Starcrossed

by Josephine Angelini

never went into the rubble, all we did was climb the dry hills.”

  “Good,” Helen said, smiling with relief. “That’s far away from the

  river.”

  “I know,” Jason said, smiling back at Helen before he looked

  back down at Claire. “She really is strong.”

  “What river? What rubble?” Daphne interjected, glancing from

  Jason to Helen, but she was overruled by Claire’s urgency.

  “That was real?” she blurted out, her eyes dark and wide with

  fear.

  “Yes and no,” Jason said softy, briefly brushing his lips against

  Claire’s forehead as he sat up painfully and gently pulled her up

  with him. “It’s a real place, but we only went there in spirit.”

  “But I was so hungry. So thirsty,” Claire whispered, suddenly

  terrified.

  She trustingly turned her face into Jason’s neck and he held her

  close to him. The bond they had forged in the dry lands still tied

  them to each other, and Helen had a feeling that Jason was reluctant

  to let it dissolve.

  361/395

  “Don’t be afraid, we only walked along the edge of it, we never

  crossed the river and went in. Not even the best Healers can go all

  the way in and make it out alive,” Jason said reassuringly. He met

  Helen’s eyes as if to ask her to help him explain.

  “The place you went is just beyond the place you go when you’re

  sleeping. It’s not something you should be afraid of,” Helen said,

  putting her hand on Claire’s back and trying to comfort her. “Just

  think of it as an intense dream if that makes it easier, because

  that’s what it feels like.”

  “Nightmare is more like it,” Claire said as she pulled her face

  away from Jason and got a hold of herself.

  “Well, you almost died,” Helen said with a shrug. “That shouldn’t

  be fun.”

  “Helen?” Daphne asked, comprehension dawning on her face.

  “How many times have you been to this place you’re talking

  about?”

  “I’ve lost count,” Helen said softly, shaking her head.

  Daphne stared at her daughter with a hard look on her face.

  There was a knock on the door. Matt poked his head in sheepishly.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Matt said with a slight grimace. “Hey, Claire.

  You okay?”

  “Come in,” Claire responded as she tried to sit up a little straighter.

  She reached out to Helen, who helped brace her. “I’m glad

  you’re in one piece,” she said gratefully.

  “Yeah, so am I,” Matt said with relief. “But there’s still a big problem

  that we need to fix. I noticed some people staring at us when

  we . . . uh . . .”

  “Hit Luke with your car?” Jason finished for him with a humorous

  glint in his eye.

  “Right. So I need to go take care of that. Before it gets out of control,”

  Matt said uncomfortably. “The longer I stay here, the more

  everyone will talk. If I start denying it, showing everyone that I

  couldn’t have been in an accident because I’m not injured . . .”

  362/395

  “Then the whole thing goes away before it gets started,” Daphne

  finished for him. “Are you really willing to lie to your own kind for

  us?” she asked coldly.

  “I don’t see it as your kind or my kind. All I see are my friends

  and they need my help,” Matt said with narrowed eyes. He glanced

  over at Helen uncertainly, as if to ask if she was sure about this

  new mother she had acquired.

  “I’ll take you wherever you need to go,” Helen said as she stood.

  “I’ve got to go talk to my dad, anyway. I’ll drop you off on the way.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Daphne said, surprised that Helen

  would even suggest it. “It’s far too dangerous.”

  “I can’t just leave him,” Helen said. “That’s what you did, and I’ve

  spent my whole life cleaning up the mess you left behind. If I’ve

  learned one thing, it’s that I don’t want to repeat your mistakes.

  Not now, not ever.”

  “Well, I can’t tie you down every time we disagree, but I can tell

  you to be careful, Helen, especially when you use words like

  ‘never,’” Daphne replied, her eyes soft with understanding. “The

  gods know what it is to be eternal, and they love to toy with mortals

  who use absolutes.”

  Helen turned and half stumbled for the door, so shaken to hear

  an echo of Lucas in her mother that she lost all sensation for a

  moment.

  “I got you,” Matt whispered into her ear as he took Helen’s elbow

  and steered her through the door so she didn’t clip her shoulder on

  the frame.

  “Your mom’s a real trip,” he said with a touch of fear when they

  were outside and the door was shut safely behind them.

  “I haven’t decided if she’s right about everything that ever

  mattered to me, or if she’s just evil,” Helen said honestly.

  “That’s what everyone wonders about their mother,” Matt said

  with a smile as he rolled his eyes. “The thing is, nobody’s mom is

  entirely one or the other.”

  363/395

  Helen smiled at Matt, hoping he was right, and led him downstairs.

  They went into the kitchen, looking for someone to lend

  them a car, but the only person they saw was Pandora, who was

  just coming back into the house from the garage.

  “Helen,” Pandora said, surprised. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “Matt needs to go home and I need to . . .” Helen started to say,

  but Pandora shook her head.

  “I can’t let you leave this house. You know that,” she said

  forcefully.

  “Then maybe you can take him?” Helen asked.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t right now,” Pandora said, looking down at her

  unadorned hands. “Why don’t you ask Ariadne? She’s in the library.”

  She smiled briefly at Helen and Matt, and silently hurried off

  toward the fight cage. It took Helen a moment to realize what was

  missing. For the first time Helen could remember, Pandora wasn’t

  wearing any jewelry.

  Helen led Matt to the library, where Castor, Pallas, Hector, Ariadne,

  Cassandra, and Lucas were all talking in a tight circle around

  Cassandra’s chair. The conversation ended as soon as they saw

  Helen.

  “Matt needs a ride home,” Helen announced nervously. She tried

  to keep her gaze away from Lucas, but her eyes kept jumping back

  to him.

  “I’ll take him,” Ariadne offered, immediately coming forward and

  motioning for Helen and Matt to leave the room.

  “What’s going on?” Helen mouthed to Ariadne, who took her

  hand and led her away. When they were a few paces from the library,

  Ariadne answered.

  “We’re trying to figure out what Creon’s up to,” she said.

  “Why was I excluded?” Helen asked, offended.

  “Come on, Helen,” Ariadne replied with a chiding look on her

  face. “Lucas can’t bear to be in the same room with you right now,

  364/395

  and no offense, but he’s a much better soldier than you are. We

  need him at the table and we need him focused.”

  Matt shot her a confused look, but thankfully, he didn’t ask any

  questions. It wouldn’t matter in a few hours, anyway. Helen would />
  be gone and she would never see him or any of them again. Later,

  she’d crawl into some strange bed in some strange state and then

  she didn’t care if she ever got out of it or not. But she couldn’t let

  herself think about that yet. First, she needed to make sure that the

  people she loved were taken care of.

  When they reached the kitchen, Ariadne grabbed her bag off the

  back of one of the chairs and fished her keys out, looking around

  like she had misplaced something. She looked out in the garage,

  counted the cars, and then glanced back into the house, whispering,

  “She’s back?” to herself. Before Helen could ask what was

  wrong, Ariadne said good-bye and hurried Matt out to her car.

  Helen waited a few moments for Ariadne’s little car to disappear

  down the drive before she crept out onto the lawn. It wasn’t dark

  out yet, but Helen still felt like even the shadows under the bushes

  were reaching out to grab at her. As soon as she was clear of the

  house she jumped up into the air, frantic to get into the sky, the

  one place she knew Creon couldn’t catch her. Calmer once she was

  safely airborne, Helen flew home, circling high for a few moments

  to watch for random neighbors before coming in steep and fast to

  avoid being seen. Touching down in her backyard, Helen listened

  for the usual sounds of her father and heard that he wasn’t alone.

  Kate was with him.

  They were talking softly, and here and there they would laugh or

  lapse into silence as one or the other gathered their thoughts to

  make sure the words came out right. Helen looked in the window

  and saw them sitting on the couch together, TV off, having what

  looked like an important conversation. If she concentrated she

  could probably make out what they were saying, but Helen didn’t

  365/395

  want to intrude on such a private moment between two people who

  were obviously falling in love.

  She touched her heart-shaped necklace and wished them perfect

  happiness together. She wasn’t sure if the cestus worked like that,

  but all that mattered was that Jerry would have someone to care

  for him when she was gone. Helen realized that if she left now,

  without confronting him, he would never have to know about

  Daphne returning to the island, and if that wound was left unopened,

  then this fragile understanding between him and Kate

  might stand a chance.

  She stood in the window for a moment, deciding which course to

  take, until finally the sharp drop in temperature and the tangerine

  color staining the clouds told her she had run out of time. She flew

  up to her window, sat down at her desk, and wrote a note to her

  father. She told him that she loved him, that she was safe, and that

  she was never coming back, making the note brief so she wouldn’t

  have to fill it up with lies. He had been a good father, and if she

  couldn’t be completely honest with him, the least she could do was

  lie as little as possible.

  She flew out of her window and back to the Delos compound as

  soon as she was done writing. It was a comfort to Helen to know

  that while she was sneaking away later that night her father would

  still be oblivious. Hopefully, for all of their sakes, Kate would be

  there for Jerry in the morning when he found the note. Thinking of

  that, she flew east across the darkening island with a feeling that

  approached peace.

  Before she even touched down, Castor was running out of the

  house to meet her on the lawn, waving his arms over his head as if

  to signal her to hurry. He was shouting something about her

  mother.

  Daphne had to wait until the little strategy session broke up before

  she could sneak into the library and look around. All she needed

  366/395

  was the return address on the last few bits of mail from Tantalus to

  the Nantucket faction of the House of Thebes. Then, after so many

  years, she might finally be able to figure out Tantalus’s pattern of

  motion.

  She was only missing a few bits of information—a city name and

  she would know where to go from there. Then she would find Tantalus

  and kill him exactly the same way he had killed her sweet

  Ajax. Daphne had imagined it a million times. As soon as he came

  to the door she was going to chop off his head off while his wife

  watched. If she avenged him, then maybe when Atropos cut her

  string, Ajax would be waiting for her on the other side of the river.

  She still had a ways to go and a lot of work to do before she could

  allow that to happen. First, she needed a city.

  Daphne started reading the postmarks on the topmost letters on

  Castor’s desk, but a quick glance told her that what she was looking

  for wasn’t there. She knew Tantalus’s handwriting like she knew

  her own, and she didn’t see it anywhere. Then she realized that although

  Castor was the smartest and the bravest of the Delos clan,

  he would be the last person Tantalus would contact. She went over

  to the other side of the library and began another search in another

  desk.

  She saw a safe under the other desk, put her hand on the spin

  dial and hoped that it wasn’t designed by a Scion. After a few moments

  on her knees listening for the click inside the tumbler, her

  search was abruptly ended. She felt the hot, thick jab of a needle

  invading the vein in her neck. She gasped, recognizing the drug

  cocktail she used on other Scions. She dimly remembered that

  when she had subdued Helen, she had left a spare syringe in her

  bag, loaded and ready, just in case. In seconds, her field of vision

  shrank to nothing.

  When she woke, Daphne could feel that her hands had been

  shackled with something metallic. As she blearily tried to focus her

  367/395

  eyes she saw that she was on a dark beach. She heard the jingling

  of chains as she moved her hands closer to her face, and saw that

  her wrists had been cuffed. There were deep vertical slashes on

  both her forearms that were still leaking fast-pumping blood even

  as they healed. She was thirsty from the blood loss, but she ignored

  that and summoned a bolt.

  The cuffs heated up until they glowed so bright Daphne had to

  turn her closed eyes away or be blinded by the light. The brightness

  was nearly unendurable, but the cuffs didn’t melt, not even as she

  drained the last of her volts. There were few substances that could

  withstand so much heat at normal atmospheric pressure without

  turning into a liquid or a gas.

  “Tungsten,” she whispered through her dry, cracked lips, angry

  with herself for acting without thinking first.

  The white-hot links of nearly un-meltable metal led to a lightning

  rod that was jammed into the ground like a stake. Not only was she

  immobile, but any attempt she made to throw a bolt at an enemy

  would only end up dissipating in the sand.

  “I wouldn’t have thought you had any bolts left,” a woman’s voice

  called from down by the waterline. The crouching shape rose and

  walked over to Daphne.
“I took a lot of your blood to dehydrate

  you, or at least I thought I did.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Daphne asked softly. “You’re not a

  killer, Pandora.”

  “I know I’m not,” Pandora admitted with a humiliated nod. “I

  tried to kill you while you were unconscious, but I couldn’t do it.”

  “Then let me go,” Daphne said with a sad smile. “I know why

  you’re doing this. Denial is a powerful thing, and grief can make a

  good person evil.” Daphne hauled herself up onto her knees. “But

  why don’t you believe me? Or if not me, why not Lucas, your own

  nephew? He’s a Falsefinder.”

  “Lucas has every reason in the world to want your version of the

  story to be true,” Pandora hissed, kicking at the sand as she began

  368/395

  to pace. “He is blinded by his love for Helen, and he would do anything

  to keep her. Maybe even lie to his own family.”

  “First of all, Lucas can never have Helen,” Daphne said darkly.

  “And second, you know there are easier ways to see if I’m telling

  the truth about who killed Ajax than kidnapping me. Have you ever

  asked Tantalus why he’s still in hiding?”

  “Probably because he knows you can look or sound like anyone!”

  Pandora shouted back, furious. “The only thing you can’t do is fake

  someone’s handwriting. That’s why he’s only communicated

  through letters—to protect himself because he knows you want him

  dead!”

  “And why would I want him dead?” Daphne’s own temper rose.

  “If it’s a Triumph I wanted, why wouldn’t I have killed any one of

  you Theban rats as soon as I saw you? Why would I want Tantalus,

  and Tantalus alone, unless he stole something precious from me?”

  she asked, her voice breaking at last.

  Pandora watched Daphne as she settled back into the sand, turning

  her back on the ocean she dreaded, to stare slack-jawed at her

  own feet. Pandora moved away from her and crossed her arms, tilting

  her face into the wind. She was breathing hard and her eyes

  darted from left to right as if she was reading the dark horizon.

  Suddenly, she snapped back to attention.

  “You snake,” she said, turning to stare at Daphne with awed rage.

  “Creon said you were cunning, but this is something else entirely.

  You actually believe what you’re saying! That’s why Lucas couldn’t

  find anything false in what you said. All those years of hiding behind

  other people’s faces and now all you are is one big lie. This is