Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I lay on top of Orion, a curtain of blue hair surrounding us as I grinned down at him. We rarely slept apart these days. I knew it was reckless, we both did. But since he’d come so close to death and the world felt like it was going to tip on its axis at any moment, neither of us wanted to waste a second apart. Staying at his place was probably insanity, but as he was the only one with a double bed, I always preferred coming here. Not that we were currently making any use of the extra space; I was making Orion into my very own mattress. But instead of springs it had abs.

It must have been past midnight by now, but I didn’t feel tired. I felt wide awake, wanting to drink in his company like the sweetest cocktail in the world. My body was still humming with the after effects of him claiming me. I felt his kisses branded on my skin like dripping hot wax, his touches like invisible tattoos.

I will never take a single moment with him for granted ever again.

“Are you worried about Clara?” I asked gently. I knew it was eating him up inside that he couldn’t go to Lionel’s house and do something about his sister.

Darius’s father had banned him from going there, saying that she needed time to ‘adjust’. But what that really meant was that even Lionel couldn’t control her. From what Darius had said about his visit home, Clara was volatile, violent and entirely unpredictable. Which had been confirmed by the memories Orion had demanded Diego show him of her whenever possible. Even if they didn’t help us with anything; Lance was just desperate to find a change in her that I feared wasn’t coming. And every time we spoke about it, there was this raw pain in his eyes which just cut my heart to ribbons.

His gaze slid from my face and his expression became dark. “Honestly? I’m fucking terrified for her, Blue. I know she attacked me, I know she’s not herself. But it’s the shadows, it’s not her.” He clutched my arm and his eyes flicked up again, hunting my gaze. “You believe that too, don’t you?”

I knew he needed me to be on side with this. But after seeing Clara driving that blade into him, tearing into his throat with her fangs and draining the blood from his body, I couldn’t feel anything but bitterness towards her. Hate. She was a monster. Nothing remotely Fae lived in that body from what I’d seen. But Orion needed me to try, so I could offer him the smallest shred of hope I had.

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully and his muscles rippled beneath me. I cupped his cheek so he couldn’t turn away, my heart pounding a frantic beat in my chest. “But if it is the shadows making her like this, then I’ll help in whatever way I can to free her from them.”

His throat bobbed with emotion as he nodded. “If I could just go to her…”

“And what would you do if you could? What if she attacked you again?” I demanded, my heart thrashing like a caged animal at the thought of him going near her. I was quietly glad Lionel had stopped him from visiting, because the idea of him walking into that house with that creature who’d nearly killed him made me want to scream until my lungs burst.

“Darius and I are discussing ways to drive the shadows from her body,” he said, his jaw pulsing like he was aggravated that he didn’t have a simple solution to helping her. “I’ll find a way. I will,” he added like he was trying to convince himself as much as me.

I brushed the hair from his forehead, nodding my agreement. “If there’s a way to save her, I know you’ll find it and you’ll do it. But please don’t take any stupid risks. I can’t lose you, Lance. You have no idea how awful it was seeing you there, bleeding, hurting, dying-”

He kissed me, gripping the back of my neck to keep me close and my heart found a steadier rhythm once more.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured against my lips. “We made a deal with the stars, remember?”

I nodded, drowning in the feeling of him holding me against him. “I’m sorry it had to be Seth who saved you,” I said with a hiccough of laughter.

A low growl rumbled through his chest. “I’m surprised he didn’t finish the job if I’m honest.”

I thought on that, releasing a small sigh. “I guess he’s not such a big bad wolf after all.”

“Yeah, total plot twist; he saved little red riding hood when he found her bleeding out instead of eating her.”

“You’re more like big bearded riding hood,” I pointed out and he barked a laugh.

“Damn, I must have forgotten to wear my hood during that last ride.” He spanked my ass and I gasped in surprise before leaning back to tickle him in retaliation.

He laughed and the sound lit me up from the inside as he caught my wrists and pinned them against his chest. “Bad girl.”

I smirked, casting ice magic around my hands, colder and colder, while Orion played chicken. “I don’t lose at games like this,” he said with a wicked grin. “Remember the Fairy Fair?”

My mouth pulled up at the corner as I recalled him getting electrocuted in the circus tent to apologise to me. I bit down on my lip, knowing exactly how I could get past his defences as I drew a little blood.

He growled, releasing me in an instant and rearing up to suck it from my lip. I laughed as he kissed and sucked it away then I pressed my hands to his shoulders to force him back down onto the mattress.

“I won,” I sang and he smirked, his eyes becoming hooded.

“I’m okay with you being my weakness, Blue. Because that means my weakness is a badass, hot as fuck Phoenix with enough fire in her veins to rival the sun. So come at me stars, I’m invincible!” He pointed at the ceiling and I laughed, tucking myself against his chest again and wondering if I was ever going to get this smile off my face.

“Don’t goad the stars.” I jabbed him in the shoulder. “They’ll take it as a challenge.”

He chuckled, miming zipping his lips and we lay in the quiet for a while with nothing but our heartbeats breaching the silence.

His fingers threaded between mine and his thumb ran over my mother’s ring on my finger.

“Is it weird that I’m wearing it?” I breathed. “Sometimes I worry she wasn’t a good person.”

He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear with a deep frown etched into his brow. “I don’t know about good, Blue, but I know she would have done anything to protect you.”

“Do you think she loved me?” I whispered, not sure if I was really expecting an answer from him or just wondering the thought aloud to the universe. Had there ever been a reality where I was a daughter loved by her mother? Did she cradle me against her chest and pray I’d never come to harm? Had she truly cared what kind of girl I’d grow up to be? And would she be proud of the one I was?

Orion trailed his thumb along my jaw, down my neck and across my collar bone, his gaze following the path he took. “How could she not love you?”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes, but I smiled through them, leaning down to touch my lips to his. Because that was the sweetest answer he could have given me.

“Do you miss the mortal world?” he asked as I rested my head on his chest, his voice rough and delicious.

His fingers curved around my shoulder blades, sending a deep shiver rippling through me. Sometimes I wondered if I was addicted to his flesh. He was ecstasy embodied, a drug that left my mind in a fog of bliss. It was weird to think I’d spent so much of my life without him. Now, a future apart seemed impossible. Unbearable.

“Not really,” I said thoughtfully. “I never felt at home there, I always felt like somewhere else was calling my name. I just didn’t know where to look for it.”

“I guess it found you in the end,” he said with a smirk in his voice. “Or to be more precise, I found you.”

“How long were you stalking us exactly?” I asked, lifting my head and narrowing my eyes playfully.

He chuckled, lowering his hand to my ass and squeezing. “I wasn’t stalking, I was watching.”

“Same thing,” I pointed out.

“I just had to make sure you were who we thought you were.”

“And how did you know which Vega twin was which once you did?” I mused.

“Magical signatures,” he said in that professor tone that got me all hot. “The elite are registered at birth. I had a special device so I could get a reading on you.”

“Hmm, what kind of special device?” I grinned, rocking my hips against him and drawing a groan from his lips. My hunger for him was insatiable. Every time I thought I’d had enough, I found myself starving for him all over again.

“It’s a long, hard device that lives between my legs. And it likes you a lot,” he played along and the dimple in his right cheek appeared, making me lean forward to lick it. He laughed, gripping my hips and grinding me against him with a growl of desire.

Chiming bells sounded somewhere in the room and Orion jolted, rolling me off of him and grabbing his phone from the nightstand. I frowned as he answered, the tension in his muscles making me worry.

“Francesca?” Orion answered and I pursed my lips. Why does he have a personal ringtone for Fran? And why is she calling so freaking late? “Where?…Okay. Yeah, I’ll be there within thirty minutes.”

He hung up, stepping out of bed and striding to his closet to grab some clothes and start dressing.

I sat up with my brows pulling together, trying to ignore the warring tug of jealousy in my chest. “What’s going on?”

He pulled on a pair of jeans, buckling them up as he moved toward me, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my forehead. My freaking forehead. “I’ll be back before dawn.”

I narrowed my eyes as I followed him out of bed and he turned away to pull on a shirt.

I dragged on my underwear and planted my hands on my hips. “Explain,” I demanded. “Because it sounded like you just answered a phonecall to your ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night and now you’re running off to see her at the click of her fingers.”

Orion turned to me with a frown gripping his features. “Blue…”

“What?” I raised my brows, waiting, my heart thrashing uncomfortably. I didn’t like this feeling. I knew we were unbreakable. But I wasn’t going to let this go without a solid explanation all the same.

He sighed, reaching down to pick up my jeans and shirt from the floor. He held them out to me with his eyes darkening. “When I tell you, you’ll insist on coming. And I’m gonna skip the argument and just say, stay fucking close and follow my orders.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked as he moved forward, dragging my dark green shirt over my head. I pushed my arms into the sleeves then snatched my jeans from his hand, not wanting to be dressed like a toddler.

Orion rubbed at the thick stubble lining his jaw. “Me and Darius have been working with Francesca for years to keep the Nymph population under control.”

“What do you mean?” The knot in my gut loosened at seeing the truth in his eyes, but my heart started to pound for a whole different reason.

“Francesca has eyes all over the kingdom watching out for Nymphs. There’s usually an FIB task force who handle them, but in the past couple of years their numbers have been getting out of control. So she employs us and a bunch of other under-the-board operatives to deal with them. It’s completely fucking illegal of course, but Francesca cares more about keeping civilians safe than putting her job on the line. And me and Darius volunteered because, well, we’re damn good at it.”

“You and Darius…you kill Nymphs?” I breathed, the fact making a whole lot of sense. Like the time I’d seen him talking to Fran at a bar in Tucana, discussing killing somebody. It had been about this. I smacked Orion’s chest with a scowl. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”

His lips tipped into a slanted smile, his eyes flashing like he liked when I hit him. “We haven’t been on a run in ages, and like I said, it’s illegal as fuck. I wasn’t gonna incriminate you if the FIB ever came knocking.”

I folded my arms, my gaze sharpening on him. “What else don’t I know about you?”

He laughed, moving forward and cupping my cheek. “I’m nothing but an open book now, I promise. This is my last secret.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” I whispered and he stamped his mouth firmly to mine.

“You will,” he promised and I tasted that promise on my lips. “I’ll give you the play by play of my entire life when we get back if that’s what you want, but we’ve gotta go.” He snatched my hand, tugging me toward his closet and a smile pulled at my mouth for the fact that he didn’t even have to ask if I wanted to come. Of course I damn well did. I could use my Phoenix fire to destroy Nymphs and it felt good knowing I could be of some use.

Orion took a large wooden box from the shelf at the top of his closet, lifting it down and placing it on the bed. He flipped open the lid and my eyes widened at the sight of the long, silver blade nestled inside. I recognised it instantly; he’d used it when the Nymphs had attacked at the Pitball stadium.

My lips parted as he took it out, swinging it in his grip with impossible ease. “This is a Sun Steel blade,” he explained. “Very fucking rare. The FIB use them to fight Nymphs and Francesca hooked me up with one.” He grabbed a scabbard from the box and tethered it around his waist.

Of course she did. Fran is so freaking generous.

I made a mental note that his ex had gifted him a fancy ass sword and all I’d given him for his birthday was a bunch of handwritten I.O.Us. Not that I’d had time to prepare for it considering I hadn’t known it was his birthday, but still. I wasn’t exactly winning the best gift of the year award. No, Fran had secured that alright.

“Your fire will be even more effective,” Orion added, a gleam in his eyes like he was excited for this. I kind of was too.

He swung the sword around for a second with incredible skill, admiring it before tucking it into the scabbard. Dammit Fran, why do you have to be cool?

“Why aren’t you telling me to stay behind?” I asked curiously.

“Do you want to?” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and I shook my head immediately.

A dark smile tugged at his mouth. “I’m not telling you to stay because firstly, you’re a fucking force to be reckoned with, beautiful. And secondly…” He stepped closer, taking my hand and firmly kissing the back of it. “We make a fucking excellent team, I’d be doing us a disservice to leave you behind.”

“You sure know how to talk your way out of trouble, Professor.” I cocked a brow and he smirked at my expression.

“I know how to lick my way out of it too, Miss Vega.” He grinned suggestively and I laughed as he tugged me out of the door. I grabbed my grey duffle coat from the lounge and Orion shrugged on his leather jacket before leading me to the back door.

We slipped out into the night and I lifted a hand, casting a silencing bubble around us as he led the way towards the fence ringing Asteroid Place. We used air magic to jump over it then started jogging through the trees in Earth Territory.

“How are we going to get off campus without being noticed?” I asked as I ran beside him.

Thanks to Physical Enhancement classes and the brutal Pitball practise sessions, my fitness had improved tenfold. I was even starting to get muscle definition and I couldn’t say I missed my spaghetti arms.

“I helped put the wards in place around Campus,” he said. “I left a gap in them for me and Darius.”

“Is that safe?” I frowned. “What if someone gets in?”

“They’d never find it,” he said confidently. “I’ve put all kinds of concealment spells over it to keep others away. But once I show you it, you’ll be able to use it too. Not that you should ever go off campus without me.” He threw me a sharp look and I arched an eyebrow.

“So I can be bad so long as I’m being bad with you?” I teased.

“Exactly.” He grinned, lunging toward me and throwing me over his shoulder. I swallowed a scream of surprise as he shot away with his Vampire speed and the world became a blur.

We soon reached a dark corner of the outer fence where he placed me down, a little dizzy as I gazed at the iron bars stretching up high above us.

“Here.” Orion took my hand, trailing it along the bars and planting it on one which was marked ever-so-subtly with a symbol of the sun. The second my fingers touched it, the bar vanished and Orion guided me through the gap into the bushes on the other side. I glanced back at the seemingly solid bars in surprise then my heart leapt as a man in a black hoodie strode through them behind us.

Darius’s eyes immediately slid to me and he halted in his tracks. “What’s with the Vega?” he growled and I clenched my jaw.

He was Orion’s closest friend and I had a lot to be grateful to him for since he’d helped save Orion, but I also had a lot to hate him for too. Why did the Heirs have to be screwing with my moral compass so much lately?

“Blue’s going to help,” Orion said firmly, moving forward to clap Darius on the shoulder. “Problem?”

Darius frowned then shook his head. “Whatever, so long as she doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“She has a name,” I said airily. “And she would appreciate if you didn’t speak about her in the third person.”

“Alright, Gwen, calm down,” Darius taunted and a growl rumbled in the back of my throat.

“It’s Darcy,” I corrected. “I won’t respond to Gwen. So if a Nymph starts sucking the magic right out of your ass, then you might wanna use the right name when you’re calling for help.”

Darius raised his eyebrows, a surprised laugh escaping him as he looked to Orion. “Gwen’s got fire in her belly tonight.”

“Stop with the third person crap. And don’t call me Gwen,” I demanded and Orion shoved Darius in the arm, making him knock into me.

“Call her Darcy, dipshit, or I’ll start calling you Demelza,” he growled and Darius shrugged. “Come on let’s move.”

Darius took a pouch of stardust from his pocket, eyeing me through his dark-ringed eyes. The sight made my heart pinch, so I looked away. I didn’t know if I pitied him or was glad he was paying the price for hurting my sister. But it killed me that she was being punished too.

“Ready?” Darius asked and Orion caught my hand, pulling me closer and keeping his fingers latched onto me like he was worried Darius was going to leave me behind. I wouldn’t have put it past him either.

We nodded and he tossed the glittering stardust into the air.

I was yanked into a sea of stars and my breath got sucked away as we tore through the endless galaxy, using its power to ride through the space between atoms and land at our destination.

My feet hit solid ground and I stumbled, feeling Orion’s grip tighten on me. My face bumped into a hard shoulder all the same and I looked up to find Darius steadying me too.

The scent of smoke hung around him like a cloud and I could see the Dragon peering out from behind his eyes, a flash of gold burning through the dark.

“Thanks,” I muttered, stepping back, taking in the dark hill we were standing on, the moon hidden behind a sea of clouds.

Darius shrugged, glancing away. “If you prepare to land on unsteady ground you’ll always land smoothly.”

Heat flushed into my cheeks and I shook my head. “I’ve always been clumsy.”

“Fae can train themselves out of anything,” Darius said firmly and I wondered if that was true. I couldn’t imagine ever being anywhere near graceful. My fifth foster mother, Mrs Cockleford, had taken us to an art gallery once when I was nine. I’d knocked over a sculpture of a Bengal tiger and caused thousands of dollars in damage to the artist. Tory had determinedly said that wasn’t why she sent us back to the foster home a week later. But I knew it was. I swear the less clumsy I tried to be, the more destruction I caused. I’d broken more bones and had more visits to the emergency room in my life than anyone I knew. Probably didn’t help that I’d been the type of kid who liked climbing trees, playing in streams and running everywhere barefoot. But I hadn’t been the type who liked being told not to do those things either.

“I happen to like that about you,” Orion commented. “It means I’ll always be able to catch you.”

“You’re a Vampire, you’ll always be able to catch me anyway,” I laughed.

“Not when you fly away from me,” he growled.

“Do you think I’m so clumsy that I’ll hit a rainbow and fall out of the sky?” I taunted and he chuckled.

“Where’s Francesca?” Darius questioned, turning toward the dark woodland that stretched away to our right. I followed his gaze and spotted a huge old gothic house standing amongst the tall trees. There were no lights on in the building and something about it sent a prickling sensation up my spine.

“What are Nymphs doing all the way out here?” Orion muttered.

“Fuck knows,” Darius growled. “But I’m hungering for a kill.”

A flash of light caught my attention to my right and I whirled toward it in time with the others just as Fran stepped out of the trees. She wore a black jumpsuit that clung to her curvy figure, her hazel hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and her eyes were narrowed at me.

“What’s with the spare?” she demanded, jogging up to us then slowing as she realised who I was. “By the stars, did you bring a fucking Vega, Lance?” She turned to him, and I swear, if I got third-personed one more time tonight I was going to lose it.

“I can help,” I spoke before he could. “I killed a bunch of the Nymphs at the Palace of Souls.”

“I heard,” Fran said coolly. “But you’re still just a freshman who’s going to be a liability. This isn’t child’s play.”

“Firstly, I’m almost nineteen, and secondly, I’m well aware it’s not child’s play. I was aware when I battled for my life and the lives of my friends at the palace. I was aware when I fought at Lance’s side when the academy was attacked. I was also aware when I turned a bunch of Nymphs to dust because they can’t stand the power of my Phoenix fire. So just to be clear, I’m aware.”

Orion fought a smirk, glancing at Fran as she clucked her tongue in annoyance. “Well this is on your head, Lance.”

“Noted.” He saluted her and she rolled her eyes.

“What’s the intel?” Darius asked, looking seriously impatient to start killing Nymphs.

Fran stood up straighter, looking more professional. “Some kids were playing in the abandoned house down there. Their parents said they showed up at home screaming, saying they saw a Nymph. I wouldn’t have taken it seriously only we’ve had a few sightings out this way the past week. It’s probably nothing, but I thought we could check this one out together just to be sure.”

“Why would Nymphs be here?” Orion asked with a frown. “There’s hardly any Fae to feed on. That’s not their usual style.”

“Beats me.” Fran shrugged. “There’s a town not too far from here, maybe there’s a few picking off anyone who strays into the woods. But this far out? Doesn’t seem likely to me. We’ll probably be back in our beds within an hour.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” Darius said. “Come on.”

He took off into the trees sloping down toward the gothic building and I followed with Orion and Fran. The trees were thick and the path we followed was so overgrown that I couldn’t imagine anyone had used it for years.

Orion lit a dim Faelight to guide the way forward, the amber glow just enough to ignite the path. Fran moved behind him so I was forced to the back and I had the feeling that was intentional.

The hoot of an owl made my heart tick faster and I gathered magic in my palms to steel my nerves.

I am a Solarian Princess with a bucketload of power in my veins. The Nymphs should be afraid. Definitely not the other way around. Definitely definitely.

The trees opened up at the base of the hill and we emerged before the huge manor house which looked long abandoned. Moss was climbing the dark brick walls and the ancient door was hanging off its hinges, blowing in the wind and making a creaking noise that sent a chill into my blood. Most of the windows were smashed and the inside was thick with shadow.

“What is this place?” I whispered, feeling Darius casting a silencing bubble around us.

“The only information linked to it is that it belonged to someone called Kreevan Dire,” Fran answered and Orion turned sharply toward her, his brow creasing.

“Dire?” he questioned, his jaw tight.

“Yeah, have you heard of him?” she asked curiously and I glanced over at Darius as he strode up to one of the windows and peered inside.

“He was an old friend of my dad’s,” Orion murmured as he took the sword from his hip, his taut expression making me certain there was more he wasn’t saying. Which meant he was keeping it from Fran. Which also meant he kept secrets from her. Which made me even more curious about what it was he was hiding.

We strode toward the house and Fran took hold of Orion’s arm. “Let’s do a sweep and head in around back.” She directed me toward Darius. “You two check out the front rooms. If you find anything, Darius, use the usual signal.”

“I’ll stay with Darcy,” Orion said immediately.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lance, it’s just a sweep. Besides, she said she’s aware, remember?” Fran insisted, tugging him on and I had half a mind to yank her ponytail for that sarcastic comment.

“It’s fine,” I promised Orion, not wanting Fran to think I was some scared little mouse who needed to hold her teacher’s hand on this mission. But I knew Orion wasn’t going to leave me that easily, so I looked into his eyes and ignored the beautiful Fae clinging to his arm. “I’ll be with Darius.”

He clenched his jaw then turned to his friend. “She doesn’t leave your sight.”

“Got it,” Darius agreed, then heaved himself through a window and dropped inside, beckoning me after him.

Fran led Orion towards the other end of the house and he glanced back over his shoulder at me with a frown. I gave him a thumbs up and he scowled, apparently not comforted by that. But if he thought I was so capable then he really shouldn’t have expected to babysit me through this.

I walked up to the window, taking hold of the ledge and hauling myself up into the house. Darius held out a hand to help me, but I ignored it, landing on the floor beside him a second later, brushing the muck from my hands onto my jeans. I didn’t know if he was being nice or if he thought I was incapable, but I was sure as shit gonna prove him wrong if it was the latter.

The room smelled musty and old furniture was rotting around the space. Pictures hung at awkward angles on the walls, layered with dust which concealed whatever was in their frames. To say it was creepy was the understatement of the decade.

“Stay close,” Darius murmured, tightening his silencing bubble around us and casting a low Faelight above us. I brought magic to my fingertips as he led the way out of the room, every footstep we took making the floorboards creak, sounding achingly loud in my ears. Despite the silencing bubble, it still made my breath quicken and my heart pitter-patter.

We moved into an old hallway where a wooden staircase led up to another level, but headed past it, moving strategically through the front rooms and checking they were clear.

We arrived in a large kitchen and a vile smell hit the back of my throat. An old refrigerator stood open and mould clung to everything inside it. It must have been years and years old, yet the scent was still pungent enough to make me gag.

“What the hell happened here?” I hissed.

“Looks like whoever lived here upped and left in a hurry,” Darius murmured.

“Or died in a hurry,” I said thickly, covering my mouth.

“Yeah, or that,” he grunted, glancing around the room then ushering me back the way we’d come. “Nothing here.”

“There’s a door there.” I pointed behind him. It was just beyond the fridge and had no handle, but there’d been a door just like it in one of my foster homes that led to a hidden games room.

Darius frowned, moving to the wooden door which blended with the panels, but it was clear there was a slight gap around the edges. He rapped his knuckles on the wood and the hollow noise that came in response made him look to me in surprise. “Well aren’t you an observant little shrew.”

“Less of the shrew,” I said, pursing my lips.

“Can’t call you Gwen, can’t call you shrew…” he muttered under his breath as he pushed the door to see if it would open.

It didn’t give and I fought a smile as I closed in behind him. But I wasn’t going to offer him the satisfaction of seeing it.

Darius placed his fingers against the wood and a flicker of light pulsed across it. A lock clicked and my heart lurched as he beckoned me closer before opening it.

I took a steadying breath, ready to cast magic at any second as he pushed it open. A line of dust cascaded over him and the hinges protested as the door swung wide. An even more disgusting scent slammed into me and I wrinkled my nose, my eyes burning. Death hung everywhere. I didn’t even have to see the body to know it was there. But as I moved into the room with Darius, I saw it.

The dead guy was hunched over a desk, his skeletal frame still wearing tattered, moth-eaten clothes. His bony fingers rested on a piece of paper and curiosity got the better of me as I raised a hand to my face and cast a bubble of air around my mouth and nose to keep out the smell. Cringing at the eyeless sockets of the dead Fae, I tugged the piece of paper from under his hand, sending his thumb bone cracking off and tumbling onto the floor. Oh shit.

A humming filled my ears and I gasped as the familiar tingle of Astrum’s magic called to me in the air. It made no sense at all to feel it here, but I knew it was true down to the depths of my bones. There was a Tarot card close by and as my gaze raked down the dead body, I spotted it clutched in his other hand. Darius was already turning to the door, clearly done with this room and I snatched it fast before tucking it into my back pocket.

I glanced over my shoulder at Darius just as a clattering noise sounded somewhere beneath our feet.

“The cellar,” Darius hissed, turning and racing from the room. I darted after him, folding the page and stuffing it into my pocket as I took chase, my heart hammering like mad.

A creepy noise had come from the cellar so that was where we were headed. Great. Perfect. Not at all an issue.

We made it to the dark hallway and Darius ran toward the door under the stairs. It stood ajar and my heart stumbled as he pushed it open. I kept close to him, my arm rubbing his as we stepped into the space, his Faelight just illuminating the top of the shadowy stairs that descended underground.

A bang came from somewhere down there and my heart jolted. Shit shit shit.

“It’s probably just an animal,” Darius whispered despite not having to in his silencing bubble. “But we need to be ready.”

I raised my hands and gave him a nod of solidarity. He started descending the stairs and I stayed as close as his shadow, taking slow breaths to try and calm my rampant heartbeat. Another bang made my chest constrict and as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Darius extinguished his light, plunging us into total darkness.

His hand curled around mine, pulling me tight to the side of his body. “Here,” he breathed then his fingers brushed over my eyelids and magic tingled across them. When I reopened my eyes, I could see the way ahead. It wasn’t like daylight, more like the shadows lifting just enough to see where I was going.

Darius moved forward through a stone archway and I followed him into a huge cellar piled high with boxes and lined with rusted shelves. There was a scent of damp in the air and the cold was biting.

We moved into the labyrinth of decaying rubbish; there were piles and piles of mouldy newspapers, metal tools filled the shelves and all kinds of useless objects were stacked everywhere.

A clang rang in my ears and my heart thundered against my ribcage.

Something is in here with us.

We rounded the end of an aisle of shelving and I held my breath as my gaze landed on the man kneeling on the floor at the far end of the room, a mountain of stuff surrounding him. He was shirtless and frenzied, digging through boxes and throwing handfuls of garbage aside. Whenever he found anything metal, he looked closely at it then threw it onto the floor with a clang that echoed through my skull. His lank hair was long and sticking to his sweaty skin. He started grunting, panting, seeming desperate as he upended more boxes and ripped the contents apart. It was clear he was looking for something, but what?

Darius raised his hands and my throat tightened as flames flickered at his fingertips.

“What are you doing?” I hissed. The guy might have been crazy, but that didn’t mean we should attack him.

“Nymph,” he growled, the hate in his voice clear.

“How can you tell?” I breathed as the man threw a box of screwdrivers against the wall and they clattered everywhere.

“I can’t,” he growled, then stepped forward and sent a blast of fire through the air.

I gasped as it ringed around the man, taking root in an old mattress and flaring angrily at his legs. The guy shrieked in horror, his eyes finding us in the dark as he wheeled around and my heart rocketed into my throat. There was something so unFae about him, something that proved he was nothing but a creature of darkness.

“Fae!” he spat, then his skin ripped apart, giving way to a huge monster fresh out of my last nightmare. His huge, tree like body towered up towards the cellar roof and his dark red eyes gleamed with bloodlust.

Darius raised his hands higher and the fire roared around the Nymph, licking his bark-like skin and drawing a shriek of pain from him. A rattle started up in his body and I knew we only had seconds before it started weakening our magic.

I lifted my hands too, bringing Phoenix fire to my palms, heat blazing under my skin like an inferno. It exploded from my body in a torrent of red and blue flames, twisting around the Nymph and tearing through it until it turned to a pile of ash. The cloud of embers it left behind swirled through the air and all fell dark once more as mine and Darius’s fire extinguished.

I took a heavy breath, my eyes finding Darius’s in the dark. I opened my mouth to speak, but a horrible splintering noise sounded like a whip in my ears. We looked up in unison and I spotted the huge, spiderweb crack tearing up the centre of the ceiling. I gasped, my lungs labouring as the entire floor above came crashing down. I saw my death as a ton of rubble tumbled toward us and I threw up my hands on instinct, casting an air shield around us in a dome and forcing as much magic into it as possible. A bathtub slammed into the top of it, bouncing off and smashing to pieces amongst the rest of the bathroom suite as it continued to crash over us. A pipe burst and water cascaded down in a torrential flow, my heart juddering as the carnage piled up around us.

A flash of movement caught my eye and I spotted Orion in the doorway to what once had been the bathroom high above us. His eyes were frantic with fear but the second he spotted us down below, encased in the solid dome of air, his shoulders sagged.

“Just so you know, Plan B was me turning into a Dragon and taking the brunt of that,” Darius pointed out and I turned to him with a relieved smile.

“And yet here you are, Fae sized and safe.”

He cracked a grin, but it didn’t meet his eyes and that made my heart twist.

I looked back up at Orion just as a shadow fell over him and I screamed, “Look out!” but my voice only rang around Darius’s silencing bubble. Orion spun around anyway and dove out of sight with his sword raised.

My lungs compressed with fear and I forced air magic beneath us, elevating us up to the next floor. Our feet hit the mouldy carpet in the doorway and I released the air shield as we both ran forward, fighting to get ahead.

Orion was nowhere in sight, but I could hear the thump and shouts of a fight somewhere close by. A thwack sounded against the wall of the room down the hall and we ran straight toward it in desperation, passing the mildewed wallpaper as we tore into the bedroom.

Orion was pinned to the wall by a Nymph, its probes angled toward his chest as he stabbed and stabbed and stabbed at its gut. The creature stumbled backwards with a screech and I released a line of Phoenix fire with a yell of defiance, cleaving it in half before it fell to dust.

A ragged breath left me as I ran to check that Orion was alright and his arms closed around me for half second. Fear soaked into my veins as I pictured him lying on the ground in that cave again, blood pooling out around him.

No no no, god no.

“We’ve gotta move,” he growled. “This place is overrun.”

“What are they all doing here?” Darius shook his head just before a blood curdling scream pitched through the air, the noise carrying from downstairs.

“Fuck!” Orion gasped and he shot ahead of us while Darius and I raced for the door, tearing along the hallway and down the narrow staircase.

Francesca was on the floor before us, the Nymph’s foot pressing down on her ribs as it reached for her, the rattling, sucking sound it emitted stealing her magic away. I felt my own power subdued and growled as I raised my hands to fight. But Orion was already there, throwing his blade so it wheeled end over and end through the air before slamming right through the creature’s skull. The Nymph exploded into a cascade of ash and Orion sped forward, catching the blade out of the air before it hit the ground.

He dropped down to kneel beside Fran, resting a hand to her side and working on her wounds.

“There’s more outside,” she groaned before she was fully healed.

“I’ll deal with them,” Darius growled, pulling off his clothes as he raced for the nearest window.

I jogged after him, my heart in my throat as he dove from the window ledge and burst into his enormous golden Dragon form with a deafening roar that shook the entire building.

Six Nymphs were tearing into the trees in Fae form and I frowned at the sight of the bags they were carrying, all fit to bursting with items they must have taken from the house. What the hell did they want from some rotting old mansion?

Darius’s Dragon fire lit up the night, cutting a path through the trees as he followed them. Shrieks of agony said he’s gotten at least one, but there was no way he’d be able to catch them all beneath the canopy.

I turned to find Fran back on her feet, clutching onto Orion’s arm as she thanked him. She was giving him the kind of doe eyes that made me want to slap the look off her face. But I didn’t think I’d have a decent enough explanation to get away with that.

“They had bags,” I said. “They’ve taken something from the house.”

Orion scrubbed his knuckles across his jaw, his brow creased with thought.

“We need to check they’re all gone,” Francesca said, straightening her spine as she took back control of the situation.

“If they haven’t run from that Dragon out there, I’m sure they’re about to,” I said.

“We must check all the same,” Fran said firmly and I nodded, moving across the hall and sticking my head in the nearest room.

A creepy display of dolls stared back at me from a shelf beyond the bed, but no Nymph. Not that that could have been any more disturbing right now.

“All clear,” I announced, finding Orion right behind me as I turned back.

His eyes raked down me like he was checking me over and I gave him a half smile as we headed through the rest of the house together, making sure there were no more Nymphs.

“There’s a dead body in a room off of the kitchen,” Fran said as she reappeared in the hall. She sighed like that caused her a headache. “I’ll have to get a Cadaver Disposal Crew out here to incinerate the bones. I’m not sure what power level Dire was, but even low level Fae bodies need to be dealt with. I just need a good alibi for being out here.”

“What do you mean, dealt with?” I asked with a frown.

Orion answered before she could. “Fae magic remains in its owner’s bones after they die. It can be wielded illegally by those who use dark magic.”

My throat tightened at his words and I nodded, recalling how he’d told me him and his dad used to dig up graves to get hold of such things. And from the look on his face, I guessed Frannykins didn’t know about that little pastime or any other of his dark magic dealings. He turned to her as she ran her hand anxiously over her hair.

“We’ll deal with it. Darius can destroy the bones,” Orion said firmly. “It’ll save you the bother.”

“Are you sure?” Fran asked hopefully, looking at him like he was her knight in shining armour. And with the blade in his hand, I guessed he could pass. But he wasn’t her knight. He was mine.

“Yeah, it’s not a problem,” Orion said, leading the way out the front door onto the overgrown lawn.

Darius flew overhead and the air ruffled my hair as he shifted before diving through a window upstairs.

“Thanks, Lance,” Fran said, moving forward to embrace him, her boobs firmly pressed against his chest. “See you soon, yeah? Maybe we can have a proper catch up at your place?” She grinned in a way that made my blood heat and a growl built at the base of my throat as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. Then she tossed a handful of stardust in the air and was gone before he could reply, disappearing into the ether.

“Are you growling, Blue?” Orion taunted and I tossed my hair over my shoulder, schooling my expression.

“Of course not.”

He shot toward me in a blur, gripping my waist and grinning down at me. “Sounded like you were. In fact, I think you were about to go full Fae on Francesca.” His smile widened like that turned him on and I couldn’t help it when my own smile pulled at my mouth.

“Sorry to break up the world’s most messed up parents’ evening, but we need to talk about those Nymphs,” Darius said as he appeared fully dressed in the entranceway, folding his arms as me and Orion broke apart.

“They were acting weird alright,” Orion said in a dark tone.

“What did they take?” I breathed.

“Fuck knows,” Darius said. “But it can’t be good. This feels all kinds of wrong to me.”

A beat of silence passed and Orion frowned as he released a breath then pointed at the house. “I told Francesca we’d deal with the body.”

Darius raised a brow, a smirk pulling at his mouth. “Good thinking.”

I followed them back into the house, glancing between the two of them with their cryptic expressions.

I waited outside the stinking kitchen while they headed into the room with the dead body to burn it and pulled the Tarot card I’d found from my pocket with excitement fluttering through me. I created a Faelight, letting it hover above me so I could see it. The image was of The Tower, the grey walls rising up high from a dark forest below. From my studies, I knew the meaning of this could signify the end of a friendship or abandonment. I turned it over to read the curling silver lettering on the back of it, adrenaline sweeping through my veins.

A fallen star, an empty grave, an eternal vow.

Seek he who broke it.

My heart juddered as I read it a couple more times, having no idea what it was referring to as I pushed it back into my pocket. I’d discuss it with Orion later. Maybe he’d have some clue of what it meant. Next, I took out the piece of paper I’d found with the body, my eyes scanning down the words.

To whoever finds this note, these words are my last.

There’s nothing left of my estate to give, the gold is gone, my bank account rests empty. May whatever I have return to dust, left to rot along with me.

I have but a single piece of unfinished business left in my wake…

Of all the dark possessions I ever owned, there was one which still binds me with the greatest of regrets. I hid it well, for as long as I could, but shadows surround it like they are called by its wicked power.

And though I tried to destroy it to remove this artefact from the world which defies nature herself, its power was too great.

In the end, I failed the only good deed I ever set my mind to.

So that’s why I have sent it to a Fae who I know will keep it safe, bound in cloth, in a final act of hope before it fell into the wrong hands.

Forgive me for my weakness, stars, but I could not stay in this world any longer. The darkness has claimed pieces of my soul for many years, it is time to put my demons to rest. And to whomever should find this, may the stars shine brightly on your fate. But heed this warning. If you have come here to sift through my worldly possessions in pursuit of this detestable object, I die in the hope that your quest will end here.

No one should own this power.

Not me.

Not even you.

Kraveen Dire

I looked up with a tremor running through me as Orion and Darius returned to the hall, spotting a large pack slung over Darius’s shoulder. My brows pulled together as I pointed at it.

“You’ve put that dead body in that bag, haven’t you?” I deadpanned.

Darius and Orion exchanged a mirthful look then shrugged.

“Waste not, want not,” Orion said lightly.

“Don’t worry, Darcy, I was gentle about it,” Darius said with a dark smile. “I dried him out like beef jerky then folded him up like origami, didn’t I Lance?”

“He did, it was very tasteful actually,” Orion mused and the two of them sniggered.

I shook my head at them, trying to stop the smile that was fighting its way onto my lips. “Should I expect a lesson in bone magic soon then?”

“I reckon Lance has been giving you plenty of bone lessons already, hasn’t he?” Darius quipped and a laugh tumbled from my throat. It was pretty weird to be standing here in this creepy ass house laughing, with him of all people.

“Yes and this night has interrupted those lessons spectacularly so let’s get the fuck home,” Orion said, moving forward to take my hand.

Home. That sounded like a real place at last. Not one that just lived in my dreams and fantasies. I really had a place I belonged. And he belonged right there with me.

“Wait, look.” I handed Orion the note, figuring I could share this much with Darius. But I still didn’t trust him enough to share the card with him. “What do you think it means?” I asked as he finished reading and passed it to Darius.

“I think it means…whatever the Nymphs came here to find, was already gone,” Orion said, a flicker of shadows in his eyes.

“That’s good at least,” I breathed, a shudder winding its way into my flesh. “Because whatever Kraveen was hiding, it doesn’t sound good.”

“No,” Orion agreed. “Not good at all.”

“Who was he?” I asked. “You said he knew your father?”

Orion nodded, a grave look pulling at his features. “I don’t know much about him. It was a long time ago, but he used to visit my home occasionally. He was a trader of magical objects, but his speciality was the black market. My father bought countless items from him.”

“Do you think he’s the friend Kraveen mentions in his note?” Darius asked thoughtfully and I wondered if that was who Astrum was referring to in his card too.

“Maybe.” Orion shrugged. “I don’t know how close they were on a personal level, but they often discussed business together whenever he visited.”

“So whatever the Nymphs are looking for…maybe your dad had it,” I guessed, feeling like we were onto something important.

“If my father had it, no doubt my wretched mother now has it. Either that or it’s still amongst his things in the basement.” Orion’s brows pulled together. “But until we know what it is, that’s not much use to us. I’m not exactly welcome at home these days. Although, I can get in if needs be.”

“We can’t go searching for some mystery object blindly,” Darius commented. “What if we capture a Nymph and torture the information out of them?”

My nose wrinkled as I looked to him. It wasn’t that I liked the Nymphs any more than the next Fae, but torturing one sounded pretty dark.

“Not a bad idea,” Orion agreed, his gaze hooking on my neck for a moment. It took me a second longer to realise he was hungry and I casually shifted my hair over my shoulder in an offering.

He licked his lips before darting forward, grabbing my waist and sinking his fangs into my throat. The pinch of pain was followed by the wave of his venom that immobilised my magic and I rested my hand on the back of his head as he took what he needed.

When he stepped back, gently running his thumb across my neck to heal the wound, Darius looked between us with his jaw tight. We’d done it so many times by now, it was as normal as breathing. Orion kissed me gently in thanks and a smile lit my face that seemed to burn right through the dark surrounding us.

“You two are…well, fuck the law for saying you can’t be together,” Darius said, folding his arms.

My heart squeezed at his words and I saw so much pain in his eyes that I strode forward and wrapped my arms around him. It wasn’t that I’d forgiven him, or even that I was remotely convinced he was good enough for my sister. But maybe he could have been. Maybe if they’d made better choices, followed their hearts instead of their pride.

“Fuck the stars too, Darius,” I breathed and his muscles tightened around me as he held me close. “Fuck every shining, gleaming one of them.”