Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,110
bad – just before you perished. Maybe it was your brain trying to remember so it could cling to life and give you a reason to fight.
Or maybe it was just the way it processed things before shutting down.
Aries’s teeth ground together as he watched my memories unfold, then he went quiet, his mouth falling open slightly. I was remembering him. Him waking up. The flowers curling toward him. His eyes. The way my heart caught in my throat when he first looked at me.
His loincloth…
When he drew his blood and painted his protection on me. When he fought Taurus away. When he brought me here and took me to get my things, and when he gave me everything I needed. He tried to make me comfortable, knowing the task wouldn’t be easy.
When he tried to use utensils and his claws wouldn’t cooperate.
My eyes filled with tears. They spilled onto the stone at our feet.
He’d spoken to his people, trying to calm them. He’d shown me the balcony leading to the stars – the very things I needed.
Scenes of the prom he arranged for me to have with Xavier, and the sexy kiss Aries gave me afterward, of him banishing Xavier, but still taking me to make sure he was okay, of him with Aquarius, and then him with Virgo. Capricorn’s visit. There was him racing with us and laughing. Of us in the library, of the way he looked after Pisces attacked.
Of the feel of his lips and hair and horns.
I looked up at him. His eyes were closed, the dark lashes fanned across his cheek. When the images stopped, he finally opened them.
He was still. I was afraid to move, afraid to breathe.
“Say something,” I pleaded.
He swallowed and removed his forehead from mine but kept hold of my cheeks, his thumbs brushing my jaws. Then his lips crashed into mine and he gathered me close, pressing me into his body and spinning us in a deliciously slow circle.
He knew how I felt and obviously felt the same way. I felt like laughing and crying, and when he pulled away, I was doing both.
Even as my heart caved in, knowing this couldn’t last.
But I drank this moment in.
I would take every precious, stolen moment with him until my moments ran out.
A thousand unspoken things were said between us as our eyes searched one another’s. For once in my life, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have words big enough to express what I was feeling, so I decided to go with a classic.
“I can’t remember if it was in Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, but William Shakespeare wrote, ‘When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.”
My heart beat in time with his as he captured my mouth in a soft, agonizing kiss. When he pulled away, he whispered, “I couldn’t agree with him more.”
It just wasn’t fair! There was no way we could win. If Taurus didn’t gore me – which, let’s be honest, there was a one hundred percent chance he would – I’d have to leave Aries anyway. They said I’d become Zodia if I slaughtered my bullish ancestor.
He grabbed my hands and brought them to his cheek. “Larken-”
Kes was suddenly close. “What is it?” I asked, immediately on guard.
I guessed I hadn’t hit rock bottom yet, because there was more to lose. I could almost feel it being snatched away.
Aries took a steadying breath. “Taurus’s dream was a warning, but he saw your mind while you were trapped in his nightmare. He saw everything.”
He knows how I feel about Aries?
“He saw your life in moments… He saw your mother.”
I gasped, raking a trembling hand through my hair. “No.” I shook my head. “This can’t be happening.”
“He’ll show the others. It’s only a matter of time before they find her in Libra’s territory.”
I looked to Kes. “You have to do something.” Tears welled in my eyes. “Please, Kes.”
He closed his eyes, a tear streaking down his cheek. “I can’t,” he croaked.
“Is that what I’m feeling?” I asked, stepping away from them both, clutching my stomach. Did they already have her? What would Libra do to her? What would Taurus do to get his claws on her?
“They’ll try to negotiate a trade, you for her, or you for both of your parents,” Aries supplied. “But you can’t consider it, Larken.”
“Why would he let Dad go? I mean, I’d love for him to be safe, but he’s a descendant, too.”