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“Is that him?” Orion grunted and I turned around again as I shot her a reply. “Who?” I muttered, dropping into an armchair and watching the rain. Anything but look at the guy who was the reason it felt like a knife was sliding into my heart and twisting. “Seth,” he said icily, his shadow looming in my periphery as he drew closer again. “What does it matter?” I said, following the path of a droplet as it weaved its way down the glass. “It matters because he’s a fucking asshole,” he growled. “Things change,” I said firmly. He tutted. “How? The guy cut off your hair and fucked with us for
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He remained silent for so long that I couldn’t resist looking over at him and the hurt in his eyes made my stomach knot. “He’s changed,” I went on, my tone softening a little. “Are you…happy?” he asked in a gruff tone. “Happy?” I scoffed, glaring at him. “No, Lance, I’m not happy. I won’t be happy until Lionel is dead, and I know that everyone I care about is going to be okay. That everyone in the kingdom will be okay. What he’s doing to people, to the Tiberian Rats…” I shook my head as emotion welled in me, threatening to rip me open.
“Why the fuck are you at the back of the class?” he snarled. “Because I refused to go along with Lionel’s Orderist bullshit,” I said heatedly, and a smirk tugged at his lips. “Well fuck Honey Highspell, beautiful, I’ll help you with whatever it is,” he said, and my throat thickened at what he’d called me. He hurried on like he was trying to ignore that little slip while I held my breath. “I mean, if you want me to.” He shrugged and I tugged my lower lip between my teeth as I nodded.
I looked to Orion and found him watching me with an intensity that made my cheeks burn. “Thank you,” I said earnestly.
“Any time,” he said gruffly, pushing to his feet. “Seriously, just text me or call if you ever need help with anything.”
I gave Orion a tight smile and if I wasn’t being totally crazy, I swear he looked kind of dejected. Maybe any company was better than none while he was locked up here twenty-four seven. “Guess I’ll…see you in a bit,” I said with an awkward smile. “I’ll wait up,” he said, his throat bobbing.
“It just makes me think how precious shit is, you know? How quickly we could lose people we care about. And look, I know this isn’t the time to talk about it, but you and Orion…” “Don’t, Tor,” I begged. “But you’re meant for each other, Darcy. And the two of you are so sad, I can’t bear it. I swear I saw you guys for two seconds and it felt like watching a funeral procession.”
The vision fell away, and we were suddenly looking at our own reflections once more. I dragged my eyes up to meet Tory’s and found tears tracking down her cheeks too. “He wasn’t a savage,” she rasped, and I moved toward her, the two of us embracing hard. “It was Lionel, all fucking Lionel,” I growled, and she cursed him with every swear word she knew.
Oh my god
“He has to die,” she snarled, even though she looked a little ill at the idea thanks to the bond he’d put on her. “He has to pay for our mother and our father.” “And he has to pay for what he did to you,” I said in a deadly voice, and she winced as she drew back, grappling with the Guardian bond.
The two of us were a pair of sorry sons of bitches right about now and I knew all too well the pain of being hung up on a Vega who wasn’t yours.
scream. I half expected her to just bolt, but Roxanya Vega wasn’t built like that, and she raised her chin instead, ready to face her demon.
“I...should apologise to you,” she said in a quiet voice that was nothing like the girl I’d fallen for and spoke of all the hurt and trauma she’d endured because of me and my family.
She was forty feet away from me and my fucking heart was shredded to pieces over her, but we weren’t even going to be offered the chance of a fucking conversation.
Her skin was paler than it had been, her frame thinner, but Roxanya Vega had been cast by the stars to make me hunger for her no matter what shape her body was in. The cropped black sweater she wore had the words wild at heart written across it in swirling pink script and I was pretty certain that summed her up perfectly.
She was wild at heart, but right now, her fire had been dampened until I barely recognised her anymore and I was left shattered in the face of what I’d done to her. Because this might have been on my father, but I knew it was on me too.
When she’d first come back here, I’d agreed to do everything I could to get rid of her. To protect our throne and our kingdom from this pair of stupid, un-Fae, practically mortal girls who I’d foolishly believed could never be strong enough to rule. But one look at her standing there after all she’d fucking survived since returning to Solaria proved how full of shit I was.
“The second you walked into The Orb on your first day after you were Awakened, I knew you weren’t what I’d been expecting. My heart fucking leapt when I looked at you. My palms grew slick, my mouth got dry.”
“As if his lizard blood could taste as good as mine,” Seth scoffed, shooting me a glare which quite clearly told me to back the fuck off as if I’d been the one suggesting it.
“There’s no fucking chance of you getting me to run about like prey for you, Cal, so feel free to stick to the dog food diet,” I taunted, raising a brow at Seth as he smirked like he’d just won something.
“Where are we going?” she asked, and my heart thumped hopefully because that sure as fuck wasn’t a no. “You’re gonna have to trust me,” I said, offering her the hint of a smirk as I dared the girl I knew to come out and play with me. “Fat chance of that, asshole,” she muttered, and my smile widened tenfold. It really shouldn’t have gotten me so turned on to have a girl insulting me, but I’d take Roxy Vega calling me every name under the sun over having a million compliments from anyone else.
“Just trust me, Princess,” I teased, hoping it wasn’t painfully obvious how much I needed her to say yes. But it had been a long, hard, miserable fucking summer without her, and I needed this. I had to prove to myself that she was still her and I needed to put a fucking smile on her face to try and make up for all of the shit she’d been through when I should have been there to protect her from
“Have you ever been to New York City before, Roxy?” Her eyes widened as she turned to look towards the street where bright lights lit up the far end of the alleyway and I just watched her while a smile tugged her lips up. “No freaking way,“ she murmured before taking off so suddenly that I was hard pushed to keep up with her.
“Did you hear that, Darius?” she asked, turning to look at me, her eyes bright with excitement which soothed something deep inside my soul. “Angry locals swearing at people just trying to have a good time - isn’t it beautiful?”
Roxanya Vega was the kind of girl who pick-pocketed from strangers to survive and rode fast motorcycles while calling mean bastards out on their shit and making no apologies for who she was. And I was thoroughly addicted to finding out everything about who that might be.
Roxanya Vega somehow managed to call me an entitled prick with a roll of her eyes and I found myself loving every second of her disdain.
“Take your fucking hand off of her,” I growled in a low tone that had him dropping his hold on her wrist instantly and stammering apologies to me as if I was the one he needed to be offering them to. “Apologise to my girl for laying your hand on her,”
I reached out and grabbed hold of him by the collar, half lifting him out of his seat and twisting him to look at Roxy. “Say it to her.”
“You told him I was yours,” she said, reaching out to take a nacho and loading it with guacamole. “You are,” I replied simply, and she held my gaze as she thought on that. “I never said that.” “No, you didn’t. But you were mine from the first moment I laid eyes on you. You’re just too damn stubborn to say it out loud.”
“Good thing I’m not a romantic or the idea of that might just break my heart,” she teased and the two of us fell silent as we looked at the black rings in each other’s eyes.
She smiled at that suggestion and my heart leapt as I looked at her. She was so beautiful. Why hadn’t I just let myself see that before? I’d been so caught up on the idea of it just being lust and wanting to hate fuck her that I’d refused to see that her beauty went so much deeper than her appearance. She was everything I wasn’t and everything I wanted.
I watched her as she looked at the tattoo, tracing the words with her fingertips and breathing them into the silence. “There is only her.” She continued to paint the marks that made up the Gemini and Leo constellations followed by the lines of the geometric design that charted the pattern of the moon and stars the night she’d said no to me.
Ohny god
Having Orion’s new number was a treat in itself. I sent him daily photographs of me and Darcy together with captions like #sheaintblueoveryounomore and #teamDeth. He’d blocked my number after threatening to rip my intestines out and strangle me with them – among other murderous threats - but then I got a magical app which sent my texts from anonymous numbers so he couldn’t keep me away. It was hilarious. And very intentional. Because I was officially kickstarting Mission: Get Darion Back Together. It wasn’t a complex or layered plan; it was based on one simple little emotion that made Fae
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Denial was my best friend who liked to braid my hair and call me pretty. So yep, Cal could definitely be mine inside my head in an alternate reality I liked to call Calaria.
her. I wanted to be around her all the time. And I’d finally realised that the way I felt about her was the exact way I felt about the Heirs. Only it had been hiding under so many layers of bullshit that I’d been confused as fuck about it. She was a Vega. And I’d been told my whole life that Vegas were the spawn of evil. I’d fucked with her so bad that I was going to be beating myself up about it for a long time to come. But now I finally had a way to make up for all the shit I’d done. I was going to get her back together with the love of her life and make Lance Orion my bestie in the process.
“What are you doing?” I breathed. “No need to keep up the shadow twat act with me, principessa,” he teased. “I see the real girl peering back at me clear as day from those big green eyes of yours.”
“Don’t tell me, he makes you call him Gabriel,” Dante groaned dramatically. “He’s such a stronzo sometimes.” The penny finally dropped, and I snorted a laugh. “You call him Gabby?” “Yeah. He loves it. Don’t let him tell you different. So, can you help me with my little Dragon bitch issue, principessa? Because if this Coercion makes me fuck her, my wife will cut my balls off and I happen to be pretty damn fond of them.”
“You two seem cosy,” Darius said in a flat tone, his gaze taking in Dante’s hand in mine as the hint of a snarl escaped him. “Calm down, mio amico, I have my own girl to keep me more than occupied. I was only dancing with your beautiful mate. But now I have to run, and she finds herself in need of a new dance partner.” Dante gave me a little push and I stumbled forward a step so that Darius caught me.
“Your fiancé will be a little late to the party, so you have time for a dance before she gets here,” Dante added with a grin that said Gabriel had told him that too before he strode away.
My heart was thumping to a treacherous rhythm, and I was glad he held me so tightly or I was almost certain everyone in the room would be able to see that I was anything but a shell of a girl when I was in his arms.
“So, it feels good to let me take charge?” he pushed, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t go thinking you’ll make a habit of it.” Darius leaned down so that his lips brushed my ear as he spoke his next words and a tremor ran right through me which I was sure he must have been able to feel too. “You’d love being dominated by me, Roxy,” he promised. “I’d pin you down and make you scream so good you’d forget all about trying to stop me as I marked you as mine so thoroughly that you’d never doubt that it was true ever again.”
“You look as miserable as I feel.” Orion’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked around to find him leaning against the railing a few feet from me. “Shit, you made me jump,” I scolded as I glanced at his blue suit and tie while he folded his arms over his chest.
“It’s fine - I’ll be in bed with Darius, no doubt listening to him talking about you incessantly while he makes me his little spoon.”
“Yeah, well I would be if I had my girl in my bed,
“You said your girl,” I pointed out, giving him a sidelong look as his brow furrowed and he sighed, casting a hopeless kind of look my way. “Shit, you really look like her sometimes, you know?” Orion breathed, swiping a hand over his face and looking so freaking tired and broken that I kinda wanted to hug him despite all the witnesses. “I look like my identical twin? Really? No fucking way,” I teased, and he shook his head. “Yeah, well, when you smiled you just reminded me of her more than usual. Or at least of the way she used to look before I...”
I twisted my fingers where he couldn’t see beside me, crafting air magic into the shape of a fist before slamming it into his junk at least as hard as I would have punched him if we didn’t have an audience.
“Why?” he hissed, and I cut him a look that said ‘you know why’ to which he muttered beneath his breath something along the lines of me being a fucking psychopath and feeling sorry for Darius if that was how I treated his junk. “If you recall correctly, I offered you one chance not to fuck things up with her and promised castration if you hurt her,” I said casually. “So really you’re getting off lightly.” “By the stars, you’re a monster,” he growled. “Damn straight I am,” I agreed. “So, fix it and I won’t have to elevate your punishments.”
“Elevate?” he asked, his voice raising an octave and making me smirk into my drink again. “If you elevate it, I won’t be left functioning.”
His eyes met mine through the crowd and I could see that same ache there, that longing for a different life which I could see no path to.
“He really does love you,” Orion said in a low voice which jolted me out of my staring, and I cleared my throat as I dropped my gaze down to my feet. “I’m not an easy person to love,” I muttered. “Neither is he. That’s probably what makes you so perfect for each other.”
“I actually came over here to hang out alone in the corner so that I could feel less shitty,” I teased. “You’re kind of a downer, you know that?” “I’m a heartbroken criminal who has now had two careers destroyed before I’ve even turned thirty,” he growled. “So, you really shouldn’t be surprised by that. Besides, what do you want me to do about it?”
