He has already quelled many Nymph attacks as well as bringing the creatures to heel, saving us from the threat they once posed. Now, he will gladly rise to the challenge of protecting us all from this new and worrying threat to our great nation.
Beneath the article were a series of pictures, some of which had been kept from the press by our families before this moment. There were images of Darius and me dancing at the club with Tory all those months ago, some of me and her engaging in the hunt - even one of me bending her over a table in the Tarot classroom which was grainy and obviously taken by some perving asshole, but you could see the way her skirt was shoved up and my pants were half hanging off even if you couldn’t see our faces.
Then there were images of her and Darius in various heated moments, a picture of her kissing Max when he’d caught her with his Siren Song and several of Seth with his arm slung around her and whispering something in her ear which in all likelihood had just been some kind of threat, but the way they’d been mixed in with the others helped to paint the picture they were trying to create of us being some kind of sex harem for her.
The images of us with Darcy had been just as carefully selected, some of us laughing with her at Pitball training or looking at her as if we were enamoured by her. There was even one of me on one knee before her with my head bowed which I was almost certain had been taken while I was tying my shoelace. There were a lot of her and Seth together, some of him going in and out of her room at the academy and even a few of her standing over him after she’d beaten his ass that time.
Then there was a full page spread with perfectly posed pictures of our siblings who had been selected to take our place like power claiming had fuck all to do with it and Lionel could just make a decision like that on a whim. My gaze scanned over my brother’s face and I was certain I could see tension there as he posed for the shot, my throat bobbing as I wondered what Lionel had threatened him with to make him play along with this.
“Fuck,” I breathed as I dropped the Atlas into my lap and looked up at Max as he scored a hand down his face.
“My dad wouldn’t back Ellis for my position,” he said. “Not unless he was forced to. He’s always been firm in his support for me, and she’s only got one fucking Element! Besides, she could no sooner take me down than fly herself to the fucking moon.”
“Yeah, this reeks of that asshole with the crown,” I agreed on a growl.
“We need to talk to the others. Seth is-”
“Seth is what?” Seth asked as he appeared, sticking his head around the door and grinning in at us.
“Show him,” I grunted, shoving myself out of bed and hunting for some clothes.
I’d spent time wielding my earth magic in this space I’d been given to use as a bedroom, so I had a wardrobe, a proper bed, a mirror and even bedding which I’d spent a few hours casting from scratch by creating my own cotton. The mirror was just heated sand with a wooden frame and the rest of the furniture was made from wood too, grown into place with my magic. I’d even hung an everflame in a glass lamp above the bed and had made myself a carpet out of grass so soft it felt like silk beneath my bare feet. I wasn’t the Terra Heir for nothing. Though as it stood, maybe I wasn’t the Terra Heir at all.
I dropped my boxers and pulled on some fresh clothes, trying not to wrinkle my nose at the borrowed items and mentally planning to work on creating my own clothes the next time I had a few hours to kill. Either that or I wanted to go shopping. We were rebels, not fucking homeless people for fuck’s sake.
I could feel eyes on me as I changed and I glanced over my shoulder, meeting Seth’s gaze for a fraction of a second before he scooped up the Atlas and dropped onto my bed to read the article.
My skin prickled at the thought of catching him looking at me and I frowned as I wondered why I liked that so much. But as a mournful howl fell from his lips, I dragged my pants and shirt on and turned to him, my jaw clenching at the sound of his pain.
“It’s a good thing,” I said, moving to sit beside him and clasping his shoulder as Max dropped down on his other side.
“How is this a good thing?” Seth asked, his dark gaze whipping around to meet mine and I squeezed his shoulder tighter.
“Because they’re playing along. I know my mom and she would never back Hadley over me unless he took me on and won. That’s what true Fae do. They claim their fucking power, and there is no way in hell that she would just switch her preference to him unless she knew it was the only way that she could protect our family.”