no one would’ve found the temple.”
“Can I see the temple you built for them?”
He nodded and pressed his head to mine again, so gently it felt like a whisper, like the flutter of eyelash against skin.
The temple wasn’t built above the earth, but carved into the bedrock; a subterranean labyrinth, finer than anything I could imagine in antiquity. The rock of the walls, floors, and ceiling was polished to a glossy shine. Mercury streams flowed under and through the temple. There were statues carved in the likeness of each Zodia in the largest room hewn from the earth. And beside each statue, a smooth stone slab, like the one Aries had been laying on when Kes took me to wake him.
“I hate that you’re sorry you woke.”
And I hated that in a way, I was sorry they had, too.
Aries was good. I thought Aquarius was, too. And maybe there were more that could be considered fair. (Virgo not included.) But the Zodia who weren’t like them – the dangerous ones – made me wish they’d never woken. Even though it hurt my heart to think of Aries leaving, of him going back into his tomb and going still again.
Belatedly, I realized that with our heads pressed together, he could see and hear my thoughts.
“Don’t feel ashamed for thinking what everyone feels – including me, Larken. There are things that should stay buried. We are among them.”
19
Dinner was strangely peaceful. The tension between Aries and Xavier, which at one point threatened to smother us all, was nowhere to be found. I sat at Aries’s right hand, Xavier sat across from me, and Kes sat at my right, opposite Aries.
Maybe I felt calm because there was no haughty Zodia looking down her nose at me or telling Aries he should forget I even existed, that I was nothing. Maybe it was because he’d chosen to ignore her hateful advice.
If it truly had to be that way, and he had to treat me as though I didn’t matter, I would’ve believed I didn’t matter to him. Who could do that to someone they cared about? I didn’t want to be with anyone who could make me feel so unimportant. I wanted someone who would fight for me.
Aries was fighting. He was opening up. Sharing his past, his present, and talking occasionally about the future. And not just his, but mine.
Xavier asked me to hang out after we ate. I could see Aries’s chest rise and pause for my answer. He looked to my friend and gave a subtle nod, his eyes sharpening on Xavier’s features.
“Sure,” I said, trying to keep the question from my voice. “We could go to the balcony, if you want.”
Xavier quickly agreed.
What is going on? I didn’t have the hair-raising, pit-of-the-stomach bad feeling I got when things really went wrong, but something was off. I hated not knowing what.
Xavier and I walked to my balcony and watched thin, fast-moving clouds race across the sky, the moonlight winking between them.
“Dinner was… quiet,” he observed, bracing his hands on the balustrade.
“I thought it was nice.”
He turned to face me. “Can I ask you something?”
My brows knitted, but I smoothed them before answering. “Of course.”
“We’re friends, right?”
“Is that your question?” I teased.
“I’m serious.”
I stood up straighter at his solemn tone. “Yeah, we’re friends.”
“Would you tell me if Aries had plans to attack the other Zodia?”
“Why would he do that?” I asked. My brows knitted. Why is he worried about them?
Xavier raked a hand through his hair. “I’m worried about my family.”
I let out a pent-up breath. I could understand that. “I have family in other territories, too, Xavier.”
“I know. I just… I feel helpless to do anything.”
“We are,” I rasped. “Any of us would do anything in their power to bring their loved ones back from wherever they are right now, but we are powerless, Xavier. You’ll drive yourself insane if you think for a moment there’s anything you can do.”
“But they slept before. Maybe we can find whatever put them under!” he suggested, desperation lacing his voice. “Aries did it; he must know. You’re close to him. I bet he’d tell you how he did it. He’s obsessed with you.”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t tell me that. He’d be crazy to. And he’s not obsessed.”
Xavier’s brow popped. “Seriously?”
I looked away from him.
“I can’t give up this easily,” he spat. “And I can’t believe you can accept this so easily. Unless he’s brainwashing you or something.”
“I’m not being brainwashed, Xavier.