“I’m driving her home, not flying her there,” he said, suddenly grabbing his mom faster than she could move and kissing the top of her head with an exaggerated smooching sound. It couldn’t have been too comfortable, but it was funny enough to get Noel to laugh and admit that Lucas was strong enough to drive.
Helen tried to give everyone a heartfelt thank-you but Lucas made a snoring sound, grabbed her hand, and dragged her across the room, saying, “Yeah, yeah. You’ll be back tomorrow, anyway.”
“What?” Helen said in a flustered daze as Lucas pulled her through the kitchen door that led to a huge garage packed with fancy cars. He bundled her in a little, classic convertible Mercedes and started the car as he hit the door opener.
“You’ll be back here tomorrow afternoon,” he said, finally answering her question as he pulled out and headed off the compound toward Milestone Road.
“I can’t. I have track,” Helen reminded him.
“I have football. I’ll drive you back here after we’re both done. And I can pick you up for school in the morning if you’d like.”
“I thought you weren’t allowed to do sports anymore.”
“That’s mostly cleared up,” he said with a huge grin. “Look, all I’m going to say is I’ve seen the football team. And believe me, they need my cousins and me.”
“I should probably be offended by that, but I’ve seen the football team, too,” Helen said, mirroring his grin. “But regardless, I can’t come over after tomorrow. I have to work on Monday nights.”
“Tuesday then,” Lucas said.
“I can’t. I have to cook dinner for my dad,” she said in a rushed voice.
“He can come, too. My mom wants to meet him,” Lucas said with growing uncertainty. He glanced over at Helen. “Don’t you want to come?”
“It’s not that,” she said, feeling cornered and frustrated and not knowing why. “My dad won’t allow it, okay?” Helen looked out her window at the golf course and felt Lucas take her hand and shake it a little to get her to look at him.
“No one will tell your father about you if you don’t want them to,” he said, glancing from her to the road and back again.
“It’s not that. He doesn’t let me go out on school nights,” she said, looking back at him, but he was frowning deeply and staring at the road. As the minutes ticked by silently, Helen could feel Lucas’s mood getting worse and worse.
“Nope. This isn’t going to work,” he said suddenly, pulling the car over to the side of the road, yanking on the parking brake, and turning in his seat to face Helen. When he saw Helen’s startled face he took a shaky breath to control himself before he started. “I don’t know if my dad explained this to you, but the different Houses are the descendants of different gods,” he began.
“Yes, he said something like that,” Helen responded quietly. She felt like a kid in the principal’s office and she had no idea why. He tried to smile at her but gave up.
“My family’s House, the House of Thebes, are the descendants of Apollo. He’s primarily known as the god of Light, but he was also the god of Music, Healing, and of Truth. Falsefinders—Scions who can feel lies—are very rare, but I’m one of them. I always know a lie when I hear it, and if it comes from someone close to me I can’t stand it. So you can’t lie to me, Helen. Ever. If you don’t want to tell me the truth, please, for my sake, don’t say anything all,” he pleaded.
“Does it hurt?” Helen asked, her curiosity piqued.
“I’ve tried to explain to Jase how it feels, but I’ve never been able to get it right. It’s almost like that feeling you get when you’ve lost something really important and you can’t find it, but it’s much worse. The longer the lie hangs there, the more frantic I get to find the truth. I’ll dig and dig for it . . .”
“I just need a little bit of time to adjust,” Helen admitted in a rush. “I’m not ready to tell my dad about me, or about my mom, because I don’t know what it would do to him. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever tell him. But I know I need a minute to get used to all of this. A few days at least.”
Lucas’s face relaxed immediately and he let out a held breath.