“Come let me fix you some snacks to rebuild your fortitude,” she offered and the sound of them heading away together drifted down the corridor until we were finally left alone.
“What are the chances that there’s someone down here who doesn’t know about my freak out?” I asked in a low voice and Darcy looked away from me as she made a show of thinking about that.
“Well…you didn’t have a silencing bubble up so Lance and Caleb definitely heard and Seth was the one who ran to get me even though I was already on my way, and obviously Geraldine heard so…”
“Let’s hope it was just our group then,” I muttered though I wasn’t really embarrassed about it. I would happily challenge any fucker who thought less of me for losing my shit to spend a night in the company of my tormentors, let alone the amount of time I’d endure them, and come out peachy on the other side.
“We could always spread rumours of a ghoul in the tunnels if it comes to it,” she agreed, squeezing me tight and I knew she was hurting over what I’d been through.
“I’m here now,” I reminded her, though maybe I was reminding myself too. “Free.” I pointed at the clear patch of skin on my arm where the Aries brand had once marked it and a real smile lit her lips as she nodded.
“Thanks to Darius,” she agreed, looking towards the door for a moment before frowning as she turned back to me. “Has he told you exactly what happened to make the stars release you from the bonds?”
“He just said he begged them to break them and they listened,” I replied, unable to hide the smile that came to my lips at that. “I guess we were overdue a turn in our luck.”
“Hell yeah we are,” she agreed but her brow furrowed and I tilted my head as I realised she was holding something back.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Hopefully nothing,” she replied quickly.
“But?”
Darcy blew out a breath, making a lock of deep blue hair flutter before her and she sighed. “The Shadow Princess tried to place a curse on me during the battle.”
“What?” I gasped, pushing away from the wall and sitting up so that I could look at her directly. She started explaining all about how the real Shadow Princess was called Lavinia and that she’d possessed Clara’s body. She told me about how Orion had had to drive a blade into his sister’s body to free her soul and that the shadow bitch had remained in her place. But I couldn’t get my mind off of the word ‘curse’。
“What did she do to you?” I demanded in fear.
“Honestly, I think it’s fine,” she said quickly. “There was a mark on my arm here when she left the curse.” She rolled her sleeve up to show me her arm, but there wasn’t so much as a freckle out of place. “But it disappeared again and Lance and I think my Phoenix has burned it out of me.”
“Really?” I asked dubiously, gripping her arm and turning it back and forth to inspect it more closely, but there was nothing to see.
“Really,” she swore. “I feel absolutely fine and our Phoenixes have burned a whole lot of crap out of our bodies, so it makes sense that it would work to protect me from this too.”
I nodded slowly, relief filling me.
“And you definitely feel okay?” I confirmed, annoyed at myself for not asking her more about the battle sooner, but honestly, I’d just been glad to steal a little respite from the horrors of that day.
“Yeah. I feel great. I hope that bitch is off crying herself to sleep somewhere because her dumb curse didn’t take root in me,” she joked and I grinned.
“That’s because you’re a total badass,” I replied knowingly.
“Well that makes two of us,” she said.
“Wanna go find some snacks to steal and watch some trash TV with me while we wait for Hamish to finish up the interrogations?” I offered and her smile widened.
“There’d better be chocolate down in these tunnels.”
“If there’s not, what even is the point of living?” I lamented and she laughed.
“I can see the headlines now, the Vega twins die in joint chocolate-related suicide,” she said and I chuckled.
“I think our bigger concern around here is a sneaky white Wolf stealing all of our chocolate away,” I added, narrowing my eyes on the door in case Seth was already lingering close by at the mere mention of snacks.
“Then we’d better go and get our hands on it first, Tor, because I swear to god, I’ll summon an army of fleas to take dog boy down if he takes our chocolate.”