She nodded slowly and saw his face relax a little. His eyes were so intense she had to glance around for something else to talk about.
“Your shirt,” Helen said, pointing to the bloody print of her face on his chest. “Which reminds me. I’ve ruined these workout clothes Ariadne gave me. Should I change into another set, or are we done?”
“We’re done. You can put your street clothes back on after you wash up,” he said briskly as if to banish the heavy mood he had fallen into. He took her face in his hands one last time and examined her former cuts. After a few moments he released her. “You certainly do heal fast. But you’ll still have some impressive bruises, so if I were you I’d avoid your father for the rest of the night.”
“I’ll just tell him you abuse me,” Helen said with a shrug. She jumped off the examining table.
“And I’ll tell him you like it,” he teased back, his voice rich and slow. Helen looked up at him, feeling drowsy again. For a moment he was just a breath away from her, but then he backed away.
As he walked out of the locker room he stripped off his bloody shirt and threw it in the garbage. Helen’s vision stabilized again, and she watched his bare back moving away from her. The last cobwebs clearing from her eyes, she decided that if Lucas was gay then she was going to have to get a sex change operation. He would be so worth it.
While she cleaned up she got a chance to examine her mouth. Her left front tooth was still in the process of growing back in, and Helen had to laugh at how ridiculous she looked. How Lucas had managed to keep a straight face while he looked at her when she was as gap-toothed as a six-year-old was beyond comprehension. Then she realized he must have seen it so many times that he barely noticed it. Helen thought about what Ariadne had said—that they had grown up “at each other’s throats.” As if summoned by Helen’s thoughts, Ariadne poked her head into the locker room to check in.
“Do you need a hand healing?” she asked timidly.
“No, but come on in,” Helen replied. Maybe she would get a chance to ask if Lucas still had a girlfriend somewhere. “How’s Cassandra?”
“Overly sensitive, but she’ll be okay. You’re the one that got a Hector beat-down, and since I know what that feels like I’m going to ask you honestly—is anything still broken?” Ariadne glided into the locker room.
“Nothing broken. Well, not anymore,” Helen replied. Everything about Ariadne was so feminine and round and lovely that Helen simply couldn’t imagine anyone hitting her. “Do you guys do this to each other often? The fighting, I mean.” Ariadne was shaking her head before Helen had even finished talking.
“No. We spar together to stay in shape, but only the boys really fight, and only when they need to get something off their chests. Lucas and Hector do most of the fighting, obviously.”
“They don’t get along, do they?”
“Yes and no,” Ariadne began carefully. “Hector is really proud in general, but he’s especially proud of our ancestry and our family. He doesn’t like that we’ve fractured the House of Thebes. Don’t get me wrong—he doesn’t believe all that crap that the Hundred Cousins do, but he hates to see our House divided. And Lucas feels like it’s his responsibility to keep Hector in line because, well, he’s the only one who can.”
“It must be really difficult being separated from the rest of your family,” Helen sympathized.
“We don’t have a choice,” Ariadne said with a tight smile.
“Is it because of the cult?” Helen asked delicately. “Lucas never got a chance to explain . . .”
“Tantalus and the Hundred Cousins believe that if only one House exists, then they can raise Atlantis,” Ariadne said. “That’s why our family has always lived right on the water. Boston, Nantucket, Cádiz . . . They’re all near the Atlantic Ocean. Scions are drawn to it.”
“That’s insane!” Helen blurted out before she realized that Ariadne was serious. “I mean, Atlantis is a myth, right?” The thought of a city existing somewhere, deep under the dark, smothering waves made Helen shudder involuntarily. She took a sip of her juice box to cover her violent reaction and waited for Ariadne to continue.
“Is Mount Olympus a myth? Or heaven? It all depends on what you believe, and most