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

when he came here. How can he be sure of anything? How can he be certain that she won’t accidentally burn everyone to a crisp? Even him?

“Because Zarius knew,” he says with finality. “Zarius worked behind the scenes of the Gemini Court. He witnessed the Guardians in action, and he passed that knowledge down to me. Which is why I should have linked lie-detection to your Libra powers.”

“What does lie-detection have to do with Libra’s power?” she asks, desperate for clarification.

“Libra is the epitome of justice and truth,” he explains, locking eyes with her as if to make his words sink in. “Libra is the Judge of the Zodiac. So it makes sense that you’d be able to sense lies, sniff out the truth, and make people face the wrongs they’ve done. And when those wrongs are severe enough, Libra can punish them.”

They sit in silence for a moment, letting Brielle come to terms with this knowledge. If Tristan’s right, once she gains a firmer hold on her powers, she’ll actually be able to fight for herself, to help Tristan. No one will ever have to die for her again. If only she’d gotten to her stone before Alden showed up. But then, if he hadn’t, Tristan would have never figured out how to activate his suit.

“Now, let’s put your stone to the test,” he says, as if on the same wavelength. “Let’s activate your suit.”

Her leg twitches nervously, and she grips her stone tightly. “H-how do I do that?” Again, the fear that she might fail, might somehow be unable to meet Tristan’s expectations, slices into her, reopening the wound that will never heal.

“Give me your stone,” he says, holding out his hand.

She places it into his waiting palm, and he quickly affixes it to a simple black cord like the one around his neck.

“May I?” He lifts the cord toward her with both hands.

She obligingly gathers her hair into a pile at the back of her head so that he can clasp it around her neck.

He steps closer, a movement that feels so natural. His hands gently lift the cord up, sweeping her jaw as he closes the clasp. His hands linger after, and their eyes meet. His fingertips at the base of her neck raise delicious goosebumps, and the urge to close the small distance and kiss him is hard to resist. His full lips look so inviting, beckoning her closer.

But it’s not to be.

She turns away and lets her hair down, and Tristan removes his hands, his disappointment like a mask on his face.

“Now what?” she asks, her voice cutting through the tension in the air like a knife.

Tristan takes a few steps back, giving her space. “Hold your stone and say the word ‘Akash’,” he instructs.

Lifting her hand to the pink gem now sitting against her collar bone, she braces herself, unsure what to expect. She wraps her fingers tightly around the stone and shakily says, “Akash.”

A burst of light radiates from her stone, rays shooting from the gaps between her fingers. Something cool and solid starts to cover her chest, her arms, her legs, even her face. The process feels like it takes an eternity, even though she knows it must only take a few seconds. She’s so preoccupied with the encasing around her face that she doesn’t realize her fingers and feet, her entire body is fully enclosed, until she looks down.

Unlike Tristan’s midnight purple suit, hers is a dark platinum pink.

“Excellent,” Tristan says, his voice crisp. “Now, we’re ready.”

25

Tristan

Brielle’s the Libra.

Three words. And everything’s changed.

Brielle’s. The. Libra.

As Tristan holds the truck door open for Brielle, he finds he can’t look her in the eye. He should be doing a happy highland jig seeing as he’s found the first Zodiac Guardian. He wishes Zarius had been here to see the gem burst to life in Brielle’s hand.

The pink tourmaline.

But the disappointment is heavier than Tristan expected. It seems to weigh down every cell in his body. And not only is it heavy, each shard is sharp and jagged, embedding themselves into the very fabric of his being. It tells him this feeling won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Brielle climbs in, her hand wrapped around the stone at her throat. It would’ve been good if she had more time to adjust to her suit and newfound powers, but time is one thing they don’t have right now. Once she’d relegated her suit back to its stone, they knew they had to leave.

The Skins have Zarius and Tess.

Climbing into the driver’s side, Tristan clenches his teeth. Obviously, he wanted to find his soulmate so bad that the first Zodiac Heir he came across, he decided she must be it. It was his impatience at its best.

Or worst.

Because now his heart aches as much as the rest of him.

“So, what’s the plan?” Brielle asks, her voice a mix of determination and apprehension.

Tristan pauses. If Brielle had been his Gemini Twin, they could’ve combined their powers. There probably wouldn’t be a fight. Chardis would be running scared.

But Brielle’s the Libra. They’ll have to depend on his fighting skills and her ability to nuke the Skins with their own poor choices.

It’s going to have to be enough.

“The warehouse is going to be surrounded. They’ll want us arriving but not leaving.”

Brielle nods, no doubt having thought of this.

“I’ve spent most of my life learning how to fight. The suit will only make me stronger. I’ll go in first, you back me up.”

Brielle nods again. “And we get your parents out of there.”

Tristan turns the key in the ignition. It all sounds so simple. So straightforward.

But this is the most dangerous scenario he’s ever walked into.

Before he pulls out of the driveway, he turns to Brielle. “If things get hairy, I want you out of there. I can fight, you can’t. We can’t afford for them to capture you.”

Brielle tightens the hold on her stone. “Okay. But I’m going to do what I can to