“I don’t know,” he said uncertainly as she placed kiss after kiss on his forehead and hair, making him turn even brighter red as people watched them, clearly wondering who the hell she was. Though I guessed in that moment she didn’t care about hiding her connection to him or her own identity despite the concealment that hid her true face.
Tory moved forward to hug her too and they exchanged some words quietly as Catalina took in the lack of rings in her eyes, surprise and hope crossing her features. For a moment, I envied the way Catalina looked at my sister, caressing her cheek and checking she was alright. It was almost motherly, something I had never experienced in all my life. But then I remembered everything both of them had been through and buried the feeling deep. Tory deserved that more than I ever would.
I glanced at Orion, finding him watching them with something of the same yearning in his eyes and I recognised the ache in him that lived in me. He was as good as an orphan with his mother aligned with Lionel Acrux, and I wished his father hadn’t been taken from him so young. Catalina’s eyes fell on him and brightened as she rushed toward him, hugging him tight while he fell still in her arms.
“I’m so glad you’re alright,” she whispered and Orion’s eyebrows arched in surprise as she checked him over for injuries like he was one of her own sons. I stepped back to give them some room, knotting my fingers together as I watched them.
“I owe you the deepest apology I can offer,” he said to her, pressing Catalina back and squeezing her hand.
Catalina shook her head in refusal. “You didn’t know he was controlling me.”
“I should have,” Orion growled, his brow pinching with regret. “You weren’t the same woman you were when I knew you as a child. I just thought…I don’t know what I thought. But I should have realised you needed help.” He dropped his head in shame and Catalina cupped his cheek, drawing his eyes back up to meet hers.
“Don’t you ever blame yourself, Lance,” she insisted. “Lionel is the one who did this.”
Orion nodded, though the guilt didn’t leave his expression as she released him and returned to Tory and Xavier, tears of happiness swimming in her eyes.
Orion moved toward me with intent and a gasp rippled through the crowd as he reached out and his fingers brushed mine. He paused, his gaze moving to the onlooking rebels who had a mixture of horror and disgust written into their features as they glared at him and he immediately retracted his hand.
I was about to snap at them for daring to look at him like that, but Tory called my name.
“Darcy?” She beckoned me over with anxiety in her eyes and I moved hesitantly toward her, finding Catalina smiling warmly at me beside her.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Xavier still has the shadows, but I think I can remove them now. And I think together it might be even easier.”
She held out her hand to me and I took it, my Phoenix rising to meet hers like they were two halves of the same soul, and maybe they were. That was the way it had always felt between us, like we were made of the very same thing, detached but never quite whole without the other. Calm washed over me and Xavier glanced nervously between us as Tory reached out to place a hand against his chest. My heart beat with trepidation, knowing we needed to remove the shadows from him to protect him from Lavinia so that she couldn’t use them to control him or even worse – to find us here in this place.
“Just don’t freak out,” I warned, and he nodded stiffly.
“Got it,” he said, though a little whinny of worry left him. But I knew we could do this now. After burning the shadows out of Orion, I could feel how to do it, it was like connecting to the best and brightest emotions within me and guiding them forward. It was love and hope and all the things we’d never let Lionel take from us.
I felt Tory’s Phoenix fire twisting around mine and it burned beneath her palm as Catalina stepped closer anxiously, clearly concerned for her son. But Xavier’s eyes told her to trust in us, and a minute later the fire rippled over his flesh and burned within his eyes as it sought out every shadow in his veins and banished them from his body.
He sighed as the fifth Element left him, the relief on his face clear as we freed him from Lavinia’s control and he sagged forward a little as Tory dropped her hand.
“Thank you,” he breathed, hugging us both tight, and suddenly Catalina wrapped her arms around us too and I looked up to find tears rolling down her face.
“You’re a gift sent from the stars,” she whispered and a blush filled my cheeks as I shook my head in denial of those words.