But none of us knew any more than that aside from the fact the bonds had broken.
We still hadn’t heard a single word from either of them and only my faith in our brother and his gifts gave me any kind of reassurance about them being okay wherever they were.
“What has Darius done?” Tory breathed, the concern in her tone making my chest ache and I hugged her tighter.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out,” I promised, and she nodded, leaning against me as we just held each other in the wake of so much destruction.
I didn’t let my mind wander to the curse that had been cast on me, the feel of it somehow absent now as I half expected some terrible fate to befall me at any moment. But nothing came. We simply kept riding away to freedom with the wind at our backs and the sense of our small victory surrounding us.
“I can’t feel anything of him anymore,” Orion said in fear and Tory looked at him over my shoulder.
“I’d feel it if he was dead,” she said firmly and Orion’s grip on me relaxed slightly, the tension in his body speaking of how much he feared for his friend’s life.
“Are you sure?” he rasped and she nodded, her eyes blazing with the fire of her Order and I believed her. She was his mate, Star Crossed or otherwise. If anyone knew the truth of Darius’s fate, it was her.
“All of our enemies were at the battle,” I agreed, stroking my fingers over Orion’s arm where it was latched around me, my fingers finding the bare skin where the Leo brand had once marked it. “He must be alright.”
“Yeah,” he said heavily. “Must be.” Though there was a weight behind those words that said he wasn’t going to relax until he could see Darius for himself, but I had faith in my sister. If she was sure he was okay, then he was. Perhaps he was waiting for us wherever we were headed.
I couldn’t bear the thought of him dying. Tory needed him, his friends needed him. And Orion had already lost Clara today, how much more would the stars really take from him? From us?
Xavier whinnied as he flew beside us, his wings cutting through the clouds and his mane trailing purple glitter out behind him. Dante answered him with a soft roar and my gut lurched as he descended through the mass of clouds, dropping down at speed while Xavier chased after us, his hooves cantering through the air.
As we made it beneath the canopy of white, my gaze fell on a snowy expanse stretching out in every direction over rolling hills. An endless forest bordered the horizon, the pines capped with a frosting of snow and the darkness thick between the boughs.
Magic rolled over us as we dropped lower, the hairs rising on my arms and I shivered as an old farmhouse was unveiled below with a large barn standing to one side of it.
There was a crowd of Fae filing inside the house, half of them naked from recently shifting and others in blood splattered, battle marked clothes.
Hamish stood in the doorway, beckoning people past him. His large form, bushy black moustache, mutton chops and bald head were unmissable among the masses. “That’s it! Bring your Nelly Nancys inside. Hot showers and buttery bagels for everyone!”
“How can so many people fit in one small house?” I questioned in dismay as more and more of the battle survivors headed inside.
“There must be some enchantment at play,” Orion said in my ear.
“Hello, fellow warriors – good day – look upon the sky to see the true queens descending among you!” Geraldine called out and my cheeks warmed as the whole crowd looked up to watch us land and a bunch of them started cheering.
She suddenly stood up on Dante’s back, yanking her silver breast plate off and hurling it in Max’s direction, forcing him to catch it, followed by the chainmail, the rest of her armour and her flail until she was butt naked and he was cursing her, demanding she cover herself up again.
But Geraldine ignored him, leaping from Dante’s back as he closed in on the ground and shifting into her enormous Cerberus form, the three heads of her gigantic dog Order lifting to the sky as her paws skidded in the snow and she began to howl.
I had no idea how she was managing it, but between the howls of her three heads, she somehow managed to sing a tune which sounded a whole lot like a royal fanfare and my blush intensified as the rebels all cheered even louder as they spotted us.
I braced just before Dante hit the ground, a tremor rocking through the earth and dislodging some snow from the roof of the barn beside us as he tucked his wings in tight against his powerful body and crouched low to let us all climb off of him.
We made our way down from Dante’s back, most of us using air magic to lower ourselves to the ground while Caleb just leapt down with the agility of his Order.