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  right past her.

  It was obvious that Matt had come into the café looking for her.

  Helen groaned to herself and rubbed her tired eyes—Claire must

  have told him that Helen was missing. Helen wondered how much

  else he knew about her. Knowing Matt and how clever he was,

  Helen was sure he had figured out some of her secret on his own,

  like Claire had.

  For a moment she wanted him to find her, but he was scanning

  the room for Helen’s bright blonde hair. When his eyes didn’t immediately

  spot her, he gave up. She wanted to throw her napkin at

  Matt and yell that she was sitting ten feet away from him, but she

  realized that it was silly of her to blame him for not recognizing

  her. Still, it hurt not to be recognized by a guy she’d known since

  she was in diapers. As she watched Matt walk out of the café, she

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  couldn’t help but feel like she was faceless, alone, and about as

  substantial as a ghost.

  “It’s better for him,” Daphne said consolingly as she reached

  across the table to take Helen’s hand. “The mortals who love us

  never last long. Scions are tragedy magnets. It’s safer for them if

  we leave before the trouble starts. That’s why I didn’t give Jerry

  more time . . .”

  “You never loved my father, I mean Jerry,” Helen interrupted bitterly.

  She snatched her hand out from underneath her mother’s.

  “No, I didn’t. I’m not going to lie to you to make myself more

  sympathetic,” Daphne replied, moving her rejected hand to reach

  for the check. “But I would never wish harm on that man. Remember,

  he’s the only person I trusted with my daughter. You hate me

  for not loving Jerry? Fine. But the least you can do is respect me

  for understanding how special he was and giving you the gift of

  thinking he was your father.”

  “Jerry is my father in every way that counts,” Helen said, wrenching

  herself out from the sinking seat of the booth.

  She waited with her back turned while Daphne threw down some

  bills. On their way to the hotel to get their things, Helen spotted

  Hector. He looked right at her and then right past her, just as Matt

  had done. The twins were with him, wandering around by the

  ferry. Helen heard Ariadne call out to Matt, sounding surprised to

  see him, but Daphne pulled her into the hotel before she could find

  out what they said to each other. Helen heard Claire’s name mentioned

  right before the door shut behind her making it impossible

  even to tell what they were saying about her, even with Scion

  hearing.

  Lucas was in the lobby. Helen didn’t see his face, but then she

  didn’t need to. If she had only caught a glimpse of him as he disappeared

  around a corner a half a mile away she would still have

  been able to recognize him. She turned her face away, knowing she

  couldn’t look at him or she would lose concentration and allow her

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  mask to slip away. As she hurried up the stairs behind her mother,

  she both hoped and feared that he would yell her name, but of

  course, he didn’t.

  Back in their room, Helen grabbed what few things she had and

  brought them to the entryway by the door, hiding her streaming

  eyes and her red nose from her mother as best she could. She tried

  to let the stranger’s dark hair fall across her face, but unfortunately

  this girl had bangs. As her mother checked over the room one last

  time before they left for the dock, Helen let out an incongruous

  laugh, suddenly remembering the last time she had taken the ferry.

  It was when Claire first told her about the new family that had

  moved into the big compound out in ’Sconset. Claire had been sure

  that there would be a dream boy to fall in love with each of them,

  and Helen had been sure that Claire was being ridiculous. So sure

  that she’d changed the subject, and wondered aloud whether she

  should cut her hair.

  “Well, Claire was absolutely right,” Helen said to herself, laughing

  through her tears. “I do hate having bangs.”

  Her breath still catching on the half-crazy laugh, Helen yanked

  open the door of the hotel room to leave, and ran right into Lucas.

  In a split second he registered Helen’s tears and the shocked face

  of the strange woman next to her. Lucas grabbed Helen’s arm and

  pulled her away from the woman, putting himself between them.

  “What did you do to her?” he said, threatening Daphne.

  “And just who are you?” Daphne said with a southern drawl. Lucas

  gave the woman a confused look and then looked back at

  Helen.

  “Helen, who is this woman?” he asked.

  “Come inside,” Daphne said, dropping the fake accent. “Come on,

  Helen. We’ve been discovered. He can see your true face.”

  “How?” Helen asked, looking down at the hands that weren’t

  hers, at a body that wasn’t hers, as she followed Lucas back into

  the room.

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  “Because he loves you.” Daphne shut the door behind them. “The

  cestus can’t hide the face of a beloved, it can only reveal it. You’ll

  never be anyone but yourself to him because he loves you exactly

  as you are.”

  Daphne rubbed her temples in frustration at this new and annoying

  development. She turned to Lucas and dropped her disguise.

  He gasped.

  “You are all of the women,” Lucas said, remembering what Cassandra

  had seen. “Helen, this is the woman that’s been attacking

  you, this isn’t her real face . . .”

  “I know. I even know that she was the one who hurt Kate in the

  alley,” Helen said, swallowing painfully. “I thought it was me—that

  I had shocked Kate by accident.”

  “Helen, you aren’t to blame,” Daphne said, sounding almost annoyed

  at the idea.

  “She was trying to kidnap me to get me away from your family

  before you found out who I really was,” Helen continued, ignoring

  Daphne. “She knew I wouldn’t trust her, and that she would literally

  have to tie me down to get me to listen to her. So that’s what

  she did. But this is my true mother, and this is her true face, Lucas.

  It’s our face.”

  “It’s not possible,” Lucas said, looking from Helen to Daphne and

  back again. “No Scion resembles another this closely.”

  “The bearers of the cestus always look like the first Scion to ever

  posses it,” Daphne said.

  “Helen of Troy,” Lucas said quietly.

  Helen nodded, then clarified while looking at her mother. “Aphrodite

  and Helen were half sisters, and they loved each other very

  much. When the siege of Troy began, Aphrodite gave Helen the

  cestus to protect her. Since then, it’s been passed from mother to

  daughter, along with the Face.”

  “The Face?” Lucas asked.

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  “That Launched a Thousand Ships,” Daphne said, repeating the

  title automatically. “It’s our curse.”

  “Helen of Troy was in the House of Atreus,” Lucas said as he

  slumped down into a straight-backed chair that decorated the

  entryway. “So Pallas was right. You are Daphne A
treus.”

  “I suppose Pallas had to be right about something eventually,”

  Daphne snapped before she stopped herself and softened her tone.

  “I know he’s your uncle, but we have a complicated history. Your

  father was different. He was very kind to me, or at least he tried to

  be. The Furies make kindness a very relative term.”

  “The Furies,” Lucas said as an idea struck him. “Why don’t I see

  the Furies when I’m around you?”

  “For the same reason your family doesn’t see them around Helen

  anymore. You two risked your lives to save each other, and that released

  you from your blood debt. A long time ago I went through

  something similar with another member of the House of Thebes.

  But I don’t have time to explain the whole story to you,” Daphne

  said not unkindly. “Helen and I have to get off this island, and we

  have to do it now.”

  “No,” Lucas said, looking at Helen. “Come back with me, both of

  you. My family . . .”

  “Your family wants me dead,” Daphne replied coldly. “And Creon

  is here to hunt Helen down. I have to get her off this island, and if

  you love her the way I know you do, you’ll help me do it.”

  “I can protect Helen from Creon,” Lucas said defiantly, still waiting

  for Helen to look at him, but she wouldn’t.

  “How? Are you ready to become a kin-killer? An Outcast?”

  Daphne asked harshly.

  Lucas snapped his head around to look at Daphne, responding to

  a phrase that he had been raised to abhor. For a moment he hated

  her, but only because she was right.

  “You can’t defend Helen against your own family—not to the

  death. I’m the only one who can protect her now,” Daphne

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  continued, her tone suggesting that she was genuinely sorry for

  him. “And the best way for me to do that is to get her away from

  Creon.”

  “I won’t let him near her. I don’t care what I have to become,”

  Lucas said, preoccupied with Helen and troubled by the way she

  seemed to be avoiding him. He took her hands.

  “Lucas. Let me go,” Helen said quietly, pulling her hands out of

  his. He went silent, sensing something very wrong was about to

  happen. Again. “If you love me, you’ll let me go. Do you love me?”

  Her voice was so thin and papery it crackled.

  “You know I do,” he replied, confused. “If you’re frightened, run

  away with me, like we planned. You know we’re meant to be together,

  I know you can feel that, just like I do.”

  “I want you to let me go,” she said simply as she finally met his

  eyes and held them.

  Instead of thinking about the way Lucas’s face fell under the

  weight of his surprise and sadness, Helen imagined her heart as a

  giant tub full of water. Everything she had ever felt in her life, all

  the good and all bad, were just ribbons of food coloring in that water,

  and the whole beautiful mess was swirling down the drain. The

  only thing she needed to do was wait a few more seconds and the

  basin would be empty.

  “You can hear the truth in what I say, can’t you?” she continued

  mercilessly. “I want you to let me go.”

  Lucas caught his breath and held it for a long moment as he registered

  that Helen wasn’t lying to him. Then he nodded and

  breathed again, his face impassive.

  “I believe that you want to get away from me right now, but I also

  know what is going to happen, regardless of what anyone wants,”

  he said.

  “The Oracle!” Daphne exclaimed to herself, understanding Lucas’s

  meaning. “She survived her first prophecy? Is she still sane?”

  she asked breathlessly.

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  He gave a curt nod in response to her insensitive questions.

  Daphne began to pace distractedly, as if a thousand thoughts had

  started elbowing around in her head. Suddenly, she stopped moving

  and stared at Lucas.

  “What did she say about us?” she asked.

  “That the beloved of Aphrodite were to find shelter in the House

  of Thebes,” Lucas replied, emotionless. “So you see, you will come

  back with me.”

  “Obviously,” Daphne said turning her palms up in acquiescence.

  “Helen, get your things.”

  Helen’s jaw dropped and she stared at her mother in disbelief.

  After everything Daphne had told her to get her away from the

  House of Thebes, this change didn’t make any sense.

  “But, we’ll miss the ferry. . . .” Helen stammered, still uncertain.

  “The Oracle has spoken,” Daphne said, shouldering her bag with

  a greedy look in her eyes. Helen had no idea what her mother was

  up to, but lacking any reason to object, she had no choice but to

  obey.

  Helen and Daphne assumed their disguises and the three of them

  went down to the lobby. Lucas asked them to wait a moment when

  they got to the front door. He pulled out his phone and called Hector,

  telling him to bring the car around to the entrance of the hotel.

  “Stay here,” he said, firmly. “Let me check the street before you

  go out there. Hector said that Creon was headed our way.”

  “That’s not necessary, Lucas. As long as you keep your distance

  from us, we’re well hidden,” Daphne said confidently as she

  stepped out onto the sidewalk, rolling her fancy leather suitcase

  behind her.

  As Helen watched her mother walk out the door, she happened to

  glance across the street. Creon was standing on the other side,

  staring up at the hotel windows with his reflection-defying vision.

  His eyes dropped down when he saw Daphne. Then he looked at

  her suitcase, squinting his eyes in concentration.

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  As soon as she saw Creon, Helen’s senses rewound to her last encounter

  with him. She could still feel his humid breath on her neck

  as he whispered preciosa in her ear right before he stabbed her.

  Most of all, she remembered the suffocating darkness that had left

  her feeling like she was lost in space and utterly helpless. The

  terror-echo she felt made her forget for a moment that both she

  and her mother were protected by their borrowed shapes.

  “Mom! Stop!” she screamed instinctively, reaching out to pull

  Daphne back into the hotel.

  Creon made eye contact with Helen as she shouted. Then he saw

  his cousin Lucas stride up and grab the strange girl frantically.

  Creon looked from the cute brunette to Lucas, noticing how they

  held each other so protectively. Then he looked back at the tacky

  woman with the expensive luggage and smiled. He ran across the

  street, his head lowered and his shoulders rounded like a bull.

  “Daphne! He knows!” Lucas shouted, throwing Helen behind

  him and moving impossibly fast to intercept Creon.

  The cousins collided in the middle of the street, both of them using

  their momentum to put power into their first punches. But Lucas

  could do something Creon wasn’t expecting. At the last moment

  he made gravity pull harder on him, and in his massive-state

  he pushed his stunned opponent back into the asphalt with so

  much force he fractured the surface of the stree
t.

  A split second later Lucas glanced up and saw Matt’s terrified

  face through the windshield of his car as he slammed on his

  brakes. Matt tried to stop, but it was too late. He hit the two figures

  that had appeared out of thin air in the middle of the street and his

  car crumpled in on itself as if it had run it onto a brick wall.

  “Lucas!” Helen screamed as she tried to run past her mother.

  Daphne grabbed Helen and restrained her just as Hector’s big

  SUV screeched to a halt in front of them, blocking Helen’s way to

  the accident. Ariadne jumped out of the passenger side before

  Hector had even come to a full stop and sprinted to the wreck.

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  “Get in the truck!” Hector bellowed at Daphne as he came around

  from the driver’s side and stomped to the smoking front end of

  Matt’s car.

  Helen struggled, unable to see what was going on. She was still

  calling Lucas’s name as Jason and Daphne bundled her into the

  back of the SUV.

  “Luke’s fine!” Jason said to her through gritted teeth as he

  wrestled with her. “Helen, please! We’re attracting enough attention

  as it is.”

  Reminded where she was, Helen forced herself to calm down and

  get into the backseat. She slid over to one of the tinted windows,

  and sighed with relief when she saw Lucas standing up in front of

  Matt’s destroyed car. He was uninjured and holding on to Hector

  to keep him from running off somewhere. Creon was gone, so

  Helen assumed that Hector was trying to follow him. For a moment,

  it looked like Lucas was going to hit Hector, but then he

  whispered something that seemed to convince his stubborn cousin,

  and all at once Hector calmed down and nodded.

  “He looks just like Ajax,” Daphne whispered behind her, her eyes

  glued to Hector.

  Helen glanced briefly at her mother, then turned her attention

  back to the wreck. Ariadne was helping Matt out of his car, holding

  him up. He was reeling and bleeding from the head, ash-white and

  owl-eyed with astonishment, but he didn’t seem to be badly hurt.

  “We should get you to a hospital,” Cassandra insisted as she studied

  Matt’s uneven pupils.

  “No,” Matt said vehemently. “There’s no way to explain this.

  Normal people don’t get up and walk away after you run them over

  with a car.”

  They all knew he was right. Even concussed, Matt was a quick

  thinker.