she had calmed down a bit she hauled herself up off her butt. She pulled her feet out of the mud and started to walk back toward the school, feeling like a jackass. She was covered in smelly muck up to her waist, and in her head she pictured how she must have looked as she came down from her leap, her arms pinwheeling frantically like a cartoon character falling off a cliff.
She glanced around to make sure no one had spotted her in her moment of foolishness, just out of habit, but she wasn’t expecting anyone to be near. Her heart turned over when she saw a dark smudge turn into a man’s shape. Then he suddenly stopped and changed direction just over the next rise. He had seen her get up and walk away laughing after falling from fifty feet high. Worse than that, Helen could see there was something wrong with the way he moved. He was going much too fast to be human.
Her entire body tensed instinctively. Without even thinking about it she took off after the dark shape. Whoever he was, he was headed back toward the high school—back toward Claire, who was probably huffing and puffing along, slow and small and human. The image of Kate lying unconscious on the ground flashed through her head and spurred Helen to run faster. She skipped over massive swaths of landscape, bounding recklessly over hillocks and cranberry bogs, unable to think of anything but catching him.
She noticed that she was having a hard time finding him in the strange shadowy light, but as she got closer, the darkness that seemed to swath itself around him abated a little and she was able to pinpoint his location. It looked like he was sucking light out of the air. There was something creepy about the way the dark shadows radiated out from him like a sinister halo—he was definitely controlling the light. That meant he was another descendant of Apollo—one of the Hundred Cousins from the House of Thebes, and therefore a threat.
From what she could see, the shadowy man was a few years older than she was, but still barely out of his teens. When she was only a few paces behind him she could see that he had fair hair and skin. With a fresh burst of speed she reached out, trying to grab on to him, and ripped off his shirt. Finally, he allowed the last of the darkness clinging to him to be swept away by the sun glowing on his huge, bare shoulders. Up close, he looked so similar to Hector in both coloring and build that they could have been twins, except for their faces. There was a hollow look to this man, a cragginess that made him seem sickly.
A horrendous cramp crumpled up her torso like origami, and Helen tumbled to the ground with a scream. She curled up on the ground in the fetal position, unable to move or even take a breath. Through the long blades of grass that partially obscured her vision she could see the blond, shirtless Cousin trot back toward her with an inquisitive look on his face.
“Interesting,” he said with a cocky smile. Something behind Helen caught his eye and he started to back away. “I’ll see you sooner rather than later, preciosa,” he promised as he ran off, a dark, ominous mist collecting to obscure his outline.
Helen tried to shout something tough and ballsy after him, but all that came out was a pathetic moan. He was gone in a second, and she was left to lie there alone until she was noticed or until she was well enough to walk away. Finally, she heard someone approach.
“Helen?” a familiar voice said as it neared. “Oh, no. It is you.”
“Matt,” Helen grunted. “Get Lucas.”
He came around into Helen’s field of vision and got down on his knees in front of her. “Don’t you think the nurse would be a better idea? Or maybe a paramedic?”
“Please. Lucas. Quick.”
He sighed once, rubbed Helen’s back in an awkwardly reassuring way, and then got up and ran off. Once she got her breathing under control, Helen could see enough around her to take in the fact that she was practically in the school parking lot—much closer to the school than she had realized. Still curled up in a ball on the ground, Helen banged her forehead against her knees. She couldn’t believe she had been that stupid. Her ear pressed