I growled at the conviction in his voice, but I wasn’t even certain I disagreed with that assessment anymore, my gaze on the woman I loved as she stood before me like the royalty I knew she was. But it didn’t really matter what I thought anymore anyway. I had a few months left on this earth at best, so I wouldn’t be here to see the world which would rise after my father’s downfall. My only desire now was to watch him die before I succumbed to the deal I’d struck with the stars.
“Then take it,” Francesca said in a growl. “And make it hurt when you end him.”
Lance accepted the container which held the map of espial, throwing his arms around her and squeezing her tight as Darcy stepped closer to them too.
“Here,” Francesca said as she stepped back, taking two syringes from her pocket. “It’s the Order Suppressant antidote.” Lance stabbed one into his own arm like a savage and depressed the plunger before doing it more gently for Darcy.
“Come with us,” Lance begged but Francesca shook her head.
“They won’t remember that I was the one to attack them, I’ll forge new memories in their heads to cover for what I did,” she said. “And I can do more good here. I’ve already thwarted countless wrongful arrests. I need to stay.”
“Thank you,” Darcy breathed, wrapping her arms around Francesca too and making the Cyclops gasp in surprise. “This will be the thing that turns the tide of this war.”
“We need to go,” Roxy said firmly, her eyes on the stormy sky and I knew she was thinking of Gabriel’s warning, knowing my father would be here at any second with his shadow whore likely right beside him.
“Stay safe,” Lance commanded, and Francesca quickly unlocked the cuffs on his wrists before offering Darcy the same, the two of them leaping up onto my back as thunder crashed overhead once more.
“You too,” she called and I took off into the sky with Roxy at my side, turning back for The Burrows and speeding away into the storm while Dante kept it raging overhead and flew back with us.
The rain crashed down with furious intent but as we left the FIB precinct far behind, my heart soared with joy because not only had we saved Lance and Darcy from a fate worse than death, we’d just secured the very thing we needed to bring about the end of this war and the downfall of the man who had worked his hardest to ruin my life.
D arius swooped through the boundary surrounding the Burrows with Tory flying by his head and Dante circling down after us, his storm powers still rattling through the air and rain drenching us through.
Darcy and I hadn’t even bothered to shield from the drumming rain, her body wrapped around mine as we kissed, the bond still crashing through my body like the thunder in the sky. I couldn’t get enough of this girl, my fucking Elysian Mate.
A shockwave rolled through us as Darius landed and it took everything I had to part from her and climb down from his back. I tossed the tube containing the map to Tory, barking a command at her to keep it safe as she caught it and I held my arms up for Blue as she hopped down and let me catch her.
“Jesus, Dante, calm it on the rain!” Tory cried as Dante landed heavily beside Darius, electricity darting down his navy scales as he released a growling Dragon’s laugh. The two of them shifted into their Fae forms, running inside after Tory and I grabbed Blue’s hand keeping her close as we chased after them, sharing a grin at what was coming.
I pulled her inside out of the storm, finding the others drying themselves off while Darius and Dante got dressed and started talking excitedly about their flight together.
I looked down at Darcy, her nightgown now fully transparent, slick to her skin from the rain, her dark blue hair drenched and dripping. She looked hot as fuck, reminding me of the time she’d come to me in a storm back at Zodiac Academy, the night we’d crossed the most forbidden of boundaries between each other. It was so clear to me why we had never been able to stay apart from each other. We were inevitable, a fate waiting to happen. But as tempting as she looked right now, my thoughts were also starting to clear since our mating, and I realised she was not to be seen like this by anyone else.
I grabbed hold of her, threw her over my shoulder then shot away, speeding past our friends and down into The Burrows, shouting to them that we’d come see them in a bit, before running all the way back to our room where I threw her on the bed.
I cast a lock on the door and silenced that area so we wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone knocking then prowled toward her.
She looked so star damned fuckable that I buried myself in her for another twenty minutes before I allowed her to escape me. I washed us both with water magic and dried us with air, the scent of the storm leaving us at last. Then I spent the next five minutes healing every mark and bruise I’d left on her body, replacing each one with a kiss. Finally, I fetched some lacy black underwear and a long sleeved silver dress from the wardrobe and handed it to her with a grin.