“Where were you?” I snapped and he bowed his head.
“We need to talk alone,” he said. “Gwen, you need to go and talk to your sister.”
“Why? Is she okay? What have you done to her?” Darcy demanded and I frowned at Darius, trying to figure out what was going on.
There was something different about him, but I couldn’t work out what it was apart from the general air of defeat about him. It hit me that something serious had happened as I felt the weight of it in my chest. The Guardian bond burned a little hotter, demanding I help him and I resented it forcefully because where had he been when I needed him?
“I haven’t done anything,” Darius said, avoiding her gaze. “She did it to us.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Darcy snarled, hurrying to the window.
“You can’t go out in this storm like that,” I said in alarm, stepping forward.
She glanced back at me as Phoenix fire swirled in her gaze. “I’ll be just fine.” She looked to Darius. “If you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
Darius nodded like he didn’t even hear her and my heart crushed as she threw me a look of goodbye.
“You’ll be okay?” she asked and I nodded firmly.
“Yes. Go,” I urged, though the last thing I wanted was to be parted from her right now. But it was clear Darius needed me. Even if I did want to rip his head off in that moment. The bond didn’t give me much choice.
Darcy slipped out the window and Darius shoved it shut behind her, tugging the curtains across sharply.
I turned to face him and he strode to the nightstand, switching the lamp on and beckoning me closer.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a low tone, moving toward him, half wanting to punch him for not showing up tonight, but the look in his eyes was staying my hand. And as I got closer, I realised it wasn’t just the look in his eyes. There was a fucking black ring around them.
“No,” I gasped, grabbing hold of his shoulders as I moved right up close to be sure, my gaze flicking between each of his irises as I begged the stars that this wasn’t true.
“We had our Divine Moment,” Darius said flatly, like he didn’t have enough energy to say it with any emotion.
“Who?” I breathed, but I knew who. He didn’t have to say her name, but he gave it to me anyway.
“Tory,” he sighed, the first time I’d ever heard him call her anything other than Roxy. “She fucking said no, Lance.” He fell against me and I wrapped my arms around him, gripping him tightly as the world seemed to fall apart all over again. Last night had changed everything. I’d thought almost dying had been bad, but this…
“Fuck…Darius.” I gripped him closer, the bond between us practically wailing as his pain suddenly washed into me more keenly. I clenched my jaw against it, gripping the back of his head as I did the only thing I could do and stood there until he found enough strength to move.
“It’s over,” he rasped. “It’s all fucking over.”
I shook my head like I could offer something in denial, but no words came. My best friend was Star Crossed. And no one in the history of the world had ever been able to go against the stars once that decision had been made. But it was such a rare choice anyway…there was only one famous case I could distinctly remember where a woman had refused her Elysian Mate after he’d been responsible for killing her father. But that choice made some sort of sense, Tory’s didn’t. Darius might have hurt her, but didn’t she understand the weight of this kind of Star Bond? It would overcome anything, everything. Darius would have spent the rest of his life making up for all he’d done to her, he would have watched over her more fiercely than the moon did the Earth. He’d have given her the world.
Had she even realised the immensity of what she’d given up? Had she really been so stubborn that she would choose a life without love in it? Doomed to pine for Darius for the rest of her days and never have him. The stars would make it their mission to keep them apart now. Nothing would go their way even if she regretted the decision. It was impossible. It was downright cruel. To herself. To him.
Darius pushed me back onto the bed and fell down beside me, winding his arms tighter around my waist. Our bond flared like it never had before, because there was nothing I could do to help him. This was beyond my control. But I was still forced to act, to do something to make this right even though there was nothing I could offer.
Thankfully, having him this close started to ease the ache and the bond hummed with need as it drew us closer until my hand was knotted in his hair. It took everything I had not to fucking kiss him, or drag him into the shower and soothe him like I had Darcy. It was totally messed up.
Fuck you Lionel. Fuck you right up the fucking ass for all you’ve done.
“Don’t say it’ll be alright,” Darius growled.
“I won’t,” I sighed.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” he said. “By the stars, you could have died.” His rough jaw grazed against mine and I groaned, trying to draw back enough before this bond took too much control of me.
“It’s alright, I didn’t.”
“It’s not alright. Fucking hell, Lance. Could this night get any worse?”
“Doubt it,” I muttered. His flesh was scalding hot against mine, but I didn’t let him go even when smoke coiled out of his mouth. He needed me this close and I’d burn for him if I had to.
“Sorry,” he said, shutting his eyes as he tried to rein in his Dragon. “It just hurts so fucking much. What the hell am I gonna do now?”
I shook my head, wishing I had an answer, but I came up empty. We fell quiet and he rested his forehead to my shoulder as he tried to deal with this awful fucking thing that had happened to him. And tomorrow, everyone would know. The whole academy would see the rings in their eyes. It would change the way people behaved around them. Elysian Mates wasn’t something any Fae took lightly.
“What happened with Clara?” Darius asked, his voice heavy like he was afraid to ask. “She was the one who stabbed you?”
I nodded as pain ripped into my chest. “She’s gone…I don’t know where. I don’t know if it was even her, I’m doubting everything.” My heart started to splinter. I still didn’t want to face this, but I knew Darius needed something else to focus on. So the bond pushed the words out even though I wasn’t ready to voice them. “Maybe it wasn’t her at all, just a phantom in the shadows.”
“She was real enough to hurt you,” he growled. “Shit, what if…” He trailed off and I leaned back to get a better look at his expression.
“What?” I pressed.
“Well, she was bonded to my father the same way you are to me. If that bond still exists, maybe…fuck, maybe she’s gone to him.”
My throat thickened at that idea. It was an awful fucking thought. That she still held some allegiance to Darius’s father in her heart. But if the shadows really had consumed what had remained of my sister, it made sense that she would be drawn toward that dark path.
“Let’s hope not,” I breathed, wondering what I’d do now. I needed to find her, but if she had been willing to kill me, I didn’t know if there was anything to find. Maybe she was just a husk filled with darkness. Maybe her face was just a memory and her words had just been sweet lies to make us do her bidding.