Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,41

and draped to her stomach, maintained a stony expression. Gemini was… complicated. Two people in one. Two heads. Two minds. Two moods.

“Where is the girl?” the coy mouth asked.

I straightened, feigning boredom. “You’ll have to be more specific. There are many in my sliver of earth.”

“Ah, but only one to whom you’ve pledged yourself. I sense your blood on her skin.”

The eyes of her right head fixed on the castle, on the balcony, and when she saw Larken and my blood drawn over her eyes… the rigidity faded and a smile slid over her lips, making her look like its twin. “There she is.”

I grabbed both of her throats and squeezed tight. “Leave my territory or I will kill you.”

She let out squeaks from both her necks, followed by choking noises. I squeezed tighter, crushing her slowly. The tips of her toes grazed the ground as she struggled. I expected her to shove me away or somehow break free, but I was too strong and she couldn’t. Both sets of eyes widened with the realization, then bulged. Vessels broke within the whites, flooding red.

Her people would suffer and die if I killed her.

Disgusted, I threw her away from me. She coughed, slumped on her side, and clawed at the ground to get away as I strode forward. “Don’t step foot in my territory or near my pledged again. Next time I will not be as merciful, and I won’t think twice about sparing you to save your people. They’re the only reason I’m showing you mercy now. Them. Not you. You came for a fight. Don’t blame me for giving you exactly what you wanted.”

Rage and power dueled for my control, as well as panic. Larken was off the balcony now. Kes was with her. I could feel him near her, feel his fear.

Did he see the confrontation?

How well did Gemini see Larken? She sensed my blood, but did she have time to study her features? In a blink, Gemini disappeared and I felt her slide back into place in her own territory. She would lick her wounds and then gather the others to tell them what I did. Probably tell them it was unprovoked, but the very sight of her eyes on Larken incensed me.

I appeared before them at the bottom of the small set of steps that trailed from the balcony. I was about to rage at Kes for letting her anywhere near it while Gemini was snooping around, when he snapped at me instead. “Are you insane?” Kes screamed, throwing his hands up. “You attacked her. She’ll come after Larken now!”

“She already came for her! Why do you think I did it, Guardian? And mind your tongue before I tear it out!”

Larken gasped, putting herself between us. “Don’t talk to my brother like that!”

I glared at her, at my blood slicing through her eyes. She might as well be wearing a beacon. The Zodia could sense one another through our blood and mine was painted on her skin. “I want you to take my mark on your flesh. The blood binds my vow, but it makes you stand out. Whomever comes next will be looking for the blood marks. A permanent mark would be marginally safer.”

“A tattoo?” Larken put a fist on her hip and looked at her brother.

“If Aries thinks its best, you should do it. And for the record, I think he’s right,” Kes backed me.

LARKEN

“The mark can be small,” Kes reassured me. “Really small.”

I turned back to Aries. “What’s this mark of yours look like?”

“Kes can draw it for you. He can place it, but once it’s on your flesh, it will be there permanently,” he warned.

Unless someone slices my flesh off, I wanted to sass, but the haunting images I’d conjured of Virgo’s lover being shredded like chicken filled my mind and my sass faded fast.

Kes took my arm and led me back to my room, Aries staring after us. I could feel his gaze on my back, his anger wafting toward me.

I wasn’t sure if he was mad at Gemini for popping in uninvited, or at me for going to the balcony to see what she looked like, against my brother’s vehement pleas for me to stay in my room. I was still a faster runner than Kes and I thought for sure there was no way she’d spot me from so far away. I was wrong.

We wended through the castle until my door came into view. My brother let me go