No, no, no.
My head spun and the rage took over again as I fought with the arms that held me, needing to get away, to get back to myself, to Tory. But I couldn’t find anything but more darkness.
I dragged at the well of power where my magic resided, but it was hardly there at all. As if my power was running away down a drain and this time no fire in Solaria could restore it.
And through all the blackness, I thought of my twin again, because I couldn’t feel her. And I needed to know she was here, that she was okay after what I’d done.
“Open your eyes, Blue,” Orion commanded and I held on to him as I lay on my back, recognising him again as I felt the warmth of his body pressing down on mine.
Seth whined close by and Geraldine wailed in terror.
“My queen!” she cried. “Please look upon the face of your lover! Come back to us!”
Somehow, impossibly, I managed to do as Orion asked, my eyes cracking open and two achingly familiar dark eyes staring back at me. Blood ran down his cheek from a wound on his temple and panic washed through my chest.
“You’re hurt,” I rasped, then Caleb was there, his fingers pressing to Orion’s head as healing magic glowed beneath his palm.
“Thank you, sanguis frater,” Orion said to him and Caleb nodded, but I was too dazed to ask what that meant.
Orion’s head fell forward as a heavy breath of relief left him, his lips pressing to my forehead.
“Tory,” I rasped and Darius’s head snapped around to look for her where he knelt beside me, his hands banded around my wrists like he’d been working to pin me down.
Orion lifted his head, turning as well and two painfully silent seconds passed where I knew in the foundations of my being that she wasn’t here.
Something collided with Darius, taking him to the ground as two large black wings flexed up from the shoulders of his attacker and Geraldine screamed like a banshee.
I gasped as Orion dragged me out of the way and I stared at Gabriel as he smacked Darius over the head with a yellow sleeping crystal, making him fall unconscious at his feet. But as Gabriel went to stand up, Darius rose like the dead behind him with a snarl on his lips and bloodlust in his eyes. Gabriel fell on him again, hitting him with the crystal over and over until Darius fell still at last.
We all gaped at him in horror as Gabriel stood up, his inked chest bare as his wings folded behind him and an apology formed in his eyes.
“Gabriel’s turned evil!” Max roared and Caleb lunged at my brother, throwing a punch at his jaw which he avoided with a flash of movement, letting me know he must have seen it coming as Seth ran forward with a snarl.
Gabriel shoved Seth back with a blast of water, standing his ground in front of Darius’s prone body as we all stared at him in shock.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“He was going to go back for Tory,” he said gravely, his eyes rippling with regret. “But he’ll die if he goes. I’ve seen it.”
The Heirs all exchanged a look as they fell still, and horror weaved through my chest like a serpent at what he was saying.
“But she’s alone back there,” I said in alarm, trying to fight my way free of Orion’s grip, but my body was still weak and his arms were like iron.
I had to go back for her, I had to make sure she was safe.
“She can survive this,” my brother promised. “We have to wait for her to return, Darcy. If anyone goes back to try and help her, it will only make things worse.”
“No,” I spat, fighting harder as a vicious animal rose up in me and I knew I’d do anything to get my sister back. I could take on Lavinia, I could take on all of them for her. I would leave a trail of death and destruction in my wake, but she would be safe and well at the end of it.
“Blue, listen to him,” Orion commanded, but I wouldn’t. She was my other half. And she was alone back there among our enemies. I’d done that, I’d hurt her, and who knew what had happened to her after she’d been blasted from the sky? There hadn’t been anyone there waiting to catch her like Orion had done for me.
I thrashed harder, but Gabriel gave me a sad look as he stepped forward and placed the sleeping crystal to my head.
“I’m sorry, but you have to trust me,” he said as the weight of the crystal’s power fell over me and between that and the exhaustion already gripping my body, I drifted away into the dark.
But within it, I found no peace. Only a violent, endless rage that stole away the very essence of who I was and drowned me in its cruelty. And somehow, I knew that it was never going to let me go.