Aphrodite’s girdle,” Lucas responded automatically, his eyes darting from Cassandra to Castor before they landed back on Helen. “It’s a mythical object that makes the wearer impervious to any weapon.”
“And impossible to resist,” Castor added. He cast a worried look at his son.
“And I’m supposed to have this thing on me? Well, I hate to break it to you, but I’m fresh out of mythical girdles,” Helen said with a sarcastic laugh, but no one laughed with her.
“Let me see that necklace your mother gave you,” Cassandra replied, coming down the ladder with a book tucked under an arm. Reaching the bottom, she stretched out her hand.
“How long are you going to want it for?” Helen asked as she fingered her necklace uneasily. She really hated to take it off for any reason, even if that reason was as important as Cassandra was making it seem.
“I’ll give it right back. I promise,” Cassandra said, keeping her eyes locked on Helen.
“Yes, of course,” Helen replied, feeling silly for balking. She obediently muscled through the naked, panicky feeling that came along with the thought of removing her necklace. Taking it off, she handed it over. As soon as she placed it in Cassandra’s outstretched hand she felt a burning sensation across her forearm.
“Cass, are you crazy?” Lucas yelled. He snatched a small blade out of his sister’s grip.
Helen felt someone step against her back and put a hand on her shoulder, and, from his size, Helen knew it was Hector, supporting and protecting her.
“I’m sorry, Helen. But it was the only way to prove it,” Cassandra said, biting her lower lip and looking up with defensive eyes.
“It’s okay,” Helen mumbled, not understanding what had happened yet. Everyone was staring at her arm. She looked down and saw a thin red cut dripping blood onto the carpet.
“But it’s just a necklace,” Helen repeated as she ran the charm along the chain and looked at her arm. The cut had already healed.
“It becomes whatever you need it to be, that’s part of its magic,” Cassandra said, grasping for words with frustration. “It’s like the way it looks different to everyone. That’s because there’s no such thing as the most beautiful ornament, or the most beautiful anything for that matter. How can I explain this?”
“What I think is beautiful is very different from what even my twin would think is beautiful because we’re all turned on by different things,” Ariadne explained bluntly for her.
“That’s right,” Cassandra said.
“But why a girdle?” Helen persisted.
“You have to remember, a few thousand years ago girdles were considered very attractive, but they were also a form of protection for the wearer. Some even had bone or bronze plates in them, like lightweight armor,” Castor explained. He looked remote, though, not his good-natured self. “But there were two parts to the cestus. The girdle itself, and its adornments. It was the adornments that made the goddess irresistible to whomever she wanted to seduce, and they had the power to change to suit the tastes of whoever was looking at them. Time passed and girdles fell out of fashion, but the transformative magic of the cestus is still the same. It can become whatever you need it to be to make yourself more attractive, Helen. And all these years you’ve only needed it to be a simple necklace.”
“I’ve always loved it,” Lucas admitted softly. “The way it falls into that place.” He touched the dent at the bottom of her throat for the briefest of moments. “I think it’s perfect.”
Helen could see a hot flush wash across his cheekbones, but he kept his eyes down, conscious of the fact that everyone was staring at them with worried frowns. Castor especially looked so stricken he could have been at a funeral.
“What I don’t understand is why are we all noticing it now? It’s like it just got charged with love mojo in the past few days or something,” Jason mused to no one in particular. Then a thought occurred to him and he looked from Helen to Lucas, then away.
“Like it just switched on,” Ariadne said. She looked over at Helen and Lucas, sharing the same idea as her twin.
“What if I wanted it to be something else?” Helen asked, ignoring the strange stares she was suddenly getting from everyone. Cassandra shrugged.
“I don’t know. Maybe try changing it?” she asked with an excited look. “But I’d take it off first! You never know,” she added quickly.
Helen unlatched her necklace and tried to think