I crept closer, slipping into the cover of the trees once I made it within a few meters of him. I was too exposed on the path should he look back and I had zero interest in incurring the wrath of Darius Acrux.
I’d never been on this side of the campus and had no idea where we were. We were deep into Earth Territory but I couldn’t see anything other than trees. It occurred to me that without my Atlas and no other souls in sight I could easily end up lost again in these woods tonight.
I shoved that thought aside and firmly forced it from my thoughts.
It’s a bit late to consider that now, Tory.
When he made it to the edge of The Wailing Wood, he hesitated before a wide clearing and I shifted through the trees to try and get a look at what was out there. Darius straightened suddenly, turning to look back into the trees and I flattened myself to a hulking trunk as his gaze swept over my hiding place.
My heart raced but I kept my breaths even. This was where holding my nerve would count the most. When you knew someone had caught on to you your body would always try and urge you into action but the only solution to this situation was complete and utter inaction.
I froze and my magic coiled within me like a living thing as he tried to spot me in the dark. He may have felt my eyes on him but there was no way for him to be sure. Nine times out of ten this was when the mark would dismiss their bad feeling as paranoia and carry on. It was the one out of ten I worried about. Someone with the right instincts would catch me. But I had the feeling that Darius was just arrogant enough to believe that no one would dare to follow him like I was.
But then I’d never been the kind to let fear rule me. Was I afraid? Hell yes. Would I turn back? Hell no.
Darius turned away from the trees and headed out into the clearing beyond. I shifted closer slowly, darting from trunk to trunk and using the deep shadows to hide me.
He crossed a clearing and approached a gated complex of apartments with a wide swimming pool in front of them. A sign had been thrust into the grass a few meters from the edge of the trees and I squinted to read it in the moonlight.
Asteroid Place.
Faculty Accommodation Only.
Strictly no students at any time.
Failure to comply with this rule will result in serious consequences.
My interest piqued as Darius cut through the distance to the complex before heading off around the right hand side of the wrought iron fencing. Whatever he was doing it was shady as shit and it looked like it involved a teacher.
My mind snagged on Professor Prestos in her perfectly presented glory and I wondered if I’d just followed him all the way out here for the sake of some sordid affair. She was definitely attractive enough and if any student was going to catch a teacher’s eye it would be Darius Acrux with his unnaturally rugged run-your-hands-all-over-me perfection. Not that I’d noticed.
But as I thought back to the conversation I’d overheard, I knew that that wasn’t right. Whoever he was here to meet didn’t really want to see him. And their business didn’t sound like fun.
I glanced up at the moon, wishing it would take a break from its position in the clear sky above me then darted out into the clearing. I raced to the fence and hurried after Darius as the soft grass bent beneath my feet, muffling my approach.
I kept going, wondering how he planned to get inside the complex before finding out as I reached a patch of the thick fencing which had been melted to create a hole more than wide enough to admit me.
Subtle, Darius.
I slipped inside, carefully avoiding the melted iron which still glowed red with the heat he’d created to destroy it.
For a moment I stalled, unsure of where to go then the sound of angry voices drew me between the houses to my right and around the back of them.
As I drew close, I forced myself to slow, pressing my back to a cold, stone wall as I slid down a narrow alley and took cover behind a low hedge.
“-I told you not to come here!” Orion snarled as he stepped right up into Darius’s face and snatched hold of his grey t-shirt, bunching the expensive fabric in his fist. “If someone were to see you-”
“I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to, sir,” Darius snarled, shoving Orion’s chest so hard that he stumbled back a step and was forced to release him.
They glared at each other for several seconds as the promise of violence danced on the cool wind before fading away.
“You know how much I care about this,” Orion bit out. “I just don’t want us to fuck it up when we’re so close.”
“So why are we waiting? We know where they are. We could go there now and find them while they’re sleeping - end this once and for all,” Darius pressed, his voice low with anger which seemed ready to burst free at any moment.
“Not yet. If we’re wrong we could end up taking innocent lives,” Orion insisted. “It’s too hard to be sure with the information we have. Just give it a few more days. I’ll see her again, I’ll confirm our suspicions.”
“In a few days they could be even more powerful. You’ve seen what’s happened since the start of term. The longer we give them to adjust to their power, the more chance we have of them figuring out how to harness it and turn it against us. If you’re afraid that you aren’t up to the job then let me call on the others for help. You know they want to destroy them almost as much as we do.”
Orion ran a hand over his face, shaking his head. “It’s too risky. Seth can’t keep his mouth shut, he’d tell every member of his pack before sunrise and Max’s powers soften him to others no matter how much he might deny it's true.”
“What about Caleb then? Or is your petty rivalry too keen for you to look past, even with the threat we face here?” Darius demanded. He started pacing and I shrank back as my heart pounded. Were they talking about us? It sure sounded like it but why were they so threatened by two girls who didn’t even know how to harness our powers yet?
“It’s not about rivalry,” Orion spat. “It’s about strength. You know him better than me but I’d judge him to be too impulsive for this. If he were to strike too soon then all the work we’ve done to get to this point will have been for nothing. The same goes for if we try to kill them now. While we still aren’t sure. What if we fail and they manage to escape us? Or we succeed but we miss something vital and it sets something greater in motion-”
“You’ve been consulting with those damn bones again,” Darius snarled.
“I have,” Orion agreed darkly. “And though they aren’t revealing many answers to me, one thing is clear. This is not our moment.”
Darius fell still, releasing a long breath through his nose as he fought to rein in his temper. “Sometimes I wish we didn’t live in a world where everything was mapped out for us as if our lives are nothing more than pieces in some greater fucking puzzle and we get no say at all.”
Orion sighed, moving closer so that he could place a hand on Darius’s shoulder. “Is this about your father? Is he still putting pressure on you to-”
“Of course he is. It’s all he ever thinks about. It’s like he hasn’t even noticed that the world we live in could be teetering on the edge of chaos.” Darius shook his head before shrugging Orion’s hand off of him. “Don’t worry about my father, I’ll bear the brunt of his wrath as always. Once the other Heirs and I sort out that situation, he’ll back off anyway. You just focus on confirming everything so that we can act.”