The sea breeze blew steadily, raking through my hair and through the fabric of my dress, drying the blood into stiff ribbons that hung heavily from my waist. The ocean roiled below me, and I glimpsed the outskirts of a larger village off to the side of the balcony. I could tell Taurus hadn’t bothered raising homes for his people, likely because he didn’t deign to care about their wellbeing. In the absence of a proper shelter, the humans had erected small tents comprised of clothing that had been torn apart and knotted together, their only respite from the punishing sun and rain.
A few children lingered outside one of the tents. I could barely see them from this distance, but I could see the dark hollows beneath their eyes. One held his tiny stomach.
Was he feeding them?
Catching me staring, the kids scampered back into the meadow of tents and I lost sight of them.
The kids didn’t come back to the edge of the tent village, but they stayed in my mind and my heart began aching for them, too.
That evening, the door to my prison opened and someone shoved a cask of water and a loaf of half-burnt bread into the room before hastily retreating. Dark, frightened eyes met mine before he jerked the door closed and twisted the key in the lock again. He wasn’t a Guardian. He was human. And he was scared of me.
Taurus thought I was too weak to fight back. I looked forward to proving him wrong.
I stood at the door and tore into the bread like a feral animal, gulping the water until not even a drop would come out of the cask, trying to build back my strength.
The room was plain. It was empty except for the dingy bedroll on the floor, with no furniture other than the twin chaises outside. I couldn’t see anything I could fashion into a weapon, which meant I’d have to use my strengths to exploit their weaknesses. Starting with the human guard.
Instead of sleeping, I waited by the door. I’d tied my skirts up so I could do what I did best: run. When the man brought my next meal, I would do whatever it took to get out of this room and find my dad.
A garbled scream came from somewhere in the castle; a voice I’d know anywhere.
“Kes?” I ran to the door, beat my palms against the wood, put my ear to it and listened.
Oh no. Tell me he didn’t.
My heart thundered. I twisted the door handle, but it would only move back and forth. Throwing my shoulder against the door did nothing… except wake up the guard stationed outside.
“What’s happening in there?” he asked, hesitating outside the door. I prayed it was the human, and not a Guardian keeping watch.
I made a sound like I was choking. “Help,” I whispered desperately, tiptoeing behind the door, watching as the key turned in the lock and the knob twisted. When the guard pushed it open enough to peek in, I rushed him, ramming him into the wall Aries-style.
It was the human who’d brought my food. He cried out in pain, dropping the key to cover his head, which was bleeding above his temple. Badly. He was disoriented but recovering quickly. Anger flared in his eyes.
I slammed his head into the wall again before he could hurt me and watched his knees buckle, then scooped up the key, locked the door behind me, and ran.
That was when I realized I had no clue which direction to go.
If I yelled, someone would hear and come to investigate.
Another of Kes’s cries rose from a nearby stairwell, making my hair stand on end.
The stairs were dim and murky, lit only by guttering sconces placed haphazardly along the walls, but there weren’t nearly enough of them. There was more shadow than light now that it was dark outside. I padded down the steps with a racing heart.
The walls were devoid of decoration, as empty as Taurus’s heart.
Every cry made my hair raise. Every plea made my blood boil.
I’m coming, Kes.
Aquarius suddenly appeared in front of me, startling me. He put a finger over his lips and dragged me into a nearby room.
“My brother,” I choked, pointing down the hall to the screams still pouring from somewhere on the other end. “He promised to leave them alone.”
“He promised not to hunt them, and if Kes had stayed in Aries’s territory, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“Screw you,” I sneered. I didn’t care if Kes had gotten himself into this mess or not. He was here. He was hurting. And all because he came to save me.
Aquarius cracked the door and glanced nervously into the hall. “The others are all gathered here.”
“All of them?”
He nodded. “All but Aries.”
“Please tell me he’s not coming here.”
Aquarius bowed. “Very well. I will remain silent on the matter.”
“Shit.” I rubbed my temples that were now throbbing. “Will you still stand by his side?”
He cocked his golden head questioningly. “Of course. Aries is my dearest friend. He’s sometimes moody and misguided, but aren’t we all?”
“Will there be repercussions for those who stand with him?”
He shook his head. “None of us are more powerful than the rest,” he replied mechanically. “That’s our curse.”
Kes screamed again. I closed my eyes. “You have to help him.”
Aquarius shook his head. “He trespassed, knowing the consequences he’d face if Taurus caught him.”
“Please?” Tears flooded my eyes.
“The only one who can help him is you, Larken. You know what you must do.”
Aquarius disappeared as suddenly as he arrived, and I realized he was right. I was the only one who could save Kes. But I’d have to take down Taurus to do it, in a room full of Zodia who hated my guts.
I followed Kes’s voice down the hall to a large room. Taurus knew the moment I walked in. He fumed, “How did you get out of your room?”
My brother’s body was on the floor, beaten and bruised. His eyes were swollen shut. A string of thick, bloody saliva hung from his lip and stretched until it hit the stone beneath him. He was broken. “Larken, don’t…” he tried to say.
At Taurus’s right hand was Libra, her pale, scaled form drawing up to make her taller. Even her slitted eyes were colorless. She locked them onto me, her tongue flicking out to taste the scents upon the air. I hoped she tasted my anger. I wanted to rip every one of her scales off, one by one.
Then there was Gemini. I hadn’t seen her very well from the balcony that day, but now that I saw her up close, I realized that was probably a good thing. She had two heads, both glaring at me with matching sneers stretched across their mouths.
Kes coughed, blood spraying from his mouth onto the floor.
Cancer snapped her claws nervously. Click. Click. Click. She prattled anxiously back and forth across the floor, as if unsure how to proceed.
Leo’s thick tail flicked agitatedly. He shook out his golden mane but never took his amber eyes off me. A rumble poured from his chest. I imagined lounging on his pelt on one of Aries’s plush couches, or maybe in front of the fire. Either would be nice.
He snarled as if he could hear my thoughts.
Pisces’s mouth gaped as she turned toward Sagittarius, her jagged fin swishing back and forth in a slow cadence. Beside her, Sagittarius cantered in a circle, raising his humanlike torso. I could see the tip of his bow and the fletching of his arrows sticking out of his dark, leather quiver.
True to his word, Aquarius approached and stood beside me on the right, folding his golden hands in front of him serenely. Taurus shot him a sinister smile, along with a look of challenge.
Capricorn’s hooves clacked over the stone floor as she joined us, positioning herself on my left. Virgo made no move. Even as Aquarius glared at her, imploring her to join us. I couldn’t help but laugh. It echoed across the ceiling and slid down the walls.
“I thought Gemini was the only two-faced bitch in he
re, Virgo,” I taunted.
Aquarius fought back a laugh, pinching his gilded lips together.
Just then, something shadowy and dark emerged from behind the line of beasts, squeezing through the ring of monsters.
Scorpio was beautiful. His skin was so slick and black, he looked like he’d been carved from obsidian. His face was delicately sculpted and beautiful, and his cheekbones looked like they could cut glass. Surprisingly, his eyes were the brightest shade of blue. The color of the sky in the middle of a clear day.
He walked around the room, his hooked tail’s barb pointed at his target. Us.
Aquarius chuckled beside me. I glanced toward him. “What is so funny?”
“Just watch their faces,” he whispered.
It was hard to watch anything but Kes as he tried to pick himself up off the floor. I started toward him, but Aquarius caught my arm. “No. If you go any closer, they’ll strike.”
Scorpio slowed and inclined his head, positioning himself beside Aquarius. Oh, thank goodness. He doesn’t want to stab us with his tail sword, after all. He’s on our side.
I watched Taurus’s face turn a mottled shade of crimson. “Scorpio? Is this your final choice?”
“It is,” the behemoth beside Aquarius answered in a booming voice. “Aries is no longer pledged to the girl. He is no longer more powerful than any of us, and she has never threatened you. You have no right to kill her simply because you made the mistake of siring her. Her lifespan is nothing compared to yours. Let the girl and her father live out their days in peace, and let your lineage end with her.”
“And if she conceives?” he said.
Scorpio shook his head. “I will not deign to repeat my answer. I stand with the girl. I stand with Aquarius and Capricorn. With Aries. And with his Guardian.” He nodded to Kes, who was healing, but not nearly as quickly as he should be.
With that proclamation, the battle lines were clearly drawn.
A moment later, Aries appeared in front of me. He took hold of my face and drew me in for a brief, intense kiss before striding across the floor to Kes and helping him stand.
How long did they torture and beat him before I heard him scream? Rage coursed white-hot through my body.
Taurus chuckled menacingly a split second before charging at Aries, and I sprinted to Aries to help with Kes. Aries quickly handed my brother off to me and I draped his arm over my shoulder, helping him hobble behind the Zodia standing with us and then propping him against a wall. “You’ll heal,” I told him, trying to encourage him to speed it along if possible.
He was so weak, so broken. I tried not to let the worry I felt show on my face.
Taurus still could not best Aries. Though he tried again and again, lowering his head and plowing the swords on his head toward Aries’s heart. I gritted my teeth and winced every time he reared back and rushed him again. Then cheered Aries on as he deftly avoided every puncture.
The castle shook from the clashing of the two titans. The stones ground together with each blow, grit falling to the floor all around the room. “This has to stop,” I murmured.
No sooner did I get the words out did the world explode as the other Zodia entered the fray.
Libra, Gemini, and Taurus aligned and attacked Aries as one. Libra coiled her body and used the power in her muscles to strike, needle-sharp fangs snapping at Aries as he batted her away. She slid several feet across the polished floor, landing in small puddles of Kes’s blood, staining her pristine scales red.
Gemini ran around to attack from behind as Taurus once again tried to gore Aries. He stepped out of the way and Taurus almost speared one of Gemini’s heads instead.
Scorpio and Sagittarius squared off while Leo stalked nearby, looking for an opportunity to pounce on our new ally. The scorpion’s barb jabbed at the centaur, driving him backward.
Aquarius attacked Leo before he could enter the fray, driving his trident toward the feline’s spine. Leo sprang forward, his claws raking across Golden Boy’s golden chest. Gouge marks appeared over his torso and golden blood pooled, just before the marks healed and disappeared.
None stronger than the rest.
Kes coughed beside me. “Larken,” he said, his swollen features still garbling his words. “The only thing that can kill a Zodia…” He hacked again.
“I know,” I told him, then froze in place with my hand on his shoulders. “The blood of their blood. Me.”
“Not you,” he coughed. “Your blood.”
“Literal blood?” I gasped. He nodded weakly. “Oh my God, Kes.”
Pisces held Capricorn at arm’s length as the goat-woman pushed her across the floor, slamming her shimmering form into the far wall and leaving a long trail of water in their wake.
“Kes, I need something sharp.” His eyes flared in understanding and he clutched his ribs, disappearing in a blink. When he reappeared with an axe, my eyes popped open in alarm. “This is the best you could do?”
“It’s the only thing I saw that was sharp when I got here.”
Great. I gripped the thick, wooden handle.
“Larken?” Kes said.
I looked at my broken brother and saw ferocity in his eyes. “Run fast. Finish first.” Kes said the same words before every race. Because he believed I could win. And right now, I knew he believed I could kill Taurus.
I reached down someplace deep inside, someplace that knew he was right, and brought the blade to my palm. Just as I was about to drag my hand down the length, something knocked it and me away. It took a minute to catch my breath, and a few more precious moments to realize what had happened. In a daze, I noticed the battle between Sagittarius and Scorpio was raging perilously close to where I lay on the ground. When Sagittarius’ hooves stomped dangerously close to my head, Scorpio noticed and shoved him away. “Get up!” he roared.
I pushed up as Virgo grabbed my hair and lifted me from the floor. “You bitch,” I seethed, wincing from the pain. “He respected you. He helped you when they hurt Lager. When they killed him.”
Suddenly, the room filled with eleven familiar faces, each mouth emitting a battle cry as Aries’s Guardians joined the fight. Helena roared across the room, fighting off the woman who healed me earlier on Taurus’s balcony. Mohawk from Aries’s castle quickly worked to heal Kes, but they were immediately attacked by Taurus’s Guardians.
Kes couldn’t get to me, but I saw the encouragement in his eyes from across the room.
“He’s not coming to save you,” Virgo chided sweetly.
“That’s good,” I told her, shoving the heel of my palm into her nose in a quick jab. She looked stunned, her pretty eyes watering as she blinked rapidly. A trickle of blood fell from her nose, but she recovered fast. “Because I don’t need saving.”
I needed to bleed, and if goading her into beating my ass was the way to do it, then so be it.
Happy to oblige, she backhanded me, flinging me into the middle of the melee. I slid across the floor, blood and water coating my knees.
Cancer skittered around me as she tussled with Aquarius. I ducked to avoid her claw-tipped legs and the sharp barnacles lacing her body.
Leo leapt over me. If I’d had the axe, I would have split his stomach open. I glanced to the place it had fallen, pleased to see it still laying on the floor.
Aquarius quickly helped me up, but as soon as I was on my feet, Virgo was there again. Leo took advantage of Aquarius’s divided attention to pounce on his back, clawing his shoulders and fighting to stay on.
Taurus roared, trying to break free from Aries, who refused to relent. Gemini and Libra finally managed to pull Aries away and hold him, giving Taurus the break he needed.
He came for me.
There was no way to break free and get the axe, but there was another way I could make myself bleed. If my blood was the way to end him, I’d have to make absolutely
sure I didn’t miss.
I found him in the chaos and like Kes suggested, I ran like hell, keeping my eyes locked on him. I found the veins stretching blue beneath my skin and bit into my wrist. Hard. The coppery taste of blood flooded my mouth and spilled down my chin onto my chest, then dribbled onto the floor.
Before Taurus could realize what was happening and dart away, I sprayed him with my blood as it pulsed in time with my heartbeat. My blood spritzed his face, coating it with small, scarlet droplets, no more consequential than beads of sweat. He stopped abruptly, stunned, his mouth ajar.
The fighting went quiet around us as everyone watched Taurus carefully. I clamped my right hand over my left wrist to stop the blood from flowing out too fast and watched just as intently.
Nothing happened.
I stumbled to my right, hoping Aries wasn’t wrong about that one forbidden thing being their downfall.
I needed Kes. My feet slipped in a puddle of my blood.
My blood did not kill Taurus.
My blood is gushing out of me. Fast.
“Larken!” Kes cried, trying to get to me. “Hold it tight! Raise it above your heart!” he shouted. He started toward me, when one of Taurus’s Guardians grabbed the axe, raised it faster than humanly possible, and swung.
Aries disappeared, trying to reach his first in command as I screamed and scrambled toward my brother. The sharp blade lodged in my brother’s heart, breaking through the ribs with a sickening crack. His mouth fell open in shock as his eyes went wide.
I couldn’t breathe.
Aries appeared beside my brother a second too late.
“Kestrel!” I shrieked.
I finally made it to him as he fell to his knees. Aries and I eased him to the ground. “Heal him!” I cried, my blood coating everything I touched. A gurgle bubbled from his throat. “Kes, hold on. Please, hold on for me.” I looked at Aries and pleaded one last time. “Can you heal him?”
One look at his regretful pink eyes, and I knew he couldn’t do anything to save him.
Kes’s eyes went blank, then turned to glass. They fixed on my face, then slid upward to the ceiling, unfocused. That was the moment my heart broke.
Things That Should Stay Buried Page 29
