Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,48

Guilt and fear swam in his. The brazen attack on his turf had frightened him.

It had terrified me.

I didn’t realize I was shaking until they left and I had a moment to sift through my emotions. I surveyed the puddles of water all over the tiled floor, at my things laying in the water, the clothes I’d picked out soaked.

“I’ll clean it up,” Kes offered quickly. “Go to your room and get dressed.”

I hesitated, afraid to leave his sight.

“I’ll be right outside,” he reassured me. “It’s okay.”

Ugh. I thought bathing was safe, too, but had been very, very wrong about that.

I walked to my room on wobbly knees, my hands trembling as I plucked out new clothes.

I’d watched plenty of movies and read copious stacks of fantasy books. Usually in these situations, the heroine figures out she’s endowed with magical, kick-ass power. Then she uses it to save herself and the world. But I was just me. I wasn’t half-fae or a newborn vampire. I wasn’t even a wolf shifter.

I raked a shaking hand through my wet hair.

Some supernatural power would be great right about now. Some kind of talent. Something. Because I needed to be able to bathe without requiring supervision.

This was the second attack today, if you could consider the encounter with Gemini an attack.

Aries considered it exactly that. He thought Gemini was going to hurt me or he wouldn’t have reacted like that. I remembered the way he felt toward the man whose head he had torn off. She was lucky he hadn’t decapitated both of her heads.

What bothered me about Pisces was the cold, callous look in her eyes, like I was a pesky problem that needed to be fixed, and the only way to solve the problem was to remove me from the equation. She would have drowned me and not thought twice about it because she didn’t have feelings about it. She was cruel and unfeeling, as if my life didn’t matter at all. I guessed in her eyes, it didn’t. She was a monster. Aries might be the one with claws and horns, but he had a heart. In stark contrast, Pisces seemed heartless and empty.

The sliver of a glimpse I’d gotten at Gemini showed me she wasn’t void of emotion. Both of her personalities were filled with self-importance and the need for revenge. She would kill and feel vindicated, her egos inflated.

Libra… I prayed she didn’t figure out who Mom was to me, because if she used her as a pawn, I’d forfeit the game for her. I’d do the same for Dad. If Taurus found out he was important to me… I shuddered at the thought.

Forty-eight hours… Kes’s warning clanged through my mind. Mark or none, he might be right.

I dressed quickly, tugging on leggings and a cross-country tee, then added a hoodie for good measure because I was still shivering. My hair was still dripping, but I didn’t care that my shoulders were getting soaked. I was just happy to be alive and out of the water. To be granted the gift of breath and life for a few moments more.

I was grateful Aquarius had been following Pisces so closely. I just hoped Aries could trust him. Was he only pretending to help just to get close enough to strike? He admitted he was upset when he first woke from his Aries-induced slumber.

Suddenly, it was all I could think about. My breath went shallow and goosebumps blanketed my skin. I ran out of the room with Kes hot on my heels. “Where are you running?” he asked.

“Aries!” I shrilled, sprinting in the direction he’d walked with Aquarius.

Aries suddenly appeared in front of me, catching me, his hands wrapping around my arms so gently it was shocking. He was fine. He wasn’t hurt.

“What’s the matter?” His words were filled with terror.

My heart pounded. I looked him over as he did the same to me. His pink eyes slid over every inch as he held me away just enough to see all of me. Aquarius casually walked up behind Aries, his head cocked ever so slightly to the side.

“You’re trembling,” Aries noted, surprised. He looked to Kes beside me, who shook his head and shrugged.

If I told him what scared me Aquarius would hear, and then they would all think I was crazy.

“She thought you were in danger,” Aquarius said, intuiting my complete and utter meltdown succinctly. “She doesn’t trust me.”

“Is this true?” Aries asked, softening his grip on my arms, his