I turned and started walking away, drawing Darius after me as he gave up on trying to get to Gabriel with a huff.
“But what about my secrets?” Leon called after us in desperation, but we simply kept walking. “I have a secret quest set for us by Gabriel,” he said excitedly, blurting it out as he accepted we gave no shits.
“Fuck Gabriel,” Darius grumbled and I clapped a hand to his shoulder.
“They’ll be back soon, brother,” I said, hoping my words were true.
“Not soon enough,” he said, hanging his head and I went to ask him what was really troubling him, but Leon collided with us, breaking us apart and slinging his arms over our shoulders.
“Gabe said I needed a couple of recruits for our quest, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get to know some new friends.”
“Yeah, sure. See ya,” Darius growled then strode off down the corridor, smoke billowing out behind him before he disappeared into a fog of it.
“Wow, that was dramatic,” Leon breathed, leaning close to my ear. “Guess it’s just me and you then, shamesy.”
“Shamesy?” I growled.
“Yeah, like Power Shamesy. I thought I’d make a cute nickname out of it, so it didn’t seem so, you know…devastating.”
I shrugged him off, folding my arms. “Is there really a quest?”
“Of course there’s a quest,” he said, rolling his golden eyes. “What do you take me for, shamesy?”
“I’d really prefer if you didn’t call me that,” I said flatly.
“Who else shall we bring with us?” he barrelled on as if I hadn’t spoken.
“What even is this quest?” I asked in frustration.
“Oh my stars, I didn’t even tell you about the quest yet.” He leapt in front of me, pressing his hands to my shoulders. “Gabe says you’re looking for some gemstones, right? Right?”
“Right,” I agreed, frowning at the swerve this conversation was taking.
I still hadn’t made any solid progress in my research with tracking down the Zodiac Guild stones, though I had quite a few leads to follow up after Eugene and his friends had sent across some information from the Library of the Lost on gems that could possibly be the ones we sought. But with the lack of stardust and the fact that I was chasing trails which had gone cold hundreds of years ago, it was pretty hard to get anywhere with our search.
“And they’re extra special gemstones, right? Right?” Leon pushed.
“Right.” Would he ever get to the point?
“Well.” He stepped closer, glancing left and right before cupping a hand around his mouth. “I know where one of them is. And usually I wouldn’t give up any of my family’s stolen treasures – we are the best thieves in Solaria after all – but my dad had this one all locked up in a special place and I’m owed a little revenge against my dad.”
“Because of your brother?” I asked sadly. Roary Night had turned out to be a decent ally in Darkmore Penitentiary, and I had to admit the reason that he was in there turned my goddamn stomach.
“Yeah, Dad won’t even speak to him, because of the shame. I guess you know a lot about shame so you probably understand that, shamesy. I wanna get revenge on him for being such a dick…” Leon said, sadness crossing his features, but then a smile split across his face again just as fast. “So I wanna thieve from my thief father and give you his treasure for your rock collection.”
“It’s not a rock coll-”
“It’ll be the most prized rock in your rock collection,” he announced proudly, turning and strutting off down the tunnel ahead of me and I figured fuck it, and didn’t bother to correct him.
Leon was wearing snug jeans which clung to his thick thighs, his muscular frame filling out his white t-shirt. His golden hair practically shone in the light of the sconces around him and I shook my head at the guy, a smile lifting my lips for a second. He had grown on me a little since he’d befriended Gabriel, especially since he’d stopped being such an uber fan of mine because of my Pitball status. Of course, now he was living the dreams I’d once had for myself so I guessed I should have been the one fangirling over him these days. And now I was Power Shamed too, I was hardly the celebrity he’d first met all those years ago when his academy had done an exchange programme with Zodiac Academy.
I shot after him, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to get hold of another gemstone and he tossed me a roguish smile.