Timeless, page 18
For a moment it looked like Lucas wouldn’t answer him, but then he changed his mind. “You never lie, do you?” he asked.
“Almost never,” Adonis admitted.
“That’s worse,” Lucas said. “Will you do me a favor?”
Adonis smirked. “Another one?”
“Stay away from Noel.”
While Adonis regarded Lucas with surprised amusement, Lucas opened a portal and brought them to Antigone’s bedroom.
He put Antigone in bed carefully and then stepped back. They could hear the water running in another room. Aunt Jordana was awake and getting ready for the day.
“You should go,” Antigone told them.
Helen reached down and squeezed her hand. “You can’t walk yet, and you can’t ask your mom for help, but you need to eat to heal. We’re staying for a bit,” she said. She pushed two beanbags together and sat down with Lucas.
When Jordana came down the hall and knocked on Antigone’s door, Lucas veiled himself and Helen and they waited silently while Antigone told her mom she was still tired and that she’d eat breakfast later.
“I’ll see you after work,” Antigone said, closing her eyes. “I’m sure you’re up to your ears in research. I’ll be fine.”
Jordana brightened at the mention of her research. “I can’t wait for you to see. There are so many magical pieces from the Argo site coming into the lab right now. Your cousin Tantalus, he’s just…” she stopped when she realized that Antigone wasn’t listening. “Anyway. I’ll let you rest.”
Jordana closed the door with a disappointed look, as though she would have liked to have told someone what she was doing with her day. She seemed lonely. Helen felt sorry for her.
They waited for Jordana to leave the house before Helen and Lucas went downstairs to make breakfast. Lucas started opening cabinet doors, looking for something.
“I’ll bring her some honey now, then go to the store to get more food,” Lucas said. He found the honey and turned to leave, but Helen stopped him with her hand on his chest. She could see anger, loss, frustration, and jealousy in Lucas’ heart.
“Is this about Adonis?” she asked.
“Do you realize how many times this week I’ve woken you up and found some other guy, or god, sleeping with you?”
“Three?” Helen guessed cheekily. She reached out for him, trying to get him to laugh with her. “Come on, Lucas, you know I would never—”
“I know,” he said, stopping her. “But it’s not a coincidence, either. Nothing in our lives is.”
“What do you mean?” she asked carefully.
Lucas shook his head and sighed, taking her in his arms and holding her. “I’ll always love you. No matter who you wake up with.”
“I love you. I don’t want to wake—” she began, but he stopped her with a kiss. When they broke apart, he slipped out of her arms and went upstairs with the honey.
They spent the day caring for Antigone, which meant they kept feeding her, ordering more take-out, and getting rid of the garbage in creative ways so that when Jordana came home, she wouldn’t know that her daughter had eaten her weight’s worth in food.
“We have to get the Omphalos tonight,” Lucas said to Helen as he handed her a bowl he’d just washed.
“Don’t we have all the time in the world?” she asked, drying the dish. “We get back to Cronus’ world as soon as we left. No matter how much time it takes us here it will has already been done. Or however Cronus said it when he mangled all those tenses.”
Lucas washed another dish, thinking. “I can’t stay any longer,” he finally said after a long pause.
Helen waited, but he did not offer any more explanation. She didn’t want to feel angry at him for keeping his secret, but the more they stumbled over the edges of it, the harder it was for her to keep her promise and wait patiently for him to be ready to reveal it.
“Okay. We’ll do it after the gallery closes,” Helen agreed tersely. Lucas handed her another plate. She took it but she didn’t look at him. They finished the dishes in silence.
By sundown, Antigone’s wound was mostly healed.
“I don’t see any limp,” Lucas said, watching her walk across the room. He looked at Helen.
Helen nodded and turned regretfully to Antigone. “We’ve got to go,” she said, shrugging. “I wish I could say we’ll see you again…”
“You will,” Antigone told her with certainty.
Helen smiled and hugged her. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Lucas took a turn hugging her. “I plan on seeing Ladon before we go. I’ll tell him that you’ve recovered.”
“Thank you,” Antigone said uncertainly. “Are you telling me this so I don’t have an excuse to see him?”
“We both know you will anyway.” He said with a smile.
Lucas then took Helen’s hand and portaled them to the street outside the Delos gallery.
Helen stared at him while they stepped to the edge of the sidewalk and allowed the heavy early-evening foot traffic to flow by. “Do you know how she dies?” she asked.
“It’s unclear if the cause was drowning or some kind of poison she apparently took,” Lucas said. “But she will be found in the Hudson, not far from the Village.”
“That doesn’t mean Ladon does it,” Helen countered quietly. “Or that she does it to herself because of him.”
“I know,” Lucas said. “Maybe they never see each other again. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway, because that would be a terrible thing for him to have to carry with him for the rest of his life.”
Helen doubted that yesterday would be the last time Ladon and Antigone ever saw each other, which meant that Ladon was probably involved somehow with her death.
They stayed veiled, holding hands and watching the Delos gallery. They’d timed it well; it wasn’t long before they heard the beeping of an alarm being set inside the building. Pallas came through the front doors and locked them carefully behind him. He looked up at the front camera, checked that the red recording light was on, and then walked right past them.
Lucas looked at Helen. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said, and he portaled them into the warehouse at the back of the Delos gallery.
Right at their feet was a round rock about waist height. It was a dull yellowish color, and its surface was worn smooth by the touch of many hands. Helen and Lucas picked it up, and then he portaled them into the tunnel at the back of Ladon’s cove. The actual theft had taken them a fraction of a second, which they both found anticlimactic.
“Kind of boring, isn’t it?” Helen asked as she regarded the stone.
“It’s rather ugly, actually,” Lucas replied.
“One man’s trash…” Helen said.
Lucas unveiled them, and they went down the tunnel to greet Ladon in his cove. He rushed forward as soon as he detected them, his face blanched with worry.
“She’s fine,” Lucas said immediately.
Ladon let out a held breath, but he did not relax fully. “Is she safe, though? What of the House of Rome? Adonis would not hurt her, but Leda can be ruthless,” he fretted. His back talons scraped the rock beneath him, sending up sparks.
“Adonis seems to be protecting Antigone from his sister. For now, anyway,” Helen said, trying to ease his anxiety.
“And Antigone’s family? Do they know about me?”
Lucas shook his head. “As long as you stay away from her you should be fine.”
“Right. Yes,” Ladon said, distracted. His tail thrashed about. “I will certainly stay away from her.”
Lucas didn’t contradict him. “Do you mind if we leave something here for just a few minutes?” he asked.
“What is it?” Ladon asked, looking at the Omphalos.
“Just a rock.” Lucas replied as he set it down, like it was obvious, even though it was far from an ordinary rock.
Helen shot Lucas a look. “Aren’t we going back now?”
“I want to say goodbye to someone first,” Lucas admitted.
“Lucas—” Helen began.
He turned to Ladon. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” Ladon said.
He was still distracted. Helen saw a chaotic swirl of worry in Ladon’s chest. He was even more over-protective than Lucas, which she hardly thought possible. Ladon’s feelings for Antigone might be platonic, but his possessiveness would never allow him to stay away from her. She looked around at all the curios carefully placed inside niches carved into the granite walls. He was a dragon, predisposed to hoarding things, and it appeared he now included Antigone among his treasures.
They left the Omphalos with Ladon and went to the Delos brownstone on Washington Square Park.
“I’ll just be a minute,” Lucas told Helen as they stood outside, looking up at the light in Ajax’s bedroom. She realized that she was being disinvited.
“Sure,” she said, letting go of his hand.
“I’m not going to tell him anything,” Lucas said, facing her and trying to take her in his arms.
“I know,” she replied, wriggling out of his hold. “Just go.”
“Helen,” he pleaded. “I need to ask him something. It’s—” he broke off and swallowed. “It’s going to be over soon. No more secrets,” he promised.
Shadows started winding out of him like black lace. It used to be rare to see him lose his grasp on his Shadowmaster talent, but it was happening more often lately.
He was starting to come apart in front of her, she realized, and he wouldn’t even let her help him.
“I’ll wait here,” she said gently, letting it go.
She stepped back outside of the veil and allowed Lucas to fly up to Ajax window. She saw him unveil himself, tap on the glass, and be quickly let inside by Ajax.
A few moments later a young woman strode up the Delos’ front door and knocked. Helen knew instantly that it was Daphne wearing a different face. She could see the projection of that other person on top and, like a palimpsest, see right through it to what was written beneath. She touched her own cheek reflexively, reminding herself that she was still wearing the other face she had adopted since she had come to 1993, and that the only person who could see through it was Lucas. Because he loved her.
Helen realized that meant she loved Daphne. She loved her mother, and she was dead. She was used to feeling ambivalent about that. Sometimes she even felt angry, like her mom had died as selfishly as she’d lived by taking on Tantalus as she had, but now all Helen felt was sadness.
She stayed in the shadows Lucas had left behind while Noel answered the door, and she watched a younger version of her mother and a younger version of Lucas’ mother talk to each other. They seemed to get along, even like each other, though Noel had no idea who Daphne really was.
Daphne turned away from the door, disappointed, and started wandering aimlessly away from the steps. Helen knew this would be the last chance she’d ever have to talk to her mother. She went up to her without even thinking about it.
She had no idea what to say, or what to ask, so she just blurted out the first few questions that came to her mind. She asked Daphne about music and books and hobbies, questions that someone would ask a new schoolmate that they’d been randomly paired up with for a dreaded school project.
Her mother liked sad and angry music, which made sense to Helen. She’d have been surprised if her mom had listened to pop. Her mother did not have hobbies. She didn’t read, or watch TV, or go the movies. Daphne had one friend, and she had Ajax. The rest of the world either envied her or coveted her.
Daphne was the loneliest person Helen had ever met and when Lucas appeared next to them and said it was time for them to go, Helen was relieved. The more time she spent talking to her mother, the more she wanted to help her, or at least warn her about what was to come. She got to say goodbye, at least, though it didn’t really feel like a proper one. Then Noel appeared at the Delos’ front door and waved Daphne over to her.
As Daphne walked away, Lucas veiled himself and Helen. “Are you okay?” he asked, watching Helen see her mother go inside.
“Not really,” Helen admitted, wiping away a few stray tears. She looked at Lucas as his mother locked the Delos’ front door behind her and descended the steps carrying her huge duffel bag over her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head absently as Noel passed them. “It’s just so strange. They’re all hiding something.”
“Yeah,” Helen agreed, thinking that their parents’ generation wasn’t much different from theirs.
Lucas opened a portal to Ladon’s cove. They looked around and called out for him, but he wasn’t there. Lucas laughed ruefully, shaking his head.
“You don’t think he went to go see Antigone, do you?” Helen asked.
“I know he did,” Lucas replied. “If I’d seen you bleeding like she was, there’s no way I could take someone else’s word for it that you were okay. I’d have to see you.”
He bent down and reached around the Omphalos.
“Goodbye, 1993,” Helen said, crouching down to help Lucas.
“Why do I get the feeling we’re never really going to say goodbye to ’93?” Lucas commented as they stood, hefting the Omphalos.
“You sound like a lyric in a Cure song,” Helen said. Lucas looked at her quizzically “I just found out my mom liked The Cure,” she explained.
“That makes sense,” he said. “My uncle was listening to The Beastie Boys.”
“A goth girl and a hip-hop boy? And we think Ladon and Antigone have problems,” Helen joked.
Lucas smiled with her. But there was a hint of sadness hidden behind his smile. Helen wanted to ask what was wrong, but before she got a chance to do so he portaled them to Cronus’ grove.
Cronus sat on the ground beneath his ancient olive tree. His swirling galaxy eyes were open. He’d been expecting them.
“You will have been changed, but all is as it always was,” Cronus said beatifically.
“Does that mean we didn’t mess anything up?” Helen asked. She and Lucas lowered the Omphalos onto the ground in front of the Titan.
“All is as it always was,” Cronus repeated, then turned his eyes on Lucas. “But there is… a mess.”
Lucas nodded and looked down at his hands as he brushed them together. “Do I have time to say goodbye to her?” he asked.
Helen turned to him. “What do you mean, say goodbye?”
“Time is. Take it or leave it. That is always up to you,” Cronus replied.
“Helen and I will return to complete the final task after I fulfill my obligations to Hades.”
“Wait, what obligations?” Helen demanded.
Cronus sighed. “You are not the right boy. You will have not completed the final task with her.”
“I’m going with her wherever she goes,” Lucas insisted.
“You do not. Now you will have parted,” Cronus informed him. He smiled sadly and closed his galaxy eyes. “Your master awaits.”
Lucas faced Helen and took both of her hands in his.
Chapter 10
They were standing in a field at night. The dark grass was speckled with little white flowers. Helen knew where they were—the Fields of Asphodel in Hades. For the first time she realized that she had recreated this very field in her Everyland, except in daylight; and that the star-like flowers that speckled her sun-drenched land were asphodels.
She looked around, dread suddenly dragging down on her. There were only three ways into Hades, and Lucas had used none of them. He didn’t have to, Helen realized, because Hades was his.
Faced with the unavoidable, Helen had no choice but to start putting the pieces of the Lucas Puzzle together.
“Only a Worldbuilder can make portals,” she said, looking right into his eyes.
“Or someone who had sworn on the River Styx to replace one of the Worldbuilders,” Lucas replied in a dull voice. “I wouldn’t make a very useful Hand of Darkness if I wasn’t given all of Hades’ powers.”
Helen nodded. This explained how he navigated the Underworld so well. How he knew where Cronus and Hecate were, and even Ladon. Anything that brushed against the Underworld was a part of Lucas’ world now.
“Your vow to replace Hades, when you traded yourself for Hector,” she whispered. Her breath seemed to shrink in her lungs. “When did this start?”
“My eighteenth birthday. When I reached the age of manhood—for Scions, anyway—the dead judged me again and decided that my compassion for others had grown. And I was found worthy.” Lucas breathed a laugh. “Hades tried to help. He argued on my behalf, so that I could get to ease into it slowly, and so the dead are letting me live the daylight hours with you. For now.”
Helen’s eyes were hot and the image of him blurred with fast-rising tears. “For now? How long do we have?”
“Until you go off to college,” he said, keeping her gaze as Helen’s tears spilled over and she sobbed aloud. He didn’t look away.
“And then?”
“And then that’s it.” He swallowed hard. “I won’t be able to leave again.”
“Why?” Helen bargained. “Time doesn’t matter here. We could go back and forth.”
Lucas shook his head. “Hades isn’t like Olympus or Everyland. The place is him. That’s why they have the same name. When I replace him, I become this.” He gestured to the Fields of Asphodel. “There’s no leaving myself. Have you ever seen Hades anywhere but Hades?”
Helen shook her head. “There has to be a way out if it.”
“I swore on the River Styx to replace Hades,” Lucas said, his voice shaking. But he still didn’t look away. “There is nothing anyone can do to get me out of it. It’s done, Helen.”
She dropped her head. “I thought we’d have years—centuries—to figure it out,” she sobbed.
“I did too,” he said, his eyes remote, though they never left Helen. “I didn’t want to tell you because I kept hoping I would find another way. But there’s nothing…”
He trailed off, still holding Helen’s hands in his as he watched her weep. Helen realized he was punishing himself this way. He was making himself watch her suffer and not allowing himself to help her because that was his worst nightmare. And soon it would be what forever would feel like for them both. She stepped into his arms and took the comfort he wouldn’t offer either of them.
