the ground. They rolled over together until he was propped up on his elbows above her, staring at her chest with disbelief.
“I saw that arrow strike you,” he said vehemently as if he were swearing in front of a grand jury.
“It did,” said Cassandra from the other end of the tennis court, beaming with pleasure.
“I think Cassie’s finally lost it,” Hector whispered sadly, but without surprise, to Ariadne.
“No, I haven’t lost it, Hector. I saw it,” Cassandra said, still smiling from ear to ear. “Helen can’t be hurt by any weapon. Try it yourself.” She pulled a sword out of the box, offering it to him.
“Cass, just put the sword down,” Ariadne said with a hand raised in an appeasing gesture. “We can talk about this.”
“I’m not crazy!” Cassandra screamed, suddenly livid.
“She isn’t crazy,” Helen said with conviction. She untangled herself from Jason and stood. “Go ahead, Cass. Shoot me.”
Cassandra locked another arrow in her bow and shot Helen—in the head this time. Ariadne screamed again, but the scream trailed off lamely when they all saw the arrow bounce right off. Everyone was silent for a moment.
“No frigging way!” Hector shouted, a touch of envy making him sound almost angry.
“Did that hurt?” Jason asked as he turned to Helen, a look of disbelief on his face.
“Maybe a tiny bit,” Helen said, but Jason was too excited to really listen. He ran over to the box, pulled out a javelin, and chucked it at Helen. It bounced right off.
“Okay, that stung,” Helen said, smiling and raising her hands to signal in a friendly way that she’d had enough, but Hector had already picked up a sword and was stalking toward her.
“I’ll stop as soon as you start bleeding, okay?” he said casually before he started hacking away at her. Four strokes in, and the blade was ruined.
Helen stumbled back with raised arms and fell down. She wasn’t wounded, but the instinct to protect herself was still there, and Hector was absolutely terrifying when he attacked. The rain of blows ended abruptly when the sword fell apart. She tried to stand back up, but as soon as she did she was thrown down again as something fell from the sky and landed violently on top of Hector. Lucas had rammed into Hector from above, driving his cousin two feet into the dirt before he reared back on his knees to hit him.
“Lucas, stop!” Helen screamed in concert with Cassandra and Ariadne.
Jason didn’t yell, but as usual, he dove on top of the other two to put himself between them. In his rage, Lucas hit Jason accidentally, and that misguided blow made him stop and look at his cousins more clearly. Hector lay at the bottom of the pile, covered in layers of dirt, his hands held up in a surrendering gesture. Jason lay across his brother’s body, bleeding from the mouth and pushing on Lucas’s shoulders to keep him back. Lucas blinked and looked up at Helen.
“He was trying to kill you.” Lucas lowered his raised fist. He forced his eyes to focus on Hector and his voice frayed at the edges, like he was a young boy. “I saw it. You had a sword.”
“I’m okay. Look at me, Lucas. No blood. I’m fine,” Helen said gently as she moved to the side of the trench. She put her hands on his shoulders and tried to coax him off his frightened, panting cousins. Lucas allowed himself to be led up out of the trench, docile with regret and confusion.
Cassandra briefly explained Helen’s imperviousness to her brother as Helen, Ariadne, and Jason pulled Hector up out of the collapsing ditch. He was injured—not too seriously, but badly enough that he couldn’t walk on his own. Ariadne and Jason took Hector into the house, having to hold him up as he walked. Lucas watched his cousin half limp, half drag himself across the yard. He had to sit down in the sand at the sight.
Three fast-moving shapes came rushing out of the house to see what was wrong. Pallas helped his children the rest of the way into the house while Castor and Pandora briefly conferred with Ariadne and then moved toward the tennis court.
“Why didn’t you warn me, Cassie?” Lucas pleaded quietly while Castor shouted questions as he and Pandora entered the tennis court. Cassandra shrugged, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
“She was afraid,” Helen answered defensively, cutting off Castor’s questions. She took Cassandra’s hand and pulled her close, a little angry that they would try