Starcrossed

slightly forlorn but also aware of the fact that he was going to end up doing whatever Cassandra told him to do.
    “We’ll need all this to go,” Cassandra said to the food runner. She turned to Helen. “I think I’ve figured this out, but I still need to test it.”
    They raced back to the Delos compound, the rowdy group storming into the library and upsetting Castor and Pallas. Cassandra dragged one of the ladders over to a high shelf of her choosing and then had Lucas hold the bottom for her while she climbed. As she did so she told her father and uncle to look at Helen’s necklace and describe what they saw.
    “It looks like . . . That’s impossible,” Pallas said, his eyes hardening with anger as he took an involuntary step back.
    “What do you see?” Castor cautiously asked his brother.
    “I gave that to Aileen,” Pallas said, pointing to Helen’s necklace like he was accusing Helen of stealing it.
    “Cass?” Lucas called up to his sister, worried.
    “Her necklace looks like whatever would attract the person who looks at it . That ability is only related to one goddess and one relic,” Cassandra called down, still searching for something. “Aphrodite’s cestus.”
    “That can’t be,” Pallas said, shaking his head. “We might as well say she has the aegis of Zeus. Or the Loch Ness monster, for that matter. It’s folklore, it doesn’t exist.”
    “What’s a cestus?” Helen asked quietly, in case it was such a stupid question everyone needed to be able to pretend like they didn’t hear her.
    “The cestus is 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.