Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,92

whispered seductively.

My hand stilled. “How’d you know?”

“When you came down the steps… I saw the sheath.” His hand brushed my thigh and my breath hitched. A shiver spread over my hip and slid up my spine, soft as silk.

“It’s not nice to touch another’s knife without asking,” I warned him.

“No?” He grinned.

I shook my head. “No.”

We held the same intangible properties as magnets. Like some unseen force was constantly dragging us toward one another.

Kes jogged up the steps, so I took a step back from Aries. “Did you see Xavier?” he asked, glancing between us.

“Yes.”

“Told you he was fine.”

Ugh. I didn’t feel like telling him what happened while we were there. I knew Aries would share the memory with him, anyway. Were they actually stupid enough to attack Aries? The word yes swam through a bowl of alphabet soup in my mind, though I had no idea how he’d alerted them to our presence. It wasn’t like he could text them.

My stomach chose that moment to growl. “I’m starving.”

Kes snorted. “Let’s find food.”

“I want a hamburger,” I whined.

Kes chuckled. “No can do.”

I missed burgers and tacos and all the garbage teenagers were fond of eating. I would kill for a cupcake with an enormous, swirled mound of buttercream frosting. Real buttercream. Not the fake, whipped cream kind.

24

That evening, Kes and I were racing down the hallway and I was somehow winning. Not by much, grant you, but that was beside the point.

Aries suddenly appeared in my path and caught me. Kes let out a whoop as he crossed our makeshift finish line. “You made me lose!” I growled. Then I started to laugh.

Aries laughed with us. “You’re foot racing?”

I groaned. “You sound a million years old when you say that.”

He shrugged. “I’ll race you.”

“What?” I asked, my mouth gaping.

“Sure.”

Kes looked at him. “She’s faster than she looks.”

His pink eyes glittered at mine. “Is she, now?” His horns were back. And they looked amazing. “See something you like?”

“Not really,” I teased, spinning out of his grip. The mark on my hip tingled and he flicked his eyes toward it. He was doing this to mess with me. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” he asked innocently, looking to Kes for help.

Kes narrowed his eyes suspiciously at us, then jogged to the end of the hall, holding his hands out. “First to tag me wins!”

Aries looked me over. “Have you had enough time to recover?”

He was asking for it. I quickly knotted my skirts at my left side, exposing my right thigh and the knife strapped to it. Aries went still, not even breathing. “Do you need a minute to… recover?” I asked, quirking a brow.

He growled, tearing his eyes away with great effort and focusing on Kes.

“No cheating. You can’t disappear,” I warned. I dug my bare feet into the stone, locking my muscles and getting ready to spring.

“I would never—”

His words garbled as I took off sprinting down the hall. I pumped my arms and pushed against the floor with every step. Suddenly, Aries was beside me. A smile split his face, but I pushed harder and watched it fall away.

He took the lead. My legs burned along with my pride as he slapped Kes’s hand and spun around to face me, a victorious expression on his face. His eyes flicked to my leg. He may have won the battle, but I’d win this war.

“You should learn how to better use the knife,” Aries suggested, not even out of breath.

I took a minute to catch my breath. I mean, he could grapple with muscled bulls, snake women, and centaurs. Of course a little sprint wouldn’t wind him. Besides, by the way his eyes kept flicking back to the blade, I thought I’d wielded it just fine…

“I did okay, didn’t I? Speaking of which, how long will it take for Cancer’s pincer to grow back?”

“Not long, and she could’ve struck you with the other claw.”

But she didn’t. Helena said she was too afraid to lose the second one and be left defenseless. I wondered what would have happened if I’d hacked off both. Would the others have taken the opportunity to end her? Did they have some sort of millennia-old quarrel with her?

“Kes? Want to show me how to better defend myself?”

He glared at Aries pointedly. “It seems I’m needed elsewhere.” With that, my agitated brother disappeared.

I stood there with wide eyes, stunned. “So…” I drawled, turning toward Aries with a hopeful expression.

He gave me a conceited grin but didn’t say a word.