The Zodiacs

33. Rival Alliances

Lotus sighed, placing her hands on her head in building exasperation. She'd lost Zahra. Like a complete fool, she'd lost the girl when she'd gotten spooked by the Dauha Knight, she'd accidentally let Zahra slip from her grasp and now she had no way of locating her again. She continuously tried to focus in on the ballroom where she'd last heard the ex-soldier's voice, but she was no longer there.

"What are you doing?" An all too familiar voice spoke in the silence. She'd slipped away from the group sitting inside the cave to bathe in the anxious panic that set in as soon as she could no longer locate Zahra.

The girl quickly spun around to meet Aharon's dark gaze as his footsteps in her direction slowly came to a stop. Both of his hands were casually placed in his pockets, his head lazily hanging to the side while he watched her. "Oh, n-nothing," she choked under the familiar distrust still held in the way he looked at her. "Why do you want to know anyway? I thought you didn't like me."

"I don't," he answered simply with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "I'm suspicious of you; that's why I'm asking," Aharon clarified, not seeming to care if his words hurt the girl's feelings or not. But she was used to it from him by now.

Lotus snorted at the response knowing it was what she most expected from the cold fire sign anyway. "I'm not out to get you, you know. You can stop being such a dunce," she grumbled, turning away from him with a bothered huff. For her entire time with the Zodiacs, which wasn't very long, Aharon had been a jerk.

"No, but you're the reason other people are," he raised an eyebrow at the honest fact that left the girl in front of him in silence.

He was right. "Fair enough," she murmured, realizing that she would probably need help if she did plan on locating and getting Zahra back. "Zahra's in the Pharaoh's palace."

"What?"

"She said she was going to do it with or without me so I figured I'd keep her safer if I helped and listened in," she began explaining before the man had a chance to get mad at her again for allowing the girl to do something so foolish. "And I did, I heard everything around her but then a Dauha appeared out of nowhere and I got spooked."

"Spooked?" He repeated with lowered eyebrows in clear judgement. "What are you? A horse?"

Lotus threw him a bothered glare. "Humans get spooked, too, doofus." Aharon's eyes grew more unkind at the insult she'd thrown toward him but she continued on when she noticed the angry atmosphere settling around him once again. "Anyway, now I can't find her and I'm worried something may have happened. She should be fine for the most part because I think she's with that nice Dauha, but I'm still worried. I'm probably going to have to go find her."

Aharon watched the girl for a brief moment of silence. "Okay, let's go," he took a step forward but came to a quick stop when Lotus jumped back, wary of him.

"Let's?" She repeated. "You want to come with me?"

"Your microscopic brain seems incapable of doing something as simple as listening in on a girl. Frankly, I'm not against the idea of you getting caught and killed by the Pharaoh, but we need the ex-soldier if we stand a chance against the King," he mumbled casually, resuming his walk over to Lotus. "So, I'm coming with you."

Lotus pressed her lips together and tilted her head, narrowing her eyes challengingly at the boy who finally stepped directly in front of her. He looked down at her, his eyes not conveying a single emotion other than pure carelessness and passive dislike.

Then Aharon spoke again. "But, know this traitor," his tone dropped to a cold, threatening whisper that blew the challenging smirk off of her expression. "I'm not coming with you to protect you. If you get into trouble, I'm not going to look back and I'm not going to help you. What happens to you... that's none of my concern."