“Yes, My Queen,” he replied and the other Heirs and I all tensed at that casual term of endearment, but Orion just ignored us, jerking his chin towards the trees to our left in an order to Caleb before shooting off into the dark.
“Stay safe,” Cal said to all of us, his eyes lingering on Seth for a beat before he shot away too.
I cut my gaze to Seth who cleared his throat and turned away from me, his mental shields slamming up as tight as a duck’s asshole all of a sudden and making me narrow my eyes in suspicion.
“Onward, my ladies, let us begin this most noble of tasks!” Geraldine strode away after Tory, swinging her flail and decapitating a sapling as she went. I just stared at her ass in her chainmail and wondered why the hell I was so obsessed with an insane royalist like her. But I couldn’t freaking help it.
“We’re coming with you,” Darius growled, hurrying forward to catch up to Tory who just shrugged innocently like she didn’t mind either way, but I caught enough of her emotions to get the feeling she was up to something and as Darcy looked her way, I sensed the same troublemaking emotions coming from her.
Damn Vega twins were going to be the death of all of us if they didn’t just accept their place soon, this power struggle between us was going to keep building in intensity until then though. I just hoped that when it came down to it and we had to face off with them for real, that we could all maintain this semblance of peace we’d managed to form once it was done.
Then again, power always did tend to corrupt even the best of things. My own mother had been murdered for it, so I should know.
We crept through the trees, climbing up towards the ridge and my heart began to pound powerfully as we drew closer and closer to the Nymphs who I could still sense up ahead with my water magic.
The darkness of the trees pressed in thickly and the rain continued to mask any sound aside from the crash of it falling through the canopy and the rumble of thunder which accompanied it from somewhere far above us.
The twins moved ahead as we drew closer to the place where the Nymphs were waiting, Geraldine and Seth spreading out either side of them as I held back a little with Darius.
I glanced at my friend as he stood rigidly beside a huge redwood, his grip tight on his axe and his eyes glued to Tory’s back as he watched her creeping further up the hill.
“She’s got this,” I murmured, my gaze scanning across Gerry and Seth too as they slipped into the shadows to surround our quarry.
“I know,” he replied, his tone heavy. “But it doesn’t make it any easier watching her walk into danger.”
“She doesn’t strike me as the type who would appreciate you clinging to her side though.”
“She's not. But I won’t be giving her much choice once this really kicks off.”
“You really love her, don’t you?” I asked, tasting the intensity of that feeling on his skin and soaking it in with a shiver of pleasure.
“She’s everything,” he replied simply and I damn near grinned at the shift in his emotions. Darius had had so much dark, so much pain and angst thrown at him in his lifetime. And though those emotions weren’t totally banished now, I could feel the love, hope and joy which surrounded him these days so clearly that it made my fucking soul lighter just to know about it.
A sharp gust of wind crashed into us, just hard enough to feel unnatural without knocking us from our feet, signalling the others being in position.
“Get ready,” Darius murmured and I raised my bow as he lifted his axe, willing the Phoenix fire within it to ignite so that the brightness of the flames cut through the dark of the woods.
I squinted against the onslaught of light and a shriek of alarm came from the top of the ridge as the Nymphs spotted the flames.
I set my feet and held my ground as they came for us, the sound of their huge bodies crashing through the undergrowth setting my nerves on edge and adrenaline pounding through me in anticipation of a fight.
I tugged the bow taught as the Nymphs burst through the trees, the three of them racing straight towards us, the booming rattle of their magic-stealing power slamming into me and locking down my connection to my Elements as I tightened my hold on my bow and took aim at the front runner of the pack.
Darius tensed beside me, readying his axe to swing, but before either of us could be forced into action, vines shot out from all around the Nymphs and they fell to the ground with their arms and legs tied and dirt filling their mouths to halt the use of their rattles.
Seth howled in triumph from somewhere out in the trees as the Nymphs thrashed in their trap and the Vegas dropped from the sky, using air magic to lower themselves down to land beside the creatures which hungered for our deaths.