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.The sparks fell from herfingertips, bounced, and brokeapart like glitter ballsshattering silently as theyskipped across the floor.Shewas aware that her voice hadboomed a little bit when shespoke, but she couldn t seemto contain herself.All shecould think about was Hergiedying in a fire to save hisbeloved books.And it was allthe gods fault. Um.Len? Claireinterjected in a tiny voice.Helen noticed all three girlsstaring at her with openmouths, and snapped out of it.She shook the last of thesparks off her hands with asheepish look on her face,cleared her throat, and tried tospeak again. Look, I m going to behonest.We can t promiseyou ll be completely safe,she said. But we can promisethat if Apollo comes for you,he s going to have to fight allof us to take you.Now.Isn tthat better than lying here,waiting for him to bust in andcarry you off like somehelpless damsel in a Greekmyth? Uh.Yeah, Andy said, hereyes wide.Helen realized she wasscaring the girl and forced alaugh.Glancing over atClaire, Helen caught a hint offear in her best friend sexpression before she lookedaway.Once they managed to getAndy out of the hospital andthrough the parking garage,she was so wiped out that shefell asleep during the drive toHyannis.Helen drove.Ariadne had worn herself outhealing Andy s broken legbefore they had left thehospital, and then had done alittle more healing during thedrive while they cruised downRoute 495.Her effort left heras pale and sickly looking asAndy by the time theyboarded the ferry.Helen couldn t help butthink it was a good thing thatneither Andy nor Ariadne hadthe strength to get out of thecar.Even though it wasnighttime and the darknesswould have offered somecover, Andy s injuries werestill far too obvious for her tobe roaming around.Helen andClaire left the two of themsacked out in the backseat andwent to scrounge up somefood for them all. He really worked her over,didn t he? Claire said in acrackly voice as they madetheir way to the concessionstand.Helen could only nod,her lips pinched together.Shelooked at Claire s worriedface and wished she could saysomething to comfort her, butcame up with nothing.She could feel Clairestealing little glances at herwhile they put coins in thevending machine, searchingHelen s face for some kind ofexplanation.But Helen didn thave the words to explainwhat was going on. What? Helen askeddefensively when she couldn ttake Claire s stares anymore. Nothing, Claire said,pursing her lips.A tensemoment passed betweenthem, and Helen s frustrationgrew. Just say it, Claire. You re different. Clairegathered their makeshift mealout of the bottom of themachine and turned, butHelen reached out andstopped her. I m different because Ihave to be, Helen said, hervoice harsh. The way I usedto be wasn t enough.Not forthis. And how much more areyou going to change? As much as I have to inorder to win. Does that includemanipulating cops? Clairesaid hotly. What did you doto him, anyway?Helen felt guilty about thepolice officer, even thoughshe didn t fully understandwhat she d done.There wassomething wrong about beingable to take away someone swill like that.Helen knew asmuch, but she wasn t about toadmit that to Claire. I did what I had to do.Ordo you think I should havekilled him to get in theroom?Claire opened her mouth tosay something but quicklyshut it again, edging awayfrom her as they walked backto the car.Helen realized thatClaire was genuinely afraid ofher, not just afraid of a fewsparks and a booming voice.Helen knew she should havesaid something to make herfeel better.But she didn t.Abig part of Helen was angrywith Claire for not being moreunderstanding.Even though itdidn t make any sense, Helenresented her best friend forfearing her. I don t know if you venoticed this or not, but thisisn t just about our friends andfamily anymore, Helen saidbitterly. And I don t need toexplain my actions to you.Orask your permission to use mypowers. You re right, Clairereplied. You don t have toexplain anything to me.Justmake sure you can explainyour actions to yourconscience.They didn t talk much afterthat.Helen and Claire wokeAriadne up and made her eat agranola bar from the vendingmachine and drink a bottle ofwater before Helen drovethem all back home.Shedropped Claire at her parentshouse with a few mumbledplans about meeting up firstthing tomorrow, and thenwent on to the Delos place.It was late when they pulledin, and Helen was soexhausted that she barely hadthe energy to carry the othertwo girls up to Ariadne s bedbefore she collapsed on thecouch.Helen sat opposite herselfinside a covered, horse-drawncarriage.It was dark in theenclosed compartment.Theonly light came from betweenthe slats of a tiny, shutteredwindow.Helen wondered howshe would get in and out ofthe carriage, because shecouldn t see a door.Sheguessed that the windowmight be large enough to lether squeeze through.ifthere weren t bars over it.The other Helen who satacross from her was not theSpartan one from before.Thisone was wearing a gown madeout of some kind of rough,homespun material.Therewere blue-dyed strings woveninto her long, blonde hair andshe sat on a pile of tannedskins and furs [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]