I didn’t complain. I was all for keeping my new look under wraps for now because no matter what Geraldine insisted about it being ‘all the rage’ for Phoenixes back in the day, I wasn’t convinced that thousand-year-old fashion ensembles really met with today’s standards.
My plan of keeping the sight of us in our armour on the down low ended spectacularly though when we stepped out of the farmhouse above The Burrows and found Tyler Corbin waiting for us with a camera which flashed in our faces.
“Your choice, princesses,” he said, backing up quickly as I cut him a glare. “I can use that candid shot or you can go pose over there by that set Geraldine created for you.”
I looked over to the far side of the barn where he was pointing and found a huge boulder standing amongst a field of blood red flowers with petals which kept coming loose in an unnatural breeze and fluttering all around the area above the rock. I was glad to see a hint of light back in his eyes again. He had hardly left his room for two weeks after his mom had been murdered, but eventually he’d braved the world again and I could see a hardness in him now that hadn’t been there before.
“When did you even do this?” Darcy asked as Geraldine squealed in excitement and ushered us over to her stage.
I was seriously tempted to let Tyler run with his candid crap but one look at the god awful face I was pulling in it as he let me see it set my mind against that. I also considered just blasting his camera apart so that he couldn’t take any more photos but as I caught a glimmer of defiance in his gaze, I realised that this was about a whole lot more for him than just posting some FaeBook post.
“You’re taking over The Daily Solaria?” I asked, realisation dawning as he nodded.
“My mom died determined to get the truth into the hands of the people of Solaria. She didn’t back down no matter how much Lionel threatened her and she remained brave and true to her beliefs until her dying breath. That paper was more than just her job. It’s her legacy. And no matter how hard Lionel may try and block me from continuing, he won’t be able to stop me. There are tech guys here who know how to circumvent every block he has in place and can make sure our articles still get out into the hands of the public. I want to do it for her. I want to prove that he can’t stop the truth from getting out there.”
I sighed, unable to deny the truth to his words and acknowledged the fact that I would be a total asshole if I denied his request now as I nodded.
“Then we wanna help however we can,” Darcy said firmly, looking at him with flames dancing in her eyes.
“Okay, let’s take a few quick shots and you can run a story on us taking out a bunch of Nymphs just as soon as we’re all back here safe and out of Lionel’s reach again,” I agreed.
Geraldine let out her pterodactyl screech, damn near giving me a heart attack as we moved to stand on the rock, posing for a few overly dramatic shots while I tried not to roll my eyes at the posturing crap and made myself remember that we needed to get our side of this out there. Lionel was working hard to discredit us at every turn. We needed the people of Solaria to know that we were still fighting and that we fully planned to reclaim our kingdom from that beast of a man.
The Heirs and Orion arrived as we were finishing up, Seth wolf whistling at us while Max made a joke about us looking hot before Geraldine sucker punched him in the gut and told him to put his tongue away.
Darius seemed to have forgotten that we were in the middle of an argument as he came to stand before me where we still stood on our posing rock, his hand reaching out to brush my thigh as he looked up at me.
“You look ready for battle,” he murmured, his gaze trailing over the armour and his brow furrowing with concern.
“Yeah?” I asked, my gaze slipping down the leather jacket he wore, taking note of the russet colour and the scent of smoke which clung to his skin. His muscles were tight with tension and the Dragon in his eyes was peering back out at me keenly. His battle axe was held tight in his free hand and I could feel the call of the flames which lived in it like they were hungry for this too. “Well you look ready to kill.”
“Damn straight I am,” he growled, his grip on me tightening protectively. “Are you going to be good and do as you’re told while we’re out there?”
I stepped forward, dropping down from the rock so that we were chest to chest and I was looking up at him as usual. I might have liked the idea of making Darius Acrux bow for me, but I was quite happy pitting my shadow against his too. He might have been bigger than me, but that didn’t mean shit when it came down to our strength. And I was just as strong as him plus some.