The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,63
in your closet to this room.”
“Wait, why?”
“Ares offered to swap rooms. Yours needed cleaning up after...” She trailed off, and I got an unpleasant flashback of heaving all over the floor as Ares treated my ruined flesh. A stab of something that wasn’t anger for him knifed through my chest, and I screwed my face up.
“I don’t need help getting ready. Where’s my bag?”
“Sweetie, you definitely need help getting ready. Have you ever been to a ball in Olympus?”
“You know I haven’t,” I answered, my eyes flicking down to her ridiculous cleavage. She gave me a silky smile.
“I’m not going to put you in anything like this, I swear,” she said. “You couldn’t pull this look off anyway.” I frowned and looked down at my boobs, wrapped in a large blue towel. They weren’t as big as hers, granted, but they were OK. “No, I think we’ll go for something feminine, yet badass,” she mused.
Against all instructions from my brain, my mouth opened. “Like what?”
“There’s plenty to choose from,” she said, sauntering over to the closet and opening it. “Pick a color and I’ll make it work.” I cocked my head at her suspiciously.
“You’re the Goddess of Discord and Chaos. I’m not sure I should be wearing anything you give me. It’ll probably disintegrate half away through the evening and I’ll be standing there naked.”
“Now there’s a thought!” Eris clapped her hands together. I rolled my eyes.
“Besides, I’m not going to any damned ball. I’m tired. And your brother is an asshole.”
“You have to go, you’re one of the guests of honor. And the aforementioned asshole is the other. So suck it up, and pick a color.”
I was about to argue with her, but I already knew there was no point. Plus I wasn’t really tired at all, and a part of me really wanted to find out what I might look like ‘feminine, yet badass’. Ignoring the fact that it was the same part of me that wanted Ares to see me looking good, I stepped toward the closet.
“This one?” I pointed at a pale blue garment that had too many bits of fabric for me to work out what it was.
“Yes, that should work with your hair color,” Eris mused, reaching out and picking up a lock of my wet hair. “But shoulder-length isn’t right for you, sweetie.”
“I’m not going any shorter,” I said, stepping out of her reach, the hair slapping onto my cheek. It had taken me years to get it to grow this long, after I’d had to cut it super-short in prison. Long hair was too easy for others to use against you in a fight.
“No, no. Not shorter. Longer.”
I felt a tingle across my scalp, then movement down my shoulders and back. I spun with a yelp, gripping my towel with one hand to stop it falling, and reaching around the back of my head with my other.
“What are you doing?” Eris grabbed my shoulder with one hand, stopping me turning in panicked circles and moved me in front of the long mirror that hung inside the open closet door.
I froze. My hair was long. Like waist-length long. And no longer one yellowish blob of color, but weaved with platinum and ash streaks, highlighted by the gentle waves it fell in. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah. It’s definitely an improvement. And I promise it won’t all fall out.”
“It’s like supermodel hair,” I breathed, too scared to touch it. “How did you do that?”
“Sweetie, I’m fucking ancient. There’s not a lot I can’t do.”
“Ares said you can’t heal,” I said, remembering his words. A darkness crossed her face briefly.
“It’s true my powers are mostly on the more destructive side.” Her voice was slightly too hard as she spoke.
“Then how can you make beautiful hair? That’s not destructive at all.”
“Bella, making you look hot as hell will wreak plenty of havoc, trust me,” she said, her sassy tone returning.
“What do you mean?” She stared at me, eyes full of mischief. I couldn’t work out if it was a cruel or playful delight she was experiencing.
“I assume you are not aware that Ares has been engaged in a centuries long affair with Aphrodite?”
I swallowed hard, a distinctly unpleasant feeling crawling over me, then settling in my stomach like a rock. “Aphrodite? The Goddess of Love?”
“That’s the one, yes.”
Well, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’d seen her twice now, and she was beyond beautiful. Painfully stunning. No wonder Ares didn’t want me.
“She’s married to Hephaestus, so it’s not like they’re an