A knock came at the door and I almost ignored it in favour of blasting Seth’s air shield to bits and strangling him to death with my bare hands. But then Gabriel called out from beyond it, saying three words that made my heart leap into my throat.
“Darius is back.”
My breath caught in my lungs and I spun around, shooting toward the door with my Order gifts and yanking it open, coming face to face with my Nebula Ally. He grinned, yanking me in for a hug and patting me on the back.
“Where is he?” I asked. “What happened?”
“He’s been with Tory all night,” he said.
“All night?” I barked, stepping back. “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
“Trust me, you did not want to go and interrupt them. I had to keep myself busy all night just so I wasn’t plagued by visions of my sister being railed by a fucking Acrux.”
“By the moon, why would the stars show you that?” I grimaced.
“Because they’re assholes who have a sick sense of humour, Orio. Now go see him before he gets mobbed by the Heirs. He’s gonna be in the dining hall in two minutes. Go straight to the end of the corridor, first left and keep on until you get there.”
“Did someone say Heirs?” Seth called behind me and I clapped Gabriel on the shoulder in thanks and shot away before the mutt could tag along.
I sped through the stone tunnels, shooting left and straight down through double wooden doors into an enormous cavern which was brimming with people. People who started to fall quiet as I came to a halt and they spotted me standing there in my sweatpants.
“Isn’t that the Power Shamed professor who Dark Coerced a Vega?” someone hissed.
“Why is he here?”
“He should be ashamed of himself.”
“I’d rather die than be Power Shamed. I’d just slit my throat right there and then in court.”
The hacking sound of someone retching drew my attention to Hamish whose eyes had found me. He doubled over, working hard not to throw up the oatmeal he’d been eating as his eyes watered and he twisted in his seat so that he didn’t have to look at me. I clenched my jaw, trying to ignore the way everyone was turning their backs on me and pretending I didn’t exist. This Power Shaming bullshit was something I hadn’t had to deal with much yet, but down here it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to escape it.
I spotted Blue sitting with Geraldine and a group of the A.S.S. members at the far end of the hall and her eyes found mine like a magnet. She rose from her seat, but I shook my head minutely, not wanting her to have to be seen with some Power Shamed Fae. It was making my blood chill. My life was wrecked beyond repair. I would never be seen as an equal in society ever again. Darcy and I were officially done. Because how could I ever really hope to date a Vega princess again? It would muddy her name, destroy the support she had for the throne. It was bad enough what they thought I’d done to her to earn my place in prison, but in ways this was even worse. Because I was a disgraced Fae and there was no fate more horrifying than that for my kind.
I momentarily forgot all about my ruined reputation when Darius said my name behind me.
I turned, finding him standing there with his arm slung around Tory’s shoulders, his eyes as gleamingly brown as they had been before he’d been Star Crossed. My heart lifted as he drew Tory closer and not a single tremor rocked the earth, no sign of the heavens crying out to tear them apart. They were free of their bond, it was as clear as day, and I couldn’t have been happier for them.
“What did you do?” I asked in astonishment, my hand going to the place where the Leo mark had been branded on my skin for so many years. It was gone. My shackles broken at long last, my life returned to me and no longer pledged to someone else. And the weight of that truth only hit me now as I saw the truth in his gaze, that he really had done this. Somehow, he’d broken the bonds.
“I prayed to the stars and they answered,” he said with a smile brighter than I’d seen on his face in years. I’d almost forgotten he could smile like that, without the weight of a thousand burdens drawing it down.
“This makes no sense,” I said in disbelief, shaking my head as I stepped closer, unsure where things lay between us now. I didn’t know what we were without the bond, we’d been friends before it, but we’d changed so much over the years since then, what if we weren’t as close anymore? What if this broke us?
I forced those fears from my head, shooting forward with a burst of speed and punching him in the gut. He doubled over as I barked a laugh, shoving him upright, tempted to do it again just to prove I could, and the smirk on his face said he was up for the fight.