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A gony ripped through my side as a Nymph got close enough to drive its probed fingers into my flesh and I roared a challenge as I swung towards it. The axe Darcy had forged for me in Phoenix fire blazed with blue flames as it carved a path through the air and the Nymph’s neck in turn.
The foul creature didn’t even have time to shriek in pain before it died and it crumbled to dust which swirled around me on the storm Darcy and Seth had summoned to hide our advance.
Not that that plan had worked. The fucking Nymphs had realised we were here the moment we stepped foot outside the clearing where the clubhouse was concealed. I didn’t know if we’d set off a magical alarm when we arrived via stardust or if we’d just been unlucky enough to be spotted, but it didn’t matter now. We were right in the thick of the shit storm with Nymphs closing in on all sides.
I pressed a hand to my side, healing the worst of the wounds with a curse as I was forced to pause my advance.
Caleb appeared as nothing more than a blur of red and blue flames as he shot all around the forest with his Vampire speed, the twin daggers Darcy had crafted him tearing through the Nymphs before they even realised he was close.
My skin prickled with the urge to shift and a Dragon’s roar left my lips as smoke coated my tongue, but there was no room for me to shift here between the trees. Besides, I liked the way it felt when my new axe carved through my enemies too much to abandon it.
When Darcy had presented us with these weapons, my heart had ached for her. For the pain she was in with her sister and Lance gone and the weight of the world pressing down on her. I shared the torture of their loss with her so I understood the burden of it more than well enough. But instead of crumbling beneath the agony of their loss, she’d risen to the challenge and spent the summer helping us to try and track down the Imperial Star. Roxy had made the sacrifice Gabriel had predicted, stopping Father from finding it for now and we refused to allow her sacrifice to be for nothing. And now that Darcy had armed the four of us with weapons that could withstand the Nymphs and cut through them as easily as if they were made of paper, there was nothing that could stop us from finding it.
Max bellowed a challenge from his position on Seth’s back in his huge white Wolf form as they charged through the clearing and he fired an arrow flaming with Phoenix fire right over my head. A Nymph exploded into dust as the arrow punched a hole in its chest and Max guided it back to him on a gust of wind in a move he’d been practicing tirelessly since Darcy had forged his gift. He instantly placed the arrow in the bow and aimed again as I raced forward behind them. Seth’s front paws were clad in gleaming metal, the claws able to ignite with Phoenix fire and tear through the barky flesh of the Nymphs like a hot knife through butter.
I swung my axe with savage abandon, black blood splattering my face and arms as I killed again and again but no matter how many enemies I destroyed, it felt like the tide was never ending.
My heart was pounding to a frantic rhythm as I searched the darkness between the trees for Darcy. She’d run ahead using a concealment spell despite my command for us to stick together, and panic was warring beneath my skin for every moment that passed without a sign of her. I’d given Roxy my word that I’d protect her sister before she’d fallen into the shadows and been taken by my father and it was the only thing I could do for her at the moment.
Besides, I’d formed a bond with Darcy of my own in the last six weeks. We’d been meeting up as often as I could get away from the manor in secret so that she could try and burn the shadows out of me. If I could just get free of them then Clara couldn’t control me anymore and I’d be able to strike at her and Father. But it wasn’t fucking working. I was pushing and pushing for Darcy to use ever stronger flames, but they were coming closer to roasting me alive from the inside out than they were to destroying the shadows. She’d refused to attempt it at all this past week since I’d passed out from the agony of them and Max had struggled to heal me in time to save my life. But I didn’t want to stop trying. I needed to break free so that I could stand against my father and rescue the girl I loved.
The pain of my separation from Roxy cut me open and made me bleed with every day that passed.
Father held her life in his hands and he’d threatened her to stop me from trying to track her down. Not that that had stopped me. I knew he held her somewhere in the manor and I’d been spending every waking hour searching for her, but I’d never even found a clue to her whereabouts. But sometimes, in the dead of night, I woke suddenly, sure I’d heard her screaming, alone in the dark.
I hoped that I was just having nightmares. But I was almost certain I wasn’t.
A huge blast of Phoenix fire came from the clubhouse at the centre of the clearing and Nymphs screamed as they died beneath Darcy’s wrath.
I raced forward, cutting through the Nymphs who were trying to escape her flames until I finally made it to the stone house where she was waiting for us.
For a moment the light from her fire cast her in shadows, making her blue hair appear black as she smiled savagely in victory, looking so like her sister that my heart dropped right down into the pit of my stomach. Guilt rose up in me like an all too familiar curse and I forced my mind off of it so that I could focus on this fight.
“Did we get them all?” Darcy called as her flames guttered out and the illusion was lost to me.
“What the fuck was that?” I demanded as I came to stand before her, my muscles burning with fatigue from hefting my axe which now hung loose in my right hand. “The plan was to stick together.”
“Calm down, Darius,” she replied, flicking a lock of blue hair back over her shoulder. “I was just rounding up the stragglers.”
“You could have gotten yourself killed,” I snarled as Seth padded up beside me in his Wolf form and Max slid from his back.
“Well, I didn’t. So you don’t have to worry about breaking your precious promise,” she muttered bitterly.
“It’s the only thing I can do for her at the moment,” I growled in reply, my heart twisting with the truth of those words. We’d vowed to do everything we could to get Roxy back, but it turned out that there was nothing we could do. Not so far anyway. Even Gabriel hadn’t been able to see anything to help us. The whole situation was fucked.
Darcy’s gaze softened at that and she nodded. “I know. But I’m not some fragile thing that needs protecting.”
“Well you are a princess,” Seth teased as he shifted back into Fae form.
Darcy rolled her eyes as she turned away from him flashing his junk and Max tossed him a pair of sweatpants from his bag.
Caleb shot towards us as we waited for him to pull them on, a wild look in his eyes as he extinguished the Phoenix flames which coated his daggers.
“There are more coming,” he panted as he pointed away through the woods. “Too many. We need to search this place and get the fuck out of here.”
I cursed as I looked up at the huge stone building which had once been home to the Zodiac Guild. Darcy had discovered this place mentioned in an old tome which had been kept at The Palace of Souls and we’d come here as soon as we could, but the damn Nymphs had still been faster. Just like they had at the last four places we’d searched.