The Zodiacs

47. Broken Souls

The ground beneath her feet shifted from the perfectly lined limestone tiles to a much more uneven, rough surface.

Both girls immediately recognized the familiar scent that emitted from the warm fire sparks they'd lit so many times before. Not to mention, the teasingly flirtatious wind gusts dancing over their bodies could only belong to an enclosed location in the desert's midst. They knew exactly where they were before they even opened their eyes.

Suma's eyes flew open in surprise, landing on the water sign sitting at the nearest log around the crackling fire before going to anybody else. Her body froze when Keket turned up to meet her gaze with a moment of nonchalance before seeming to realize that Suma had not been anywhere near their location seconds before.

She was just too used to her presence to realize that both girls had miraculously appeared out of thin air.

"You're... alive?" Suma tilted her head in question.

Lotus had the same question, only it was directed to the blonde girl laying on the right wall of the cave. Hadn't the King said that the Dauha Knight killed Zahra before they met for the fateful battle that tore Akil, Suma, Layla, and Lotus away from the rest of them? "Zahra...?" She began in question but a sudden movement deeper into the cave caught her attention.

Aharon shot up from his place on a casual-sized boulder in the back of the cave before anybody else moved. Their eyes met for a brief moment that suddenly terrified Lotus once again, reminding her of the body wrapped in white cloth still laying in front of her.

But Tau jumped from his seat around the blistering fire at the sight of Suma, coming between both of their gazes with a wide grin. "Suma!" He exclaimed as all the other Zodiacs noticed their new guests. Everybody gathered around them in relief that faded the moment they noticed the masked corpse laying on the floor between them.

"Is that...?" Seth whispered, already horrified at the thought that the air sign who'd saved them the first time was the one motionless in front of all of them. But it wasn't Akil.

Lotus knew it.

All the worry of how she would get the other two Zodiacs out of the Pharoah's clutches slipped away the moment she'd met Aharon's green eyes. He was all she could focus on as the fire sign walked over from his secluded location, pushing past the younger girl who gasped at the body in front of her until he stood just a few steps from Lotus.

Her heart began to race when his gaze fell to the lifeless corpse, his eyebrows drawing together slightly with a curiosity that overwhelmed everybody's expressions. She couldn't even understand why, but Lotus's body was quickly growing weak at what she'd just done.

"Who's that?" Zahra stepped up alongside the boy. She was the only one daring enough to ask the question that all the others cowered from. Nobody wanted to know who it was.

Lotus gulped, her entire body beginning to tremble with the same panic she'd had when she begged the Advisor to kill her instead of the twins' younger sister. She'd done it... she'd made the decision that would make them hate her again.

That would make Aharon hate her again.

His green eyes slipped up from the body to meet hers, narrowing ever so slightly in a gesture that seemed to read the girl. But he still had no clue that it was that was driving the single step of anxiety that pulled her away from the others and moved her toward the entrance that looked out onto the black desert outside.

Even Suma turned back to look at her in worry... even she didn't understand the terrible thing Lotus had just done.

Aharon's voice spoke up through the panic beginning to overwhelm the air sign's mind with chaos, calling her attention back to him with a word that made her heart fall into the pit of her stomach. He took a step toward her, unintentionally nearing his dead father's body. "Lotus?"