem to see inside her the way he could with other people. Like the Fates can’t see through him, she thought. Aeneas was a son of Aphrodite, but he never suspected Cassandra of Troy loved him, either.
Helen realized that the Fates must hide Cassandra from Orion in much the same way that Nemesis hid Orion from the Fates.
“Why do you have to become immortal in the first place?” he asked, interrupting Helen’s train of thought and bringing her back to the more pressing situation.
“To make it my fight. Like it should have been right from the start,” Helen mumbled, rubbing the palms of her hands against her jeans nervously.
They heard noises outside the tent—the sound of their army returning. Helen heard Scions from the House of Rome saying, “He’s dead! Tantalus is dead! The gods have no champions left!”
But Helen knew the gods would not be beaten so easily. They would unleash every storm, every earthquake, and every tidal wave at their disposal before they allowed Helen to walk away with a win.
“Who killed him?” Orion shouted happily, striding to the entrance of the tent.
“My mother,” Helen answered behind him. She ran and grabbed him by the shoulders before he could join his men in celebration. “Orion. Don’t let Poseidon destroy this island. Fight his earthquakes, and fight the tidal waves. Are you strong enough to take him on like that?”
“I’ll try,” Orion said, his face blanching. “Is that where this war is going?”
“Yes,” Cassandra intoned. Helen shivered at the sound, like someone had poured ice water down her back.
Orion and Helen turned to look at the Oracle. The air around her flashed with color, and her body rebounded like she was being punched from the inside, but her face and voice remained her own as she fought the Fates.
“The Twelve immortals cannot meet mortals in open combat. Tyrant, they will unleash their darkest weapons to fight you until you meet Zeus in battle as an equal. Do not delay. One of you must go to Tartarus and complete the cycle.”
“We’ll see about that,” Helen said defiantly.
Cassandra’s frail body shook like she was being electrocuted. Her face shriveled and her eyes filmed over with cataracts as the most terrifying of the three Fates, Atropos—she who cuts off the thread of life—pushed her way through and possessed Cassandra.
“The veil of Nemesis does not always work on the one already blinded,” Atropos said, poking her finger into Cassandra’s eye.
“Orion!” Helen screamed, and he ran to Cassandra to stop the violent prophecy that was trying to shatter her from the inside out. But the old woman danced away from him in Cassandra’s body.
“You’ll not steal our vessel again, pretty one,” Atropos cackled. She made Cassandra’s hips sway suggestively, taunting Orion. “Poseidon is raising his darkest pets from the bottom of the ocean. The Kraken comes to kill you this time!”
Orion wrapped his arms around Cassandra, and she swooned as the Fates were finally driven away. He picked her up as easily as he would a doll and carried her to a chair so he could sit down and hold her in his lap.
“Kitty?” he said gently, touching her face. She didn’t respond. “C’mon, now, wake up.” He shook her, fear making him angry. “Cassandra!” he
commanded, but she didn’t even flinch.
Helen saw something flare inside of Orion, and before he could snatch the emotion away, she recognized it. It was a bright flash of love.
Shouts and screams of panic began to sound from the soldiers on the battlefield. Lucas, Hector, and Castor entered the tent in a rush, their faces stark white and staring.
“What’s going on?” Helen asked, fearing the worst, but the men were still too stunned to speak.
From outside the back part of the tent, on the inland side, Helen heard Andy’s siren voice commanding soldiers to hold the line. A moment later, Andy ducked in under the flap at the back and did a grossed-out dance like her skin was crawling.
