the one in charge.
Helen’s eyes widened in shock that any fourteen-year-old would speak like that to her elders, let alone be obeyed, but the boards were quickly lowered down without a word of comment. Jason and Ariadne eased Helen and Lucas onto the long planks and told them to hold still. The twins ran their glowing hands an inch above Lucas’s body, and Helen saw him grit his teeth as they sped up his healing. Just when she thought Lucas was about to start screaming, the twins stopped, looked at each other in silent communication, and then nodded exhaustedly. They had both lost so much color their cheeks looked gray to Helen, but they also seemed strangely happy, like nothing gave either of them more pleasure than helping someone else. Helen tried to thank them, but Ariadne told her to save her strength.
Helen and Lucas were kept level as they were raised out of the crater and loaded side by side in the back of the same giant SUV that Helen had had so many uncharitable thoughts about. Now that it was her ambulance, she made a silent promise to never rag on big trucks again.
Castor was behind the wheel and anxious to get moving. The longer they stayed on the beach, the higher the sun got, and the more opportunity there was for them to be discovered. Cassandra came with them, but Jason, Ariadne, and Hector stayed behind to fill in the crater and leave the beach looking as normal as possible.
“Can’t we just put a lump of rock in the middle and pretend it was an asteroid?” Helen heard Hector ask, exhausted.
“Do you think that would work?” Jason put in, perking up at the prospect of seeing his bed an hour or so sooner.
“No,” Cassandra said decisively. “This part of the island is a nature preserve. There are scientists all over the place. They would know the rock didn’t come from space.”
Jason and Hector gave identical groans and immediately went back to work. Again, Cassandra’s opinion went unquestioned. Helen had always tacitly assumed that Lucas was the leader of the kids and that his father, Castor, was the leader of the whole family, but now she thought maybe there was another, less traditional dynamic at work in the Delos family. When Cassandra spoke, everyone listened—including Castor. And apparently, Cassandra didn’t need the influence of the Furies to dislike Helen. Which reminded her . . .
“I don’t see the Furies!” Helen suddenly exclaimed out loud.
“None of us do,” replied Castor in a pensive voice. Helen heard a leathery squeak as he twisted around in his seat to look back at them. “We’ll figure it out later. You two need your rest for now.”
She couldn’t argue with that; in fact, she could barely keep her eyes open. As soon as she heard the soporific purr of the engine she nodded off exactly like a fussy baby on a car trip.
She woke up in a big, white bed as the sun was going down. The room’s window framed the sky, which was doing things with color that all the island painters had to be going bananas over.
She wiggled her toes. When that worked out okay she propped herself up on her arms and got into a sitting position. Swinging her legs out of bed, she realized that she was in someone else’s nightgown and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it. She knew she was recovering from a near-death experience, but she was still bashful enough to blush. The nightgown was actually more what Helen would call a nightie, as gowns were generally much longer and more opaque. Testing her feet on the floor was enough to wipe her modesty away, however, and her startled cry was quickly answered with a welcome helping hand.
“Easy. Here, hold on to me,” said Ariadne. “Wow, I can’t believe how fast you’re healing. But still, you should lie down for a bit longer.”
She tried to get her to lie back, but Helen stayed perched on the edge of the bed and took a few breaths.
“I kinda can’t,” she replied, looking up at Ariadne sheepishly.
“Bathroom, huh? Okay,” she tittered nervously. “I’ll carry you. Just don’t pee on me.”
Helen laughed gratefully. Ariadne was making an embarrassing situation as humorous as possible so Helen would feel more comfortable. It was something Claire would have done. Helen was still embarrassed, but with a few jokes and a little bit of tact, they both made it through.
“Is it all right if