a carrot in front of my face. “I promise not to, unless Aries or Kes is in grave danger,” I amended.
Her hands stilled and she rolled her eyes. “Fine. And… I might have picked up something that’ll allow you to hide it, even while wearing this.”
I squealed. “You are literally the best!”
“So, before all the insanity went down the other night, how did Aries react to your teal dress?” she asked with a sly grin.
A smile tugged at my lips. “It definitely got his attention.”
She grinned. “He’s into you.”
“I wonder if it’s the pledge?” I blurted. “I mean, could the pledge be making him have feelings for me?”
She shrugged, knotting the fabric strips into an intricately interlaced pattern. “But you didn’t pledge anything. How do you explain your feelings for him?”
I groaned. “Is it that obvious?” She just smiled. I looked down to peer at the knots woven around my stomach. “The bruises are fading.”
“I could heal them if you want,” she offered.
I shook my head, tracing the patterns of blue, purple, and yellow. “They’ll be gone soon enough.” Maybe, like the red dress, they’d send a message that I wore my bruises with pride. Maybe the Zodia would see them and think I might bruise but won’t break. That I’m not afraid to fight. That if I die, I’ll go down swinging, and might even take one of their appendages with me.
“Turn around,” Helena instructed. She knotted the strips of fabric at my neck like a halter. “How do you feel about braids?”
“They’re cool. Is my hair long enough, though?”
I could almost hear her grin. “Yep. I think you should show off your neck.” My hand snapped to the little bruise where Aries had nipped me. She laughed out loud. “Well, maybe you should allow me to heal just that one.”
I laughed but rolled my neck to the side to give her full access. “What are you scheming now?”
“Just erasing Aries’s mark will drive him mad. He can be somewhat territorial when it comes to you.”
Understatement of the year.
Helena placed her finger over the sore spot and the discomfort faded. With that taken care of, she quickly used thicker strips of fabric to form swaths that overlapped into a skirt, and then handed me a pair of sandals.
“Thank God you don’t expect me to wear heels.”
The sandals were black and laced up my calf like a Spartan soldier might wear, but instead of ribbons or strips of leather, the laces were velvet and cut to look like thorns. “These are amazing!” I gushed. I finished putting them on while she grabbed tiny, clear rubber bands and a comb from her purse. She braided the left side of my head, leaving the right side unruly and wild.
When she was finished, I was amazed by how badass I looked. I stood in front of the mirror, admiring her handiwork as she pulled something else from her never-empty bag and slapped it in my hand. “Knife and sheath. It straps to your thigh. I gotta go. I’m being summoned.”
“Thanks, Helena.”
She looked at me. “Don’t forget what you did to Cancer. If any of them come at you, give ‘em hell.”
They would come. We both knew it. She was arming me. Maybe because I’d already defended myself once and she knew it would be needed again. I just hoped I could remain brave when it came time for a repeat performance.
“Thank you,” I told her as she gathered her bag and left the room with a wink.
Kes appeared after she left and cursed when he saw me, as usual.
I smiled into the mirror.
ARIES
Virgo appeared in my room, startling me. “I just heard about the attack.”
“I don’t know how to stop him. He threatened to remove the mark from her skin and forcibly take her away.”
“He won’t stop. She is his, Aries,” she declared, standing stoically just inside the door. “Break the pledge to her.”
“My blood is in her skin,” I rasped. I could feel her even now, in her room, down the hall and above mine.
“Remove it.” Her tone was so callous, I almost didn’t recognize it. She folded her arms and leaned on the door frame.
“Even if I did, and you are right that I won’t weaken because I was the one who severed it, it solves nothing. Taurus will still kill her, and then he will try to kill me.”
Virgo shook her head, seemingly disgusted. “Where is the Aries I once knew?” She strode across the floor and stood in front