Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

Each time Orion was tortured, it took him longer and longer to come back to me, and it was breaking my heart. There was something in those awful weapons Lavinia was using to hurt him, some taint that was built of shadow and cruelty, and it was leaving a brand on his soul.

“Lance?” I tried to draw his attention to me as he sat against the wall, the wounds on his bare chest half healed from the brief moments Lavinia had let Horace heal Orion. She always made him stop while the bruises still bloomed, and the cuts were barely scabbed over, never allowing him full freedom from the pain she delivered. Horace didn’t seem to care either way, only wanting to get away from me and Orion as soon as he could, trying to act like we didn’t exist.

Now, Orion’s eyes remained fixed on the cage bars, his expression empty.

“Talk to me,” I urged, shifting closer and taking his hand, but his fingers didn’t react to mine.

I was trying to stay strong through this, but my anger over him placing himself in this position with Lavinia always set the Shadow Beast stirring. Sometimes when that woman cut into his body, I lost control. The monster ripped out of my skin, and I was thrown into the pits of darkness in its mind, trapped in a vortex of wrath.

It seemed with every day that passed, my ability to keep the beast contained weakened, and I didn’t know how much longer it would be until it possessed me entirely. That was a fear I didn’t dare put a voice to. If Orion’s sacrifice came to nothing because of my own inability to stop the Shadow Beast, I’d never forgive myself. That reality didn’t bear thinking about. I had one task, and Orion was counting on me. I couldn’t let him down.

I squeezed Orion’s hand again, gaining no response. The pain of seeing him torn apart before my eyes was more than I could handle, and as much as I was trying to be brave, all I felt was a chasm splitting apart my mind, filled with vengeance and death. I was counting the marks left on my mate, promising them back to Lavinia tenfold with all the torment I could offer her, but it didn’t make it any easier, because it didn’t change anything here and now.

Orion never fought a single blow against him, facing each of them with a resilience that made me so goddamn proud. And if it was possible to love him even deeper, I did. I just wished with all my heart, on all the stars that ever were and ever would be, that this hadn’t been the answer to breaking my curse. Anything but him.

“Lance?” I tried again, crawling into his lap, and cupping his cheek in my palm.

He blinked slowly, a storm of darkness twisting through his gaze as he finally focused on me, but he still didn’t speak.

“Please come back to me,” I whispered in desperation, tears rolling quietly down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry that this is our fate. It’s all my fault. I should have stayed away from the rebels, I should have realised sooner what was happening to me. You shouldn’t have to be paying the price of this curse. It isn’t fair.” I pressed my lips to his, tasting sorrow and salt between us. His mouth didn’t move against mine, he didn’t pull me closer, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t him.

“Lance,” I begged, my voice shattering on the sharp rocks of terror. I couldn’t lose him here in this cold room before a throne that was still claimed by a heartless king.

“I can help,” a female voice made me whip around with a growl on my lips, and I found Stella Orion quietly closing the throne room door. She was in jeans and a black t-shirt, looking out of place in this grand room built for royalty.

“Stay away from us,” I warned, rising to my feet, and hastily swiping the tears from my cheeks.

Stella ignored me, drifting closer, trying to look past me to Orion.

“It’s the weapons she’s using on him,” she said in a voice dripping with emotion. “Every time she cuts him, the shadows get into his body. He’s strong. It’s a miracle he’s lasted so long without succumbing to the lure of them. But I can draw them out.”

I gripped the bars of the cage, my eyes locked on her, watching her as a lioness would watch its prey. I must have been at breaking point, because I couldn’t help but latch onto the hope her words were offering me. But how could I trust this woman after all she’d done?

“Why would you help him?” I demanded. “You disowned him.”

“He will always be my son. It doesn’t matter what words have passed between us,” she said in earnest, her eyes drifting over me. “Perhaps you will understand one day, if you have a child of your own.” A sad smile lifted her lips as she closed in on me. “You know…I thought his relationship with you was some pathetic little rebellion against me.”

“Not everything is about you, Stella,” I said frostily. “I love your son more than you can even comprehend.”

“I see that now. I’ve seen his silver rings.”

“The rings don’t change what we felt for each other before the stars offered them to us,” I hissed. “The world decided to validate our love the second we were mated, but we loved each other long before that. The people who really care for us accepted that well before the stars had their say,” I said passionately. “You are not one of those people.”

Her mouth flattened into a sharp line as she approached me. She was taller than me, but I didn’t feel any less powerful than her, even if she was looking down at me within a cage. Under normal circumstances, I was far stronger than her, and whether I had magic in my veins now or not, I would stand between her and her son always.

“I know why he loves you,” she said, her lower lip quivering.

“You don’t know anything about us,” I refuted, but she went on as if I hadn’t spoken.

“It’s this…rebellion in you. He has it too. I can see why you make a perfect match.”

My fingers locked harder around the bars as she stepped closer to the other side of them. I’d fight her like a damn mortal with fists and teeth alone if I had to.

“You don’t know anything about me, and you don’t know him anymore either,” I said. “Your son is the most incredible Fae I have ever had the privilege to know, and he deserves happiness and peace. I vow on all I am that I will give him those things, and I will destroy anyone who takes them away from him. That includes you, Stella. I have a long list of enemies now, and your name sits close to the top of it.”

“Forgive me,” she sobbed, breaking apart and leaving me confounded as she lurched forward and wrapped her hands around mine on the bars. “I should have stuck by him when Lionel bound him to Darius. I should have been there more when Clara was taken from us. I should never have let things come this far. And I should have been a mother he could bring you home to.”

I tried to pull my hands free of her, but she clung to me, desperation marring her beautiful features.

“There’s nothing you can do that will ever earn my forgiveness,” I said, yanking my hands away from her and stepping back. “To hurt him is to incite my wrath. You turned your back on him and left him alone in the world when he needed you the most. There is nothing that can undo that.”

She lowered down to her knees, reaching through the bars past my legs to try and get to Orion.

“I can help him. Please. Bring him closer. Let me help him. I’ll bring him back to you.”

I stepped aside, looking to the man I loved with my heart cleaving in two. He wasn’t present at all. There was a hardened iciness in his eyes that made me fear he might never come back to me. And the look of anguish on Stella’s face had me wondering if she really did hold some love in her heart for him. But Orion had warned me how well his mother could lie…

“Baby boy, come to me,” she tried, reaching as far as she could and grasping his leg.

He didn’t stir and I struggled with the decision of what to do. I didn’t want to trust Stella, but the blankness in Orion’s eyes was frightening me, and I didn’t know what other options I had. If there was even a small chance she could help him, didn’t I have to take it?

I swallowed to try and shift the dryness from my throat, gazing at my Elysian Mate and feeling my will faltering. He was so deep in the clutches of the shadows, what more could she really do to him?

“Swear you won’t hurt him,” I hissed, looking straight at her as I made my choice.

“I swear.” She offered me her hand to make a deal, but I knocked it aside. I had no access to my magic anyway, and I didn’t trust the stars anymore.

When I’d first come to Solaria, I’d been so open to all the magic in the world, and I’d somehow had an unwavering belief that everything would work out for us. That the heavens weren’t set against us, but it was impossible to believe that now after everything.

I dropped down to Orion’s side, trying to drag him towards Stella, but the bulk of him made it nearly impossible.

I yanked harder on his arm and spoke to him in a plea, “You have to move.”

He shifted vaguely forward, enough that she could reach his arm and relief scattered through my chest followed by a wave of apprehension. I really hoped I wasn’t going to regret this.

Stella shut her eyes as she pressed her fingers to Orion’s wrist, starting to mutter some dark incantation under her breath. I knelt close to him, anxiety burrowing into me as I let Stella do this, ready to shove her away if she gave me any reason to.

Orion groaned, wincing, and reaching for Stella like she held some answer to his suffering. She brushed her fingers over his temple as he leaned against the bars, her brow knitted in concentration, and I fought the instinct to get between them.

Darkness pooled against the edges of his skin, and she sapped it away into her own, her words intensifying as she wielded whatever dark magic this was. Slowly, Orion opened his eyes and I saw the man I loved in the depths of them once again, his silver rings almost seeming to glow for a moment. I lunged at him with a squeak of delight, knocking him sideways so his back hit the floor as I wrapped him in my arms and kissed the corner of his mouth. Then the dimple hiding in his cheek and the stubble on his jaw.

“You’re back,” I whispered, relief flooding me, and he carved his fingers through my hair as he held me close.

“I’ll always come back to you, Blue,” he promised, taking away the fear in my heart.

“The dark is deep,” Stella panted, sitting back on her heels in exhaustion over that spell. “But I can keep it at bay. At least for a while.”

I sat up, letting Orion sit too as we gazed out at his mother who had offered us this help, though it did nothing to change my feelings towards her. One good deed didn’t erase countless bad ones.

“If you’re waiting for a thank you, you will only get one from me,” I said as Stella peered in at us like a stray cat in need of food. “Thank you for bringing this man into the world. He is the best thing you have ever done.”

Stella swallowed hard, lips pursed and eyes watery as she rose to her feet and nodded again and again before she turned and rushed away across the room, hurrying out the door.

Orion turned me to face him, his mouth coming down hard on mine in a kiss that set my pulse racing and all thoughts scattering. He pulled me into his chest and the wild beat of his heart matched mine through the fabric of his flesh. We were one being in that moment, a creature of fury and hope that resisted the dark as if we were made of starlight.

A grinding of stone sounded behind us and we turned in an instant, finding a door opening up in the wall at our backs. Orion’s fangs flashed as he shot to his feet in preparation of an attack, taking a sweeping look into the dark passage, his brow creasing as he listened for any signs of an approach.

A glimmering pair of silver wings caught my eye on the wall at the back of the passage and my lips parted as I got to my feet and pointed them out to Orion. Beside them was the mark of the Hydra, a deep purple flashing over it for a brief second before all went dark again.

“This is the passage I saw in Gabriel’s vision,” Orion said in realisation and a thrill darted through me. We’d looked for the thing since he’d told me my brother had seen it, but we’d had no luck finding it. “He showed me that I’d have three hours before anyone came back to the throne room.”

“Can we use this passage to get to Gabriel?” I asked hopefully.

“No,” he said with a frown. “This tunnel doesn’t lead to him. He showed me that much. But Blue, this is going to lead us to some answer that will help us, I just know it.”

I ran forward to dive into the passage, but Orion caught me by the waist and wheeled me around in his arms.

“Easy there, beastie,” he said, a smirk in his voice. “Did no one ever tell you the tale of Beansprout Jacabee?”

“Erm, no. No one ever told me bedtime stories,” I said, and he frowned at that.

“Well, my father told me hundreds.”

“I want to know all of them,” I decided. “Tell me about the beansprout thingy while we walk.” I twisted away from him, running into the tunnel with a sense of hope that I’d long since lost.

Orion shot in front of me with a blur of Vampire speed, his huge form blocking my way.

A growl rumbled through his chest, sending a shiver of desire through me. “Whatever happened to you being obedient, Miss Vega? It could be dangerous in here.”

I smiled, stepping closer and tiptoeing my fingers up his bare chest until I tapped him on the nose. “I think you’re to blame for that, Professor. You taught me that the punishment for being bad, is so very, very…good.” I ducked around him again, racing off into the dark on bare feet with his laughter following me. The sound lit me up inside and I held onto that feeling, not letting it slip away too soon.

He caught me again, this time pinning me to the wall face first with his hand pressed to the back of my neck. “You’re asking to be spanked, Blue.”

His other hand ran over the curve of my ass and my back arched like a cat at his touch. “No, I’m asking you to tell me about the bean man.”

His hand clapped hard against my ass, and I gasped at the delicious pain, the way it sizzled through my skin and reminded me I was still here, still fighting for another day.

“Then ask nicely,” he commanded, the pressure on the back of my neck increasing, and holy hell, I’d missed being held at his mercy.

I bit my lip, tasting a rare smile on my mouth and figuring I was going to enjoy this tiny moment of wildness. I let myself believe we were back at Zodiac Academy, playing the game of push and pull that always drove me into a beautiful kind of insanity.

“Please, sir,” I said, my voice laced with lust, and he hmmed in approval of that.

His arm curled around my waist, and he tugged me upright, the two of us walking along into the dark together like this was a perfectly normal day and we were in a perfectly normal location.

“Shit,” I cursed as I stumbled down a step, holding onto Orion’s arm so I didn’t tumble away into the gloom.

He held me tighter, a rumble of amusement leaving him. “I’ll guide you. I can see just fine with my Vampire gifts,” he said, his arm sliding up to rest over my shoulders and pull me closer. “If you’d rather, you can jump on my back like a little koala bear, and I’ll run us there with my speed.”

“But then there’ll be no time for stories,” I said, looking up at him, though the light of the throne room was long behind us now and I could hardly see anything at all.

“Alright, I’ll tell you about Jacabee…”

We delved deeper into the tunnels, winding down into the depths of the palace while Orion told me a story which wasn’t dissimilar to Jack and the Beanstalk, except when Jacobee made it up the beanstalk into the clouds and went sneaking into the giant’s castle, he ended up skinned alive and eaten in gruesome detail.

“And that’s why you should never go sneaking into unknown places,” Orion finished sternly as I shuddered.

“That was horrible,” I breathed. “Why would anyone tell children that story?”

“To try and scare them so they won’t do reckless shit. Do you have any idea how reckless Fae kids are? I snuck off and went cliff diving with Clara when I was five years old. My dad fished us out of the water and grounded us for a week. If we ever have kids, I will never let them out of my sight.”

A smile lifted my lips at the image of that. “You’d be a seriously protective daddy.”

“I’d be the asshole parent, but I’m good with it,” he said, only making my smile grow. “They can hate me so long as they keep breathing.”

“You really think about that stuff?” I asked, trying to picture a future where any of that was possible now. It was all so out of reach, just pretty dreams stitched from our imagination.

“Only since you,” he said quietly. “Is that what you want? Marriage, kids, some fairy-tale house? It doesn’t have to look like that, I can paint our picture with whatever brush you choose, and make it look however you imagine.”

I released a breath of longing. “I just want to be back with our family and friends, preferably with a jade green Dragon head mounted on the wall next to an ugly hat and boots made out of a shadow bitch.”

He barked a laugh. “That’s a future I’m banking on, beautiful.”

Silence drew over us like a storm cloud, that future so unreachable in the face of everything.

“I can’t watch her torture you much longer,” I said, flashes of what she’d done to him playing through my mind and holding me hostage. Even if by some miracle we got out of here and the curse was broken, were we ever really going to be the same again?

“It’s just blood.”

“So you keep saying,” I growled. “But it’s the most precious blood in the world to me. And having to watch you suffer through her torture is just – just-” The Shadow Beast rose up inside me, a snarl pushing at the base of my throat, but Orion moved fast, his hand slamming down over my mouth as he yanked me back against his chest, holding me while I thrashed.

The Shadow Beast desperately wanted to come out, and my mind was spiralling down into a place where I would lose all control, the same place where I’d been during the battle. I’d kill without care. I’d seek out death like it was my sustenance.

“Remember who you are, Blue,” Orion said, his biceps straining as he held me still. “Think of Tory, how she’s waiting for you out there beyond these walls. Think of how much she loves you.”

My thoughts fell on my twin and the Shadow Beast roared louder inside me, like it wanted her blood more than it wanted any other. The shift was going to take over, it was coming in so fast, so unavoidably.

“Your will is stronger than iron,” he said firmly. “You can fight this. Do it for your sister, for your brother, for you, for us.”

My eyes watered and stung, the pain of holding back the creature blinding me. But I had to stay here for Orion, I couldn’t hurt him. And more than ever, I needed to prove I could control this curse that had its hooks in me.

Slowly, I managed to take hold of the Shadow Beast, forcing it deeper and keeping a grip on my mind. I melted back into Orion’s arms, and he lowered his hand from my mouth, his fingers trailing to my collar bone and skimming across it, the shadows on my skin retreating from his touch and bringing me back to myself. Well, as much of myself as I could be with a giant, bloodthirsty monster living inside me.

“That’s my girl,” he exhaled, pressing a kiss to my hair. “You’ve got this.”

“It’s getting harder and harder to hold it back,” I panted. “What if it takes my mind completely?”

“It won’t,” he insisted. “We have time. We just have to hold on for the remainder of my time with Lavinia.”

“It hasn’t even been a month yet,” I said thickly.

“We can do this, Blue.”

“For a grumpy ass professor who was sent to prison, power-shamed, and is now stuck here in hell, you sure have a lot of optimism these days,” I said, a ghost of a taunt in my voice as I tried to seek out the light we’d found before. It was hard, but I was determined to have a moment with him that wasn’t sullied by Lavinia, Lionel, or the shadows.

His grip on me eased and we kept walking, our hands finding each other and our fingers linking together.

“You are the only thing in this world that I’m wholeheartedly optimistic about, Darcy Vega, because I know I’ll fight to death and beyond to keep you. And I’m starting to think you might do the same for me.”

“Starting to think?” I said, a smile making my lips weightless. “There isn’t an enemy in the kingdom I wouldn’t face down for you.”

“What about beyond the kingdom?” he teased.

“I don’t know much about that. Most of the maps at the academy were only of Solaria. And the few world maps I saw seemed to have gaps in them where Europe is located in the mortal realm.”

“The landscape keeps changing over in The Waning Lands. There’s a violent war going on there between the Elementals. Each faction is prone to changing the terrain as new territories are seized to suit their needs. Some of it is underwater one month, while it’s floating in the sky the next,” he said, and my curiosity piqued.

“Tell me more,” I urged.

“I don’t know much more. Honestly, no one from outside kingdoms have been there in centuries. It’s too dangerous.”

“Holy shit. And what’s beyond that kingdom?” I pressed.

“You’re a curious little mouse today,” he said.

“Or maybe a shrew,” I said with a frown. “Darius used to call me that.”

“A shrew?” he chuckled.

“I weirdly liked it,” I said, trying to smile even though my heart weighed a ton. It felt far too soon to start having fond memories of him. It didn’t seem real to me that someone with so much fire in their soul could be gone from the world. A part of me didn’t believe it at all.

We delved deeper into the dark and the cold made my skin prickle as Orion guided me along the narrow passage. My mind turned to Gabriel, and even though I knew this tunnel didn’t lead to him, I wished it did. I missed my brother so much and hated to think what he was enduring all alone.

A silvery light grew up ahead and I released Orion’s hand, quickening my pace towards it, feeling him following close at my back. Ever the guard dog.

I rounded the next corner and found a beautiful silver door standing there, towering up high above me with the Vega Crest at its centre. I raised a hand, sensing ancient magic vibrating in the air I breathed and knowing with certainty that all I needed to do to open that door was touch it.

I pressed my fingers to the crest, tracing them over the Vega name, wondering how many times my father had done this very thing before. The doors clunked loudly, then began to swing inward, revealing an impossible view beyond.

It was the night sky, the stars twinkling within the swirling Milky Way galaxy. I could simply step into it if I wanted. The colours were dazzling, each planet and star hanging there in perfect detail as if it had been plucked from the heavens and shrunk down to fit into this room.

“By the stars,” Orion breathed. “I thought this was just a legend.”

“What is it?” I asked, whispering like the place required it and finding myself walking straight forward into its depths. The edge of the doorway made it seem as though I was about to step right into oblivion, but I carefully tested the floor and found it solid, like a liquid mirror at my feet.

“Amantium Caelum – The Lovers’ Sky. It was a gift to a Vega queen of old. She announced to the kingdom that she would marry the Fae who crafted her the most beautiful magical gift. For years, Fae from all over Solaria brought every manner of gift to her door, but none of them were beautiful enough to impress her. One day, a young woman from Alestria came to the palace with a simple wooden box in her arms, and when she opened it for the queen, this is what came out. And that very night, they were mated by the stars.”

My lips parted as I looked to him, drinking in the story of my ancestors. “Is it true?”

“Enough of it for this sky to exist,” he said, and I walked deeper into the miniature universe, closing in on our solar system where the sun burned with real heat, warming my cheeks as I approached. The magic was captivating, so powerful it made the hairs along my arms stand on end and set my pulse drumming.

Orion followed and the doors shut behind him, leaving us in the glittering expanse of stars.

I moved closer to our planetary system, each of them small enough for me to hold if I wanted.

“Can I touch them?”

“Are you asking me permission?” Orion asked, a grin in his voice as I glanced over at him, biting my lip.

“No, sir.” I reached out, brushing my fingers over Jupiter which was about the size of a tennis ball. It rolled into my palm, and I lifted it up to my eye level, admiring the intricacy of the magic. The storm that rolled around in its atmosphere was right there, swirling slowly as if this planet were as real as the one in the sky. I tried to place it back, and it floated smoothly from my hand into its rightful place.

I turned to Orion to ask him a question, finding him holding a glittering star in his hand, trying to place it among the Orion constellation.

“What are you doing?” I asked and he looked over at me like a naughty school kid who’d been caught getting up to no good.

“I’m moving the Vega star over here,” he said. “It looks good here, don’t you think?”

I laughed, jogging over to join him as he reached above his head again and tried to make the Vega star sit with Orion.

“Are you messing with age-old magic?” I asked sternly. “That’s not very professorly of you.”

“Well, it wasn’t very professorly of me when I took a student to my bed either, was it?” he said. “Or when I had you over my desk, at the Fairy Fair, in the archives-”

“We don’t talk about the archives,” I jibed, and he nodded seriously.

“Great night, shit morning,” he said matter of factly. “It all worked out in the end though, right?”

“Yeah, now we’re Lavinia’s prisoners and the whole world is doomed.”

“Exactly. It’s all coming together, beautiful,” he said with fake enthusiasm, and I didn’t let my smile fall, wanting to play this game of feigning safety as long as I could.

He let go of the star when he had it where he wanted it, but it shot back across the sky, settling itself in the Lyra constellation where it belonged.

Orion looked down at me, his eyes locking with mine as he smirked like a predator. “Oh well, I’ve got myself a Vega anyway.” He hounded toward me, and I spun around, making him take chase as I quickened my pace across the room.

I headed past the sun and walked into the far-flung realms of the universe where I found a door hidden in the fabric of the sky, just visible from where I stood.

I reached out, trying to find a handle, but the door swung open at my touch like the first had. My breathing hitched as another room was revealed and I moved into a cavernous gothic chamber with arches and ornate stone pillars everywhere. But that wasn’t what had stolen my breath, it was the treasures that lay all around me, mountainous piles of gold, intricate boxes overflowing with jewels, and right in front of me was an onyx throne, the polished black stone carved into an imposing seat with sharpened feathers rising from its arching back. It was all lit by everflames dancing in cages hanging from the vaulted ceiling and I could almost feel the touch of my ancestors who had cast them.

I walked towards the throne, Orion one step behind me, the two of us taking in the Royal Treasury with quiet awe.

“Darius would have loved this place,” he said, my heart panging at his name.

“We never would have gotten him out of here,” I agreed, scooping down to pick up a gold coin which had a Hydra engraved into its surface. The echo of my father’s legacy hung around me and I rolled the coin between my fingers as I continued moving through the immense trove, feeling as though I was in a giant rabbit warren.

“No wonder Lionel wants to get in here,” I said, passing the throne and heading deeper into the trove.

“This is your inheritance,” Orion said firmly. “Let’s hope the palace continues to keep him out.”

“This seems like far too much gold for me and Tory to own,” I said. “Think of all the good it could do.”

“You’ll be able to do that good when you’re queens.”

I breathed a humourless laugh. “You think that’s still possible now?” I tossed the coin back among the nearest pile of gold, moving on before Orion could answer that. “How does gold even have value in this world? Can’t earth Elementals make endless amounts of it?”

“Gold is particularly hard to craft. Only a very powerful earth Elemental can make it, and it will not hold the same value as this gold unless it’s authenticated by the Bank of Solaria. There’s a whole division of the FIB dedicated to rounding up and destroying counterfeit money too. Every aura has security magic imbued within it. It’s an easy test to do yourself, I’ll show you how.” He picked up a coin, but I turned to him with a hollow look.

“I don’t have magic anymore, Lance.” Those words sliced at my heart, and I could have sworn the everflames above me flickered sadly.

His brow furrowed and he dropped the coin again, looking like he was going to convince me my magic would come back, but I didn’t want to hear it. We didn’t know what lay in my future, and there wasn’t any point in speculating about it now.

I turned through one of the stone arches, discovering rows and rows of wooden cabinets filled with potions in stoppered bottles. At the end of the winding rows of cabinets, a burning egg stood in a gleaming silver frame. My fingers tingled from the memory of casting red and blue flames just like those, knowing them instinctively, as if they were a part of me. I guessed in a way, they were.

A large gold plaque stood at its base, and I read the words engraved into it with anticipation building in my chest.

The Untouchable Egg.

I lifted my head, reaching instinctively for the egg but Orion shot forward and caught my wrist in a vice-like grip, giving me a stern raised eyebrow.

“Blue,” he growled. “Were you just about to touch The Untouchable Egg?”

“Of course not. That would be crazy,” I said with a grin, lifting my other hand and reaching for it with that one instead.

He caught that wrist too, going all grumpy teacher on me. “This isn’t a game. You don’t know what could happen. It could be cursed.”

“I’m already cursed. I can’t be double cursed.”

“By the moon, are you trying to give the stars ideas?” he hissed.

“Lance, it’s Phoenix fire. I can definitely touch it. Move aside.” I jerked my wrists back, but he didn’t let go, gazing at me with his jaw ticking.

“You don’t have your Phoenix anymore,” he said, and I tried to ignore how much those words hurt.

“I know,” I said tightly. “But I just feel like I can touch it. I’m sure I can.”

“It could be a trap,” he said in concern.

“Do you want me to pull the ‘obey your queen’ card, because I’m not above using it right now.”

His frowny features lifted a little. “You know I get hard over you ordering me about.”

“Well, you don’t want to get a boner right here in front of The Untouchable Egg, do you?”

He pressed his tongue into his cheek as he tried to hide his amusement, releasing me, but not stepping aside.

“If you sense any kind of magic against your palm, pull your hand back fast. Go slowly.”

“Got it. Tingly magic bad.” I mock saluted him and he moved reluctantly out of my way, watching me like a hawk as if he was going to swoop in at any given moment and take me as far away from the egg as he could get.

“Slower,” he said in a forceful tone, but my hand was itching to touch that fire, like it had been waiting for me forever.

There was a tug in my chest, driving me on and all I could see was that beautiful fire, the room fading around me. It reminded me of how I’d felt back in The Palace of Flames with my sister, while Queen Avalon trained us in the ways of Phoenix warriors. The shadows had been buried so deep by the power in that place, and my Order form had been so present with me the entire time.

Impossibly, I felt a single flame spark in my chest, like a burning feather left behind by my Phoenix when the Shadow Beast had devoured it. I basked in the heat of it, my breaths coming heavier as the power of my Order form trickled out across my limbs, just enough to offer me protection from the flames as my fingers sank into them.

They were warm and kissed my hand in greeting, wrapping around my fingers and pulling me closer. I lay my palm against the egg, its surface made of that beautiful metal which reminded me of the weapons we’d forged for our friends. I raised my other hand, picked the egg up from its stand and turned to Orion with a bright smile, finding him looking at me with an anxious crease between his eyes.

“Okay, you’re holding The Untouchable Egg. Are you happy now?” he asked, his expression telling me he really wanted me to put it back.

“Very,” I said lightly as I turned the egg in my hands to examine it. “What do you think is inside it?”

“Nothing good,” he said darkly. “I don’t think you should mess with ancient Phoenix artefa-”

I threw the egg on the floor, and it smashed into fifty pieces.

“Darcy!” he barked as a swirling, glittering coil of red and blue smoke twisted up from the burning pieces of the eggshell.

I noticed a glittering white crystal among the shattered egg and dropped down, picking it up and waving it at Orion in triumph. “See.”

“Don’t you ‘see’ me. You are looking for trouble today.”

“We’re prisoners to the Shadow Princess, I have to watch her torture you daily, I have no idea if everyone else I love is okay, and we’re probably on a pre-destined path that will lead us to certain doom. What else can the stars really throw at us now?”

“Enough,” he snarled, shooting forward, and clapping a hand over my mouth, his eyes two pits of wrath. “You are the most precious thing in this world to me. Stop tempting fate to come and steal you away. The stars have already proved they can make things worse, even when I believe we are at our limits of bad luck, they prove me wrong. So you will watch your words.”

I peeled his hand away from my mouth, gazing resolutely back at him no matter how much this man made my heart flutter. “I’ll do as I like.”

“You’re being stubborn just for the sake of defying me.”

“No, I’m defying you because you’re being an ass, and because I’m not yours to command.”

“I’m not trying to command you. I’m trying to protect you. You are my mate.”

“That doesn’t make me your possession,” I snapped.

He leered over me, and I was swallowed by the menacing existence of him, his power an aura I could feel wrapping around my lungs and squeezing tight. “Not a possession, no. But you are mine. You were mine before we met, and mine the minute we locked eyes. You are mine in this life, and every life we may experience from this point forward. You are mine in every reality you exist, and mine in every reality you don’t. And I am yours in kind, in every way you can imagine. I will gladly be your possession, but I will also be your guardian, your keeper, your protector. And I will do whatever I can to turn you away from danger, because it is impossible for me not to.”

“God damn you and your pretty words,” I whispered, lost to him as always.

His mouth tilted in a smirk, and he reached out to trail his thumb along my jaw in a soft caress.

“Were they pretty enough to make you stop playing with ancient artefacts and pissing off the stars?”

I twirled the crystal between my fingers.

“I’ll compromise. I’ll stop pissing off the stars, but I’m not done with the artefacts.” I lifted the crystal up before his eyes. “What is this?”

He frowned as he focused on it, intrigue colouring his expression. “That’s a Heart of Memoriae crystal. It holds memories.”

“How do I access them?” I asked excitedly.

“If they’re for you, you can access them with blood, but-”

“Fang please.” I lifted my thumb to his mouth, pushing it between his lips as his expression got angry again.

“Blue,” he warned.

“Come on, there could be ancient Phoenix memories waiting for us in here,” I urged, prodding at his canine, and making his fangs extend.

He relented, opening his mouth a little more and letting me slit my thumb open on his fang. I dropped my hand to rub a drop of blood over the crystal and I was stolen away in an instant, crashing into long lost memories of the past.

“All hail the first queen of the new kingdom of Solaria, Queen Elvia Vega!” a man bellowed, and I watched through the eyes of the queen in question, my hands curling over the heated ruby throne I sat upon.

A crowd cheered and my heart swelled with my victory. A land conquered, borders drawn and finally, I had my prize. This would be my legacy, and as my gaze locked with the Phoenix warrior, Santiago Antares, a man who had fought at my side through countless battles, I knew it was time to take him as my husband. He had proven himself worthy, and now that I could finally let my mind shift from war to the fruits of our labours, I found I craved him with a long-forgotten hunger I hadn’t let myself indulge in many moons.

He smiled at me in that roguish, over-familiar way of his which was always pushing the boundaries of his position beneath his queen, but I would enjoy reminding him where he belonged.

The Palace of Flames was newly built and gleamed with the power of my kind, the Phoenixes in my court having imbued this place with the fire that lived within their flesh. I would offer a piece of myself to it too when the celebrations were done, but now, it was time to reap the rewards of our victory at long last.

The memory shifted and my mind fell into Elvia’s once more as she stood under a waning moon, a flowing silver nightgown hugging her body.

I picked my way through the dark jungle where the air was thick and Faeflies danced among the trees. I walked barefoot up the hill where the trees thinned and allowed me to see right up to the vast heavens, the Milky Way stretching the length of the sky in a crystal fog of pink and blue. My heart was wild this night, and desperation had drawn me here to the peak of this hill where the single stem of a Nox flower stood. I had come here each night, waiting for the petals to open to collect the precious pollen from within. Once it flowered, it would only last until dawn and then not return for many years.

Its pollen held untold power, and when mixed with treckwit powder and elixir of dunebark, it created a potion that could temporarily make a Fae resistant to the Nymphs’ ability to shut us off from our magic. I had thought our war was done when I laid claim to this new land, but it had been far from over. The Nymphs had risen against us to try and claim the kingdom from our grasp, and they had fought us with a bloody ferocity I had not predicted.

My Seers were blind to their movements, and though they held little of the weaponry and training we did, they made up for it in sheer numbers and their invisibility to us through divination. This pollen could help, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t enough. No matter how many Nymphs we destroyed, more came in their place, claiming this land was theirs and theirs alone. I would not yield, would not try and strike peace, not when I had seen the brutality they offered us in battle. The Nymphs may have been a sister race to Fae, born of the same root many thousands of years ago, but I did not recognise them as equal.

The flower began to glow palest blue, and I gasped, hurrying forward, falling to my knees, and lifting the jar I’d brought to collect the pollen. The petals cracked open and more of that ethereal light spilled out, the moon seeming to peer this way to admire it too, and a smile broke across my face.

I raised the jar, ready to collect the precious dust within, but as I got closer, the petals began to fall, and the light began to fade.

“No,” I gasped, reaching for the flower, but even my breath against it seemed to make it wither, the petals turning to vapour on the breeze.

It was gone in the next moment, no pollen, no light, no anything. I had heard of this possibility, the flower so delicate that even a breeze too warm or a night too cool could make it fade.

I let go of the jar and it thumped to the ground, rolling away from me as I let out a noise of anguish, looking up to the stars and wondering if they might answer my prayers.

“Please help us. Let us crush the enemy. Gift me this land and I shall forge it into the finest kingdom ever known,” I pleaded, but the stars only glittered quietly, ever-silent.

I knelt there, delaying the inevitable return where I would find Santiago lying awake in hopes of my return, and I would have to voice another failure to him. Perhaps I was not the queen I’d thought I was, because every day that passed, it seemed I grew closer to losing my hold on all this power I had claimed for us. For the Phoenixes and our allies.

I pushed to my feet, resigned as I turned back to the jungle, when a light caught my attention above.

My lips parted in awe as a falling star came streaking across the sky, a tail of fire in its wake. It was racing through the sky right above me and without thought, I let my wings break free and took off to chase after it.

I flew fast above the jungle, my gaze never wavering from that beautiful burning being as it made its passage towards an inevitable impact.

My heart juddered at the direction it was taking, the star seeming on a collision course with my palace. Panic cleaved my heart in two and I put on a burst of speed, thinking of Santiago and the secret I held inside me. I had been waiting to tell him, knowing the time was all wrong, but when would it ever really be right? A Seer had seen that I was with child, and if I could find a way to secure the throne, my baby boy would be a mighty ruler one day.

I flew as fast as my wings would allow, pressing a hand to my throat to amplify my voice as I called out to my people, “Rise! Danger falls from above! Protect yourselves!”

The star crashed into the roof of the eastern tower, tearing through it, and disappearing into the jungle beyond before an echoing boom sounded as it hit the ground.

A shockwave slammed into me that had me squinting against the force of it, and I beat my wings harder to counter it.

Screams rose up from the palace as I flew over it, fire curling from the jungle below where a deep chasm lay in the ground, the fallen star gleaming within it, pulsing like it was a living heart.

I tucked my wings and plummeted out of the sky, the fire licking my skin as I landed in the flames and gazed up at the hulking shape of the fallen star before me.

A wave of unknown energy washed over me, running deep into my bones and I inhaled long and slow, almost moaning at the intensity of that power. It was too much, so tempting yet so very, very potent. I could hardly stand to be so close to it, yet I moved closer still, drawn to the magnitude of this divine being before me which had come to answer my prayers.

Everything blurred beyond the boundaries of my vision, and all I could see was the star that glittered like a million diamonds were buried in its surface. This power, it was the answer to everything. It could end the war, it could turn every endeavour to my favour. And in a moment of madness, I cast a sharp metal dagger in my hand and slit my palm open, moving forward and placing it against the star’s surface.

I gasped as that power surged into me in a wave, seeking out my soul and feeling the weight of it.

“Vega,” it spoke inside my mind, knowing me like it had been there since the moment of my birth to this very moment now, watching me, perhaps even adoring me. Or maybe it wasn’t love I felt, but pity.

“Fae of flames and war,” it seemed to mock me with those words and that power slid deeper, climbing through my veins and splashing against my heart.

It could wipe me from existence with a single whim, and I feared for the life growing inside me, wanting to pull back, but now that I was here, I couldn’t move at all.

As my thoughts turned to my unborn child, the star’s power shifted that way, circling around that tiny being and making me whimper in terror.

“Please, don’t hurt us,” I begged. “We revere you. This blood is an offering, to show you that I am your loyal servant. But I must beg of you one thing.”

“All gifts have a price.”

“I will pay whatever price you ask,” I swore, and the star fell quiet, its light still pulsing with an energy that seemed to hum in every corner of my flesh.

“Then the choice will be this…” That power swirled deeper within me, wrapping around my unborn child, and making me shudder in horror. “Your first born or your first love. Offer me one, and I shall lend you the power to win your war.”

I stilled, my heart shattering at the price, and I stood frozen in the face of it. That little life in me flickered like it knew it could be snuffed out at any moment, and tears tracked down my cheeks at the pain of the sacrifice that would be. Then my mind turned to Santiago, the man I loved to the depths of my being and beyond, his loyalty unfathomable. There would be other children, he would provide them, I knew that. And yet…I had seen this one in the vision the Seer had offered me. I had seen him grow into a man and I had fallen in love with him there and then. My son was as real to me as Santiago was, so how could I ever make this choice?

“Anything else,” I growled. “Not them. Please don’t take them.”

“That is the price. There will be no other,” the star spoke as my tears dripped from my chin. “Time runs thin. I will release my power if you cannot choose.”

“Wait, just wait a minute,” I croaked, desperation clawing at me. Why did it have to be this?

I thought on Santiago’s words to me, his promises to win this war, his declaration that it was his one true cause in life. And I knew before I spoke the words that it had to be him, because he would make this choice if he stood here in my place.

“My husband,” I forced the words past my lips and with a crack like thunder ripping the air apart, the deal was made.

I nearly fell to my knees from the terrible force of the power and my palm tingled painfully where it still lay against the star. The shining surface made me wince and I backed away, my eyes hurting and a ringing growing in my ears. I screamed as it intensified, begging to be spared, unsure if I had angered it somehow. But then the light faded away and I found a rough and unhewn gemstone laying in my palm that hummed with unimaginable power, so beautiful it left me speechless.

“Wield this, and you will win your war.”

“Thank you,” I breathed, and those words leaving my lips set the earth quaking and the sky singing.

No, not singing, that beautiful, haunting noise that hovered on the edges of my hearing was screaming, the stars above trying to defy what had been done, what this star had offered me going against all nature of its kind and mine. But the deal was done.

The vision shifted, and my mind reeled with all I had seen, the knowledge spinning violently in my head before I was plunged back into memories, these ones coming in a furious wave that set my pulse racing. First, I was Elvia again, flying into battle with burning wings and the Imperial Star buried in the hilt of a stunning sword. It whispered to her in her mind, telling her the power words she needed to wield it. With a word spoken to it, a blast slammed into an army of Nymphs beneath her, cutting through their ranks and carving them to pieces.

At night, the Imperial Star whispered more to her, telling her of dark magic, of powers lost, and powers undiscovered. Elvia taught all of it to her son who grew before my eyes in each passing vision, until one day he stood before a grave of ruby red and took his mother’s sword into his grasp.

But still, the war waged on, and he used the Imperial Star to become an unimaginably powerful ruler. Despite his domination in the kingdom, he and his court were gaining enemies, the Dragons forming an army of their own and factions of Fae joining the Nymphs to try and destroy the Phoenix king.

Another generation passed, then another, each new ruler handed the Imperial Star to the next until finally it was passing into the hands of Avalon as she stood at her mother’s deathbed.

“Keep the broken promise,” her mother spoke, and I, as Avalon, curled my hands around the sword’s hilt possessively, having waited far too long for this moment as I caressed the Imperial Star with my thumb. “It is time, Avalon.”

“The war isn’t won,” I said firmly, and my mother pushed a Memoriae crystal into my hand too. It held all the knowledge of the star that the past kings and queens had acquired, each of them adding more to it every time they learned a new power word. Only a fool would give up this power. I would covet it always and ensure my descendants did too. It was part of what made us the greatest Order to ever live.

“Our kind are dying out, less and less Phoenixes are born each year,” my mother rasped, the tide of death rushing in on her. “The Imperial Star is a curse, not a gift. It won’t end until…” She died, her final breath rattling out of her chest, and I leaned down to kiss her cheek before turning away and leaving the servants to prepare her for burial.

I passed my cousin, Romina, in the corridor, nodding to her to let her know it was over and she sobbed, falling into the arms of her lover, Tomás. He was not a Phoenix, and she knew my feelings on the matter. There were few of our kind left now, and we needed to ensure our lineage remained strong. She had refused the marriage I had ordered her into with Vicente, and my mother hadn’t had the backbone to force her to go through with it, but if she thought I would stand for this tryst with a Hydra now that I was queen, she was sorely mistaken.

I would give them one night more before announcements were made. I had better things to do right now, like sitting on my throne and commanding the Imperial Star to give me the world.

I was pulled out of the vision, having only a moment to sit in the confusion over what I’d seen. What was the broken promise? What were these memories not showing me? And what had her mother meant about the Imperial Star being a curse?

The vision changed once more and I saw the battle Queen Avalon waged with Lavinia, how she stole the shadows from the Nymphs using the Imperial Star and cast her enemy into a realm with all the shadows her kind needed to survive. It was brutal watching it again and I cringed at the sympathy I felt for Lavinia in that moment, witnessing Queen Avalon send her into oblivion and leaving her kind altered forevermore.

Then, my mind slipped into a memory belonging to Romina and my heart stuttered as I found myself running full pelt through a dark tunnel.

People were screaming, and terror consumed me as I raced along with the Phoenixes, our flames curling around us in the dark. More screams sounded behind me and I looked back, finding my cousins falling to their knees, the flesh melting from their bones before they crashed to the ground.

I didn’t know what was happening, only that no other Orders were dying. A curse, it had to be a curse, but why?

Tomás kept hold of my hand, dragging me on at a furious speed.

“Don’t shift,” he tossed back at me, and I nodded in promise of that. Any Phoenix who we’d seen spread their wings, immediately fell to ruin. I would not let a single flame kiss my skin until we got out of these tunnels, maybe not even then.

“This way!” Queen Avalon called from up ahead and we followed her voice through the passages, turning this way and that until suddenly Tomás and I rounded into a dead end.

Avalon stood before us, her crown perched atop her head and her eyes bright with fire. She had taken the Imperial Star from the hilt of her sword and held it before her now with a manic look about her.

“A Seer has shown me our fate. Many Phoenixes will fall this day, and we will be forced to leave our dear palace behind. But one soul must remain bound here, for one day our kind will return to this place and when they do, the spirit of the watcher shall rouse and prepare them for what is coming. The rest of us will flee and make a future further north while we wait for that time.”

I shared a tense look with Tomás as more screams sounded out in the passage behind us.

“What have you done?” I demanded of this queen I had long ago learned to hate.

“Romina,” my cousin and fiancé Vicente growled, stepping closer to Avalon’s side. I was meant to marry him this month, but I had never heeded his or Avalon’s warning to stay away from Tomás. I loved him, and no one would force me to marry another. Least of all a man who was blood-related to me and who had clearly been fucking Avalon for months. But no matter who she took to her bed, no seed grew in her. She could not produce the Phoenix heir she so craved, yet she would never give up trying.

I tightened my grip on Tomás’s hand, stepping in front of him as Vicente raised his sword in his direction.

“Come here,” Vicente barked. “We have little time to act.”

“Do not dare speak to her that way,” Tomás snarled, purple fire flashing in his eyes as he raised his own sword.

“Traitor,” Vicente spat, looking to Avalon. “He raises a sword against a noble, Your Highness.”

“Yes, I see that,” she hissed, her eyes darting to Tomás and making me growl protectively.

“We are going, and you will not stop us,” I said, pressing back into Tomás and making him retreat towards the only exit.

No other Fae had made it this far and though I was terrified of what lay out there in those tunnels, a worse fate was remaining here with these monsters.

Avalon raised a potion in her hand, the glass bottle holding a blackish liquid that glinted with magic.

“Grab her, Vicente.”

Vicente came at me, and I drew my sword instead of using my gifts, lunging forward, and swinging at him before he could dare place his hands on me. I slit his arm open, and blood poured, making him swear as he backed up.

“You have been useless in this life, but perhaps you will be useful in the next.” He darted toward me again, and I swung my sword with a yell of fury, the edge slicing across his chest this time. Flames burst to life across his skin in response and Avalon screamed, “No!” but it was already too late.

Vicente fell prey to whatever terrible magic was at play in these tunnels, his skin melting and his pitchy screams filling the air before he collapsed to the ground, just a pile of bones with his dagger clattering down at his side.

Avalon whirled on me, lifting the Imperial Star to her lips and speaking a single word against the stone which I couldn’t catch. But in the next second, my limbs went rigid and the sword slipped from my fingers, my power immobilised by some other-worldly magic.

Tomás roared in anger and a blast of Hydra fire tore from his body, slamming into Avalon and knocking her from her feet. The Imperial Star was sent flying from her grip and tumbling over the ground, whispering angry words as it went. All Phoenixes shall be my adversaries from this day forth, and I shall twist their fates so they fail in all endeavours, their lives will be full of sorrow, and there will be no way out until the promise is kept. Either that, or their Order shall fall, and no more will ever walk this earth.”

Tomás raised his sword, his lips peeled back as he rushed to behead the queen, but her wings burst from her shoulder blades, burning his arms and melting his sword in his grip. He cried out as he staggered away, and Avalon screamed as her skin began to melt.

She lifted the potion to her lips with a lament, swallowing it down in deep gulps before the curse consumed her entirely. It did though, her skin liquifying and the whites of her eyes burning bright before they were lost too and she turned to bones, her fire dying with her.

The Memoriae crystal hit the ground alongside her sword and the magic of the Imperial Star suddenly released me, sending me stumbling forward.

I ran to Tomás, healing the wounds on his arms and checking that he was alright.

“We must go,” he urged. “We must get as far from here as we can and never return.”

I nodded, kissing him fast then running to gather up the Imperial Star, the crystal and Avalon’s sword. Then we turned and ran back into the dark tunnels, passing by the bones of the fallen Phoenixes.

As we rounded a corner, my gaze found my mother and father, clutching onto each other in an alcove as their wings burned bright at their backs. It was already too late even though I was screaming for them to cast away their Phoenixes. But the magic took them, and they fell to bones on the floor in a heap of treasure they had been carrying, their arms still holding one another in death.

A noise of anguish left me, and I could only keep moving because Tomás dragged me on, my vision blurred with tears as he led me away into the dark, and I placed my trust in him to get us out.

Somehow, we made it above ground, and we fled away into the jungle with only one thought in our minds. North. As far as we could go until we felt safe once more. And as we ran, the last of our people ran with us, falling into line behind me, the last Vega and Phoenix among them. With a weight in my chest, I realised that if that was true, I had just become their queen.

I was tossed out of the memory, finding Orion’s hand firmly wrapped around my arm, urgency in his eyes.

“What did you see?” he asked, and I relayed it all to him, trying not to forget a single detail as he soaked it all in, and I blurted it in a stream of frantic words.

“Fuck,” he breathed when I was done.

I lifted a hand to caress the spot where the Imperial Star had hung around my throat, anxiety tearing a line through my chest. “The Imperial Star cursed them. That’s why all the Phoenixes died. And it’s why Tory and I have failed time and again in this war. That old curse is still in place. We’re fucked, Lance. Unless we can figure out what the broken promise is, we’re never going to be free of the star’s wrath.”

I clawed a hand through my hair, trying to process all of this, my heart thrashing like a caged animal.

“This explains…everything,” he said in shock, and I broke away from him, beginning to pace without thought as my mind worked over all we’d seen.

“Romina didn’t know what the broken promise was either,” I said, a frown knitting my brows together. “What the hell could it be?”

“I don’t know,” Orion sighed.

“Do you think the Imperial Star is still on the battlefield?” I asked, the sudden fear slicing a hole in my heart.

“If it is, then at least we know where to look for it,” Orion said, though his expression was grim.

“And how will we do that when we’re locked up here?” I said in exasperation. “We have to get a message to the others so they can retrieve it before someone else finds it. And we need to tell Tory to find out what the broken promise is so we can keep it.”

Orion’s silence told me he had no idea how to do that, and I was just as clueless.

“When I was up on that mountain after the battle, I saw a fallen star just like the one in those memories. I spoke with it, and saw it release its power into the world. If I’d known about all of this, I could have asked it for answers. Maybe it knew what the broken promise is.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Orion shot in front of me with a blur of speed.

“It was the last thing on my mind after everything,” I said, shrugging but he gripped my shoulders, his features intense.

“Do you have any idea how rare of an event that is, Blue? There are only a handful of Fae in the world who have seen it. Most of our kind would give anything to witness a Donum Magicae. I, myself, have studied it in countless books, but never have I had a true imagining of what it would be like to stand in the power of one of the celestial creators. What was it like?”

“It was…shiny,” I murmured, my mind still distracted by the memories.

“Shiny,” he deadpanned, his eyes narrowing, and I snorted, my shoulders dropping as I let go of the tension in my limbs.

“It was pretty cool, I guess.”

“Pretty cool. You guess,” he echoed flatly, and I broke a small laugh.

“I’ll ask Vard to pluck the memory out of my head so you can watch it,” I said, turning away from him towards a row of bookshelves and brushing my fingers over the ancient spines, wondering if any of them might hold the answer we sought.

“That’s not funny,” he growled as he followed.

“Gotta laugh to stop the tears coming,” I said, my thoughts returning to all we’d seen. “Do you think Romina is my ancestor?”

“Yes. Queen Romina was the first queen to rule from The Palace of Souls. She built this place,” he said, and my lips parted as I looked to him.

“What else do you know?”

He cocked his head. “So, you want my knowledge, but you won’t describe the Donum Magicae to me.”

“Alright, I’ll try.” I grinned. “Imagine a really, really, really shiny rock.”

Orion gave me a hollow look.

“Didn’t you ever go with Darius to melt down a fallen star for stardust and get a chance to see it sparkle its way out of existence?” I asked.

“Meteorites create stardust, not true fallen stars,” he said.

“That’s confusing,” I pointed out. “Why isn’t it called meteorite dust then?”

His attention slipped past me before he answered, and he shot forward, grabbing a diamond encrusted box off of the shelf.

“Now who’s touching ancient artefacts?” I taunted.

His lips slanted up as he examined the circular box and the pair of weighing scales marked on its surface. “If you can’t beat ‘em…”

He popped the lid open and a miniscule, mechanical set of scales ascended on a little silver platform that resembled a miniature ballroom. A tiny girl made of wood stood on one side of the scales and she moved with delicate magic, leaping over to land in the other dish, then back and forth from one to the other, making the scales rock up and down as she danced. It was mesmerising and as music started to play within the box, I lost all focus on everything but that wooden girl.

A song curled up from its depths, the voice soft and feminine, trilling out a soothing lullaby.

“It’s time to dance, to dice with chance, the scales they rise, and they fall now. Come to me, play with me, here in my lonely ballroom…”

The ground beneath me seemed to rise, and I rocked dizzily on my feet, reaching for the music box and that enchanting wooden dancer leaping this way and that. Orion was reaching for her too and our fingers grazed as we touched her, unable to resist her call. The moment we made contact, the world tipped and it was as though I was falling forward down a slippery hill, unable to stop as I went tumbling head over heels, losing sight of everything except the little wooden girl.

I hit a hard, silver floor at Orion’s side in the tiny ballroom that lay within the music box. The walls were silver too, and the windows running along them were painted with an outdoor scene of a sunlit meadow.

I looked up in a daze, finding a towering set of scales above me, the girl now standing between the two scales, balancing there as she smiled creepily. She was five times bigger than us now, and as she jumped to the right, her feet hit the dish sitting above us, sending it plummeting down towards us with a groaning wail of moving metal.

Orion slammed into me, and we rolled across the floor, just avoiding the strike of the dish’s base, and the dancer leapt into the other dish again with a laugh.

“Dance with me, play with me,” she sang as the scales tipped once more.

I grabbed Orion’s hand, the two of us jumping upright and running to the other side of the ballroom, the bottom of the left dish crashing down just where we’d been.

“You shouldn’t have touched it,” I said.

“Oh, you think?” Orion growled, holding firm to my hand as the dancer did a pirouette in the lowered dish. “I can’t access my Order.”

“Dance with me, play with me,” the girl sung again, leaping up and springing overhead towards the other dish.

“We have to climb out,” Orion said firmly as we ran for the opposite side of the room again and the floor juddered with the weight of the scales slamming down on it once more, making my heart stumble.

He started trying to climb the wall as I looked to the girl above, her song twisting through the air with a plea inside it. And I realised what she wanted.

“No, I think we have to do as she says. We have to play her game,” I said thickly.

“Fuck that.” Orion continued to try and climb out, and I looked around quickly as the girl leapt towards the other dish again, sending a wave of adrenaline into my veins. There were four strange circles on the floor, one within the other, and in the middle of the room was the smallest one of all. But it didn’t mean anything to me.

“What’s the game?” I called to the wooden girl and the largest ring around the edge of the room lit up in white. Her feet hit the dish, but it jarred to a halt as Orion and I readied to run out of the way.

The girl peered over the side of it, looking down at us with her painted face twisting in a smile. The music continued to play, sounding more eerie than beautiful now that I was trapped inside a tiny music box with a freaky enchanted matchstick bitch, and she opened her mouth, singing new words to the tune.

“When light is white, it’s time to dance, but when it’s blue, you best not move. For you shall be in peril. If you play, you’ll make my day, and I’ll release you with my prized possession.”

“Okay, so…we just have to dance. Any chance you can dance?” I muttered to Orion.

“I’ve attended countless bullshit Acrux parties, I can unfortunately dance, but I’d rather fight.” He looked up at the girl as if assessing his chances against her.

“No.” I grabbed his hand. “We’re not taking on the cursed ballerina and getting stuck in a music box forever. Let’s just do what she says.”

“Okay, but if your way doesn’t work, we’re trying my way,” he said.

“Deal.” I towed him over to the circle, realising those heading towards the centre all grew progressively thinner, leaving less space to dance on. The peril part of the game did not sound good, but we were in here now, so we didn’t have a choice.

Orion pressed his hand to my lower back, taking hold of my hand and placing it on his shoulder while pulling the other into his grip.

“Follow my lead,” he ordered, and I nodded, more than happy to do that because ballroom dancing was not my gift in life.

The music grew louder, announcing the start of the game, and Orion guided me around the circle of glowing white light in slow movements, giving me a chance to find the rhythm with him. I was just getting the hang of it when the light beneath us turned blue and Orion clutched me against him, the two of us becoming as still as statues as the music stopped.

The wooden girl cheered with a tinkling noise in her throat and a painted door at the end of the ballroom opened. “She can’t see you, but she’ll hear you if you move, so don’t put one foot wrong or she’ll feast well,” she sang.

From the darkness beyond the doorway, I saw bones shifting. A Fae skull tumbled out to lay on the dancefloor and I held my breath, forcing myself not to move. Some creature was moving in there through the bones of long claimed victims, and I did not want to gain its attention.

Orion’s fingers dug into me as he watched my expression, unable to turn his head and look that way himself.

An ivory white praying mantis appeared, stepping out into the ballroom, the bug no doubt small in reality but down here in this music box, it was a giant monster. Its eyes were punctured as if by a needle, proving it was blind, and I had to wonder which psychotic Fae had concocted this tiny, pocket-sized hell and who they had placed down here to die in it.

But that wasn’t the end of the horror show, because our ring turned to grass beneath our feet, growing up and around us, the fronds reaching for us and tickling any exposed skin it could find. I clenched my jaw, remaining rigid even while the grass tormented us, trying to goad us into flinching.

The mantis came scuttling towards us, the sharp looking appendages either side of its mouth clacking together and its antennae sweeping around its body in hunt of us. But neither Orion nor I moved.

It went scuttling past us, searching the place but unable to find us, though I didn’t know what would happen if it discovered us by chance. Maybe that was a part of it, those Libra scales representing how quickly our fate could come unbalanced.

After a minute, the wooden girl hummed a tune that lured the mantis back into its den and the doors shut behind it. The music started up again and the next ring lit up in white while the grass in the previous ring vanished. We hurried onto the new ring and Orion began guiding me around it, keeping me close.

“This is fucked up,” he whispered.

“We’ve only got three more rings, including this one. We just have to make it to the middle and she’ll let us go. That’s gotta be the end of it,” I said, convincing myself as much as I was him.

The light beneath us turned abruptly blue and the music shut off, the two of us holding the other tight and falling deathly still. The mantis came scurrying back out of the doors and the moment it began looking for us, air blew around the circle we were in, sending a barrage of it at our backs.

I worked hard not to move, Orion’s muscular frame grounding me while the mantis hunted the ballroom for us, its pincers clicking across the floor and its mouth snapping. Somehow, we managed to remain in place, and the wooden girl lured the mantis back into its den once more.

I took a heavy breath, meeting Orion’s gaze, determination passing between us.

“Just two more,” I said.

“Yes, just two more rings of death. Perfect,” he said dryly.

The music started up again and we moved into the next ring as it lit up in white.

Orion dropped his mouth close to my ear as we moved in slow circles, his body practically controlling mine as I mirrored his steps. “Of all the deaths we’ve faced, I would never have predicted we’d be threatened with a praying mantis in a music box.”

“Or a singing matchstick,” I looked up at the girl above as she twirled on top of the scales, coldness dripping through me.

“Life really is far more interesting now you’re in it,” he said with a ghost of a grin, but then the light turned blue beneath our feet and my heart turned to stone. We remained entirely still, and the door opened again, releasing the hungry praying mantis. It came scurrying along faster this time, blind eyes twitching and its slimy black tongue slicking the sharp edges of its mouth.

We are not gonna die in the jaws of a bug.

The floor turned to ice beneath us, the third Element to show up in the game and I swallowed a gasp as my feet slid backwards. Orion lost his footing entirely and his knee crashed against the floor as he fell, making the mantis let out a shrill noise as it came flying up behind him.

Its pincers wrapped around him, launching him across the ballroom towards its den, and moving so fast that Orion had no time to get to his feet before the mantis tossed him through the door and disappeared after him.

I ran to follow with a cry of terror, but the doors shut in my face and as I slammed into them, they sealed up tight, becoming nothing but a painting on a false wall.

“Let him go!” I shouted up at the wooden girl above.

“The door will only open again in the next round,” she sang to me, and I looked back at the rings, the final one turning white.

I shuddered, hurrying over to it, knowing I had to play on if I was going to get through those doors. There was no way I was going to let him die at the hands of some insect.

The music started again, and I danced around the circle, making minimal effort and glaring up at the wooden girl with rage in my soul.

“Come on,” I gritted out, anxiety clutching my heart.

The ring turned blue, and I fell still, though my legs were nearly trembling as I prepared to run. The doors flew open, and the mantis came stumbling out with Orion on its back, choking the life out of the thing as it screeched and flailed. Fire burst to life at my feet, and I jumped away from it, running forward and hefting an old arm bone into my grip from the mantis’s graveyard, swinging it with a scream of fury.

“Get away from my mate, you creepy-crawly son of a bitch!” I cried.

I slammed the bone into the insect’s face and it came crashing down to the floor where Orion took hold of its neck and pulling with all his strength. With a furious yank, he tore the bug’s head clean from its body, tossing it away as greenish blood splattered the floor.

“No!” the wooden girl warbled, diving off of the scales above and coming to land right behind me.

I bared my teeth, rushing her with the arm bone raised and swinging it hard against her legs. They snapped in two and she went flying backwards, landing in the fire that was still burning in the central ring, her body dry as tinder and going up in flames in an instant.

She reached for me like I might come to her aid, and I stared icily at her as Orion moved to join me, sliding his arm over my shoulders and watching her burn with me.

“I do love a good bonfire,” Orion purred, and a dark smile pulled at my mouth.

The matchstick girl cried out, a final song pouring from her before she was turned to a pile of soot and the music died along with her. The fire extinguished and magic whirled around us, making me lose sight of everything as Orion and I were thrown out of the music box, landing in a heap on the floor of the treasury. He had the tiniest smear of green blood from the praying mantis on his cheek and the arm bone in my grip was now fully sized. I tossed it away from me, looking to the music box in alarm as it began spinning on the floor, spitting out bones which became their normal size again as they landed in heaps of gold around us.

We scrambled upright, backing away from it, magic sending it into a frenzy until the last of the bones were ejected and the whole thing fell apart, pieces of metal and cogs shattering on the floor. Among it all was a beautiful opal, winking up at us from within the wreckage of the cursed music box.

“So that’s what you were for. You were keeping this safe.” Orion moved forward, picking it up and admiring it in his palm.

I moved forward to look down at the treasure, taking in the rivers of colour running through the gemstone.

“Is it a Guild Stone?” I asked hopefully.

“Feels like one,” he said, running his thumb across it and the Guild Master mark on his arm suddenly flared to life, the beautiful sword shining along his forearm as it responded to finding this new stone. “Opal for Libra.”

“Who do you think hid it in that creepy music box?” I asked.

“Some long dead Fae who didn’t want anyone stealing his treasure,” he guessed with a shrug, and I leaned up to wipe the gross mantis blood off his cheek.

His attention moved past me and he frowned, shooting forward and grabbing a book off the shelf at my back. I raised my brows at the beautiful cover which was woven with bronze feathers.

“Gabriel showed me this in a vision. I think it’s important,” he said excitedly, his eyes still bright from the fight we’d just had.

A Dragon’s roar sounded somewhere far above us in the palace and we both stilled as the tremors of that noise reverberated through the walls.

“We need to get back,” I said, picking up the Memoriae crystal I must have dropped when I went into the music box.

Orion placed the book in my hands along with the opal, then scooped me up and raced out of the treasury at speed.

It was hard to tell how long we’d spent down there, the time we’d been in the music box impossible to gauge, but had it really been three hours already? I hated the thought of returning to that cage.

The moment we made it through the wall, the secret passage started closing behind us and at the sound of footsteps coming this way, I tossed the book, the opal and the crystal back into the passage just before it shut tight.

The throne room doors flew open, and my heart lurched as Lionel strode in with Vard at his back and two big Dragon guards dragging Gabriel along behind them.

One of them was Mildred, her moustache twisted up at the corners and a violent shade of pink eyeshadow coating her eyelids. Lavinia floated in after them, looking almost translucent as she sailed along on her cloud of darkness. The dagger I’d found in the secret hatch in the throne was strapped to her hip, looking so bright between the shadows slithering around her body.

Lionel dropped onto the throne, ignoring us entirely as his butler Horace appeared, racing after them and kneeling before him to polish his shoes.

“Hurry up,” Lionel bit at him.

Horace worked faster and faster, buffing those shoes like his life depended on it. And knowing Lionel, it probably did.

I realised I hadn’t blinked, my gaze locked on my brother as he looked my way, his brow furrowing and lines of stress on his forehead. I ached to get to him, to kill every motherfucker around him and get him the hell out of here alongside my mate. But of course, there was no chance of that. So instead, we stared at one another with a thousand unspoken words passing between us.

I love you. I’m sorry. I hope you’re alright.

The doors to the throne room were opened once more, this time held wide by two Nymphs in their shifted forms. Four of Lionel’s Dragons came next, carrying a huge wooden chest inlaid with golden Elemental symbols.

“What’s this?” Lionel demanded.

“This was in the Voldrakian carriage that arrived, sire,” one of the men told him.

“Where are the Voldrakian royals? I requested their presence,” Lionel barked, rising from his throne, and kicking Horace away from his feet.

“Perhaps this is an offering, sire?” Vard suggested, clearly trying to appease him.

Smoke spilled from Lionel’s mouth, and he nodded stiffly, gesturing for the men to bring the chest to him. “Place it down. Let us see what fine gifts they wish to offer me.”

Heavy gold clasps secured the lid of the chest and as the Dragons set it down on the flagstones, they worked to open each one. A snap sounded as the last catch was released, followed by a faint hissing sound, and I tensed as I noticed my brother stepping subtly behind Mildred. Orion and I backed up too.

The Dragons flipped the lid open and the biggest snake I’d ever seen surged out of it, its fang-filled mouth snapping down over the head of the closest man. He screamed, crashing to the floor, and using his water Element to cast a blade of ice in his hand, stabbing it into the snake’s side. But it went right through the creature as if it were made of smoke and in the next second, the snake dissolved, turning to a thick purple vapour that surrounded the man and started liquefying his body against the floor. The other Dragons were in a frenzy trying to help him with magic, but nothing they did helped.

Lionel backed up, adding power to his air shield while the Shadow Princess drifted closer to watch the man die, curiosity lighting her eyes.

The vapour vanished and the only things left in its wake were blood and bone, all of it twisting and writhing under some power as it formed a single word across the flagstones.

FOE.

Lionel roared in anger, grabbing Vard by the throat, burning his skin as he fought to keep hold of his Order form and making the Seer yelp. “Why did you not see this?!”

Vard shook his head, his mouth opening and closing but no words came out.

Horace backed up behind the Seer, looking anywhere but at the mutilated body of the Dragon Shifter, acting as if it didn’t exist and doing everything he could not draw Lionel’s anger his way.

Gabriel glanced at me, his mouth lifting at the corner, and I smiled back. If the Voldrakians had decided not to remain allied with Solaria, was there a chance they’d go to war against Lionel?

“I-I’m sorry, my King,” Vard stammered, and Lionel shoved him away with a snarl, rounding on Gabriel. “You saw this.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said, raising his chin, and Mildred looked back at him, her under-bite jaw dropping as she realised he’d used her as a shield.

Lionel’s upper lip peeled back, and he raised a flaming fist.

“Stop!” I cried as Orion pressed closer to me anxiously, but Gabriel wasn’t Lionel’s target.

He swung around, slamming his fist into Vard’s face, sending him flying to the floor with a yelp of pain.

Lavinia laughed, floating closer to Lionel. “Again, Daddy,” she urged, and he stalked after Vard, slamming the shadow fist into him this time.

The beating went on and while all of Lionel’s subjects were watching, I looked to Gabriel again. His eyes were glazed and I could tell he was lost to some vision, but I had no idea if he was seeing was something good or bad.

“What use are snivelling creatures like you to me?” Lionel spat. “I need a court full of loyal Fae who will do anything for their king. Who are useful to me beyond all doubt.”

He stood upright, pushing a hand into his blonde hair, marking it with blood as a feral glimmer entered his eyes, like something had just occurred to him.

Gabriel blinked, focusing on me once more with horror washing over his features.

My stomach dropped and I mouthed, “What is it?” to him in desperation.

“Fear the Bonded men!” he blurted to me. “The night the Hydra bellows is coming, and fate has shifted! We must get word to the others, we must tell them that-”

Lionel silenced him with air magic, stealing all oxygen from his lungs as he sneered.

“Silence!” he boomed, turning his back on Vard who was twitching on the floor. “Mildred, return him to the Seer’s chamber and have his lips sealed shut until I decide he is allowed to speak again.”

“Of course, my King,” Mildred said, bowing low.

“Gabriel!” I cried, grabbing the bars, and trying to will magic into my hands, but there was nothing I could do.

My brother was dragged away by Mildred, and Lionel didn’t allow him to breathe again until he was beyond the door.

The prophecy my brother had given us once was spinning through my mind, the words turning over in my head.

Two Phoenixes, born of fire, rising from the ashes of the past. The wheel of fate is turning, and the Dragon is poised to strike. But blood of the deceiver may change the course of destiny. Beware the man with the painted smile who lingers close to your side. Turn the scorned. Free the enslaved. Fear the Bonded men. Many will fall for one to ascend. Suffer the curse. The hunter will pay the price. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Keep the broken promise. Mend the rift. All that hides in the shadows is not dark. Blood will out. Seal your fate. Choose your destiny.

I focused on the Bonded men, wondering who they could be and why Gabriel had been so terrified of them. Perhaps Tory had had more luck figuring some of the prophecy out, but at least parts of it were becoming clear now.

The first line had to refer to me and my sister, the second Lionel. Then the blood of the deceiver…that could be Darius. He was descended from the man who had deceived Lavinia at the battle against Avalon. So that added up. Fucking stars.

Then there was the eternal question of the man with the painted smile. I still had no idea on that one, but hoped Tor had figured it out.

Many will fall for one to ascend. Well, I guess that was kinda self-explanatory, though who that person was, I didn’t know. It could just mean Lionel keeping his place as king after a bloody war. Though I hoped it meant another monarch could take his place.

Suffer the curse. Yup, think I had that one figured out. Thanks Shadow Beast.

The hunter will pay the price. Orion…shit. That had to be about him paying the price for my curse.

Mend the rift….I frowned. Could it be referring to the shadow rifts we closed? But then why wasn’t it plural? Maybe it was meant more metaphorically…

I shook my head, thinking over the last lines but they were too vague for any new ideas to spark in me.

Orion and I exchanged a look of despair as we were left trapped in our cell, Gabriel’s warning spinning out into the world without anyone to figure it out and work against whatever foul plans Lionel was concocting. I didn’t know what to do. There had to be a way to use this prophecy to help us change fate, but if we couldn’t even discover what it meant, I didn’t see how we could.

Lionel directed Horace to clean up the guts of the man who had been killed, then marched from the room with Lavinia and his Dragons hurrying after him. Horace sighed, looking down at the blood with his head hanging low.

“Wish I’d never applied for this job,” he muttered to himself. “Wash this, wash that. Polish my shoes, hand scrub my underwear…clean up all the bodies my queen has half eaten. And you know how many days off a year I get? None.” He shook his head, clucking his tongue. “Shoulda listened to Jim. He said it’d be like this; said I’d regret it. And now look. Jim’s off living his best life in Sunshine Bay and I’m here cleaning up entrails.”

“Hey,” Orion called to him, and Horace lifted his head, his eyes narrowing. “Any chance you hate Lionel as much as your job?”

“Don’t you go talking to me, mate, getting me in trouble. I don’t wanna be involved in anything. I just want an easy life,” Horace said, not looking Orion directly in the eye. “The king’s food was overcooked last week, and he incinerated Bob in the kitchen. I ain’t getting incinerated for nobody.”

“If you help us, we’ll protect you from the king when we get out of here,” I said, wondering if he might be able to get a message to our friends. But Horace shook his head, lifting a hand and casting a silencing bubble so he couldn’t hear us anymore. As if turning a blind eye to us and all the horrors of this place somehow made him less responsible for it. But cruelty still happened whether you acknowledged it or not. Wasn’t pretending it didn’t exist just giving the monsters of this world license to carry on being monsters?

“Fucking coward,” Orion muttered, turning his back on him, and resting against the bars.

We waited for Horace to finish cleaning up the remains of the dead Fae, and when he was gone, the two of us hurried to the back wall. I pressed my hands against it, willing it to open and the stone gave way at my touch. Orion took the book from inside and I sat beside him against the wall as the hidden door closed once more, leaning close to look at it in his lap.

“Do you think Gabriel will be okay?” I whispered, my mind still stuck on him and all he must have been going through.

“Gabriel is one of the strongest Fae I know. He’s resilient. Like you.” He brushed his fingers over my knee, and I relaxed a little, focusing on the book and hoping it had a gift for us which could change the trajectory of this war.

“Look at this…” His hand moved back to the book as he studied it, turning it over and running his fingers along the spine. I broke a smile at the fascination on his face and watched him as he continued his intricate examination of the book’s binding.

“You’re staring,” he murmured, his mouth hooking up at the corner and revealing his dimple.

“It’s hard not to stare when you look this cute,” I said, and he glanced over at me with a dry look.

“Cute? Dogs are cute, like your little lap dog, Seth, but I’m-”

“Ohmagod,” I gasped, cutting over him. “You just said Seth is cute.”

His eyes widened in horror. “No,” he hissed in warning like I was to blame for the words that had come out of his mouth, but I most definitely wasn’t. “I meant it objectively. Of course I don’t think the mutt is cute. But I suppose I can see, from afar, if I were someone entirely else, that that someone might find him marginally endearing when he isn’t being aggravating. To me though, he is entirely aggravating at all times. And that will never change.”

“Mmhmm,” I hummed sarcastically, and his gaze narrowed.

He captured my chin in his grip and rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip. “Don’t look at me as if you know better.”

“I always know better.” I smirked then took his thumb between my lips, biting down and tasting the salt of his skin.

He grunted, pushing the book aside as if it held none of his attention now, coming for me instead. But as tempting as that was, I didn’t know how much longer we had before Lavinia came back and stole away our opportunity to read it. It might hold an answer about the broken promise, although I doubted a secret like that would be written down so simply, considering Romina hadn’t known what it was either. Still, we probably should have been doing something more productive than this.

I released his thumb from my mouth, swerving a kiss from him and ducking low to grab the book from the floor.

“Forget the book. The answer to the broken promise isn’t going to be handily detailed in there, or else some ancient Phoenix would have dealt with it long ago,” he said, echoing my thoughts.

His fingers pushed into hair, gripping tight and pulling until I was sitting upright again, looking at the chaos in his eyes. He held me tight, moving in to kiss me again, but I brought the book up in front of my face to block him and he growled from behind it.

“You shouldn’t play hide and seek with a Vampire, Blue,” he warned. “You’ll end up like Harriet Hidey-Hole.”

“Who’s that?” I laughed, peeking over the top of the book, but his expression said he was deadly serious.

“It’s another children’s story,” he said, snatching the book and placing it behind him out of reach.

With his fingers still locked in my hair, I had no escape, and as he reared over me, pressing his chest to mine and forcing me to drop to the floor, I was pinned beneath him.

I curled my legs around him, the shadows shifting away from my body as my love for him made it harder for them to remain wherever he touched me. Between the solid weight of him and the firm ridge of his cock pressing against me, it would have been all too easy to submit. But we really did need to check out that book.

I stretched out one leg, my toes landing on the soft feathers of the cover, and I scooted it closer, reaching for it with my right hand.

Orion’s mouth skated along my jaw and my breath caught at the light touch and the scrape of his beard. It was getting long now, and if we had been under any other circumstances, I would have liked the roguish look on him.

“Harriet Hidey-Hole liked to play hide and seek more than any other kid in her school,” Orion told me the story as he continued to torment me with the lightest of kisses that set my skin burning. He yanked on my hair to pull my head sideways and expose my neck to him, making me release a curse that was wrapped in a moan.

With him, pain and pleasure were weapons he forged out of the sweetest kind of sins, and I was more than happy to let him use them against me. My pulse raced and I half forgot about the book beneath my foot as his kisses travelled to my collar bone and the graze of his fangs made my spine arch against the cold floor. He released my hair, slipping his hand beneath me into the hollow I’d created between my body and the tiles, curling his fingers against the base of my spine, and grinding the huge length of his cock over my clit through his sweatpants.

I moaned his name, wanting so much more than he was giving me, but he was taking his time like we had an eternity of it, when it was far more likely that the opposite was true.

“She would hide in trees and wooden chests; she’d hide in attics and barns and none of her friends could ever find her,” Orion continued the story while I rolled my hips and tried to take what I needed from him, but he kept me in suspense. “She declared herself the best hide and seeker in the world, and dared everyone she met to play with her so she could prove it. No one ever found her, until one day, she bumped into a Vampire. ‘I’m the best hide and seeker in the world,’ she said.”

“Lance,” I groaned in frustration, done with this story. I clawed my fingers down his back, grinding against him as he worked me into a frenzy.

“The Vampire told her she was wrong, and that he was in fact the best hide and seeker. She laughed at him and challenged him to a game. The Vampire agreed and said she could have ten full minutes to hide before he even began to look for her. So Harriet ran off, picking one of her favourite hiding places in the local barn where no one had ever found her. She climbed inside a haystack and sat quietly while she waited for the Vampire to come looking for her, certain she would never be found.”

“I get it,” I said impatiently. “The Vampire found her in her hidey hole.”

“Yeah,” he said darkly, dragging his fangs down over my breast and making me shiver as he ran the pad of his tongue over my nipple. “He was so high on the hunt that he ripped her to pieces.”

“Fucking hell,” I half laughed. “What’s with your psycho kids’ stories?”

“They’re warnings. Ones you should heed.” He sucked my nipple into his mouth, and it hardened to a tight bud as he teased it between his teeth. My fingers pushed into his hair, my head tipping back as he reached between us to push his pants down, but before he got there, the door of the throne room flew open.

Orion shot to his feet in a heartbeat, snarling like an animal as he used his body to conceal mine from view. I couldn’t see who had arrived, and my thoughts were fully scrambled as I shoved myself up to my knees, the shadows spilling back out of my skin and wrapping around me tightly, covering every piece of me which had been on show.

I quickly grabbed the book, rising to my feet and moving close behind Orion before sliding it into the back of his sweatpants and pulling his shirt down over it. Then I stepped to his side, finding Horace there again, spinning a key on his finger while a couple of Nymphs stood behind him. “Time for your shower. Come on, chop-chop. I haven’t got all day.”

“The door isn’t open,” Orion deadpanned.

“Yeah, yeah, less of the attitude, mate,” Horace sniped, walking forward and unlocking the door before directing us out of the cage. “You get a real treat today, seeing as the servant’s quarters down ‘ere have decided to shut themselves up as tight as a Duck Shifter’s asshole. No one can get into the showers down there now. This place is haunted, I swear it.” Horace turned and led us along while the two Nymphs moved to flank us.

“I’ve seen the ghosts in this place, Horace,” I called to him, and his shoulders stiffened. “They’re hungry, lonely souls and they want to feast on the traitors living in their queens’ palace.”

“Oh, and what queens would that be, eh?” he laughed, but there was a tremor in his voice that said he really was afraid of ghosts.

“Me and my sister,” I said firmly. “This palace and its ghosts are loyal to us, and they don’t take kindly to snivelling little creeps serving false kings between its walls. You’d better watch your back at night. One word from me, and they might come and find you while you sleep to peel the flesh from your bones.”

“Shut your filthy mouth,” he snapped over his shoulder, and Orion jerked forward like he was going to attack him, but I caught his arm, squeezing to stop him.

I didn’t want him being punished for the sake of this worthless creature’s death. Besides, if Horace died, he’d only be replaced, and that person could be far worse than this man who at least left us in peace most of the time.

He guided us through the opulent halls and into a guest chamber where extravagant murals of beautiful gardens and valleys filled with every kind of Order imaginable were painted in gleaming ink that almost looked as though it was still wet.

Horace gestured for us to step through a door, and we walked into a bathroom that was more of an indoor pool house than anything else. It had a tropical theme, the air thick with mist that rose in plumes from the green-blue pool in the middle of it, water rushing down over the branches of a huge tree that stood at the heart of it. Vines clung to the walls, and for a moment, I was transported back to the Palace of Flames, feeling like I was standing in the jungle once again where the air was thick and the heat pressing.

“Ten minutes,” Horace barked, then slammed the door shut in our faces.

There were clean clothes left out for Orion, but as usual, there were none for me. Orion had insisted I wear his shirts plenty of times, but the shadows always cast anything I wore to ash after a while, so I refused them now. Besides, they always had green Dragons on them or slogans about how great Lionel was and I didn’t want any of that shit touching me. Orion left his shirts off half the time for that very reason.

I waded out into the water and Orion stripped, hiding the book among the folds of his new clothes before stalking me into the water. It was deliciously warm, but the warmth was nothing to the heat I felt in my stomach as Orion hounded after me, naked, with the mist glistening against his bronzed skin.

I moved deeper into the pool until I was almost completely submerged, then slipped under the water and swam around behind him, rising once more. He spun to catch me, the water lapping around his waist, his abs tight, that dark dusting of hair running down below his navel and disappearing beneath the surface of the pool.

I bit my lip, admiring him and feeling the shadows retreating again, able to breathe a little easier as the pressure of them lifted from my chest. For a moment, it was like the Shadow Beast wasn’t even here, though there was no touch of magic beneath my skin, and I felt terribly mortal standing in front of him. But at least I was still me.

He moved closer, curling a lock of my shadow-stained hair around his finger, and I looked down, finding it deepest blue once more. My pulse heightened at finding that old piece of me restored by the touch of him. Even if it was temporary.

“There you are,” he said, shifting closer still. “The shadows try to hide you from me, but they forget that I’m a Vampire.”

“And Vampires are the best at hide and seek,” I said through a smile.

“So you were listening,” he said.

“I’m a very attentive student.” I smirked and he smirked back.

My nipples were still hard and water droplets were running down my naked flesh, his eyes watching the movements of each one, his thirst for me clear.

He moved close enough to make my breaths ragged, and a dagger of heat blazed through my core. He was the beginning and end of me, creation and ruin falling into harmony, and I didn’t think a point in time would come when I would be done falling in love with him.

“Count to ten then, and come find me,” I said.

His mouth twitched in amusement, and he nodded.

I lifted his hand, covering his eyes. “Don’t cheat.”

“I don’t need to cheat,” he said with a low chuckle in his throat that sent another wave of desire through me.

He started counting and I slipped under the water, swimming away across the pool and around the back of the large tree in the middle of it. I opened my eyes and squinted through the water, spotting a hole in the trunk which would allow me to swim into it.

I grinned, kicking hard and pulling myself through it before resurfacing within. I could stand up, the water lapping against my waist and my lips parting at the blue lights dotted here and there inside it, making the water reflect against the bark, rippling and dancing. It was fairly wide, big enough for a few people to stand here if they wanted to.

Orion suddenly surfaced beside me, and I gasped in surprise at how quickly he’d won, his grin saying ‘told you so’. He came at me fast, pinning me to the wall and hooking my leg over his hip.

“Hm, this seems familiar…” He glanced around at the rippling light and my cheeks flushed with the memory of him taking me to the bottom of the Acrux pool.

“My memory’s foggy, you’ll have to remind me,” I said breathlessly, and he looked down at me, his eyes shadowed and the devil lurking within them.

“There was a slit in your dress right here.” He skimmed his fingers along my thigh the same way he had that night, and a burning trail of fire followed his touch. “And I wanted you as fiercely as I want you now.” His mouth skated over mine, teasing me as I tried to lean into the kiss and remember a time when the only danger we’d faced together was being caught doing this.

His fingers slid further up my thigh, and I remembered the moment he’d stopped that night, knowing we couldn’t go any further or else we’d change our relationship forever. I should have known then that there was no stopping this. We were two forces destined to unite, and nothing in this universe could have held us back from one another.

“I wanted to do this so fucking bad, Blue.” His hand pushed between my legs, and he found me ready for him as his fingers slid into me. “You have no idea how many times I thought of having you like this.”

“Did you get off over me?” I panted, clinging to his shoulders as he pumped his hand in a slow movement that sent a fire tumbling through my flesh. His fingers were so thick, driving into me and curling perfectly to caress that sensitive spot inside me. It was heaven and it had barely begun.

“Constantly,” he half laughed, half growled then sank his tongue between my lips and kissed me with all the wild passion of the man who had kissed me in that pool. I remembered how forbidden this had been and drew him even closer, bathing in the knowledge that even if all else had fallen apart, we had ended up together when the world had told us we couldn’t.

I was already coming undone from his touch, quivering in his arms, my moans turning desperate as he ground the heel of his palm against my clit and drove his fingers deeper inside me. I came hard, my pussy tightening as I gasped into his mouth, an earthquake shuddering down my spine.

“Good girl,” he said gruffly, and pleasure skipped faster across my skin, my legs tingling as he hooked them up around his waist. He withdrew a little and fisted the thick length of his cock, teasing me as he drew his hand up and down it, holding me in suspense as he rubbed the tip of it against my sensitive clit.

I squirmed, lifting my hips and raking my nails down the back of his neck. “More,” I insisted, and he pressed his tongue into his cheek, clearly enjoying having me at his mercy like this.

“You didn’t say please,” he said, dragging his cock down to my opening and grinding the tip there without entering me.

I bit my tongue, my stubbornness rising. If he wanted me to beg, then he was going to have to be firmer about it. “Make me.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed and he raised a hand, wrapping it around my throat and squeezing just tight enough to set my pulse pounding.

“Say it,” he growled.

I was so turned on that I was already nodding, giving in to him, and he released my throat to allow me the chance to speak. “Please.”

He thrust inside me in the next moment, the full length of him filling me to the brim and making me scream. He groaned in ecstasy, and I shivered in response, the feel of him skin-on-skin, the heat, the water lapping around us, and the masculine sounds falling from his lips driving me wild.

He fucked me deep and slow, our mouths coming together, and our bodies intertwined as we forgot the horrors awaiting us beyond this room and just sank into our love for one another. We kissed between breaths, uniting in a way that transcended all the destruction we’d faced between these walls. It was just us. Two souls who craved one another with all the calamity of a thousand falling stars.

We fucked until we were made new again and I forgot where I ended and he began. I fell apart for him once more, and his muscles tensed around me as he came too, my body gripping his in every way possible as we panted through the aftermath of our release in one another. His eyes burned their way directly to my soul and I didn’t blink, not once, drowning in the galaxy of his gaze and the silver rings that branded him as mine.

I didn’t want his body to part from me, knowing the moment he retreated, the shadows would return, like winter stealing away the summer. And as Horace started shouting at us to hurry up, I knew our sun was waning again and a frosted moon was rising once more.

After we were returned to our cage, I managed to sleep a little, leaning against Orion’s shoulder. When I stirred, I found him with his nose deep in the feather-covered book we’d found in the treasury.

“Did you find anything?” I asked through a yawn, snuggling in closer to him, and his arm curled tighter around me.

He lowered the book to his knee, and I leaned in to see what was on the page.

“It’s a history book about the war Queen Avalon waged against the Nymphs,” he said, his eyes alight with new knowledge.

“What did you learn?”

“That it was a brutal war. There were nasty crimes on both sides, prisoners mutilated and tortured beyond recognition. This part describes how the Phoenixes would experiment on captured Nymphs to find their weaknesses.” He frowned, pushing the book closer to me, and I took in the detailed sketch of a half-dissected Nymph who had a horrid look of pain on its face that said it was alive.

“That’s fucked up,” I whispered, turning the page, and finding a spell detailed there entitled The Shadow Bind.

A spell to bind the shadows within the subject to prevent further summoning.

My heart ticked faster as I imagined doing such a thing to Lavinia, and I read over the spell, falling still in surprise. “Wait a second… I know this cast; Queen Avalon taught it to me and Tory. It’s a way to wield Phoenix fire to create an impenetrable barrier. This last bit is different though. I don’t recognise it.”

“That’s dark magic,” Orion said, his brows lowering as he placed a finger on the page, pointing to part of the instructions that said a ‘blood chant’ was needed. “That chant will only work using the blood of someone who chose to die,” he said. I read over the chant listed beneath it with a frown.

“Do you think Horace would be game?” I looked up at him with a snigger, and he smirked.

“If I threaten to break every bone in his body before I kill him, I suppose he might go willingly,” he mused.

I looked back down at the page, reading through the spell again.

“This spell could bind the shadows within Lavinia,” Orion said in realisation. “She wouldn’t be able to summon any more to her again. She would only be as powerful as the shadows locked within her. Maybe it would stop her rejuvenating. Maybe she’d be killable.”

“But we don’t have any of the things we need for it,” I said, lifting my fingers and trying to coax Phoenix fire into them, sadness washing over me as nothing happened. “And I don’t want anyone to have to die for this. We’ve lost too many people already.”

I snapped the book shut, but as I shifted back onto my knees and met Orion’s gaze, I didn’t see the same decision in his eyes. I saw him thinking on it, like he was trying to work out a way this could be used.

“No,” I said firmly. “No one else dies.”

“Don’t worry, beautiful. I’m only thinking of ways we might get one of our enemies to die willingly. Just as soon as the curse frees you and your powers and Order return,” he said, and I relaxed, though a niggling feeling in my gut still made me uncomfortable about what this spell required to be fulfilled.

A sudden tug in my chest and a summons in my mind made my heart thump erratically. In the next second, my body had turned to smoke and I was tearing through the palace at high speed, away from Orion and towards the monster who owned me.

The Shadow Beast was scratching at the inside of my skin, pain spearing through me as it fought to get out and its unimaginable power seizing me. I fought to keep it at bay, fear flashing in my chest like oil catching light in a too-hot pan, but the Shadow Beast was already winning.

Fresh air surrounded me, and I materialised into the Shadow Beast as I landed at Lavinia’s side on a dark hill out in the palace grounds, my four huge paws hitting the dirt and my claws digging into the earth. A roar spilled from my lips and Lavinia whooped, climbing up my shoulder and settling herself on my back, her fingers wrapping tightly in my fur and tugging. I felt a collar tighten around my throat which I hadn’t been aware of before now and I was unable to do anything but follow her whims as the shadows guided me forward, down the steep bank towards a thick cluster of trees.

The scent of burning hung in the air and my skin prickled uneasily as we walked into the woods where the glow of a fire burned up ahead. I moved towards it as Lavinia kicked my sides to urge me on, scenting blood and embers on the wind.

“The king needs our assistance. Some of the Tiberian Rats escaped their cages,” she whispered, leaning forward to speak in my ear. “He is burning all the ones he finds.”

I shuddered in dread and she laughed, willing me on into the darkness between the trees. A spew of Dragon fire to my right made me flinch, and a squeal sounded as a rat fled from Lionel in its shifted form, the little furry white creature darting past us into the dark woodland with its tail smoking.

Pain dashed my heart as Lavinia forced me to take chase after it and I roared, trying to refuse her command but only finding the will of the shadows deepening. I was starting to lose the grip on my mind, and I held on as tight as I could, fearing what atrocities I’d commit if I let go of my consciousness now.

I gritted my teeth, battling the power that was trying to consume me, and managing to stay here.

“Yah!” Lavinia cried, striking me with a whip of shadow, and I growled as my skin split.

The little white rat ran fast, darting beneath logs and weaving left and right past the trees, using its small size to its advantage as I was forced to take a longer path.

“Catch it, cook it, kill it!” Lavinia cried, and another blast of Dragon fire behind us sent a wave of heat washing over me.

I prayed no rats had fallen in those flames, but Lionel’s booming roar sounded a victory that made my heart wince.

The little white rat darted into my path again, squeaking in fear and leaping into a hollowed-out log to hide. I skidded to a halt, regaining some of my power over the Shadow Beast and starting to retreat, hoping I could at least give the rat time to run while I held Lavinia back.

Lavinia struck me again and I roared, whipping my head around and aiming for her leg. My teeth sank in deep, and she screamed, her shadow whip flying out and slicing across my cheek. I tried to drag her from my back, not letting go now as I tasted her vile blood on my tongue, but she struck me again and again before crying out a command. “Release me!”

The power in those words had my teeth loosening just long enough for her to get free and snap a muzzle of shadow around my jaws.

She dug her hands deeper into the fur at the back of my neck until she found skin and scratched it open with her nails, shadows pouring from her into me in a wave. The power was unimaginable, and suddenly she had control of me again, forcing me towards the log. My claws tore into it and the little rat squeaked in terror as I broke through the bark and exposed it.

I saw death. Tasted it on my tongue and felt like I was back on that battlefield again, tearing into my allies. Panic swept over me and a tiny spark of fire in my chest made my thoughts sharpen.

No.

I reared up, throwing Lavinia from my back, sending her flying away into the trees, and in the next heartbeat, I regained control on my body and shifted back to my Fae form. The muzzle was still latched tight around my mouth, and the shadows dancing across my skin slithered over the bloody wounds across my thigh and cheek, but I ignored the pain and dropped down to the log, grabbing the rat hiding within it.

It squeaked furiously, biting down on my finger and I cursed. “It’s okay. I’m Darcy Vega. I’ll protect you.”

I held the rat up so it could see my face better and its little eyes widened in recognition. I started running, darting off into the trees and letting the shadows spill from my body so they clouded us in darkness.

A huge green Dragon swept overhead, and I tucked myself close to a tree to keep out of Lionel’s sight.

“Get back here, beastie!” Lavinia crowed. “That fall broke my neck, you little witch. Maybe I’ll break your dear lover’s neck tonight and make you watch while the bones go pop, pop, crack.”

I snarled at those words, taking off again and running through the trees, looking out for any more rats hiding in the undergrowth. There was nothing but embers out here, trees turned to ash and the ground hot beneath my feet. I kept moving, unsure where I was going, only that I would find a way to get this Fae to safety.

A violent tug in my chest made me stop in my tracks and I gasped, feeling the summons coming from Lavinia as it tore through me. I clenched my teeth, desperate to fight it, the Shadow Beast in me bellowing to answer its call.

“No,” I hissed in refusal, forcing one foot to move forward, then the next.

My mind felt like it was being cleaved in two as I refused that all-powerful magic which bound me to Lavinia, and I was breathless from the small progress I’d made in moving away from her.

The rat squeaked, whiskers twitching and its little face nuzzling into my hand in encouragement for me to run. I hissed a stream of curses, continuing fight my way forward. The summoning spell snapped like a knife being torn free of my chest and I gasped, stumbling and falling into a flat-out run once more.

I made it to the edge of the woodland, spotting Lionel turning for the palace in the night sky, landing on the roof of one of the towers and roaring his victory to the sky.

“Dead, dead, dead, all the little rattys turned to dust,” Lavinia sang somewhere that was far too close to me.

I sprinted on, breaking out of the trees, and pulling the shadows closer to me as I ran for the palace, having nowhere else to go. I couldn’t get the rat beyond the wards, and the only place I could think to hide it was back in the throne room.

“Darcy Vega!” Lavinia hollered. “Come to me!”

The summons was easier to shake off this time, like the first tie I’d broken had been the deepest, and I was able to keep running through the pain of defying her.

I made it to a servants’ entrance, pushing my way inside and running through the twisting hallways. I wasn’t far from the throne room now, and I knew Lavinia was close on my heels, so I ran with every ounce of energy in my veins, clutching onto the rat and hating that I hadn’t been able to save anyone else.

I made it to the throne room, shouldering the door open and sprinting bare foot towards the cage.

“Darcy,” Orion gasped, already on his feet and looking panicked. “You’re hurt.”

I didn’t answer, running to the edge of the cage and shoving the rat into Orion’s hands. I willed my body to turn to smoke, somehow managing it and rematerializing within the bars. In the next breath, I was at the wall, opening the secret passage and grabbing the rat before tossing him inside, and it squeaked in surprise.

“You’ll be safe in there,” I promised it, sealing the passageway again as quickly as I could.

The moment the door was closed, Orion had his hands on me, looking at my wounds.

“It’s nothing,” I panted.

“You’re muzzled like a dog and bleeding,” he snapped, anguish flaring in his eyes. “That’s not nothing, Blue!”

The doors flew open, shadows pouring out around Lavinia as she stalked towards us, venomous anger bleeding from her.

“Out,” she barked, casting a whip of shadow that unlocked the door and wrenched it wide. It coiled around my throat next, dragging me out of the cage and sending me flying to the floor. More shadows wrapped around me, binding and binding until I was immobilised at her feet, but she didn’t look at me as she passed by. Her eyes were on Orion.

“Get away from him!” I screamed, but I couldn’t get free of the power she had me tethered in. My arms were lashed tight to my sides, and as she took hold of Orion and drew him away towards that awful room where I’d had to watch him suffer over and over, my screams grew to pitchy, desperate pleas.

The walls shuddered as if the palace could feel my pain, and the bricks themselves groaned as Lavinia dragged me after them into that nightmarish place to watch my mate bleed once more.