Starcrossed

by Josephine Angelini

  terrible liar. She started to panic. Lucas grabbed her phone from

  her and, as he did, Helen heard an almost imperceptible crunch.

  “Her phone’s broken,” Lucas said, passing Helen’s phone to her

  father so he could see it. It came apart in Jerry’s hand. “I came over

  to see why she wasn’t picking up and she was out here in the driveway

  on her way to go get you.” Helen stared at Lucas with her

  mouth open, wondering how someone who demanded honesty

  from everyone else could be so quick to lie.

  “How did you do this, Len?” Jerry asked in a dismayed voice as

  he studied the pulverized sandwich of plastic and microchips.

  “This was brand-new.”

  “I know!” Helen said a little too emphatically. “Piece of junk,

  right? I’m so sorry, Dad. I had no idea you were coming early.

  Really.”

  “Oh, it’s all right,” Jerry said a bit sheepishly now that he wasn’t

  so worried. He and Helen smiled at each other, all forgiven. Then

  Jerry turned to Lucas. “You look familiar,” he said suspiciously,

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  acknowledging Lucas’s presence for the first time and distrusting it

  immediately.

  For a moment Helen could see Lucas as her father did—a heartbreakingly

  beautiful young man who was too well built, too well

  dressed, and driving too nice of a car to ever be liked by anyone’s

  father.

  “Lucas Delos,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “Don’t you hate this kid?” Jerry asked Helen candidly as he

  shook the offered hand. Lucas laughed, and it was such an open,

  unself-conscious sound that Jerry joined in.

  “We worked it out,” Helen said.

  “Good,” Jerry said. Then he passed Lucas’s flashy convertible as

  he went back to the cab to pay and get his bags. “Or maybe not,” he

  amended. Helen took that moment to roll her eyes at Lucas and

  point to her phone.

  “What about that woman? How are you going to tell me the rest

  of the story now?” she whispered frantically. “If I use the phone in

  the kitchen, my dad will hear.”

  “Sorry,” Lucas whispered back, his eyes laughing. “I couldn’t

  think of anything else to do.”

  “Tomorrow,” Helen warned. “I want the whole story.”

  “I’ll pick you up half an hour early for school. We’ll get coffee,”

  Lucas promised.

  “What’s going on?” Jerry asked suspiciously, joining them again.

  “Lucas has to get home for dinner,” Helen said. She saw Lucas

  wince at the lie, but he took the hint.

  “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Hamilton,” Lucas said as he waved

  good-bye and backpedaled toward his car.

  “Damn, I really wish you had acne. Or a gland problem,” Jerry

  replied.

  “Dad!” Helen huffed, embarrassed. “Good night, Lucas,” she said

  apologetically.

  “Good night, Helen,” he replied softly, his eyes bright.

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  “Okay, that’s enough. Get in the house, Helen,” Jerry said with a

  nervous smile. He physically turned Helen around and gave her a

  little push toward the door. “I think I would prefer it if you went

  back to hating him.”

  Helen heard Lucas laughing to himself as he started his car. The

  warm sound made her smile.

  Lucas took his time driving home from Helen’s side of the island.

  He needed time to think and get control over himself before he

  faced his family. Not that it would do much good. Cassandra and

  Jason could always figure out how he was feeling, and they were

  being hypervigilant about him right now. They’d been worried

  about him since that day in the hallway when he’d first seen her,

  and now it would get worse. It was already worse. Jason would

  probably try to get him to sit down for a nice, long talk, and Lucas

  didn’t have the patience for that. He didn’t want anyone’s pity; he

  just wanted to be left alone for once.

  Lucas pulled into the garage and sat with the engine off for a few

  minutes, trying to put his feelings back where they belonged. The

  past few days he’d felt as if his emotions were spring-loaded, as

  though if he let the lid off them they’d all come flying out like confetti

  from a Christmas cracker. He knew for damn sure he couldn’t

  handle seeing Cassandra, not right then, and he also knew she was

  probably waiting for him. He got out of the car, walked outside,

  and flew up to his bedroom window to avoid her.

  But of course she knew he would do that, and she was already sitting

  on the couch in his room. Lucas smiled ruefully to himself before

  he even got his window open. He should have known better

  than to try and outmaneuver his little sister.

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Cassie,” he said in what he hoped

  was a patient but firm voice.

  “You don’t get to make that choice,” Cassandra responded sadly.

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  “No. We’re Scions. We don’t get to make many of our own

  choices, do we?” he said bitterly as he floated through the window

  and came in for a landing.

  His body took on the burden of gravity and his feet touched down

  as he went from flying to walking in an instant.

  “You’ve been gone a while,” Cassandra said in an insinuating

  tone.

  “I stayed in her area for a bit, looking around her neighborhood

  for any sign of those women,” he said evenly, and he wasn’t lying.

  “I told you, you don’t have to worry. She’s safe for a few more

  days at least,” Cassandra said, shaking her head. “I’m not so sure

  about you.”

  “I didn’t touch her.”

  “But you can’t stay away from her, either.”

  He couldn’t. Even when he was still possessed by the Furies in

  her presence, he couldn’t stay away from Helen. He didn’t know

  how to describe it; it was as though it felt wrong to be separated

  from her. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t touch her.”

  “That’s not the only thing I care about,” she began in a warning

  tone.

  He interrupted her, tired of the doublespeak. “Yeah, sure, but it’s

  the thing you and everybody else cares about most, Cassie,” he

  said. He unlatched his watch and laid it carefully on his bedside

  table. He wouldn’t look at her, and he knew that was cruel, but he

  couldn’t stop himself.

  “That’s not true. You know that, right?” she asked, suddenly no

  more than his sweet little sister. He looked over at her and felt his

  heart soften. She carried a heavier burden then he did, he knew

  that. Sometimes his bitterness got the better of him, but he trusted

  that Cassandra knew he loved her, and that she also knew he

  wouldn’t stop loving her even if she told him he had to give up the

  one thing he wanted most in the world. That didn’t make it any

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  easier for either of them, though it wasn’t like anyone had ever

  asked them what they wanted.

  “What does it matter how any of us feel?” he muttered. “If I take

  Helen, the war starts all over again. No amount of wishing will

  make it different.”

  “I don’t know that,” Cassandra replied with more than a little
/>   self-doubt. “I’m not strong enough yet.”

  “But you’re pretty sure it is,” he said, sitting down on the end of

  his bed, suddenly feeling as if he had taken on two planets’ worth

  of gravity. “And don’t pretend you’re not, because not even you can

  lie to me.”

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  Chapter Eight

  Helen spent the next few hours alternately listening to

  the details of her father’s trip and insisting that Lucas

  was not her boyfriend. She figured out pretty fast that

  the only way to get Jerry to stop asking questions about

  Lucas was to ask him questions about Kate instead.

  And besides, she genuinely wanted to know what was going on

  between the two of them. Jerry kept insisting that they had never

  been anything more than friends. Disappointed that her dad was

  obviously still lugging around a big bag of hurt for her mother, all

  Helen wanted was to escape upstairs to her room to think, but she

  had to wait until they finished dinner first. By the time she and her

  father were done eating, arguing over how much salt he was allowed

  to put on his dinner, and talking about the store, Helen was

  so exhausted she nearly fell asleep sitting on the edge of the tub as

  she brushed her teeth.

  The next morning, Helen skipped breakfast, packed her own

  lunch box, and shouted good-bye to her father from the front door

  before he even made it downstairs. He called after her as she

  jumped into Lucas’s car, but she pretended she didn’t hear him.

  “Shouldn’t we wait to see what he wants?” Lucas asked her.

  “Nope. Let’s just go,” she said a little too quickly.

  Lucas shrugged and drove off as Jerry made it to the front door.

  Helen waved to him, but she knew she would hear about this little

  stunt later. In detail.

  “Okay, I’m still new around here so I don’t know the cafés.

  Where’s a good place on this side of the island?” Lucas asked.

  “Ah, the News Store?” Helen offered with a shrug. “I don’t think

  we’ll be able to talk there, though.”

  “How ’bout this,” he said as he pulled into a chain restaurant that

  was popular with the tourists.

  Helen winced, but assented. There were other mom-and-pop

  choices, but she knew all the people who worked in those places.

  For this conversation she needed a little privacy.

  They stood quietly together in line, waiting to sit before they started

  talking. Helen tried not to stare at Lucas, but it was difficult. It

  amazed her how comfortable he seemed wherever he went, as if

  the whole world was as private to him as his own bedroom.

  She tried to watch him out of the corner of her eye, maybe catch

  him fidgeting or shuffling his feet the way she herself did in public,

  but there was none of that. He really didn’t care if people looked at

  him or not. He didn’t subconsciously apologize to the world for his

  presence by slouching or crossing his arms or playing with his

  keys. It unnerved Helen to see how he could just stand there and

  not do anything else, but it also inspired her. Why should she

  slouch and feel bashful for taking up more space than most people?

  She stood up a little straighter while she stared at him.

  “Had enough?” he asked, smiling at Helen’s brazen admiration of

  his looks.

  “Not yet,” she said, a matching smile breaking across her face.

  “Good.”

  As soon as they were seated, Lucas asked her what she wanted to

  know, and Helen had to think for a moment. She wasn’t entirely

  sure.

  “I guess the first thing I need to know is who hurt Kate,” she said,

  dreading the answer.

  “We have no idea,” he answered, sounding earnest. Helen’s heart

  sank. She knew from the night before that although Lucas couldn’t

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  bear to be lied to, it didn’t stop him from telling a few whoppers of

  his own.

  “That doesn’t make sense, Lucas,” she said carefully. “Your father

  told me that I was the only one of . . . our kind . . . who was not a

  member of your House. How can you not know two women who,

  by that logic, are related to you?”

  Lucas nodded, like he understood why Helen doubted him. “The

  House of Thebes is very large. Our immediate family—those of us

  who moved back here to the States—are a just a tiny splinter group,

  but the main part of the House of Thebes is much, much larger.

  They’re known as the Hundred Cousins, although there are a lot

  more of them than that now, and they’re loosely led by my uncle

  Tantalus,” he said, looking down at his coffee, his eyes far away. “I

  have a lot of distant relatives that I’ve never heard of, let alone

  seen.”

  “If your uncle is the leader, can’t you just call and ask him which

  of your cousins is trying to kill me?”

  “Tantalus may have been the one who sent them,” he said darkly.

  “But we don’t know that for sure yet. My uncle Pallas—Hector,

  Jason, and Ariadne’s father—he went back to Europe after the first

  attack on you to see how much Tantalus knows.” Helen studied his

  face for a moment. It was all sharp edges and glittering blue eyes.

  “You mean spy on the rest of the House,” Helen said, surprised.

  He nodded. “But why would your family go through so much for

  me? I’m grateful, but still. What else aren’t you telling me?”

  He tore at his croissant for a moment and then let out a fast

  breath.

  “The Hundred Cousins are a kind of cult. They believe something

  that my family doesn’t, and they believe it so fanatically that they

  are willing to kill for it. That’s why we left Spain. Hector . . .” Lucas

  trailed off, and then shook his head as if to clear it before turning

  his focus back on Helen. “The point is that you’re in a lot of danger.

  I’ve been following you since I first saw you, but I can’t guard you

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  every second. If either one of those women finds you without me

  there, they’ll try to kill you, and you don’t know how to defend

  yourself yet.”

  “Well, it’s not like I’ve ever had to defend myself,” Helen said, at

  a loss. “I mean, this is Nantucket. My dad and I forget to lock the

  front door more often than not!”

  “You’re very important to us. Much more than I can explain to

  you right now,” Lucas said, leaning forward and taking her hands.

  “I know you said you needed a few days, and I didn’t want to freak

  you out by throwing all of this at you at once, but you have to start

  training with us as soon as you can. My family will teach you how

  to fight.”

  “You mean like judo and stuff?”

  “Sort of,” Lucas said, smiling reassuringly. “Don’t look so worried.

  With your gifts you’ll be kicking ass in no time.”

  “What gifts?” Helen asked doubtfully.

  “You really don’t know, do you?” he marveled.

  “Hey, Luke, what’s up?” Zach asked, entering the café. He was

  smil
ing, but his smile faded as soon as he saw whom Lucas was

  with. Behind him stood a few guys from the football team, all of

  whom were staring, openmouthed, at the unlikely pairing.

  “Hey, Zach. Getting some coffee. You?” Lucas answered, totally

  unfazed. Helen gave a watered-down smile and untucked her hair

  from behind her ears to hide her face. Lucas reached across the

  table and smoothed her hair back behind her shoulder.

  “Same, yeah,” Zach mumbled as he nearly tripped over himself to

  get away, his eyes darting between Helen and Lucas with disbelief.

  “See you in a few,” he called out before joining the other guys in

  line.

  Helen bit her lip and stared at her coffee cup, rubbing her stomach

  under the table as subtly as possible. Please, no cramps, she

  thought.

  “What’s the matter?” Lucas asked, watching her.

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  “Nothing. Can we just go?” she pleaded, desperate to change the

  subject, get away, maybe drop dead if at all possible.

  “Sure,” Lucas said, standing up. He gave her a worried look. “I

  know it’s not nothing, Helen, and I’d rather you told me the truth,

  whatever it is. Ariadne gave all three of us guys a whole lecture

  about women’s troubles years ago, you know. And by lecture, I

  mean beating.”

  “Well, I owe her one, but it’s not what you think.” Helen grabbed

  his hand and pulled him toward the door.

  Lucas waved to Zach on his way out. Zach waved back, but he

  was still pouting.

  “I think I’ve lowered your rank. Sorry,” Helen said as they got in

  the little silver Mercedes.

  “What are you talking about?” Lucas asked, backing out of the

  parking lot.

  “Well, Zach and all those guys saw us together,” she said, like her

  meaning was obvious.

  “And?”

  “Zach and Gretchen aren’t my biggest fans, which makes me sort

  of like popularity antimatter at school,” Helen explained sheepishly.

  Lucas’s face cracked into a huge smile and he grabbed her

  hand, but he had to let it go to shift.

  “I’m going to have to start driving an automatic,” he mumbled to

  himself before continuing. “You think you’re unpopular? The first

  hour I was on this island I heard about the beautiful, perfect, heavenly

  Helen Hamilton. You know that’s what the boys call you,

  right? Heaven Hamilton?” Helen dodged his seeking hand, but he

  eventually captured hers and held it tighter.