Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,28

means a lot,” I told him instead, locking eyes with him as he moved to let me pass through the doorway.

“I’m glad you like it. I worried it might upset you.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t. It’s… it’s amazing.”

His bright smile seemed to light the world.

A heavy knot tightened in my throat. I slid past him and walked to the bathroom next door, letting out a pent-up breath as soon as I locked the door behind me, the loud snick filling the cavernous space.

Staring into the mirror, I took in the bloody marks he’d made over my eyes. They weren’t so bad. I thought I might look a little like Pennywise the clown, but instead they made me look like some sort of Norse warrior queen. I gathered my hair back and looked left, then right. Not bad at all.

They were kind of fierce.

The room’s humidity slid over my skin.

I really, really, really wanted to sink into the tub and relax. The steam beckoned me, but I had given my word, and I would keep it. Aries was keeping his pledge to me. I could do this small favor for him.

I dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved Henley and brushed my teeth and hair, gathering it into a messy bun. The frizz was real this morning and would not be tamed. As I worked through my tasks mindlessly, my thoughts drifted to Aries, who I sensed was still waiting outside.

I’d seen several of his expressions in the short time I’d known him. I noted the slant of his dark brows when he was angry, the way his eyes captured everything around him, the way he clenched his jaw when he was determined, and the way he smirked when he knew it upset someone. But I hadn’t seen him truly smile until just now.

It was nothing short of magnificent.

He was terrifying and beautiful, and his smile was triggered because he did something pleasing for me.

I swallowed thickly, wishing I didn’t like his smile at all, or the feel of his hand holding mine, or that he’d gone out of his way to search my brother’s memories in an effort to make me comfortable, to recreate my room just as I’d left it.

I could feel him through the door. His power radiated from him at all times, but it wasn’t just that.

There was something about him that made me aware of him. Maybe his blood sang from my skin. Maybe it was just his mass, drawing me in like a planet’s gravity drew in its moon…

Whatever it was, it was dangerous.

Okay, so I lamely admit that I never watched further than the first episode of Game of Thrones. Sorry, George R. R. Martin, it just wasn’t my thing. But if I had watched further, I wondered if one of the scenes would’ve looked like the one before me. Aries wasn’t on a throne, per se, but he stood on a platform that was ten steps taller than the humans lined up to see him.

Most people shared the same question. They wanted to know what was happening and whether they’d get to reunite with their loved ones. He addressed his answer to everyone who could hear and promised the message would pass to those too far away to hear but still within his boundary. Aries explained that the earth had been divided, as it was in the time before the Zodia’s slumber. Like wedges of a round cake, each of the creatures had taken a slice (I’m paraphrasing) and called for their people to join them in the section of their birthright. Because we were Aries’s people, we could not live in another Zodia’s boundary; and those who were ruled by another Zodia could not live within his.

So basically, he devastated them all over again. I think deep down they already knew the answer, but before they heard him speak, there had still been a sliver of hope. Once he answered them, there was none.

Some cried, some raged, but only to a point. Most remained silent, letting their anger stew. Aries wasn’t human. He was obviously the most powerful being they’d encountered and pissing him off was a bad idea. Any resistance was dealt with by one of the eleven remaining Guardians who dragged the dissenters away.

Suddenly, Aries raised a hand and his nostrils flared. He went still. Scary still. His eyes fixed on something I couldn’t see in the distance.

He snapped out of the daze and his eyes speared mine as he