Starcrossed, tome 2 : Dreamless

“Do you always wander around hell in your pajamas? “ asked a sardonic voice. Helen whirled around and saw Haircut, standing just a few feet away.

"What?" Helen stammered, looking down at herself. She was wearing a nightshirt and shorts with gap-toothed pumpkins and hissing black cats all over them.

"Don't get me wrong, I like the short shorts, and the Halloween motif is hilarious, but I'm getting cold just by looking at you."

They were cousins, Helen knew that. Flirting was wrong. But it made her feel better when nothing else could. Was she supposed to go through all of this without even the comfort of Lucas's smile?

“Do you know what the tastiest part of all of this is for me? Except for the part where I get to torture you, of course,” he continued, ignoring her weak threat. “It’s that, yet again, it’s all for the love of Helen! I would never have believed that not one, but two world wars could be started for the love of a woman. You’d think money, sure. Land, of course. Thousands of wars have been fought over money and land, but LOVE? And yet here we are. Aphrodite wins again! Another war to end all wars starts for your love, and because of your love for two men and three pathetic Furies as well! And lovelovelove will be the reason the world collapses into warwarwar. It is sheer poetry!“

source : difunttichronicles.com

Taking in a lungful of the crisp autumn air, she turned her face to the clear night sky with the intention of taking flight. Her eyes were drawn to the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt, and she smiled at the constellation, thinking, “Hey, dude” in her mind.
She had the sudden urge to walk home instead of fly. It was far, nearly the entire length of the island from ’Sconset to her house, but these days she was used to spending hours wandering around in the dark. Helen stuffed her fists into her pockets and started trudging down the road without a second thought. Glancing at the sky, she realized that what she really wanted was to be with Orion, even if this Orion was just a bunch of chilly stars. She missed him.

source : difunttichronicles.com