to ache in the kitten heels. I longed to unclasp them and kick them off.
Kes noticed my struggle and suggested that since it was getting late, Xavier might want to go home. His dwelling wasn’t especially close to the castle, and it would take him some time to walk home.
“Can’t you just take him?” I asked, forgetting how painful it was for Kes to make me disappear with him back home. He agreed, making me wince.
I watched as he placed a hand on Xavier’s shoulder. “Time to go,” he said to my prom date.
Xavier shot me a confused look but went with it. “Goodnight, Larken. I hope you enjoyed—” He disappeared, his garbled scream filling the room. The candle’s flames flickered in their wake.
Aries dismissed the Guardian musicians and nodded in their direction. “How do you recognize them apart from humans?” he asked, the slightest hint at curiosity lacing his deep tone.
“There is something about their eyes. They’re sharper, maybe. More aware, like they see more than most. They’re quiet; more perceptive and observant.”
One side of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “You call them observant, but no one else has ever been able to distinguish them.”
“Well, being able to tell them apart from humans won’t save me from a Zodia who wants me dead,” I blurted before thinking.
The musicians tucked their instruments back into their cases. Grabbing the handles, they picked them up and hurried from the room, their eyes flicking toward us warily.
“You don’t believe I can protect you,” he accused.
“If it comes down to a fight against one or two of them, yes. I believe you can fight and win against any of them. But what if they all come? What if they strike when neither of us expect it?” Like Pisces did today, I wanted to add. But he already knew what I was thinking.
“I shouldn’t have left you unguarded, even for a second,” he lamented. “I failed you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did!” he suddenly shouted. “If Aquarius hadn’t followed her, if he…” Aries pinched his lips and his words were as severed as my air supply had been when Pisces held me under the surface of the water.
“I hate that he made you pledge to me,” I breathed.
“Why?”
Aries looked genuinely hurt as he waited for my answer. It took a moment for me to garner words to explain what I meant without hurting him again. “You are responsible for an entire group of people, but this pledge distracts you from them. I’m just one person. I shouldn’t matter this much.”
As he visibly fought for control, I saw what Kes warned me about. Aries wasn’t human. I couldn’t expect him to behave like it.
He swept the candelabra off the table and all the light in the room winked out, followed by the sound of dishes, silverware, and glasses crashing to the floor, splintered shards racing across the polished stone. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, helped by the single sconce that flickered from the hallway, illuminating the doorway. I saw the silhouette of Aries pacing a few feet away. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and…
I was just about to apologize for upsetting him, but then I thought better of it. How dare he throw a tantrum just because I said what I felt! Did he consider for a moment that it was the pledge making him feel so off balance – even now?
He prowled toward me lithely. Dangerously. I backed up until my legs bumped the table, until the back of one of the chairs cut into my bruised side, making me wince.
He slid closer.
Closer still, until his tunic brushed the sequins on my dress.
Then he tenderly took the end of a strand of my hair, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger.
“How is it possible,” he asked quietly, so softly it made my chest ache, “that you grow in beauty with each passing second? Or that my need for you doubles with every breath?”
I swallowed thickly.
“I tried to push you away tonight,” he admitted, his breath tickling the curve of my neck. “I tried to give you your prom, your boyfriend, the dinner you craved… I tried to push you toward Xavier. But you don’t want him, do you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
As my pulse raced, it seemed like he fed on the rush he caused. His pink eyes glowed in the darkness as he dragged them over my skin, over my shape, highlighted by my dress.
“Because he’s not enough,” I confided. No one was. Not since Aries