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I waited for her to lunge and caught her jaw in my hand with a flash of movement. My skin burned with fire magic and she howled in pain as I twisted her jaw with my enhanced strength until I heard it snap. My other fist slammed into her side in the same movement and I gasped in relief as she was thrown off of me, taking her foul shadows with her.
If I wanted to save the others, I needed to release Darcy from Clara’s hold over her. And there was one sure way to do the job. Clara Orion needed to die. And this time, she wouldn’t be coming back from it.
But I didn’t want power. I never had. Not like that. What I craved was love. Family. The kinds of things you couldn’t just take and had to earn.
Darius was savage, brutal, vicious, broken and mine. And in that moment, I had no desire for the darkness in him to ever let up. I wanted him. Every damaged, depraved, dirty piece of his soul was made to fit with all the twisted, ruined parts of my own. And if the stars didn’t like it then I’d happily climb up into the sky and tear them all down for him.
Caleb hit the ground in front of me, pale and shaken, his mouth smeared with blood. I reached out to wipe the vile black substance away from his lips and his eyes drilled into mine for two endless heartbeats.
But I’d rather face her wrath than let her use me against the Heirs. I couldn’t hurt them.
The knife sliced across my attacker’s throat and every piece of me screamed as I found myself looking into Seth’s eyes, his grip on me loosening as blood poured down from the gaping wound.
The Nymph took a step away from me, bowing its head submissively and my heart trembled in my chest as I stared at it, fire swarming around my hands as I tried to figure out what it was doing.
My heart ceased to beat as I spotted a boy there, caked in mud and blood. A boy with raven hair and pale skin. A boy who couldn’t possibly be lying in the place of that Nymph. “Diego?” I gasped, racing forward, confusion and fear strangling me as I fell down beside him and took in the gaping wounds that covered his chest. I rested my hands over his skin as he blinked up at me, his cheeks splattered red and his eyes full of apology. “I’m so s-sorry, Darcy,” he rasped.
“I just wanted to be useful. Did I do okay? Was I good friend?” he asked, a tear rolling free of his eye. “You’re the best friend, Diego,” I promised and a smile pulled up the corner of his mouth ever-so-slightly. “You always felt like…home,” he said on a guttural breath, then he fell horribly still, his eyes fixed on the stars above as they reflected in their glassy surface.
bawling my eyes out
I threw myself into his arms as relief crashed through me at finding him alive, unsure when exactly I’d gone from not only forgiving him, but to actually caring about him so deeply. My body shuddered as the weight of knowing he was okay tangled with the suffocating grief of losing Diego. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed as he held me. “It’s not your fault,” he swore, clutching me tighter. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I said breathlessly and he nuzzled into my head. “You too,” he whispered against my cheek as more tears escaped me.
I growled as I squeezed the life from him. For Xavier. Lance. Mother. Roxy. And me.
“The world means nothing to me without her,”
“Roxanya Vega,” Father growled, looking down at her as a dark smile pulled at his lips. “You will guard my life at the detriment of your own life. Nothing will ever be more important to you than that-” “No,” I gasped as the words from my past echoed over me. The words he’d spoken when he forced Lance to abandon the life he’d worked so hard for and stolen everything from him. “Please. Don’t do this to her!” I fought against Clara’s hold on me with everything I had, panic blinding me as Roxy looked between me and my father fearfully.
Roxy’s grip on my father’s hand tightened as her back arched against the table. I swear I could feel my soul breaking apart and withering inside me as I watched him steal her life from her.
Her eyes filled with tears as she straddled me, pressing a dagger made of ice to my throat, the blade pressing down firmly enough to draw a bead of blood from my skin. “I can’t let you hurt him, Darius,” she breathed and the horror she felt at the idea of that was clear as her gaze flared with rage and despair, and every plan I’d ever had for my father’s demise came crashing down around us. “I’m his Guardian now. You’d have to kill me first.”
“Tell me your price,” Darius demanded furiously and Lionel’s lips lifted into a smile that made a shiver of fear race down my spine. “This isn’t a negotiation, boy,” he said. “She belongs with me now.”
“You want me, don’t you? You want me to give in to the shadows and give you my blood? I’ll do it. All of it. Whatever you want. Just let my sister go. Let them all go.” “Tory no!” Darcy shouted and Seth grabbed her as she tried to lunge towards me despite the river of shadows dividing us. “Over my dead body,” Darius snarled furiously beside me, but he couldn’t move any more than I could.
I’d do anything for the love of my sister. And I’d do anything to protect him too.
Seth whimpered, running his hand over my back as my tears flowed free. For my sister, for Diego. For everything I’d lost.
But I had to rescue her. I would rescue her. If it cost me every broken piece of my soul to do it.
“I vow on the stars that we’ll find the Imperial Star before Lionel does,” I breathed. “No matter what it takes.” They all spoke in unison, a clap of magic binding all five of us together in a star-bound promise that echoed through the universe. “No matter what it takes.”
“Yes,” I breathed as my heart beat harder. I did want to please him. I wanted that more than…anything.
“Then tell me who you love.” He walked away from me as I frowned at the question, the shadows wild and seething beneath my skin. I closed my eyes as I tried to answer, searching the deep chasm of nothing within me until I caught a glimmer of something which I’d lost. “A girl with blue hair,” I breathed as the echoes of memories stirred within my heart. “And a man with a dark soul.”
“You,” I breathed as I stared up at him and the darkness in his eyes blossomed like the shadows in my soul. “Only you.”
