Holy shit.
My father schooled his expression, reaching out to take her hand. “Forgive me, Princess,” he said in a soft purr and my jaw almost hit the floor. I’d never heard him speak nicely to anyone. Politely maybe, but nicely? No freaking chance.
“You must want to bathe?” he suggested. “I can have some new clothes brought to you, would you like that?”
“Yes,” Clara said keenly. “That’s just what I need after the day I’ve had.”
Lionel steered her toward the door, his gaze falling on me again as he approached. “Call your brother,” he muttered. “Find out everything he knows about this.”
I nodded, trying to calm my racing heart as he guided her down the hall and she started humming to herself, caressing his arm as they walked.
“I will always protect you,” she sang to him.
The further she moved from me, the more I got the shadows under my control. I willed them away and the moment they sank deeper into the recesses of my body, the grief tumbled down on me. I leaned against the doorway to steady myself, my chest crushing at the thought of Lance’s death. He had been more than a good friend to me and my brother, he was family.
I forced myself to move, heading back to my room and shutting the door. I took a shaky breath and walked to my bed, grabbing my phone and calling Darius. I had to call him three times before he answered and when he did, it was with a grunt.
“Darius?” I gasped. “What’s happened? Is Lance really dead?”
“What?” Darius growled. “Who told you that?”
My mouth opened and closed for a second because I knew this was going to sound insane. “Clara Orion is here,” I whispered like the walls were leaning in to listen.
“Fuck, I feared she’d go to Father,” he hissed.
“What the hell is going on?” I begged.
“She almost killed Lance when he brought her back from the Shadow Realm,” Darius explained.
“Almost?” I clung to that ray of hope with all my heart.
“He’s okay,” Darius said, a heaviness to his tone. “But it was a close call.”
“By the stars, Darius, what the hell is happening?”
He started explaining about how they’d planned to bring her back, how Clara had formed some connection with the Vega twins when Father had sent them into the shadows. My mind whirled as I tried to process this insanity.
“Xavier…that’s not all that happened last night,” Darius said thickly and something about his tone made my blood chill.
“There’s more?” I asked, dreading what he was going to say.
He sighed heavily. “Roxy Vega and I had our Divine Moment.”
I froze, clutching the phone tight to my ear as hope blossomed inside me. This was a ray of sunshine in miles and miles of darkness. It was a sliver of happiness my brother could claim for his own. No one could refute it, not even Father.
“She refused to be my mate,” Darius forced out and my heart shattered into a thousand jagged shards. “We’re Star Crossed.”
“No,” I demanded, damn right refused it. This wasn’t right.
“Yes,” Darius said quietly and I could practically hear his heart breaking.
“There’s got to be some way-”
“There’s no way,” he said bluntly.
“Darius.”
“Xavier…I’m going to come home soon. We can talk then.”
“Of course,” I choked out. “I’m so sorry Darius.”
The line went dead and I dropped down to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest. The shadows were close, gnawing at the edges of my emotions, begging I let them take away the hurt. But I’d lived my entire life under a roof where who I was had been rejected and beaten down. I knew how to protect the real me from my father. And if I could keep it from him, keeping it from the shadows was easy. It was just a shame being me right now hurt like hell.
I lowered my Atlas into my lap as I perched on the edge of Lance’s bed, my brother’s heartache ringing in my ears. And that wasn’t even the end of it. I’d face the same questions, the same despair, the same pity from each and every person I encountered from now until they all knew. At that point I guessed the pity would just fade, but it would never truly leave. Poor Darius Acrux, he hungered for power so much that it destroyed the only good thing he was ever offered.
I blew out a deep breath and turned to look at Lance. His brow was creased in pain as he slept and I could only imagine he was reliving the horrors of last night. Of him finally getting his sister back from the shadows only to have her turn on him, try to kill him…
Anger burned through me at the thought of that. I might not have had a lot left for myself in this miserable world, but I had him. And I refused to let this stand. Even if fixing it cost me him too.
I got to my feet, dropped my sweatpants and folded them around my Atlas as I stepped across the room and slipped out of the window.
I circled his house and headed to his back yard where I’d have room to shift.
“Well, hello big boy!” Washer cooed and I looked around to find him peering out of his window in the bungalow next to Orion’s with his eyebrows waggling. He was butt fucking naked with his dick pressed to the glass, but as I currently had my own junk on show I was guessing I couldn’t say shit about that.
“I needed to see my Guardian,” I growled at him, looking back over my shoulder as I glared at him, refusing to turn and give him a full show.
“Naughty, naughty,” he chided, waggling a finger at me as he shook his hips and the glass squeaked as his dick rubbed across it. “Good thing I can’t taste any lust on you or I’d have to tell tales.”
I grunted and looked away from him as I dropped my sweatpants and Atlas to the ground. Fucking pervert.
“In fact…all I’m getting from you is the strongest sense of…despair…”
I ground my teeth and slammed my mental shields down tight.
“I suggest you keep out of my fucking head if you want to keep your job, you sun baked, pruny ball bag,” I snarled as I looked around to glare at him again.
“My boy!” Washer gasped, his focus fixing on my eyes and horror filling his gaze. My heart leapt and sank and crumbled into something far less substantial than dust. “Your eyes! You-”
I shifted fast, fire tearing through my limbs as my bones expanded and my skin stretched to accommodate my Dragon form. Four clawed feet slammed into the ground and the growl that erupted from me was enough to shut him the fuck up.
I snatched my sweatpants and Atlas between my teeth and took off flying as fast as I could.
Running away from my problems had never helped me much before, but I didn’t need to deal with that bullshit. What had happened between me and Roxy, that was…ours. It didn’t matter that it was fucked up and raw and bleeding, it was still ours. We’d been marked by it inside and out and no matter how much I might have wished it had gone differently, that didn’t change it.
I raced through the sky, fire erupting from my jaws as I tried to burn out some of the agony in me but it only flared more fiercely.
I soared to Ignis House, shifting at the last second as I shot towards my open window and ran several steps forward in my Fae form before coming to a halt in the centre of my room. My sweatpants and Atlas tumbled across the carpet at my feet and I dragged in a breath as I tried to calm the rage in me. The hurt.