I didn’t know how they were managing to do it, whether the stars really were against us or if they were spying on us somehow, but it was like we couldn’t catch a fucking break.
“Let’s make this quick then,” Darcy snarled as she turned towards the building and made a move towards the door.
I caught her shoulder, my gaze flickering to Dragon slits as she huffed at me and I moved her aside so that I could go in first. She might not want me to protect her, but I’d promised Roxy and I wasn’t going to back down on that.
The door was heavy and stuck as I tried to open it, magic locking it in place. I quickly placed my axe in the holster on my back so that I could concentrate on opening it.
I closed my eyes as I focused on the lock, working my own magic into it and cursing as I struggled to break it.
“Hurry up, man,” Seth hissed behind me and I grunted in frustration as the lock continued to hold me back before finally breaking through it with a surge of power.
The door swung open with a groan and I threw a handful of Faelights into the dark space to illuminate it ahead of us as we stepped inside.
The clubhouse was immaculate, dominated by a huge open area filled with leather armchairs and dark wooden furniture. A few doors led off of the central room and we glanced around as we moved further into the space. It must have been spelled to stop the dust from settling here, because though the room looked untouched, the taste of magic on the air was long since faded. No one had been here in a long time.
“We’ve got five minutes, tops,” Caleb warned. “Then we need to get the fuck out of here. I’ll check the back rooms.” He shot away without waiting for us to reply and the rest of us fanned out to search for anything that could relate to the Imperial Star.
We hunted with a feverish desire that was bordering on aggressive as we tore through the room, using detection spells to locate anything that might be hidden.
I cursed as we failed to find anything, tossing books, ornaments and anything else I came across in a heap on the floor and my pulse pounded as the minutes ticked down.
“Shit,” Darcy gasped and I whirled around, finding her in the middle of the room with a tarot card in her hand.
She’d explained about the messages Astrum had been sending the twins from beyond the grave a few weeks ago and the look in her eyes said she’d just found one more.
“What does it say?” I demanded.
The last person who we suspected to have been in possession of the Imperial Star was Astrum and I could only hope that this breadcrumb trail he’d been leaving the twins was designed to lead them to it.
“Seek the fallen hunter.” Darcy looked up at me as she held out the card for me to see.
The World tarot card looked back at me, a naked woman dancing above the earth holding a staff in each hand while she was watched by various creatures. That at least was positive – the card symbolised things falling into place, even if the message that went with it seemed like nothing more than a riddle.
“I can’t find anything,” Max called from across the wide space.
“Me either,” Caleb announced as he shot back into the room, his blonde curls dishevelled.
“I don’t think it’s here,” Darcy said bitterly. “We wouldn’t have found a card if it was.”
A terrifying shriek sounded from somewhere out in the woods and we all looked around in alarm as the Nymph army drew closer.
“Then I say it’s time to go,” Seth said, moving to join us as he opened an old bottle of whiskey, drinking the few inches in the bottom of it before tossing it aside.
“Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here,” I agreed, pulling a pouch of stardust from my pocket.
“One moment,” Caleb said, shooting away before I could object.
The howls and shrieks of the Nymphs outside were so close that my muscles tensed and magic raced to my fingertips.
Caleb reappeared with a jerrycan beneath his arm which he must have found outside and as he twisted the cap off, his eyes lit with excitement.
“Faesine,” he announced, upending the can in a whirl of motion as he shot around us so that every surface in the building was coated with the incredibly flammable substance.
Seth howled with excitement and I tossed the pouch of stardust to Max as we all moved closer together.
The Nymphs were so near that I could hear their rattles now, the cold feel of their presence dampening our magic as Max took a pinch of stardust out of the bag and grinned around at us.
Darcy caught my eye just as the first window shattered and the Nymphs shrieked with excitement as they spotted us.
Darcy sucked in a sharp breath and my heart leapt as they fought their way inside and the horrifying sight of their gnarled bodies and soulless red eyes made my pulse race.
Max tossed the stardust and I flicked my fingers, flames leaping from my palm and hitting the Faesine. The tremendous whoosh of the fire met with a blaze of heat that washed over us and the screams of the Nymphs filled the air as they burned half a second before the world spun around us and the stars whipped us up into their embrace.
Our feet hit solid ground and Seth howled excitedly as we found ourselves in the dark woodland beyond my family’s estate.
I could just make out the colourful lights which had been strung up in honour of my birthday in the grounds. I fought back a snarl as I realised I was going to have to sit through an evening of bullshit as Father put on a show of family love and respect for the press and his fake ass friends. I couldn’t even attempt to pull out of it. He’d made it clear that any public show of dissent would cause him to hurt Roxy and I couldn’t risk that. He had me by the balls and he knew it.
He’d effectively leashed and muzzled me and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it. And the way he looked at me since the start of the summer made my insides boil with hatred. His eyes glinted like he knew something I didn’t. Like he held this great secret he was just bursting to spill and every time I thought of him doing it, I was filled with a mixture of dread and a desperation to know what it was.
There was one small sliver of hope which I clung to all the time he continued to taunt me and hold Roxy captive at his mercy. Ever since the night I’d almost killed him, he hadn’t once come near me without Clara at his side. In fact, she never seemed to leave his side at all anymore. And I was filled with this deep hope that the reason for that was fear. He knew just how close I’d come to besting him that night. To ending him. And only Clara and her control over me via the shadows kept him safe from my wrath.
So if I could just get him alone, figure out a way to take her out of the picture, then I was sure I could finish him for good. But he was proving to be an un-Fae asshole as well as a treacherous bastard, putting his Guardian between us rather than face me like he should.
“Will you be alright alone in the palace tonight?” Seth asked Darcy, a soft whimper escaping him as I handed her the stardust so she could head home. Obviously a Vega wasn’t welcome at a party filled with people who backed our claim for the throne so she couldn’t come in. If the press caught wind of how much time we all spent together these days they’d have a fucking field day. It certainly didn’t seem like we were on opposing sides of a war to me.
“I’m always alone now,” she said in flat tone which made my heart twist with guilt. I was starting to seriously worry about how she was coping. First Lance had been taken from her and now Roxy; I knew Geraldine had been staying with her a lot, but it wasn’t the same.