Lionel was oozing smugness in a cloud so thick that I was choking on it as I hung from his arm and I was just glad that I'd been in the habit of keeping my face blank as a shadow bitch so that I didn't have to fake smile along with his bullshit.
I was listening though. Every word that spilled from his lips, all the lies about Tiberian Rats and Minotaurs and Sphinxes and all the plans he had to bring them to heel was absorbed and noted. Then anything that might be able to be used to counter his vile plots was passed on to Hamish Grus and his rebels who might be able to do something about them.
More often than not, Lionel had already carried out his atrocities before I reported them, rounding Fae up and holding them in the Nebular Inquisition Centres before anything I passed on could be of any help. But occasionally, Hamish and the Fae he'd gathered around him who wished to stand against Lionel's tyranny would help get people to safety before the King could get to them. And every time I heard that something I’d passed on had saved a life, it made this role I had to play a little easier.
"Ah, if it isn't my first born son," Lionel called, breaking me out of my thoughts as Darius strode out of the crowd dressed all in black.
Black suit, black shirt, black cufflinks, the whole lot. The darkness of the outfit just made him seem even bigger and more intimidating than usual, highlighting the black rings in his eyes and drawing attention to his ebony hair and the stubble on his jaw. I mean shit, he was freaking edible. It had been too damn long since we’d stolen that time alone together from the stars and I was seriously tempted to ask him if he wanted to try for round two somewhere soon. Maybe somewhere less muddy, though it had to be somewhere open…like a desert. Sun, sand, sex…but then there would be sand everywhere and that was never fun. No one wanted a sandy vag. Dammit stars, why do you have to be such fucking V blockers?
"Father," Darius said curtly, his gaze sliding to me for a lingering moment that made heat rise in my cheeks as I decided I’d totally risk a sandy butt crack for him before he dragged his eyes away again.
"Where is your beautiful bride?" Lionel asked him, looking around curiously.
"She got a sudden bout of the shits," Darius replied with the hint of a smirk that told me exactly who was responsible for that. "And let's not bullshit by calling her beautiful, Father, we all know she looks like the rear end of a warthog that's been hit by a bus."
I snorted a laugh before I could stop myself, trying to cover it with a cough and drawing Lionel's attention to me as I worked to school my features.
"Does that amuse you, Roxanya?" he asked, narrowing his eyes on me which wasn't all that surprising as I generally only laughed if I was shadow torturing people in my fucked up shadow dick state.
"It has a ring of truth to it, sire," I replied, giving him the adoring eyes and running my hand up his arm and over the curve of his bicep. It had the strange effect of making me buzz with joy at being so close to him and feel a little like puking up the alcohol I'd consumed. Which admittedly might have been too much on an empty stomach.
Lionel's gaze roamed over my features as I gave him my most simpering look and he nodded lightly before looking back to his son.
"Well, seeing as you're not occupied with your bride, why don't you take Roxanya to get some food? She has a habit of forgetting to eat if not reminded and I'm too busy tonight to fuss over her.”
Darius's jaw locked and he shrugged. "Do you enjoy torturing me with her company, Father?"
"I would have thought that you'd appreciate the chance to spend time with her. You were most thorough in your hunt for her throughout the summer after all. Or has your idealistic fantasy of love finally run its course? Perhaps you've given up on trying to tempt her back from the dark?"
"Never," Darius growled, offering me his arm and I glanced to Lionel for his approval before I took it.
"Then see her fed and stop complaining about your lot in life. I'm handing you a throne here after all - I won't tolerate your ungrateful attitude much longer."
Darius sketched a mocking bow and I stepped forward, wrapping my hand around his forearm and letting him draw me away.
My skin heated where we touched but I didn't dare look up at him, simply walking at his side until we reached the buffet laid out on the far side of the room. I swear I could feel Lionel's eyes on us the entire way and when I turned to look back over my shoulder, the look he was giving me sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
"Eat, Roxy," Darius commanded, accepting a plate of cakes and hand crafted cookies from one of the serving staff and holding it out to me.
"So bossy," I muttered, accepting the food and biting into a cookie, suppressing a groan at the deliciously sweet taste. "Do you think Lionel suspected anything?"
"Hard to tell with him. He's always suspicious. But I think if he had then he would have called you up on it there and then." His brow furrowed with concern for me and I gave him a small smile.
"I'm sure it's fine. Max has been teaching me to shield my thoughts from Cyclops interrogation anyway so even if he gets Vard to-"
"If he or that psychopath ever lay a hand on you again then I'll rip them apart with my fucking teeth," Darius growled, catching my wrist and squeezing hard enough to bruise.
"I can handle it," I said firmly.
It wasn't like I enjoyed the idea of being brought back to that room they'd used to torture me and turn me into Lionel's plaything, but I was well aware I might have to face another visit to it at some point. I just tried not to think about it and made sure to prepare myself as much as I could with Max's help.
Lionel moved out of sight, heading into an antechamber across the room with a man who I was fairly certain was another Acrux and I nudged Darius to draw his attention to them.
"Gabriel said the opportune moment would present itself," I pointed out, quickly eating another cookie because they were to-fucking-die-for and backing away from the food table.
"I'll meet you out in the west corridor," Darius murmured and I nodded, watching him as he strode away through the crowd.
I lingered for another few minutes then turned away too, spotting Seth and Caleb by a side door and walking towards them with purposeful steps.
Seth was tossing olives into the air and catching them in his mouth and Caleb threw me a wink as I skirted past them.
"We'll keep an eye out, sweetheart," Caleb promised in a low voice I was sure no one else heard and I nodded once before heading out of the room.
My heart was thundering as I walked to meet Darius so that we could open up the secret passage to get Gabriel into the building.
He'd been confident that this part of our plan would go well. But from here on out, we'd be flying by the seat of our pants, too many possibilities for him to be certain what course we'd land on.
So for now I'd trust in his vision. And as far as everything else went, I was just wishing for the best.
D arcy and I stardusted to the outskirts of my mother’s property, the icy air whipping around us as we stood in the dark woodland. I listened for sounds of anyone close by, but all was quiet. Darius had messaged to say the Nymphs were at the palace as his father wanted to show off his control of them to his pious followers. For once, we were lucky he was such a vain, prideful bastard. Because his peacocking had opened up a window of opportunity for us. So Blue and I were climbing through it, about to piss all over him. Metaphorically speaking, obviously. But I wouldn’t have minded taking a piss on the Dragon King if I ever got the chance.
We were both dressed in black, but it was just an extra precaution. I’d make sure we were shrouded in concealment spells as we moved. It was going to be an in and out job. No time wasting. And as a Vampire, that was kind of my fucking forte.
“Do you remember where you last saw Diego?” I asked Darcy and she frowned thoughtfully. The moonlight highlighted her face in profile and my gaze slid over her small nose and full lips. Lips I wanted to score my thumb across before claiming, marking, biting – concentrate, asshole.
&nbs
p; “I’ll recognise it when we get closer to the house. It’s somewhere over that way I think.” She pointed off into the trees to our right and I nodded.
I stepped toward the wards, feeling their energy humming close to my flesh as I reached out and angled my palms towards them. My mother’s magic was powerful, but her blood ran in me – much to my misfortune – so I could get onto the property if she hadn’t restricted my access. And as I’d been a prisoner for months, I was betting that she wouldn’t have bothered. As my hand slid through the invisible barrier, I grinned triumphantly, pressing my magic into it and creating a doorway for Darcy to pass through.
“Your carriage awaits, ma’am.” I beckoned her forward and she stepped through the gap.
“Are you my carriage?” she asked.
“Yeah, I forgot my saddle, but you can ride me bareback, right?” the joke slipped out as easily as if we were still a couple and I immediately regretted it.
She punched my arm, but a smile played around her lips and my regrets instantly went away.
“So that’s a yes?” I taunted and she rolled her eyes.
“Stop wasting time,” she muttered, walking ahead of me but she was definitely trying to hide her smile from me. And that made me feel all kinds of good.
I glanced between the dark trees. I needed to mark this area out so we could find it again. I didn’t want to leave anything too conspicuous, but I also wasn’t going to take any risks. If we had to run, or if we got split up, Darcy needed to find her way back to this place.
I used my water magic to cast glinting icicles on the nearest tree, the moonlight just highlighting them if she came looking.
“That’s your way out if things go to shit,” I told her and she gazed up at the icicles in concern. But her expression quickly hardened into resilience. “It won’t go to shit. We’ll find the hat and be gone before you know it.”
I started casting concealment spells and she helped, adding to my magic until the darkness clung to us.
“Okay, let’s go,” she breathed and I turned around.
“Hop on, beautiful,” I instructed and she jumped up onto my back, wrapping her legs around my waist. The warmth of her body against me felt so fucking good and I was seriously not complaining about being her steed for the night.
Her knee nudged the diary which I’d concealed in my pocket, shrinking it down and using an illusion to make it look like a silver coin. It was too important to ever let it out of my sight and I double checked that it was still in place before getting ready to run. I held onto Blue’s thighs as she wound her arms around my neck and leaned in close, her breath on my neck sending a line of heat straight to my dick. This is not the fucking time.
She cast a tight silencing bubble around us and I shot off through the trees, focusing on the task at hand.
It wasn’t long before we made it to the edge of the treeline and I slowed, letting Darcy get down as we hid in the shadows and gazed out across the yard toward my old home. The house was dark, not a single light on inside and that gave me some comfort. No one was here.
The house had obviously been rebuilt since Lionel had levelled half of it, and I noticed a few embellishments and rooms that hadn’t been a part of it before. I hated that my home had been ruined for me. It was where most of my memories of my dad existed, and my mom had managed to tarnish them all. It had once been a place of happiness, but now it was just a place that homed a wicked witch and nothing but misery.
“It was somewhere over this way,” Darcy said and I followed as she led me through the trees, my skin prickling as I listened, keeping my ears trained on the wood. The hoot of a far off owl was like a klaxon in my head and the sounds of nocturnal creatures scurrying and scratching reached me from all directions. That was good though. Nothing was off. It was when the animals went quiet that we had to worry.
Darcy paused as we made it to a more open patch of woodland, gazing around with a taut frown.
“It was here,” she breathed sadly. “This is where Clara fought us. If Diego shifted into a Nymph then he must have left his clothes somewhere.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you that night. All of you,” I admitted, my chest tightening.
It had haunted me ever since I’d found out about it. I’d known something was horribly wrong that night after I’d experienced the agonising pain of Darius fighting Lionel. The need to go to him had driven me insane. I’d tried to fight my way through five guards and ended up locked in isolation for the night, going crazy with worry. I’d broken both hands trying to batter my way through the steel door and had eventually had to be sedated so a medic could heal me.
Being unable to protect my Ward was an agony I never wanted to know the taste of again. But finding out Blue had been there too after Darius had come to explain what had happened had left me in pieces. That day had spiralled into one of the worst weeks of my life. I’d grappled with regrets while facing the bad luck from the stars, ending up in more fights than I could count. Some of Gustard’s unFae assholes had shanked me in the showers and I’d nearly bled out. There was nothing like almost dying on a cold, dirty, wet floor in prison to put your life into perspective.
Darcy gazed at me with an echo of hurt and I knew there was nothing I could do to heal it. I’d fucked up. I hadn’t been there when she’d needed me most. Some part of her probably hated me for that. Even if she’d never admit it.
“You couldn’t have known,” she said with a sad look as she gazed into the trees. “Let’s get looking.”
She set off to search and I started hunting the ground, kicking over leaves as I tried to block out the voice in my head reminding me of how much I’d failed her. But there was one thing I could do at least. And that was find this damn hat. We couldn’t use a summoning spell on it as it was bound to the damn shadows, but it had to be around here somewhere.
We moved methodically across the ground, skimming the debris on the surface as we hunted. I felt the time ticking by and every faraway crack of a twig had my fangs lengthening and my hackles rising.
I hadn’t known Diego all that well, but I’d been starting to like him. At least he’d died valiantly, and in the arms of a girl who adored him. I couldn’t imagine a better way to go myself. And I’d come pretty close to doing it once too. Maybe barring the valiant part.
When we’d turned over every rock and leaf in the area, Darcy gave me a frustrated look that creased her brow.
“It could be anywhere in these woods. What if he shifted a mile away?” she aired her thoughts in frustration, looking out into the shadows between the trees.
“What did he say to you exactly?” I asked.
“Nothing…he just said to take the hat,” she said with a pained frown as she looked to a place on the ground like she was reliving the memory of his death.
I hated seeing that grief in her eyes, it awoke a monster in me that wanted to fight her demons and lay them dead at her feet. This girl didn’t deserve to have so many wounds on her heart. She deserved peace and happiness and a life without pain. If I could have one wish from the stars, I’d wish for that. Alright, and for Lionel to have his power blocked and be kicked off of a two hundred foot cliff. Small dreams and all that.
“Well, it was important to him, so maybe he left it somewhere he would find it easily,” I said thoughtfully and she nodded, biting her lip as she considered that.
“Maybe he hung it somewhere.” She looked around to the trees in the space and I nodded, striding forward with purpose.
“Get on my back again, we’ll do a circuit. There’s no one here, if we use a Faelight we might spot it easier.”
“Alright,” she agreed, climbing onto my back and casting a Faelight in her palm. I locked her legs tight around my waist then started running while she angled the light at the trees and the ground as we searched for any sign of it.
Come on Diego, where did you stash your abuela’s damn soul hat?
I sat at the foot of the stairs in the central entranceway
to the Palace of Souls, waiting for my girl with my heart thumping to a steady rhythm and my senses tuned on the surrounding area.
I'd cast detection and repulsion spells all around us while Roxy headed into the secret passages her father had once used to meet Gabriel. He'd seen this much going smoothly and was certain we'd make it to the Royal Seer’s Chamber without being discovered, but after that, the stars wouldn't give him a clear answer as to whether or not we'd get away with this.
I swiped a hand down my face, rubbing at the stubble lining my jaw as I leaned against the bannister and watched the empty patch of wall where Roxy had disappeared. I hated having to let her head down there alone. But even during the walk here, the ground had begun to tremble, making pictures shudder on the walls and a waiter had opened a kitchen door so fast that he'd crashed into us, sending his whole tray of champagne flying everywhere. I'd managed to catch the liquid with my water magic before it had drenched us and Roxy had given me a pissy look which had cut short the way I'd been laying into the dude too.
Apparently it wasn't cool for me to yell at the pawns the stars used to force us apart, but it was also pretty much the only outlet I got for my frustrations so it was hard not to.
I had to fight off the urge to start pacing and I straightened as I felt a Fae's magic brushing against my repulsion spells beyond the door that led to the east wing of the palace.
The sound of someone muttering reached me and I stiffened as I recognised Jenkins, my father's asshole butler.
"I was sure I needed to go this way..." He mumbled something else, seeming to wonder if the King was responsible for his change of heart and I cursed as I realised he'd detected my magic. I smirked to myself as I pushed more power into the spell, making him feel a desperate urge to take a shit and he cried out as he began to run in search of a bathroom. I fought down a laugh as I hoped he ended up shitting himself before he got there.
The sound of grating stone announced Roxy's return and I straightened as a hole opened up in the wall and she stepped through with Gabriel at her side.
Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne Page 62