Starcrossed

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 about sexy things, but she couldn’t come up with anything. After a moment she realized that it didn’t matter what she thought was sexy, but what other people thought that would be important. She needed a guinea pig. She looked at Hector, focusing on him alone, and she felt her necklace change shape in her hand.
    “Helen!” Hector exclaimed.
    Helen looked down and saw that she was holding a tiny scrap of lace that more closely resembled diamond-encrusted dental floss than underpants. Everyone burst out laughing, pointing at Hector and making fun of his trashy taste. She looked at Lucas, concentrated, and it turned back into her necklace. He grinned.
    “I told you. I love that necklace,” he said openly.
    His gaze was so warm Helen felt she had to do something to divert all the stares they were getting. She looked around the room, pointedly seeking out a new victim. Everyone wisely decided to scatter.
    “Don’t even think about it!” Ariadne shrieked, running out of the room so Helen couldn’t focus on her.
    “Come on! That’s not fair!” Jason said. He backed away from her, alternately covering his eyes so he couldn’t see her and covering his face so she couldn’t see him.
    “All right, nobody panic!” Helen put her necklace back on and laughed, but no one was left in the library to witness her mercy but Lucas and Cassandra. “I like it best like this, myself.”
    “Good,” Lucas said, averting his eyes and trying to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed.
    “Why aren’t you running?” Helen asked Cassandra playfully, but when she saw the dark look on her face she knew she had said something terribly wrong.
    “That will never work on me,” Cassandra said in a flat, distant voice. She brushed past Helen.
    “I’m sorry,” Helen said to Lucas, as Cassandra stalked out of the room. She put her hand on Lucas’s arm and made him look at her. “I don’t understand, Lucas. What did I say?”
    “Aphrodite’s power only works on adults—on sexually mature individuals,” he answered with a raspy voice, like his throat had gone dry.
    “Oh. I didn’t know, but that’s nothing for her to be ashamed of. She’s only fourteen. So she’s a late bloomer—”
    Lucas cut her off. “My sister will never bloom. She was taken by the Fates.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that even if she wants to, even if she feels what other woman feel, she’ll never fall in love or have children. She won’t even be able to have the kind of careless physical relationships that Hector has pretty much once a week,” Lucas said. “She is sacrosanct to the Three Fates, and they will not share their daughter.”
    “But if she feels like a woman, why can’t she act like one? Who cares what three dusty old spinsters say?” Helen asked persuasively, but that made Lucas even more upset.
    “You’re not