“It doesn’t need to be any damn bigger,” I muttered and Darcy laughed.
“TMI, Tor.”
“I’m just saying.” I shrugged and Geraldine giggled girlishly.
“Oh do tell, my lady - I must say I have had my curiosities over the size of a Dragon’s dongle berry - they are so very large after all. And I may have perused its impressive size once or twice when he has been in the nip from Shifting, but I haven’t ever seen it in its fullest, most excited glory if you catch my meaning. So is it in proportion to his impressive physique?”
I smirked and shrugged. “For Darius it sure as fuck is - but not for all Dragons.”
“Oh sweet mercy, you don’t mean to say-”
“Relax, Lionel never put his stumpy cock near me, but I saw him slamming it into Clara enough times while I was all shadow freak to understand why he’s got so much damn rage in him. It looks like a mushroom that got half decapitated.”
Darcy burst out laughing and Geraldine howled so loud I was pretty sure some dust dislodged from the roof to scatter down on us.
“Well I shall have to get you to regale me with tales of being jolly rodgered by your scaly side piece later, my lady. Not to mention an account or two of how bossy your chompy blood badger gets in the rose bush too, Darcy dear. I’ve heard a rumour or ten about how a Vampire’s speed may be wielded within the rutting sack, and those fitted slacks he wore for classes told quite the story of his colossal man bulge. I will even give you an account of my latest soiree with the slippery seabass himself-”
“Wait,” Darcy interrupted. “You and Max hooked up again?”
I perked up at that little titbit and Geraldine sighed dramatically as she opened a chest at the foot of her bed. “Yes…well I do seem to be developing a taste for his dingberry, I will admit. Alas, I fear it will only end in heartache though.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked, wondering if she really believed Hamish would hold her to the dumb arranged marriage thing if she decided she didn’t want to go through with it. He certainly didn’t seem like the type to want to do anything that would make his daughter unhappy.
“Never mind that now,” Geraldine said dismissively, standing suddenly and whirling towards us with a grin so big it was damn near blinding as she held out two large bundles wrapped in cloth. “The queen herself, your mother, left these in the possession of my father and asked him to keep them safe until the day came when they were needed. It has been many years, but he never once questioned that she knew what she had been doing when she entrusted him with their safety and this very morn, he told me that he felt it in his waters. And his waters are never wrong. It is time. They are yours.”
I frowned a little as I felt the weight of the bundle and moved to place it on her bed, exchanging a look with Darcy as we both untied the ribbons securing the white cloth in place. The knots were firm and the thing was bound tightly but when I finally unwrapped the fabric, I gasped as my gaze fell on the gift from our mother.
My lips parted as I stared at the beautiful armour that awaited me within the package. The metal was a bronze colour which looked as if it had been dipped in oil, swirls of red and blue imbued in every inch of it and a pulse seemed to emanate from the metal itself before I even laid a hand on it.
“This armour was crafted for the queens of old. Your ancestors from times gone past who shared your heritage and held your Order forms,” Geraldine breathed reverently. “It has the fire of the Phoenix living within it, utterly unbreakable and untarnishable.”
A small note lay on top of the stunning breastplate and I swallowed a lump in my throat as I reached for it with shaking fingers, the name Roxanya written in the swirling script I’d come to recognise as my mother’s handwriting.
Fly fast and true, sweet girl. Secrets wait beneath the ground, search fearlessly and they shall be found.
I arched a brow at what I had to assume was some kind of prophecy, holding my note out for Darcy to read as she showed me hers.
When darkness steps closer, lean into the light. The strongest of weapons is forged in the flame, hold your breath and fight through the pain.
“That sounds about as uplifting as ever,” I muttered, wondering why the damn stars had to be so freaking cryptic all the time.
“I guess we just have to remember what it says and pay attention to any clues which might help us understand it,” Darcy replied with a shrug, biting her lip nervously.
“I’ll give it a try but honestly, none of these things ever make a blind bit of sense to me until it’s too damn late.”