“Were you Aries’s friend, too?”
She nodded. “The eleven other Guardians were members of his court. We lived among the humans in his territories and brought issues forward to him on behalf of the people.”
“Like governors.”
She nodded. “We were all human, and Aries trusted each of us to do what was best for the people we were charged with protecting. As repayment, we pledged our lives to him and those born under his sign.”
“They’re going to kill me. It’s only a matter of time.”
She pushed her hair back, staring at the richly tiled wall opposite her. “Larken, if you want to live, you have to fight for it.”
Steam wafted all around me. I wished I could see a way out. When I was a kid, Mom and I would work on mazes together, following looping paths that swirled from the starting point to the finish line. Usually, you could look ahead and see the curves, bends, and twists and determine which path was the right one. Life was nothing like that, because we weren’t looking at it from above. From the ground, our view was limited.
“They were going to come after him one way or another,” she finally sighed. “You’re just the excuse.”
That did not make me feel better. In fact, I suddenly felt strange again. My skin pebbled and a terrible feeling settled into the pit of my stomach.
“Helena, do you feel –?”
Helena’s hand suddenly went still. “Get out.” She blurred across the room and grabbed a towel as I hauled ass out of the pool, slipping on the tiled steps, but catching myself. “What is it?” I hurried and dried off.
“Something’s wrong,” she announced. She unlocked the door and took me back to my room at a fast clip. “Get dressed.”
“In what?”
“I don’t care!” she shouted, peeking out into the hall.
I shrugged on the first pair of leggings and hoodie I could find. “I need something to fight with!” I shrilled, not wanting to be left defenseless again. “A gun or knife or something!”
Helena pulled a sleek dagger from her cross-body bag, slapping the handle in my palm. “Don’t make me regret giving you this.”
Just then, a roar came from down the hallway, loud and reverberating. My breastbone resonated from the sound and I gripped the knife in my hands, my palms turning clammy. The stone around us shook and suddenly, it felt like we were back in Aries’s tomb, scared the ceiling would split and bury us alive. My stomach dropped as a garbled cry came from somewhere in the castle.
“That sounded like Aries.”
“It was,” she confirmed.
Another shout. “Kes!” I screamed, bolting to the door. Helena blocked me with her arm, then moved so that she filled the doorway. “What’s happening? Move!”
“They’re attacking,” she breathed, staring toward the ceiling, her eyes dancing beneath her closed lids. Was she seeing the attack?
Kes cried out in pain. I knew that sound.
“We have to help him!” I shouted, trying to push around her.
“NO!” She grabbed my arm. “I’m under strict orders to keep you safe.”
I pointed the borrowed blade at her belly. “Let go of me. You heal fast, but not fast enough to keep me in here.”
Fire blazed in her eyes. “I regret it,” she hissed.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m going to help them. If I’m the problem, Helena… maybe I can also be the solution.”
21
Her fingers twitched. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to slap me or drag me to the place where the darkness would swallow me whole and leave me to fend for myself. Finally, she shook her head and smiled. “Maybe you’re right.” She tucked me behind her. “We watch first and wait for an opportunity. You can’t just go in wildly. Every strike must be fueled by ruthless purpose.”
My palm was sweating as we wove our way through the dark castle. I soon realized the fight wasn’t inside – it was outside, the thunderous blows shaking the very foundations. Boulders broke free from the mountains beyond us, tumbling down the mountain to the base.
We slipped into the rings of columns, racing from one ring to the next. As we moved closer, we saw Aries and Kes with their backs to one another, surrounded by Zodia. Guardians bristled around the perimeter but were unable to get close because Taurus and his allies had them surrounded. I saw their beastly forms in the moonlight.
An enormous lion-like man circled them, his tail whipping back and forth as he stalked closer. Leo.
The hair on my arms stood up when Taurus whipped his head in our direction. Helena and I tucked ourselves behind a column and I prayed he hadn’t seen us. Her steady breath fanned her lavender bangs, betraying the anxiousness she showed by her tight grip on the knife handle. She ducked her head around the column and fixed her attention back to the fight I knew she wanted to jump into.
In addition to Taurus and Leo, there was an enormous centaur; a human from the waist up, and horse from the waist down, including the legs. His coat, tail, skin, and hair were made of the deep brown hues from the thickest parts of the forest. Sagittarius.
He offered Aries a sinister smile as he taunted him, telling him how strong he was since he’d gotten some rest, describing every way he intended to kill him, starting with his precious first Guardian. He wanted Aries to watch as he ate his friend’s soul. As he ended him for good.
That was enough to set Aries off.
He reared back when Aries slammed into his right flank, pushing him several feet away. He planted his hooves with quivering muscles, but Aries was stronger.
We were watching the fight with wide eyes when we should’ve been watching our backs. Helena suddenly turned around, throwing an arm up to tuck me behind her.
“What’s thisss?” something hissed from the shadows. A few columns away, a woman with a shelled body that faded from blue-green to gray approached, her pincers snapping. Her hair hung in tangled tufts that resembled clumps of seaweed, while her face and shell were caked with barnacles.
“I thought Aries cared for you, that he would keep his preciousss treasure tucked safely away. That’s why I started my search at the castle and followed your scent here. Do you think you can help him? Defend the great ram?” She smiled maliciously, exposing gray-blue teeth sharpened into points. “He needs no help. But rest assured… you do.”
As the thing approached, her claws clicked across the stone. She had eight legs, most tipped with a sharp, blue claw; her hands were thick and strong, brandishing a pincer where her fingers should be. Water leaked from her shell onto the dark stone.
“Who the hell is that?” I breathed.
“Cancer,” Helena growled.
“Helena!” my brother barked. “Get her out of here now!”
In that moment, Aries snapped his focus to me. Taurus used the distraction to his advantage, smiling and running toward Aries faster than my eyes could track, trying to gore him with his horns.
Aries fought him off valiantly, grabbing his horns and twisting, sending Taurus tumbling over the stones. The bull rose to his feet slowly, his molten eyes on fire.
Cancer’s feet clicked closer. “You don’t belong here, girl. You aren’t hisss,” she accused, her s’s sizzling.
“Why do you care?” I tightened the grip on my knife as Helena rushed her, grappling with her and avoiding her pincers until Cancer swiped her legs out from under her. Helena was on her feet in a second, but wasn’t quick enough.
In a blur, Cancer was in front of me, snapping at my head with her powerful pincers. I ducked to avoid her and ran behind another column, only for her to reappear and snap again. As Helena went on the offensive, I took a deep breath and readied myself, gripping my knife tightly. When she slammed Helena against a column and appeared in front of me, pincer already diving toward my throat, I did the only thing I could think of and sliced at it, at the base,
at the weakest place – where her wrist should’ve been.
The knife must have been a special one, because it sliced her skin like a hot knife through butter, the disembodied appendage clattering to the ground. Cancer shrieked and scuttled away, nursing her wounds in the darkness.
Helena gaped at me from where she’d stood behind Cancer, poised to jam her knife into the back of Cancer’s shell. “How did you do that?” she breathed.
“Is this knife magic or something?” I panted, still in shock.
“No,” she answered. “I stole it from an abandoned Comic-Con venue. I wasn’t even sure it was sharp.”
I breathed a laugh. “Thank God for nerds.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed, shaking her head in disbelief.
We turned our attention back to Aries and my brother just in time to see Leo pounce, his claws slicing through Aries’s tunic. In a coordinated attack, Sagittarius reared back and plucked a golden arrow from the deer skin quiver strapped across his back, aiming at Kes.
“No!” I took off running. “Kes, disappear.”
His eyes widened in fear when he saw me but he did as I said, vanishing before the arrow could strike him. Sagittarius roared and cantered to face me.
Just then, the ground shook under our feet, knocking me off balance. I stumbled over a large boulder that had pushed up through the craggy ground and fell, catching myself with my palms. The grit stung my hands and pinpricks of blood bubbled to the surface.
Sagittarius reared back at the sight of me on the ground. “She is wounded!” he shouted triumphantly.
Aquarius appeared in front of me, slashing at the centaur with his trident. Golden Boy could fight!
Helena helped me up as Kes appeared a few steps away from us. I grabbed my knife before either of them could. “You’re in danger here,” he said urgently. “We have to go.”
“No,” I refused, pulling my arm out of his. “Not until he’s safe.”
Kes cursed and knocked the knife out of my hand, clamping his free one onto my shoulder. I screamed as the scene began to melt, but not before I saw the worry reflected in Aries’s pink eyes. In the span of a blink, we reappeared on the mountain.
“What the hell, Kes? You have to help him. You’re his Guardian!”
“I am his Guardian, which is why I was fighting alongside him until you came outside. Then his attention shifted to you! His priority is to keep you safe.”
“Well, mine is to keep him and you alive!” A sob tore from my throat, the pain from my shredded hands beginning to throb. The stone pillars were still quaking as the behemoths fought. With so many of them united against only Aries, Aquarius, and a handful of Guardians, I was not optimistic that they’d win.
He changed the subject. “You figured it out, huh?” he asked, bracing his hands on his knees.
“Figured what out?” I asked, wincing when I flexed my hands.
“How to hurt them. You did it. You hurt Cancer. Not enough to kill her, but enough that she’ll need time to heal.”
I didn’t figure out shit. I just got lucky.
“Does she heal fast?”
“If it was a bruise or a cut, yes. But a whole pincer will take a little longer. She backed off because she was afraid you’d cut off the other one, leaving her completely defenseless.” He stood up and looked me in the eye, a proud gleam twinkling in it. “You did it.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Kes groaned and slid a heavy hand down his face. “The clues are all around you, Larken.”
There was nothing around me. Nothing but Kes, rock and ice, clouds and stars. The thundering below suddenly stopped and Kes waited to see if the peace would last, or if there was just a lull in the fight. After several minutes of silence, he relaxed. “They’re gone. Aries is making sure everyone is okay. He wants us to stay put for a few minutes.”
He’s okay. I took a deep breath, telling myself I was, too. Kes wasn’t hurt. I flexed my palms, the sting making me wince. “I want my knife back.”
He shook his head, barking a tired laugh. “Of course you do.” He offered his arm. “Come on, you’re being beckoned.” The warning in his eyes said I was in for it, and that I might deserve whatever punishment Aries decided to dole out.
I panted, wincing from pain when we landed in a sparsely decorated room in the castle. The room’s fireplace was cold and there was only one chair in the room. I swayed. The travel… or maybe so much in such a short time, made my head throb.
“What’s the matter?” Aries said, darting in from the side and tearing me from Kes, holding me up as I weakly clasped his arms. His eyes fastened on my hands resting on his skin. “Leave us,” he told Kes.
Kes raked a hand through his hair and pursed his lips before disappearing.
I expected him to yell. I even braced for it.
“You’re bleeding,” he said softly.
“I fell. It’s not that bad, though.”
“May I see?” he asked, waiting for me to give him permission. I nodded. “Why are your eyes closed, Larken?”
“My head hurts.”
He leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to my left temple, then my right, speaking words I couldn’t understand. The pain faded, ebbing gently away. I sighed and sank forward to lean against him, reveling in the relief and in the solid feel of him. When I’d taken several long breaths, I raised my head. “Thank you.”
“Why did you do it?” he asked.
Do what? I asked with my eyes.
“Why did you risk yourself? Was it for Kes?”
I swallowed thickly. I would have fought just for Kes, but I also would’ve fought only for him. My answer must have shown in my eyes, because the tension oozed from his shoulders and his eyes softened. “Come with me.”
He led me out of the cold, dark room and up several sets of stairs, down carpeted hallways, and to a room with a spiral staircase in the floor. I froze. “You’re taking me to your room?” My mouth gaped, realizing what I just blabbed. I shut it quickly, hoping he didn’t catch the slip.
“I want to look at your wounds and heal each one. For that, I’ll need better lighting, but if you aren’t comfortable…”
“No, it’s fine. I just...”
He smiled. “It’s not like you haven’t been here before.”
I groaned and Aries laughed. Out loud. It was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
I followed him down the stairs and he opened the doors for me. As we entered his private rooms, my eyes caught on the shattered mirror. I ticked my head toward it, studying its clawed legs and the shards splintered across its surface. Even broken, it was still beautiful. “What happened to it?”
He sighed, then softly admitted, “I happened. I have a temper.”
In a blink, the shards lifted from the stone floor and slid back into place, the mirror knitting itself back together. The mirror was divided with iron, so that twelve reflective panes were contained in its frame. Twelve of me stared back, bewildered as Aries continued into the room and pointed to a small table with two chairs that was nestled in the corner. “Sit, please.”
I walked across the room stiffly, trying to ignore the pain from my abraded hands and knees. Before long I’d be a walking bruise. If I lived long enough. I scooted the chair out, my eyes wandering over to the door I knew led to his impressive library.
“You shouldn’t have spied on me.”
“I wasn’t spying on you. I didn’t know you’d be here.” With her, I wanted to add, but kept my mouth closed.
“Kes should not have allowed you to wander around alone, especially after Pisces had compromised my defenses. Rather easily,” he lamented, sitting down across from me. He placed a handful of candles on the table and struck a match, lighting them one by one, the flame feeding on the wick. Pops and sizzles filled the air as the flames settled.
“It wasn’t his fault. I told him I needed space because I was freaking out a little.”
“It was his fault; just as it was Helena’s fault for bringing you near the melee tonight.”
I winced as he drew my right hand across the table. “That wasn’t her fault, either. I sort of threatened her.” He gave me a look that said, really? I straightened defiantly. “With a dagger, not words. And I would have stabbed her, too, because she wouldn’t let me out the door.”
“It wouldn’t have killed her,” he said quietly, tilting my hand this way and that to see the cuts.
“I know, but it would’ve given me enough time to get out of the room.”
My cuts weren’t that bad, but they were full of dirt and grit. The ones from the spill I’d taken on the cross-country trail were way worse. Aries stood and walked through the library to another room I hadn’t seen, returning with a basin of water and a clean, white cloth. “It must be cleaned before I heal you or the debris will remain in the wound once it’s closed.”
He reached for my hand again, but I held it in my lap stubbornly. “I’m fine. Honestly.”
“Give me your hand.”
I shook my head. “I’m good.”
“You’re being ridiculous. It has to be cleaned.”
“It’s going to hurt,” I argued.
“Of course it will, but the pain might remind you not to be so foolish next time,” he chastised, though I could tell he wasn’t really scolding me. Oh, no. There was humor in his tone.
“Are you laughing at me?” His lips curled into a smile. I sat back and gave him my right hand. “I can’t believe you’re laughing.” Glad I can entertain him.
His hand tightened slightly and his smile slowly faded. “I owe you several apologies.”
For the first time since he’d woken, Aries looked nervous.
“For what?” I asked, wondering if he was going to tell me why he’d sent Xavier away.
Things That Should Stay Buried Page 21
