Chapter 38
LADY OF THE STARRY HOST
Selene ripped her hand from Theo’s just as the subway squealed to a halt. Before he could protest, she ran out of the car, through the station, and up into Grand Central Terminal. She could hear Theo following her into the soaring main hall of the station. The clamor suddenly subsided as the chamber’s echoing marble expanse muffled and distorted thousands of voices at once. The sound reminded her of her godhood, when the prayers of the faithful came to her in a layered, muted cloud, one barely able to be sorted from the other.
The air in the hall was different, too, whooshing up from the underground train platforms and subway tunnels and coursing against the painted ceiling far overhead before swirling down once more to brush past her cheek as gently as a kiss. As gently as his kiss.
She stopped. Orion took me in his arms and pressed his rough, wind-burnt lips to mine. I ran my hands through his black curls. I loved him. Grief was my reward. Apollo took him away. Now, once again, I’ve walked into the trap my twin has set. Again, he uses my feelings against me. He says he wants to protect me, but in truth he cannot bear to see me happy.
“Selene, what’s wrong?” she could see Theo mouthing, but the rushing of blood in her ears drowned out his words.
She looked up.
A painting of the heavens arced across Grand Central’s vaulted ceiling. Gilded stars ornamented with line drawings of the constellations hung against a sky blue background. Aquarius, pouring starry water above the ticket counters. Pegasus, breaching through a cloud. Gemini, side by side. And there, so far overhead that she needed to crane her head to see him—Orion. The stars were still there, right where she’d put them. One for each shoulder. One for each leg. A gilt row of three stars for his belt and a star for his sword.
She could still hear Apollo’s footsteps as he ran through her sacred grove, bringing her the news that would change her life forever.
“Moonshine, Moonshine! Did you hear of Merope? A man took her by force beneath the poplars.”
I seize my bow and my golden arrows, my cheeks hot with wrath. “Who would dare touch my sacred companion?”
“Orion. The man you call friend.”
I, most graceful of goddesses, stumble with shock, my bow flying from my grasp, my knees slamming against the hard ground. My twin picks up my weapon and places it once more within my grasp. He holds out his hand to lift me up, but I brush him aside. “Orion wouldn’t betray me! He left here only a day ago with promises of fidelity.” I sound like a child, a lovelorn maiden, but I cannot bear the news. I have not yet given Orion my body, but I have given him my soul. When he left the grove, he pressed his lips against mine. A secret promise. He vowed that when he returned to me, he would bear a surprise. The only other man I’ve allowed so close to my heart is the one standing before me—Apollo, Leader of the Muses, Healer of the Sick, the Bright One.
“You know how these half mortals are. They cannot be trusted,” my brother says.
“You speak the truth?”
Apollo narrows his golden eyes. “From the womb, I have cared only for you. I would not lie.”
We stalk through the forest, over hill and across streams, seeking our prey. I find it easy to hate, easy to believe my Hunter is false. I have so little practice with loving.
Three times, Apollo drives the sun across the sky. Three times, I guide the moon from one horizon to the next. And then we find him. Lying on the shore of the limitless sea, where his father Poseidon rules the deep. I look upon his broad shoulders, the familiar easy grace of his pose, his head pillowed on his crossed arms, his long legs stretched out before him.
I nock a golden arrow to my bow, the shaft in my fingers as light as it is deadly. I hesitate for one moment only. Just long enough to remember the taste of his lips. Then I let the arrow fly.
At the thrum of my bowstring, my Hunter sits up and turns away from the sea. His eyes meet mine, wide with shock and disbelief. For an instant, I doubt his guilt.
The arrow pierces his heart.
Theo was shaking her shoulders, calling her name.
“Catasterismi,” she breathed, as if that were an answer to his panicked pleas. Her eyes did not leave Orion’s gilded form on the ceiling above.
“Catasterismi?” he repeated. “What? Selene?” He gripped her arm, hard. “Look at me!”
She blinked once and dragged her eyes away from Orion and back to Theo.
Face pale, Theo took a step back as if he’d been struck. Selene wondered vaguely what she’d done to make him so afraid. Then she realized she was crying.
“Oh my God. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. Really, don’t—”
“It’s not your fault, Theo.”
Suddenly, she didn’t want to lie anymore.
“It’s his.” She pointed to the ceiling, but did not look. Theo craned his neck back.
“Catasterismi. It means ‘the placings of the gods among the stars.’”
“I know what it means, I just don’t understand why it’s so important. Is it a clue? What did you figure out?”
She shook her head slowly. “Only what I should’ve realized before. That the hierophant will come for you next.”
“Why? I’m no virgin maiden, I hate to break it to you.”
Selene didn’t smile. “Because everyone I care for is destroyed. And that… that means you.” She pressed onward as she saw his eyes widen. “And that’s not a good thing,” she insisted before he could speak. “It’s a terrible thing. You have to stay away from me. Get on a train and leave the city. Go far away where he can’t reach you.”
Theo smiled, gently at first, trying to look comforting, but soon he was beaming. His eyes were very green in the slanting sunbeams pouring through the windows high above. “You care about me, huh?” he said softly, as if he hadn’t heard any of the rest of her little speech.
“And that’s a bad thing,” she repeated.
He nodded, still grinning. “Terrible.”
“Yes, terrible.”
“Sure. Mmm-hmm.” He moved toward her, his smile aglow. One more step, she realized, and he’ll kiss me.
She stepped back, one hand raised in warning. “No, Theo. You don’t understand.” She could feel Orion’s eyes on her still. Her tears sprang afresh.
“What’s wrong?” Theo asked, suddenly all concern.
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” she snapped.
Then she turned on her heel and fled.
For once, Theo didn’t go after her. He stood among the swirling crowd, watching her go, shocked more by his own reaction than by hers. He’d expected her to run away—he just hadn’t expected it to hurt so much.
The adrenaline of his escape from Dennis’s apartment dribbled away, leaving him hollow, exhausted, and still slightly drunk. Maybe if my head were clearer, I’d understand what Selene was trying to tell me, he thought. I feel like all this time I’ve been unable to hear a conversation she’s trying to have with me. And now, when I’m finally listening, she no longer wants to speak.
Slowly, he wended his way toward the exit, determined to head toward the Broadway theater district. With or without Selene, he wouldn’t give up the hunt for the hierophant. She said I’m in danger, but what else is new? He’d been in danger ever since she’d walked up to him in Riverside Park and pulled him into her world. Only now losing his life to a murderous cult didn’t seem so important—not when he’d already lost his heart to Selene DiSilva.
Just before he could exit the terminal, a woman’s voice called his name. Chest tight with anticipation, he swung toward the sound, sure Selene had come back for him. But the young woman before him was short, black, and holding a gun leveled at his chest.