Tonight, the other Heirs were going to stay with me in my rooms and we were going to use our combined magic to try and locate where the fuck he was keeping Roxy. I knew the power of the Guardian bond would continue to bind her to him even if we got her away from him, but I just had to get her out of his clutches.
If we could just get her back to her sister, I was sure we could find a way to pull her out of the shadows and then the Guardian bond could be dealt with in its own way. Even if the only way to sever it was to kill my father, that was alright because I planned on doing that anyway. His tie to her only gave me more motive.
The sound of a string quartet reached me as I approached the banquet hall and Seth brushed his hand down my back in a comforting gesture as if he could sense how much I was dreading this farce. Max pushed calming emotions over me and I allowed them to slip beneath my skin, needing all the help I could get to hold it together tonight.
Jenkins hurried ahead, announcing our arrival as the huge double doors were swept open and the guests all turned to applaud me as I entered the room.
I smiled politely and let myself be passed from hand to hand as I was greeted with enthusiastic handshakes and praised over everything from the breadth of my shoulders to the cut of my suit to the noble sacrifice I’d made when I’d chosen to become Star Crossed. It was a fucking sham and I hated every moment of it but I smiled and nodded, complimented fugly dresses and praised the beauty of women older than my mother as they pressed their fake tits against me and offered up flirtatious suggestions.
Father was nowhere in sight yet thankfully, but Mildred sped through the crowd with a squeal of snookums! before planting a wet kiss right on my mouth and painting aubergine lipstick all over my jaw.
My smile was tight, my posture rigid, but no one noticed. No one cared. They wanted to buy into the pretty lie of my perfect life and get as close to the most powerful Fae in the room as they could manage.
Eventually there was a call for us to take our seats for dinner and Mom appeared out of the crowd. She offered me a pat on the cheek and her eyes burned with understanding before she whisked Mildred away, directing her to a seat further down the table from mine so that I at least didn’t have to endure her pawing me throughout my meal.
I sat to the right of the chair at the head of the table with Xavier on my left and mother opposite him.
Father’s newest groupie slunk into the room while everyone was distracted by finding their places and my gaze snagged on him as he moved to claim a seat at the table. Vard was a Seer who had turned up at the start of the summer claiming to want to help my father rise to greatness, and of course the vain bastard had accepted instantly. I didn’t like the Cyclops one bit. There was something seriously disconcerting about him and as he swept his long, black hair away from his face my attention caught on his mismatched eyes. There was a scar running through one of them which had left it swirling with darkness that seemed all too clearly linked to the shadows for my liking.
There were around a hundred guests in attendance and the other Heirs took seats further down the table with their parents where they shot me sympathetic looks as I forced myself to engage in polite conversation and we waited for my father to show up.
Lance’s mother, Stella, strode along the table, shaking her ass as she walked and looking like she thought every man here was hers to choose from. But it was more than obvious to me that the only one of them she wanted was my father. Unfortunately for her, despite her continued loyalty and devotion, Father seemed more than happy with the trade he’d made to her daughter so she could shake her ass all she wanted but it didn’t seem to be luring him back.
“Happy birthday, Darius,” she purred as she dropped down into the chair opposite mine, to the right of where my father was due to sit. “I do hope you’ve had an exhilarating day.”
I hesitated a beat before responding as I tried to figure out if she knew something or if she was just being her usual odd self. The bulk of Father’s Nymph army were currently camped out in the grounds of her estate and I’d been hungering to strike at them there since we figured that out. Especially since Darcy hoped to get hold of the soul hat Diego had left for her somewhere in the woods. But there were far too many of them there for us to be able to risk it.
On the raids we’d completed up until now, we’d been diligent in making sure not a single Nymph survived us. Just one witness would have our cover blown and if Father found out we’d been working against him with Darcy, everything could go to shit fast. But as Stella gave me that plastic smile of hers, I felt certain her question hadn’t been relating to the fight we’d just had so I just gave her a bullshit smile in return.
“Who doesn’t love birthdays?” I deadpanned, making it clear I wasn’t much of a fan. At least not this year. But of course she just grinned like I’d told her it had been the best day of my life and took a moment to adjust her short, black hair as she greeted my mother like they were old friends. Mom acted like she was interested in what Stella had to say and of course there was no mention of the fact that they clearly hated each other.
“Lord Acrux and his Guardians, Clara Orion and Roxanya Vega!” Jenkins announced as the double doors swung open and my heart fell right through the pit of my stomach as all heads turned towards them.
I pushed out of my chair, almost knocking the thing to the floor in my haste as my mouth fell open and Father swept into the room with Clara on one arm and Roxy on the other.
She was heart stoppingly beautiful, wearing a full-length black gown which clung to her figure like a spill of ink. Her mahogany hair had been curled and hung down her spine and her makeup was like a work of art, dark and sultry around her eyes which only highlighted the ring of black the stars had given her and her lips were painted a deep, blood red which made me ache to taste her kisses again.
Father moved into the room, strutting like a peacock with an ass full of new feathers, but I only had eyes for her.
The guests had all broken into murmured conversations and gasps of surprise and the other Councillors moved to join my father as he began to spin some bullshit story about how Roxy had seen the light and decided to throw her support in with them.
Roxy didn’t add to the conversation, but she offered up her left arm, showing them the Aries brand on her flesh as proof while smiling lightly.
She didn’t look my way. She didn’t even seem to care where she was. She just stood there as my heart splintered right down the centre and I was frozen, not knowing what to do. I wanted to stride over there, rip her out of his arms and take her as far away from him as physically possible, but instead I was rooted to the spot. I didn’t know how to handle this. She wasn’t kicking or screaming or trying to escape, she was just standing there like she was made of stone and nothing in the world could touch her. I’d look insane if I tried to prise her away from him by force but was I seriously just going to stand here and stare at her?
My gaze raked over every inch of her body as I hunted for signs of mistreatment, but of course there wasn’t a physical mark on her because that would be all too easy to heal. Any trauma she bore was on the inside where no one could see, but she did look slimmer, paler…
I’m going to rip his fucking heart out!
A hand landed on my arm and Max’s power pushed against my barriers as he tried to soothe my rage. I couldn’t tear my eyes from her, but I could feel my muscles bunching, my hands curling into fists and some tiny, rational part of me knew that if I let myself give in to the desire to attack my father in front of all of these people then it wouldn’t help anything. Roxy and Clara would throw themselves between us and as much as I was willing to destroy Clara, I couldn’t lift a hand against Roxy. I’d sooner burn my own heart from my chest than put her in harm’s way.