Timeless, p.1
Timeless, page 1
Copyright © 2022 by Josephine Angelini
ISBN: 979-8-9855810-4-1
Published by Sungrazer Publishing
Cover design by Jenny Zemanek
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from Sungrazer Publishing.
For my daughter
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
End
Outcasts
Also by Josephine Angelini
Chapter 1
Helen sat in the guidance counselor’s office, trying hard not to gently electrocute her teacher into unconsciousness.
Mr. Summerton was a nice person, and she really didn’t want to use her goddess powers on him. She was squeamish in general about using them on full mortals, especially not on the good ones.
Mr. Summerton was a vest-wearing man, and Helen respected any teacher who braved the derision of teenagers to stay true to their own fashion sense. He also had a bald spot on his head that got sweaty when he felt passionately about something. Usually, the gleam on his pate only kicked in when he was giving one of his hell-fire lectures about Jim Crow or the New Deal, or Women’s Suffrage. He was a history teacher who absolutely loved being a history teacher. Currently, he also had to be the guidance counselor, not because he knew anything about it, but because Nantucket High was short on staff since a “freak storm” had tragically killed so many people. Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, had altered all eyewitness accounts of the Olympians’ descent upon the small island of Nantucket, but she could not erase the lives that had been taken.
But if guidance counseling wasn’t Mr. Summerton’s initial profession, Helen certainly couldn’t tell, because he sure was swinging for the fences. Mr. Summerton was trying so hard to get her to settle on a list of colleges to apply to that his whole head was beaded with sweat. At this point Helen felt like she should be the counselor. This guy needed some serious handholding.
“Helen, your grades may not be straight A’s, but your teachers rave about you, you’ve never gotten below a B, and your test scores are really, really good. Surprisingly good,” he said, glancing down at her file to make sure. When he saw the high scores he’d mentioned, he huffed and started sweating a little more. “There’s so much in your file that makes me think you’ve just been flying under the radar here.”
“I had a good day in testing, but I’m not the best student. Homework isn’t my strongest suit,” she admitted.
“What about your plan for a track scholarship?” he asked.
Helen tried not to groan at his earnest face and sat on her hands. Why the heck did everyone want her to go to college anyway? Her family couldn’t afford it. Lucas’ family had offered to pay. In fact, his mother Noel had given her this whole long lecture about how much of her own education she’d missed out on because she was bartending and trying to put herself through cooking school, but Helen wasn’t comfortable with the Delos family paying for college. It was just way too much money to her, even though it was practically nothing to them.
“I had to work, like, a lot after my dad got sick a few months back and I couldn’t make it to track meets,” Helen said.
And at that time, when her father was being poisoned by her mother to keep him sedated and she’d missed pretty much every school function, Helen had more on her plate than just tending the News Store or going to track meets. She was saving the world from a catastrophic supernatural war. But she was pretty sure she couldn’t put that on an absentee slip.
“I lost my standing,” she continued, shrugging. “I’m not eligible for a track scholarship anymore.”
Mr. Summerton slumped back in his chair, despondent. “I just don’t know how to help you,” he said. Helen felt terrible. There’s nothing more guilt-inducing than letting down a supportive, caring, all-around good teacher. “You’ve obviously got so much to offer, Miss Hamilton. I just hate to think that in this country having a sick parent can be so devastating to a potentially bright future like yours.”
Oh no, here he goes. He’s going to talk about the New Deal, Helen thought.
“You know, when Roosevelt was in office…”
Forty-five minutes later, Helen emerged from Mr. Summerton’s office with a glassy look in her eyes. Lucas was waiting for her, leaning against the far wall, one knee drawn up, looking absolutely devastating.
Seeing Helen, Lucas pushed himself off the wall and came to her. “What happened?” he asked, not sure if he should be worried or not, considering her expression.
“He New Dealed me,” Helen replied, eyes still unable to focus due to the boredom she’d been made to endure.
“On a Friday?” Lucas sucked air through his teeth. “Ouch.”
He threw an arm over her shoulders as they started down the hallway.
“Did you get New Dealed when you had your meeting with him?” Helen asked.
“No.” Lucas replied.
“Did you tell him where you were applying to?”
She tried to sound nonchalant. Lucas hadn’t told anyone where he wanted to go to college, and she was hoping he would take the opportunity to tell her now.
“No,” Lucas replied. “But it’s not the same for me. I’ve only been on Nantucket for a year. These teachers have known you your whole life. They just want what’s best for you.”
“Maybe what’s best for me is to stay on the island and take care of my dad,” Helen said.
Nobody knew quite what was wrong with him, but Jerry seemed to be suffering aftereffects from whatever it was that Daphne had given him. Conventional medical doctors said his heart had developed an arrhythmia, and despite the best efforts of Jason and Ariadne—Lucas’ cousins, who were powerful Healers—Jerry would occasionally grow weak. Sometimes he would even faint. It freaked Helen out to no end. To the point she didn’t like talking about it.
She also didn’t like the way Lucas wouldn’t take her many hints and just tell her his plans for college.
“Not sure your dad would want you to skip college,” Lucas reminded her firmly. “Kate will take care of him while you’re gone.” He sensed she didn’t want to talk about it any further. They walked in silence for a bit. “Did you get your maid of honor dress yet?”
She had never been an “event” kind of girl, and she certainly had never looked forward to wearing any kind of clothing other than a comfy pair of yoga pants, but the fact that her father was going to marry Kate was something she could really get behind. Their upcoming Christmas wedding to be held at the Delos compound was the one thing that both put a smile on Helen’s face and sidetracked her completely whenever Lucas wanted to dodge talking about his plans for college.
“It sold out. The dress that Kate and I picked,” Helen said, “the off-the-shoulder one.”
“The sexy one?” Lucas had mixed feelings about Helen showing extra skin. He enjoyed it, but he was also afraid of it, and for very good reason.
“It looks like we’re going to have to go with choice number two.”
“The high-necked, long-sleeved one that resembles a Hefty bag?”
“The very one,” Helen said, playing along. “And I’ll be wearing neon Crocs with it.”
His whole face lit up. When Lucas was happy, he glowed. Being a Scion of the god Apollo meant that he was touched with light in a way that others weren’t. But Lucas also had another side to him; he was a distant Scion of Hades, and a Shadowmaster. Every now and again lately it was the darkness that Helen saw creeping out of Lucas, rather than the light for which he was named.
But not now. Now he was a breathtaking Son of the Sun, and Helen could have slid right down to the center of world. Every time she looked at him, she fell in love with him a little bit more.
Lucas pulled her tighter against his side. “Don’t look at me like that or I’m going to get us in trouble.”
Helen laughed low in her throat and tilted her lips close to his neck while she said, “Promises, promises.”
Before Lucas could do anything about Helen’s brazen flouting of their No Irresistible Goddess of Love Stuff at School Rule, they arrived at the cafeteria. Just as Helen had planned.
“Luke! Over here!” Jason called.
“I’ll get you back later,” Lucas whispered to Helen before releasing her shoulders, only to grab onto her hand as they weaved through the tables to join their family.
It really didn’t bother her the way every admirer of male beauty stared at Lucas. Helen couldn’t blame them, let alone be mad at them. In fact, it made her happy. She loved to look at him so much she felt a kinship with everyone else who did as well, and it made her feel like she was in on it. Sometimes she wanted to gesture at the slack-jawed individuals who ogled Lucas and say, “Right? Isn’t he bananas?” only because she understood exactly where they were coming from.
Jealousy wasn’t her thing, although it was Lucas’—hence their conversation about her maid of ho nor dress. Secretly, Helen thought it was kind of funny. He feared that her face or her legs or her cleavage would start a stampede or something, which was a valid concern considering her face had once started a war. But ever since Helen had shared in Orion’s blood, thus absorbing some of the emotion-reading abilities of the descendants of Aphrodite from the House of Rome, she knew better. There was a perfect partner for everyone, and the faces and bodies that went along with that perfection were as varied as the individuals who dreamed of them. Everyone was someone else’s perfect. Helen just happened to be Lucas’, for which she was eternally grateful.
“What’d you tell Summer School?” Claire asked, using the nickname she’d given Mr. Summerton. He was a tough teacher and if someone didn’t do well enough in his class they ended up in summer school.
Helen sat down next to her best friend. “Nothing. I couldn’t get a word in,” she replied. “But did you know that the SEC was founded to protect people from stock market fraud?”
“Oh, good Lord,” Claire groaned. “How many times are you going to get New Dealed? My ears are bleeding for you at this point. Just give him a list. All he wants is to know that you’ve at least thought about leaving Nantucket.”
“I just don’t know what to say,” Helen replied as she rummaged through her bag for her lunch.
“Tell him you want to go to NYU with Hector and Orion,” Jason said.
“Or Columbia,” Claire added, gesturing at Jason and Ariadne because that’s where they had decided on going. “Or, you know…Parsons. If I get in there. If my portfolio is good enough and my parents don’t murder me.”
Claire bit her lower lip with worry and Helen reached out to her.
“Claire. You’re going to get in,” Helen assured her. “And your parents can’t murder you. Physically.”
Ever since the Final Battle with the gods, when Helen had claimed Lucas, Claire, Orion, Jason, Hector (Jason and Ariadne’s brother), Andy (Hector’s girlfriend), and Cassandra (Lucas’ younger sister) to be her immortal family for the rest of eternity, they’d all changed in remarkable ways, both big and small. While they weren’t fully immortal—they could die if they chose to—they could not be killed, nor could they age.
Near-immortality aside, Claire’s artistic ability had skyrocketed, and she had completely shifted her focus. Instead of pursuing microbiology as she’d always planned, Claire now wanted to be an artist. But it was all new to her. She’d never even thought about art before, and now it was the most important thing in her world. After years of being preemptively proud of their daughter for the PhD she would undoubtably earn someday, her parents were not likely to understand. And secretly, Helen didn’t understand either. She hadn’t given Claire these artistic abilities; they’d just shown up on their own and no one knew why yet.
“My portfolio is barely two weeks old, so we’ll see,” Claire said. She rounded back on Helen. “Just get it over with and tell Summer School you’re going to New York.”
“I can’t,” Helen quibbled. “I can’t go to school too far from home or it will look suspicious when I’m here all the time.”
“Then just take an application to U Mass or Boston College—or Wellesley. You could go to school with Andy,” Claire said.
“Andy’s in the North Pole, doing her oceanography research,” Helen said.
“But technically she goes to Wellesley,” Claire amended.
Helen looked at Lucas, but he said nothing. Not one word about where he wanted to go or even what city or state he was planning to be in next year.
Helen pulled her sandwich out of her bag and took a bite quickly so she would have an excuse not to talk if Claire kept pestering her. Bad idea. She tipped her sandwich sideways to see whether the visual matched with the train wreck that was going on in her mouth.
“Is that peanut butter and tuna?” Lucas asked, noting Helen’s grimace.
“I fink fo,” Helen replied, trying to keep the goop in her mouth from touching any more taste buds. She couldn’t think of what to do with it, so she just swallowed it. Then she put the offensive sandwich down in front of her and stared at it.
“Are you going to throw up?” Ariadne asked.
Helen shrugged, uncertain. “Maybe?”
Jason stifled a laugh, and Claire smacked him on the arm before turning to Helen.
“How’s your dad?” she asked.
“Oh, probably not great,” Helen replied, still staring at the sandwich he’d made her.
Helen’s father had always been adventurous with the sandwiches he packed for her lunch. It was a running joke between them, but this was not like the pickle and Jell-O monstrosity back in eighth grade. That had obviously been intentional, because he’d also left her a protein bar and an apple to eat instead. Helen didn’t know what to think of this one. Was he being funny, or did he forget what he was making halfway through? This was why Helen couldn’t leave Massachusetts. Her dad was quietly unraveling.
“Here,” Lucas said, sliding his neatly packed Bento box from Noel in front of Helen.
She shook her head and stood. “I’m going to get an iced tea. Anyone want anything from the vending machine?”
When she returned with her drink Jason was talking and Lucas yawned hugely. Jason stopped.
“Am I boring you?” Jason asked.
“Sorry,” Lucas replied.
“Did you two fly off somewhere interesting last night?” Jason asked, including Helen in the question.
Helen shook her head, thrown. She hadn’t seen Lucas last night or the night before…or the night before that.
“I was in New York,” Lucas replied.
“You went to see Hector?” Ariadne asked, disappointed. “I have something for him. I wish you’d told me you were going to see him.”
“Next time,” Lucas apologized.
“He’s so lonely with Andy away,” Ariadne said, fretting about her big brother.
“Andy should just marry him and put him out of his misery,” Jason said.
“They’re way too young,” Claire disagreed.
Jason shrugged. “We marry young,” he said, leaving out the word Scion, though it was understood.
“We are not talking about this again,” Claire said.
“I’m just saying, if you’re going to Parsons, you should live at our brownstone in Washington Square.”
“With you,” she clarified.
“Yes.”
“My parents would die, or kill me. Or kill me and then die if I lived with a boy.”
Helen leaned forward, shocked. “Wait. You guys are thinking about moving in together next year?”
Claire said no the same time Jason said yes. Claire crossed her arms and glared at Jason.
“I’m just saying, it’s a big brownstone. We wouldn’t even have to share a room.”
Claire rolled her eyes skyward, whispering, “Help me.”
“Leave her alone, Jase,” Ariadne chided.
Helen never imagined that Claire and Jason had even discussed such a big step, but it was clear everyone else knew this but her. And one person was staying conspicuously silent on the whole subject.
Helen stared at Lucas’ chest, desperately trying to decipher the slow boil of emotions in him. Even though she had the ability to read hearts, emotions never stayed put, they never came one at a time, and depending on the individual, they could mean pretty much anything. Helen could see love, devotion, and commitment in Lucas. She also saw flashes of anger and sadness, guilt, and resentment. She had no idea what any of it meant.
On more than one occasion Helen had told Orion that his emotion-reading talent was useless because now that she had it, she was more confused than ever. Orion usually laughed and told her that it took practice.
Lucas caught Helen squinting at his chest and knew what she was doing. He never tried to avoid her when she was reading him. Instead, he met her eyes, leaned back, and smiled at her in a way that made it clear what he felt for her.
Reading him from that point on would only make her blush, so she rolled her eyes at him and stopped. He’d been a Falsefinder his whole life, so it was practically impossible to outsmart him if he wanted to keep something to himself. Helen just didn’t know why he wanted to keep his plans to himself, and it hurt her that he did.
