In the meantime I had an errand to run and avoiding The Orb during the breakfast rush meant that I was at least delaying the inevitable a little longer.
I’d woken up to my usual horoscope nonsense which involved something about invoking the ire of a Taurus and an Aquarius but I’d quickly dismissed that in favour of the much more exciting message beneath it. My online order had arrived which meant I was about to claim a little piece of myself back in the form of clothes. I was beyond sick of spending all of my free time in my uniform or sports kit and I was overdue some outfits which actually reflected who I was.
I made my way to the Pluto Offices where all of the admin clerks who organised the school worked. I guessed students’ post was delivered via unicorn farts or whatever their version of a postie was.
The racks and racks of shelves filled with letters and parcels towered to the roof in a room so tall that it must have spanned three floors. I craned my neck, wondering how the hell I was supposed to find my deliveries amongst all of it. There was no labelling system to speak of and the guy on the front desk had been less than helpful, only pointing me toward this room with a single finger and not even bothering to say hi.
“-if you really feel it’s necessary then fine. But I assure you I have it all in hand.”
I swivelled around at the sound of that voice, cursing my luck as I prepared myself for whatever I’d have to face now. The door swung open and Darius eyed me with a faint glimmer of surprise as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the call he was taking. I hadn’t seen him since I’d stalked him in the woods the other night and I had to wonder if I was standing face to face with my potential murderer. My pulse spiked accordingly and I eyed the exit, unsure if I should try to bolt.
“As you wish,” he said, his attention on his call but his eyes locked on me. I half considered slipping out of the room while he was occupied but I still hadn’t retrieved my parcels and I refused to go running for the hills every time I was faced with him or one of his friends. “I’ll get it done. Is Xavier there?… Hello?” Darius shot a look at his Atlas before releasing a breath of irritation and shoving his earpiece into his back pocket. I wondered who had had the balls to hang up on him and silently applauded them for causing that scowl to fill his features. Or at least I did until I realised it was now firmly directed at me.
“Just get it over with then,” I said with a sigh. There was no point in me trying to run and my progress with my magic had barely even gotten started so fighting was out too.
“Is this where you’ve been hiding then?” he asked, ignoring what I’d said as he tapped something on his Atlas.
“What do you mean, hiding?” I asked innocently. I hated that I’d been avoiding them rather than facing them but I hadn’t been wasting my time. I’d devoured everything that Professor Prestos had sent me on Coercion and Shielding and had been giving every free moment I had to trying to build up my defences. If there really was a chance that Darius and Orion were after me and Darcy then I intended to be as prepared as humanly possible to face them. Though as I stood face to face with the guy I suspected of plotting my murder, I began to doubt that that was the case. Here I was, alone and at his mercy and the only thing he’d done was poke fun at me. Hardly seemed like the actions of a serial killer. But then again maybe trying to off me in the middle of the day wasn’t the smartest move.
“I haven’t seen you at the House or The Orb since Tuesday,” Darius replied, his gaze trailing over me suspiciously before he returned his attention to his Atlas.
“I didn’t realise you were so obsessed with me,” I quipped. “Am I expected to run all of my movements past you? Or are you just disappointed that your cunning plans to surprise me when I woke up yesterday with your little friends didn’t work out?”
Darius’s gaze snapped up to mine in surprise and I offered him an insolent smile. “How did you find out about that?” he asked, not even bothering to deny it.
“I’m used to looking out for myself. Not all of us grew up with Daddy’s money keeping us safe and warm at night-”
“You don’t know shit about my father or the way I grew up,” Darius snarled, taking a step towards me.
My heart leapt and I was struck with the desire to run as fast and as far as my legs would take me but I forced myself to hold his eye instead, raising my chin as I looked into his dark eyes.
“Just like you don’t know the first thing about me,” I replied. “I’ve met much meaner bastards than the four of you before and come out swinging. And I’ve learned a thing or two about the way basic bastards like you operate; you’re not very original. And you don’t frighten me,” I said, my tone miraculously level despite my thundering heartbeat. I was lying and it was pretty clear we both knew it. Yes I’d dealt with my fair share of dickwads and biker dudes with a superiority complex but I doubted any of them came close to rivalling the Heirs in strength or brutality.
Darius eyed me for another second before releasing a breath of laughter.
“You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that,” he muttered, before dropping his eyes to his Atlas and hitting a button on it.
The shelves before us suddenly began to move and I looked around at them in surprise as they shifted left and right, up and down, making way for a compartment which had been near the roof to slide down before us. The movement ground to a halt and Darius stepped forward to claim the contents of the shelf for himself.
He flicked through a handful of envelopes before stuffing them into his blazer pocket.
He turned for the door without bothering to do anything else to me and I counted my blessings that he seemed to be in too much of a hurry to torment me today.
I looked back at the shelves before me, frowning in confusion and pulling my own Atlas from my bag as I tried to figure out how he’d just gotten his deliveries to present themselves.
Darius sighed heavily and pulled my Atlas out of my hands. I looked up at him in shock, reaching forward to snatch it back but he ignored me, pulling up an app on the third page and quickly selecting ‘Post Retrieval’ from a list of options. He caught my hand and the warmth of his skin surprised me almost as much as the fact that his touch was gentle.
My traitorous heart fluttered at the contact and I tried to stop my eyes from trailing over the strong line of his jaw and the set of his mouth but failed miserably. He was just too damn good to look at.
“It needs a thumb print,” he explained in his deep voice as I tried to resist his directions. I relaxed marginally, letting him press my thumb to the screen and the shelves beside us started moving.
Darius released me, tossing my Atlas back to me so that I was forced to catch it before it ended up hitting the floor.
A big compartment stopped before us, stuffed full of bags and boxes containing new clothes for me and Darcy.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I pushed my Atlas back into my satchel and stepped forward to claim my hoard.
Darius beat me to it and pulled a box from the top of the pile which was emblazoned with the slogan of a lingerie company.
“Looking to burn even more of my clothes?” I asked, wondering if I was about to watch everything I’d just bought go up in flames.