that Cassandra alternately lifted and let fall, as if she couldn’t entirely bring herself to raise it.
“Apollo made a deal with the Three Fates,” she said, half distracted by some darker thought. “He offered them something they couldn’t have without him. A baby girl. He swore on the River Styx to give them offspring, and in return they swore never to cut his string of life. From that day on, Apollo got his immortality, and every generation one girl who is descended from him belongs to the Fates. She’s their spiritual daughter, and occasionally she can see what her mothers have in store for the world.”
Cassandra was stalling, Helen realized. Whatever she was planning to do unsettled her, but even though she seemed uncertain, she continued to close in. As she did, light started to dance backward into her skin, and her eyes and teeth glowed with the vaguely purple hue of black light. Helen knew that she was older, larger, and stronger than Cassandra, but she also knew she was still the one in danger. Cassandra was not the only being inside that tiny body. She was being visited and maybe even partially controlled by the Three Fates.
Helen watched as Cassandra cut off her exit. Helen could always fly away, now that she knew how to get airborne, but she wasn’t sure if she could control her flight once she was aloft. She also didn’t know how to land without Lucas holding her hand. But right now she was more afraid of the Oracle with the sword than she was of falling out of the sky. Helen was about to take her chances with flight when Cassandra’s demeanor suddenly changed. She went from being the dark, fiery messenger of the Fates to being a very vulnerable teenager.
“I saw something, Helen,” she said desperately. “Then I saw it again, and again. I’ve been so ashamed and frightened that I haven’t told anyone else what I saw. And I am so sorry if I’m wrong—for all of our sakes. But I have to do this . . . because . . . this is what comes next.”
Her eyes were filling up with tears. She looked so tormented Helen would have done anything to make her feel better. She smiled understandingly at Cassandra, who tried to control her hitching breath as she nodded in return and wrapped both hands around the hilt of her sword. She swung it over her shoulder and paused, waiting for Helen to be ready.
Helen choked back the scream that was trying to climb out of her mouth.
If Cassandra, the Oracle of Delphi, had foreseen her death, was there any sense in fighting it? Did Helen really have a choice?
Cassandra swung her sword. In that millisecond Helen knew she’d had a good life, because she suddenly loved it so much that she could have wept with gratitude. She’d had amazing friends, the best dad in the world, and a strong, healthy body. She’d even experienced the joy of flight. And once, just once, in the middle of the night, she’d almost kissed the only boy she’d ever wanted. . . .
Helen felt a strange, vibrating tickle, like someone had pressed a gigantic kazoo against the side of her throat and blown on it. She saw Cassandra’s eyes widen as she pulled the blade back from the side of Helen’s neck and looked at it.
The sword was totally mangled in the middle section, all crunched up on itself like a squeezed piece of tinfoil. Cassandra stared at Helen in shock for a moment. Relieved tears spilled down her cheeks.
“I was right.” She dropped the sword and grabbed Helen in a hug. Then she started jumping up and down, making Helen jump with her. “You’re not dead! This is . . . You have no idea how happy I am I didn’t just kill you!” she squealed.
“Ditto,” Helen said in a daze. She was alive.
“Hang on. We still have to test this,” Cassandra said excitedly as she ran over to a chest of weapons in the corner of the fenced-off court. She threw open the lid and grabbed a bow and arrow. Grinning, she shot Helen.
Helen heard Ariadne scream something behind her, and someone running at demigod speed to overtake the arrow, but it was too late. The arrow struck her and bounced off her chest, making a faint twanging sound as it did so. Too late to change course, Jason plowed into her from behind and knocked her to