Libra Ascending: An Epic Urban Fantasy Romance (Zodiac Guardians Book 1) by Tamar Sloan (adult books to read .TXT) 📗

any girl faint. But it’s not beauty she’s looking for, and neither of those speak to her.

Sitting next to each other at the top of the case are a pale purple stone and a shimmering pink stone. For whatever reason, she feels drawn to both. Why? She can’t tell if her desire to pick up the purple one stems from the fact that Tristan’s is a deep purple and this one would likely be for his counterpart. But she knows nothing about Zodiac signs and gems associated with them, that could be totally wrong. She inwardly curses her social ignorance.

The sound of Tristan’s harried breathing urges her to make a decision. Thinking it better to try the pink one and fail than going for the purple and failing, she hastily grabs the pink stone.

To her surprise, a euphoric sense of warmth saturates not her body but her soul. The pink gem in her palm shines, illuminating everything in the basement with a sunset-like sherbet glow.

With the sense of rightness that just infused Brielle.

A glee that she’s never known fills her chest like a balloon, and she wants to jump and dance for joy!

This is the reason for everything! Her visions, her lie-detection, her orphancy. This tiny yet beautiful rock holds within it the truth of who and what she really is. An alien princess destined to join a battle to save the Universe.

Alden wasn’t wrong about her, he didn’t die in vain! Tristan wasn’t wrong about her. She really is a Zodiac Guardian.

With a smile so wide that her cheeks feel pinched, she turns to Tristan, expecting an equally joyous reaction.

It’s not there.

Her smile falters.

The joyous bubble pops.

She’s not the Gemini Princess.

A part of her says that shouldn’t matter. She is still an alien princess, a Zodiac Guardian. She should still be outrageously jubilant to finally have the answers to every question she’s ever had.

But she isn’t, and neither is Tristan. They both wanted her to be the other Gemini. The other half to his whole.

If she’s not, what does this all mean? The connection between them that feels stronger than the gravitational pull of the sun, the burning delicious feeling she gets when he touches her. None of it makes any sense if she’s not her.

Tristan has a soulmate out there. He’s destined to be with someone else.

That realization is crushing, squeezing out any lingering joy that had survived the popped bubble.

But if she’s not the other Gemini, who is she?

As if seeing the unspoken question in her eyes, Tristan says with a heavy sigh, “Libra. You’re Libra.”

Libra?

Her shoulders slump. “Tristan… I’m so sor—”

“It’s okay,” he cuts her off. He forces a small smile, shaking his head fervently. “This is good news. Really. You are a Zodiac as I thought, as Alden thought. This means we’re one step closer to reuniting with the rest of the Guardians and defeating Chardis.”

She nods, even though they both know she can sense the lie in his words.

She’s not his soulmate. So much for avoiding a broken heart. This is one wound she’s certain will never heal, and will in fact deepen when he does find her.

She shuts her eyes and turns away from the thought.

They have more important things to worry about, like rescuing Tristan’s parents.

She swallows her despair and asks, “So, as the Libra Guardian, now that I have my stone, what are my powers? You said the stones amplify things, right?”

He nods and rubs the back of his neck. “Honestly, I should have known from the start. Your ability to sense when someone’s lying. It should have been obvious, but I didn’t want to see it.”

She ignores the implication. “I also get visions of people when I’m close, when they feel guilty about something. I can see the bad things they’ve done. And just recently, I discovered I can amplify their guilt. That’s how I made Suki confess her infidelity to Zayne. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t even know I’d done it until it was too late.”

Tristan slaps his hand to his forehead. “That’s right! That’s your offensive weapon!”

Brielle scrunches her brow at him. “I hardly see how making someone face their guilt is offensive. Psychologically, maybe. But it still makes me no good in a fight.”

“No!” He shakes his head fervently, his blue eyes burning with hope. “Now that you have your stone, it’s so much more than that. Zarius called it a Penance Burn. Basically, you amplify someone’s guilt to such a degree that it inflicts physical pain. Depending on the level of guilt, it can even kill someone! With all the horrible things Skins do, you’re likely to burn them alive! This is great!”

A miniature big bang erupts in Brielle’s mind.

She’s capable of killing someone just with guilt?

She’s not sure she wants that power. What if she accidentally uses it on someone who doesn’t deserve it? She doesn’t have control of her powers as it is, and now they’re considerably more powerful.

In the words of Tristan, it scares the pitch out of her.

“We actually have a real chance to fight against the Skins!” His excitement is so thick, she could scoop it with a spoon.

“I’m not so sure about this,” she confesses. “I don’t have control of my abilities. What if I accidentally kill an innocent person?” She looks down at the pink stone in her hand, and it feels like a hand grenade.

“That can’t happen,” he assures her. “If you turned your power on an innocent, they’d feel nothing. It only hurts them if they have done truly deplorable things. It depends on their degree of guilt. The more people they’ve hurt, the more wrongs they’ve committed, the more they have to feel guilty about.”

“So if I used my powers now on Suki? What then? Would she burn?”

“For cheating on a high school boyfriend?” He frowns, then scoffs. “She may feel a bit of discomfort, but you wouldn’t burn her alive.”

“How do you know?” she pleads. From what Tristan’s said, he was a baby