Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,14

domed but was painted to look like it was. However, that wasn’t the most amazing part. The entire thing was painted to look like the night sky, one constellation shining brighter than the rest… the stars of which glowed, somehow lit from behind.

Aries.

Kes hovered over a marble slab but turned as I approached, blocking my view and moving in front of me when I tried to peer around him. He gripped my upper arms with the same intensity he’d used to clench the steering wheel this morning. “What you are about to witness, you can never breathe a word of.” I nodded. “And for goodness sake, keep your mouth shut. He’ll be disoriented and… never mind. Just don’t say a word. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe.”

“He?”

Kes’s grip on my arms tightened. His blue eyes burned. “Not a word, Larken.”

“Okay, jeez.”

“I’ll explain more later, but there’s no time now,” Kes said, turning around.

When he moved, I saw what he’d been hiding behind him. A young man lay on a marble slab. His hands were folded over his stomach, and in the place of each fingertip was a sharp, slightly curved claw. Each was dark blue to the first knuckle, where the sapphire hue shimmered. Not like death had touched him, but like he’d dipped his hands into the glittering night sky and dragged them through the surface.

My God, he was beautiful. So perfect I couldn’t stop studying him. His arms, chest, and legs were chiseled but not bulky, the planes highlighted by the eerie blue light.

My feet slowly carried me closer. My fingers flexed as if they wanted to touch him. To see if he was real.

He didn’t look much older than me, but a feeling in the pit of my stomach said he was much, much older.

His skin was ashen, his brows almost black. The dark slashes were settled peacefully as he slept, but I could picture them slanting in disapproval and stared to make sure I hadn’t seen the expression flit across his face. His hair was dark, though I couldn’t tell its true shade because it was highlighted with a sapphire hue from the lighting in the room. Except for the two obsidian horns that curled proudly from his head like those on a ram, he looked almost normal.

I wanted him to open his eyes to learn what color they were.

He wasn’t like Kes. His body and face were his own. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I did. The entire room was constructed for him. To protect him. Maybe even to honor him.

But what was he?

Angel? Demon? Something worse?

The cut of bare, flawless skin was interrupted by the smallest trail of hair that led from his belly button and disappeared beneath a pale loincloth that lay over his groin. My eyes continued their trek down the length of his body. The muscles in his legs looked like they’d been carved from marble. How long had he lain there?

Kes stood beside the man’s head and closed his eyes, then began to speak in a language I didn’t recognize. He whispered so quietly, almost murmuring under his breath, that I could barely hear him, the words blurring, ebbing and flowing until he opened his eyes, quietly watching the entombed.

Kes said he would be disoriented when he awoke, but he never stirred. Never took a breath.

His chest was still.

So terrifyingly still.

It was all I could stare at as he lay there.

I inched closer. Kes snapped at me to stay back, then he yelled for me to stay across the room while he woke him. My heart thundered at the thought. I walked backward until my shoulder blades met the wall, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the strange man.

I wanted him awake.

I wanted to see his eyes.

I wanted to see his chest rise and fall.

To see his muscles ripple beneath his skin.

To see if he moved as lithely as I imagined he would.

His chest was still, but he wasn’t dead, I knew that much. I could almost sense his energy, and his body didn’t feel empty like Kestrel’s was for a time. Even in slumber, his overpowering presence filled the room. The star-shaped flowers began to twitch, curling toward him like he was their sun, their source of life. Kes whispered over him and the air shimmered with a powerful magic I could taste but couldn’t begin to grasp, bittersweet and dangerous.

His dark lashes fluttered and he mumbled incoherently, though I wasn’t sure if he was