“You nothing scum, I’ll have you cast out of The Burrows for that,” Jim spat, blasting water magic at me, but as I’d predicted he wasn’t anywhere near as strong as me and I froze it with a flick of my hand, the jet of water turning rock solid and slamming down onto his leg.
“Argh!” he wailed.
“What did you call him?” Darcy’s voice made my heart jerk in my chest and I turned, finding her striding out of the farmhouse, her blue hair fluttering behind her and flames blazing in her eyes. Eyes which were locked on the piece of shit at my feet.
“M-my lady Gwendalina,” Jim stammered, bowing his head like the dog he was. “I’m sure you’re quite uncomfortable being in the presence of your abuser. We can remove him from The Burrows. It’s no bother at all.”
“I asked you a question,” she growled, glaring down her nose at him and I swear I got a semi for her right there and then.
“I called him a-a nothing scum,” Jim forced out.
“He is more than you will ever be,” she hissed. “And if you speak to him like that again, I will have you cast out of The Burrows, do you understand me?”
“Y-yes, Lady Gwendalina.”
“My name is Darcy,” she snarled then grabbed my hand and stepped over him, towing me away from them while I stared at her with my pulse thrashing.
“You can’t come with me,” I said suddenly, realising Gabriel must have sent her here. “It’s not safe for you to leave this place so soon. Lionel will have the world hunting for you.”
She rounded on me with her gaze alight. “That sounded like an order.”
“Maybe it was,” I said, an edge to my voice.
“You don’t get to make my decisions for me,” she said, raising her chin as I stared down at her, the space between us alive with tension.
I sighed and we walked along, heading across the flat expanse outside the farmhouse until we made it over the magical boundary surrounding The Burrows.
“I’m just trying to protect you. I’m never going to stop doing that.” I pulled her to a halt as she took a pouch of stardust from her pocket.
“Well Gabriel said you can’t leave here without one of the true queens’ approval.” She arched a brow, taunting me and a growl rolled along my throat. Fucking Gabriel.
She turned away from me, tossing her hair. “I guess I’ll see you when I get back then.”
“You’re asking for trouble,” I warned, my cock twitching in my pants at her attitude. I wanted to rip through this tension between us and reclaim her, but I didn’t know if I had the right to do that anymore. We may have loved each other, but there were still too many reasons not to be together, not least that I’d had my status stripped from me and would never be able to offer her anything she deserved.
“Maybe I am,” she agreed, a dare in her eyes. She tiptoed up, so close her breath caressed my mouth and a hungry noise left me as I leaned forward to eat up the distance parting us.
I’d cut my heart out to claim that mouth alone.
“Think of the Wasted Mountain,” she whispered before I could try and steal a kiss and the image of it filled my head a second before she threw a pinch of stardust over us.
We were torn away into the fabric between worlds, spinning through a beautiful sea of stars before my feet hit solid ground again and Darcy landed lightly beside me, no hint of a wobble in her steps. I kind of missed my clumsy little princess, but as she stepped forward onto the loose shingle at the base of the mountain, her foot slipped and my wish was granted.
“Stoney fuckwits,” she cursed.
I shot forward to catch her with a grin, drawing her upright again and she glanced up at me with a tint of pink lining her cheeks.
“Well, who puts a load of shingle at the bottom of a freaking mountain?” she scoffed.
“Let’s blame the stars.” I smirked and a smile pulled at her mouth as she nodded.
We stood there half a second too long, still touching each other and lingering in the unspoken words between us which were starting to drive me to insanity. Then Darcy turned to look at the view waiting for us and I knew now wasn’t the time to bring it up. It took me a beat longer to pull my eyes from her to take in the mountain towering up above us which had supposedly been blessed by a Vega prince long ago.
“So where’s the rothium grass?” she questioned, walking toward a patch of greenery near an animal track.
“It could be anywhere on this mountain,” I said with a frown. “It’s not that. It’s pink.”