Things That Should Stay Buried

by Casey L. Bond

He gazed at me shrewdly. “The strike was impressive, however, all that came before it was not. You need more practice, but perhaps another day. And perhaps with Kes.”

  I nodded, still gulping air. “If you can’t handle it, sure.”

  Wrong. Thing. To. Say.

  Aries laughed darkly, the deep timbre filling the room. He pulled me to him, flush with his skin. “You think I can’t? You know the games you’re playing, Lark…the teasing?” He brushed a finger on the knotted fabric closest to my collar bone. “You can’t win.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “Maybe I need a better instructor than Kes. Someone more thorough. I wonder if Aquarius would help me. I could dress in gold for him.”

  “I would rather die,” he gritted.

  My eyes widened as I took in his harried breath, the way his teeth raked together, how his hand had tightened on my arm.

  His eyes blazed in the split second before he disappeared from the room, the warmth from his hand lingering on my arm.

  ARIES

  I raked my claws through my hair, tugging at the ends, pacing the floor of my room and telling myself I shouldn’t go back to her.

  To kiss her until she couldn’t breathe and forbid her from ever wearing gold again.

  25

  I sat on the balcony with Kes, content and comfortable. He’d ‘shopped’ in the nearest town for two matching Adirondack chairs. They were stark white, made of hard plastic, and looked completely out of place on this medieval stone ledge, but I loved them. He was kicked back, his shoes beside him and his arms folded behind his head, looking more relaxed than I’d seen him since before this nightmare began.

  “When you went to check on Mom and Dad, I was afraid you were never coming back,” I blurted out of the blue, the need to tell him crawling up my throat. “And part of me wanted that. I wanted you to be with one of them. Well, with Mom. She loves you so much, Kes. But then I thought about what she’d want. She’d want us together, safe.”

  “I talked to her, but only for a moment. I showed her we were together,” he rasped, tensing once more. “I left her so Libra wouldn’t find her, but I can’t promise she never will.”

  “I know that.”

  He blew out a breath, then sat up and looked over at me, placing his elbows on his thighs. “Larken, I love Mom, but you are my family. You saw me and accepted me when no one else ever had. You welcomed me.”

  I snorted. “I put a knife to your throat, Kes. That wasn’t exactly the warm welcome you’re painting.”

  “Still.” He swatted at me. “I’d protect you with my life. And much to my chagrin, I know you’d protect me with yours.”

  I smiled. Yep. I would.

  My smile fell away. “It’s been more than forty-eight hours. I know you said I wouldn’t last that long unless I took Aries’s mark, but I think we’re both shocked I lasted this long anyway.”

  He swallowed and looked down, picking at an imaginary thread on the seam of his jeans. “Taurus won’t stop, Larken.”

  “I know,” I answered. It was a truth I’d already accepted. I felt it somehow, someplace deep down I didn’t even realize existed until the Zodia woke.

  “It’s good that he’s teaching you to fight, but I want you to know that if it comes down to him or you, I will fight by your side.”

  The wind blew my hair across my face. I swiped it back and locked eyes with him. “You can’t do that. You’re his Guardian, and you were his friend long before that.”

  “Yes, but I’m your family. I will fight by your side, and if you die, I’ll gladly be unmade with you.”

  I swallowed, praying that never happened. A stone formed in my throat. “Love you,” I croaked.

  “I love you, too,” he said, a steady, unflinching resolve in his voice.

  I was standing in front of the fire, tugging the little rubber bands out and working the braids from my hair, when I heard someone speaking with the Guardian posted outside my door. I was prepared for Kes or Aries to burst in, so I was surprised when they knocked instead. Surprise bloomed in my chest when I opened the door to find Aquarius standing there.

  “Hey,” I greeted lamely.

  He smiled. “You did well the other night. I see you took my advice, too.”

  Don’t be what they expect when you’re so much more.

  I looked around him into the hallway. “Where’s Aries?”

  “In his chamber,” he said, waltzing past me and into my room. I lingered near the door, wedging into the frame and leaning against it. “Has he spoken to you yet?” he asked coyly.

  “About…?” I let the word hang in the air.

  He smiled a golden smile and shook his head. “He’s acting like a fool.”

  “Isn’t he your friend?”

  “Indeed,” Aquarius answered. “That’s why I feel the need to protect him, even if it’s from himself.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was too tired to play his games tonight.

  Aries suddenly appeared behind me, his chest bumping my shoulder. I stood up straighter at the contact. “Hey.”

  “Leave us,” he commanded Aquarius. I’d never heard him speak so harshly to his friend, to the one who might be his only ally amongst the Zodia.

  Aquarius toyed with my jewelry box, fingering the gold earrings inside one of the drawers. Aries would not look at me. Aquarius finally turned around. “Tell her. Soon. Or I will,” he threatened. With that, he disappeared.

  Aries was warm. The heat from his chest seeped through my hoodie. “What was he talking about?” I asked, hoping he would open up.

  “Nothing,” he insisted.

  “Clearly, you’re lying. I guess I can wait until he tells me, then.”

  Aries’s breath fanned my ear, making me shiver. His hands settled on my hips. His claw raked over the mark. “Don’t push me any further,” he warned darkly.

  I wanted to push. I wanted to shove, actually. But something in his tone made me draw back. “I wish you would trust me.”

  “Have I not shown you everything, answered every question you’ve asked?”

  It was now or never. If he really trusted me, he’d tell me.

  “Can the Zodia be killed by humans?”

  His pink eyes flared. A muscle ticked in his jaw.

  “What’s the matter, Aries? Feeling a little untrusting?”

  “I trust you implicitly, but I can’t help but wonder why you want to know.”

  “I don’t want to die.”

  He levelled me with a glare. “And I’ve told you that I will protect you. Perhaps it is you who doesn’t trust me.”

  He left me alone in my room.

  I raced barefoot over the freezing dark stone through the concentric rings of columns, trying to hide, trying to get away. Taurus galloped behind me wearing a bullish suit of shining armor, his eyes like flames in the night peeking through the slit in the helmet.

  “You cannot run from me. There is nowhere you can go that I can’t find you!” he taunted

  Of all the star signs, why did mine have to be his?

  And why didn’t he just leave well enough alone? Aries wasn’t exerting his excess power over him or the others.

  Speaking of whom, where the hell was he? And Kes? Were the other Zodia attacking them? Distracting them so Taurus could claim me?

  In a flash, he appeared in front of me. I grabbed for my knife, surprised to find my sheath gone. My mouth gaped open in dismay.

  Taurus smiled. “Looking for this?”

  He tossed my dagger away from us and lowered his head. He was going to gore me. He’d done the same to Aries before attacking.

  So I ran like hell, up until the moment something heavy pierced my back.

  He was right. I couldn’t outrun him.

  I looked down, expecting to see
a pale horn protruding through my chest, but found the tip of a silver spear instead. He’d skewered me with one mighty blow.

  I sucked in a breath, unable to let it loose. My ribs tightened and my lungs burned. For a moment, my legs held me up, but they buckled as waterfalls of blood trickled from the entry and exit wounds, slowly soaking down my front and back. My cheek slapped the ground, grit grinding into my skin. It stung when the spear tip was jostled from the impact, slammed back into the wound it had made. A warm tear fell from my eye and splashed onto the stone as Taurus’s hooved feet approached again.

  “Aries will soon see who the most powerful among us actually is.” He planted a boot on my back and broke the metal spear handle off, leaving the metal impaling me.

  He kicked me over onto my back.

  Darkness buzzed in my vision, a storm that roared in my ears. He moved my hair back from where sweat had plastered it to my face and gingerly removed his helmet, careful of his horns. Then he bent and slowly placed his head against mine, attempting to steal my memories. I tried to shrink away, but my strength had fled. This was too intimate, something I only shared with Aries. I didn’t want him to see anything, didn’t want him to have a single part of me.

  The pain, and Taurus, slowly faded away, along with the world. Every good thing I loved about my life flashed through my mind as it shut down.

  I woke panicked and hyperventilating. Tears streamed down my face as I cried out, hysterical. I couldn’t get a breath. I rubbed the spot over my chest where Taurus had impaled me, then tossed the covers off and paced the floor.

  Kes bolted awake and rushed to my side. “What’s wrong?”

  My hands shook and my eyes darted around the room, trying to make sense of what I’d seen. I was hysterical. My God. It felt so real!

  “Larken, talk to me,” Kes pleaded, mirroring my every moment. I loved my brother, but I didn’t need him right now. I needed… I needed…

  “Larken?” Aries asked, gathering me into his arms. “What is it?”

  I sucked in a breath, then began to cough. I backed away from him and ran for the bathroom, tears streaming from my eyes. Once inside, I vomited until I couldn’t anymore.

  Every time I closed my eyes, I remembered the searing pain, the moment Taurus removed his helmet and the look in his eyes as he bent to put his forehead against mine. It was one of triumph and a promise to ruin everyone I loved. Mom. Dad. Kes. Aries.

  I… I loved him. I loved Aries.

  Aries hovered as I stood over the basin with my hands propped on shaking knees, a cold sweat breaking out over my face, neck, and body. He stooped down to pat my back, bringing a damp cloth to my forehead and wiping my mouth with it, then he began barking orders to Kes and the other Guardians. I didn’t see anyone else, but I knew they were there. I could hear them rushing around, only to leave again and return with whatever Aries demanded.

  Kes handed me my toothbrush and paste. I shot him a thankful glance. My hands shook as I applied a line of paste and began to brush. When my mouth tasted clean again, I threw the brush down on the counter and put my hands on my shaking knees.

  “Talk to me,” Aries pleaded. “Please, Larken. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s happening.”

  I laughed. “You can’t help anyway. It was just a dream.”

  I glanced at Kes in my periphery, seeing him stiffen in the doorway.

  “Can you get Helena?” I asked my brother. “She said she’d stay with me while I bathed, and I really want one right now.”

  Aries nodded his approval and Kes disappeared. I straightened and rubbed my chest over my heart, where my flesh and bone still ached.

  How could it still ache?

  “Kes was with you all night,” Aries promised, handing me another cold cloth and pressing another to the nape of my neck.

  “I know.” It wasn’t like I’d actually run into the courtyard, fled for my life, and subsequently lost it to a rampaging bull. I brought a hand to the bruises on my stomach. They still hurt. I winced, but was grateful to feel them, though most were fading now. I was still breathing. My chest moved up and down, up and down as I gulped air, calming myself down.

  It wasn’t still like Kestrel’s had been.

  I’m alive, I told myself again and again. I’m alive. I’m alive.

  I was safe.

  For now.

  Before the Zodia woke, I’d feared for my grades, my cross-country personal records, what college I’d be admitted to, about getting a job and taking care of myself. But those fears were superficial.

  Being a target of these things taught me what real fear was. I’d learned my greatest fear was dying or watching those I loved die, the way Kestrel died in front of me when we were just kids. Deep down, I’d been afraid for so long, I just hadn’t realized it.

  Tears streamed from my eyes again and I started to cry in earnest. Aries approached tentatively with his arms outstretched. Even though he wasn’t in my dream and I knew he wasn’t the one who hurt me, I backed away toward the pool. “Don’t,” I croaked, holding my hand out to stop him.

  He waited at a distance until Helena showed up, her eyes wide with concern. “What’s going on?”

  I shook my head. I’d tell her in a minute. I just needed to get my breath. Besides that, I needed Kes and Aries out of here. And I needed hot water.

  “Fill the pool,” Aries ordered, leaving the room a few seconds later.

  “Kes?” I called out as he turned to follow Aries. “I need time with Helena. Just Helena.”

  He swallowed back a response, but finally nodded. Aries speared me with a concerned gaze, but the two disappeared together.

  The tub was filled in no time and my hands shook as I tried to undress. Helena helped me into the water, which was a good thing because I wasn’t sure my legs would hold me up.

  “You have to tell me what happened,” she said. “I’m worried about you.”

  I tried to laugh and instead sat in the water and sobbed, drawing my legs into my chest. “It was a nightmare,” I finally said. “An incredibly realistic one.”

  “Taurus?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  That was all I had to tell her. She knew.

  “He’s going to kill me,” I whispered.

  She shook her head, her eyes pleading with me. For what, I didn’t know. To fight? Yeah, what a stellar defense I’d put up in my dream.

  My chest still ached. “Why does it actually hurt?” I cried.

  Helena brushed her lavender hair back and looked to the ceiling. “I hate dreams like that,” she said. “When they feel so real, it’s easy to imagine they are. Sometimes, I think our bodies react to them like they would if it had actually happened.”

  “If it actually happened, I wouldn’t be talking or breathing right now, and it wouldn’t hurt because there would be nothing left of my heart and chest but a gaping hole.”

  She sat down on the edge of the tub. “Tell me something happy. Tell me about your grandparents.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know much about my mom’s parents. I never remember seeing them. They sent cards for mine and Kes’s birthday and at Christmas when we were little, but then they stopped. They died when we were little and I remember Mom flew out to handle their arrangements. They weren’t close, I guess.” When they were alive, they never called or wrote regularly. Every once in a while, one of them would call Mom and tell her where they were and ask if we were all okay, but that was the extent of our relationship with them. They didn’t really want to be involved in our lives.

  “Your mom is a Libra?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Dad’s a Taurus.”

  “How close are your birthdays?”

  “We share one, actually. And we shared one with his mom, too. It’s weird.”

  “An identical lineage of Taurean blood,” she said with a sad smile.
“Tell me about your dad’s parents.”

  I took a deep breath. Focusing on something else was making me forget the horror of the nightmare and the pain it left behind, but focusing on my regrets might be more painful than the remnants of my subconscious running wild.

  “They died in a car wreck a few years ago, but they were great. They only lived a town away and would invite us over and come to our house, too. My grandpa was a mechanic in the army, so he worked on cars when he left the military. He could take an engine apart and put it back together piece by piece. He taught my dad everything he knew. Dad was a mechanic, too. My grandma was… difficult. Very stubborn.”

  “So, she was like you?” she teased gently.

  I shrugged, remembering how she would spend hours perfecting her garden, how she became obsessed with every quilt she pieced and sewed, how she and Grandpa would debate about politics until one of them made the other so mad, they’d leave the room and Grandma wouldn’t speak to him for a week. He’d sleep on the couch because of how frosty she was. But then something would ease the anger and the two would be fine.

  Helena kept staring at the floor, her eyes unfocused. I sat up. “Why are you asking about my family?”

  “To ease your mind,” she replied with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  “You’re lying.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “The dream must have been horrible, but that’s all it was. You’re here. You’re safe. Your mom is in Libra’s territory, also safe. Your dad is safe, too.”

  I wanted to believe her, but I knew that tone. She was deflecting like Kes did when I asked a question he didn’t want to or couldn’t answer.

  I climbed from the water and accepted the towel she gave me. “You didn’t wash your hair,” she noted.

  “I don’t care.”

  A thought slid through my mind as I dried off. Helena wouldn’t let me out of her sight, so she walked me to my room. “I need to get my things,” she said. “You get dressed and I’ll get someone else to stay with you for a few while I go get my bag.”

  I shook my head. “How long will it take?”

  “Five minutes?”