Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,128
on him. It was stupid that I even cared, but I kept asking myself what I would’ve done if it meant that I could be reunited with any member of my scattered family. And in the end, I would’ve done what he did. Maybe worse.
“You doing okay?”
He waited patiently as I considered the question. I supposed it depended on what he defined as okay. I wasn’t falling apart, and while I wasn’t sure any of this was sinking in as deeply or as quickly as I wanted it to, I guessed at the end of the day, I was.
“I think so.” He stood up and offered a hand. “I feel like I’m in a weird new Jumanji movie and you’re Captain Smolder Bravestone.”
“Shut up,” he smirked. “I’m not that handsome. Close – but not quite. And what about you, huh? I don’t know if you look part angel, Valkyrie, or harpy.”
“Depends on my mood,” I teased.
He gestured toward the castle. “I can’t believe you did this…”
“What?” I replied innocently, a grin tugging at the corners of my lips.
“The Cinderella castle?”
I looked at the Disney pennants flapping in the breeze, at the dark blue turrets and elegant spires rising from the soil. My favorite part – other than the moat, of course – was the pale pink tower rising from the stone walls surrounding it. The color reminded me of Aries’s eyes. I shrugged. “It was the most magical place on earth at one time.”
“Remember when we came here when we were kids?”
I grimaced. “Who could forget waiting in lines for hours and the blistering sunburns we all got?”
“Mom and Dad were so upset you wouldn’t take pictures with the princesses,” he reminded.
I rolled my eyes. “Dude, I was fourteen.”
His smile fell away. “They still consider me their son.”
“Of course they do.”
Kes sighed. “I knew how you felt, but I wasn’t sure they’d accept me as anything other than an impostor. I felt like one most of the time. Especially when –” He cut his words off.
“When what?”
Kes pursed his lips together. “Sometimes you’d look at me a certain way, like… like even though you knew I wasn’t him, you wished I was.”
“Sometimes I did,” I told him honestly. “It was easy to pretend at times. I bet it was hard for you to pretend to be someone you weren’t, across all the lifetimes.”
He nodded. “Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn’t hard at all.”
“I hope you tell me about them someday.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start,” he said with a sad smile.
“The beginning is always a good place. And we have forever, so we aren’t exactly pressed for time.”
“I’m sorry again, Larken.”
“Are you?” I asked, stopping and flaring my wings. “Would you take it back now if you could?”
He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t. I would rather have you like this than not at all. The world needs you Larken.”
“I wouldn’t take it back, either. I was prepared to make a deal with Taurus so he would leave my family alone and let you live out your lives, but then you came for me. The moment I heard your voice, I knew I was fooling myself by thinking he’d ever honor any agreement made with me. The only way to make sure you and Mom and Dad and Aries and all his Guardians would be safe was to kill him.”
“Which you did, spectacularly.”
I laughed. “Not the adjective I would’ve picked to describe it. Horrifically, maybe.”
We resumed our slow stroll, enjoying a moment of peace together. “How are Mom and Dad?” I asked carefully.
“Dad’s been helping make a freshwater collection system. You know how he loves tinkering with things.”
I nodded. “And Mom?”
“She’s working alongside him, griping about how to go about building it. It’s entertaining, to say the least.”
“She’s a people person,” I mused aloud. “I think she’d be awesome at helping organize people and resources. Maybe we can set up stations for those who used to work in healthcare, those who can sew, and those who can garden and put them to work.”
“Dad would be forever grateful if you would give her something to do… as long as it wasn’t what he was working on.”
We both laughed. I cocked my head and looked up at the three arched windows where my room was located. “I have a lot of renovating to do. Most of the rooms are useless as they are. They were meant to be illusions for the park.”
Kes smiled. “I know a gal who’s great with renovations.”