“What else have you seen about the war?” Darius cut in. “I don’t wanna stay in this hole in the ground forever. When can we strike at my father?”
“I’m waiting to see an opportunity,” Gabriel promised. “You know I’ll tell you as soon as one arises. Just be ready at all times, because with the Shadow Princess blocking most of my visions of Lionel, I may only get a small window to see a way to get him, and we may have to act on it fast.” He rose from his seat, heading back to his table and placing a kiss on his wife’s lips before taking the little baby boy from her arms and snuggling him against his chest. I’d not had nearly enough cuddles with my nephew yet, but I decided that was definitely on the agenda for me this evening.
Orion followed my gaze and pinched me softly to get my attention onto him. “You want one of those?” he murmured, darkness entering his eyes.
“One day,” I said, reaching up to brush my thumb over the dimple in his right cheek and picturing how cute it would look on a tiny little baby. He shifted back from my touch and my heart crushed at that action, frowning as he turned away from me.
“Don’t you?” I asked.
He took my hand beneath the table, squeezing and the contact sent a tremor of pure heat through my body, but he didn’t answer me.
“Is that a no?” I pressed, realising how much I wanted that in the future as the idea of him not wanting it was presented to me.
“My shame would be passed on to any child we had,” he said tightly, his quiet voice just for me and I opened my mouth to say that was ridiculous, but was cut off by someone shouting.
“Cooweeee!” the shockingly familiar voice made my vagina ziplock itself and I twisted around in my seat in alarm, spotting Professor Washer sashaying through the wooden doors with two large suitcases levitating along behind him. He wore a velure purple tracksuit, the top half unzipped to reveal his tanned, waxed chest and the bottoms looking two sizes too small as they clung to his muscular thighs and - more horrifyingly – the bulge between his legs.
“Oh for the love of fuck,” Orion said under his breath as Washer instantly spotted us and started making a beeline for our table. As he got closer, he noticed Orion sitting beside me and gasped, pointing a quivering finger at him.
“Miss Vega, stand aside! That man is a fugitive. He addled your mind, he made you do terrible, terrible things to him and he did dirty, filthy things all over your body. I read the report back to back to back, every last detail committed to memory so I would know how best to help you recover.”
“That’s it,” I spat, jumping out of my seat and climbing onto the table. But I didn’t know the spell to make my voice louder, so I faltered and looked to Orion. “Can you cast the loud voicey spell on me?”
“Why?” he asked anxiously, glancing around at the rebels.
I looked to Seth instead, beckoning him closer. “Can you do it?”
“Sure, babe.”
“Don’t.” Orion rose from his seat, but Seth was already reaching up, brushing his fingers over my throat and a cool magic caressed it before I started shouting.
“Lance Orion is not a criminal!” Everyone in the room winced. Oh shit, I did not need to shout while the voicey spell thing was on me.
“Darcy, stop,” Orion commanded, but I ignored him.
I cleared my throat and the sound of that echoed painfully around the room while Hamish started retching in the corner at the mere mention of my boyfriend’s name. And I was so fucking done with it.
“He lied to the court to protect me because he knew I’d lose my place at Zodiac Academy. So stop treating him like he’s a monster. He didn’t hurt me or abuse me or cast any kind of spell on me.” I looked down at Orion, but he didn’t smile, he reached for me frantically, trying to pull me off the table.
“Please, Blue,” he begged.
I danced out of his way. He deserved the world to recognise who he was, to see the sacrifices he’d made for Darius, for me, for the kingdom. So I wasn’t just going to sit here and let people pretend like he didn’t exist.
“So stop shaming him!” I cried, but the only answer was an awkward, echoing silence.
Tory was gazing up at me, sucking her lip as she clapped to try and get the crowd started, but they didn’t follow her lead even when she elbowed Darius and he gave a couple of pitying slow claps too.
“Not a fucking slow clap, asshole,” Tory hissed.
“Either kind of clap is awkward as fuck,” Darius muttered back and my skin prickled as the distant sound of Hamish retching reached me.