thought a cut and color might give me another small edge.”
“I get it. I’m just scared,” he said softly, the apple in his neck bobbing as he swallowed thickly.
“If something happens to me…”
“No,” he said harshly. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”
My brows kissed. “Then what is it?”
“I thought I was protecting you, but I didn’t know it would make this… whatever this is between you and him. I’m worried that his feelings for you are developing and evolving too fast. I’m worried he’ll be dangerous to you in the end.”
Aries wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that much. I wasn’t even sure he could now that he’d pledged to protect me. His word was his truth. But what if his feelings became too much to bear? What if I didn’t feel that way toward him and he got angry? Would he tear me apart to be rid of me? Or keep me locked away so the pledge kept him strong, but he wouldn’t have to lay eyes on me again?
I was human. The others could just wait until I died of natural causes and then pounce when Aries weakened. What was sixty or seventy years to an immortal being?
The thoughts ran wild through my mind until a knock at the door brought me out of them. A girl with side-swept lavender hair stepped in. Her mocha cheekbones were brushed with highlighter, giving her a beautiful, dewy glow. She was beautiful and looked like she’d stepped out of a fashion magazine.
Kes waved her in. “Thanks for coming, Helena.”
Helena entered my room carrying an enormous leather purse. She took several boxes of hair colorant from her bag and laid them on the bed, looked at me and then at them, me and them… and chose one from the half dozen. “Darker, right?” she asked. “I think this would look pretty on you.”
Kes ducked out of the room and the girl and I headed to the bathroom where two basins were already waiting, the water steaming hot. The watery mess that had flooded the tiles earlier was gone and everything smelled fresh and clean again. A Guardian had gone to great lengths to rid the room of any trace of Aries’s blood.
Still, it gave me the creeps even being in here, although having Helena with me helped. I asked her how people were settling in.
“Most are doing well accepting their new lives. Some have taken in children. There’s an art teacher who’s grinding rocks to make paint and teaching anyone who wants to learn how to paint patterns on their homes. Some are really impressive.”
“That’s awesome.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “People find a way to be content if you let them.”
“It seems harder for others, though. I know people keep asking Aries if they’ll ever be able to contact their loved ones or check on them, or if there’s any way he would reunite them.”
Helena nodded. “Some will never accept it. They’ll die with those questions in the back of their mind. What happened when they woke was very jarring. Some won’t get over it easily, and others won’t at all. In any event, most will be okay, given enough time. They’ll tell themselves that if they’re fine, their loved ones must be, too. And they’ll cling to that hope for dear life, eventually moving on.”
It was the same thing Xavier said. He felt his family must be okay because he was fine. It was a logical assumption. As long as Aries was the fair and just ruler he’d proven to be, they would assume the other Zodia were like him. I just hoped they never learned the truth of what these things really were, that they had different goals, demeanors, wants, and needs. That some were cold, like Pisces, and others fueled by hate, like Taurus.
The less they knew the better.
In the mirror hazed from the humidity, I watched the color seep into my hair, changing it strand by strand. I liked the shade; a dark, ash brown. It matched my brows and made my icy eyes pop. When it was finished, she rinsed the dye out and removed a pair of scissors and a comb from the bag. “Just a trim?” she guessed.
“No, I want it short. I want to look different.”
“How short?”
I made a chopping motion on my neck just below the jawline.
Helena smiled approvingly. “Most are afraid of change, but I like you. You’re much bolder than I thought.”
I sighed. “This isn’t boldness, it’s fear. I’m trying to disguise myself.