“I want my hands on a Vega tonight,” Mamá said greedily as she quickened her pace. “Let’s be done with it, Alejandro.”
“I don’t want them to die here,” he purred. “Let’s take them home. At least one of them.”
I thought of the girl in that shed again and slowed my pace, unable to bear the idea of seeing the twins in that vile place.
“You won’t get close to them. There’s too many Fae around,” I tried. “Even Professor Astrum will be hard to get alone.”
Alejandro swung towards me fast, his hand fisting in my shirt as he held raging flames an inch away from my face and I saw a demon staring back at me in his eyes. “Those sound like the words of a coward,” he snarled. “I am hungry for a kill tonight, sobrino, and if it is not a Fae then perhaps it will be you. And perhaps I will make it a long, agonising game too.”
I shook my head, frantically trying to push his hand off of me as my mamá watched with a cold detachment in her gaze. Terror clawed through my insides as I stared at the hatred in my uncle’s eyes and I wanted to vanish so I didn’t have to face it.
“Okay, okay,” I blurted and he let go of me, pointing me ahead of them and I stumbled on, my breaths coming raggedly as I led them towards The Orb.
As we approached the golden building, I spotted Professor Astrum standing out on the lawn in front of it, looking up at the stars with his eyes closed like he was somehow speaking with them.
I glanced at my uncle and Mamá in fear as they locked him in their sights like their next meal and I wanted to call out to him to run.
There was no one else around, the party still thriving inside The Orb, but no students were hanging around outside. I didn’t understand why Professor Astrum was just standing there like that, but as he opened his eyes and lowered his head to look toward us, he spoke.
“Ah, of course,” he sighed, nodding. “I couldn’t see my death, only the darkness that awaited me beyond this night. But now it makes sense.”
Alejandro and Mamá advanced on him and I scurried after them with a plea that died on my lips as my uncle called out to him.
“Where are your pretty stars to protect you tonight, Seer?” he said mockingly.
“The stars await me.” He checked the watch on his wrist, nodding with a solemn look in his eyes as Alejandro and Mamá closed in on him on both sides.
I stopped walking, my eyes darting to The Orb and back as I wondered if I should try and run for help. If I could make it there and alert the faculty to their presence then maybe they’d be caught, maybe they’d kill them and I’d be free at last.
Astrum’s eyes fell on me and a frown knitted his brows as realisation crossed his features. I’d been so caught up in fear, I hadn’t even thought to hide from him before I exposed myself.
He looked to the stars again, murmuring something to them and his eyes widened as his eyes fell on me with understanding.
Alejandro kicked out the backs of his knees and Astrum fell to the ground, no hint of magic flashing in his hands as he seemed to accept this fate. But I wanted him to fight, to rise up and attack the monsters who stood either side of him. More than that, I wanted to fight them myself, to make a stand and refuse to follow their orders any longer.
Instead, I found myself frozen in terror and unable to do anything but watch as my mamá laughed coldly and shifted her hands into Nymph probes. She stepped forward with intent as her rattle filled the air and locked down Astrum’s magic, combining with the sound of Alejandro’s until he was weakened before them, though it was clear he’d had no intention of fighting this.
Mamá drove her probes into his chest and Astrum tipped his head back with a smile pulling at his lips as he mouthed the names of the Vega king and queen like he could somehow see them before him.
Alejandro let my mamá torture him for several seconds before shoving her aside and driving his own probes into Astrum’s chest in a brutal blow that sent blood splattering across the ground. I knew they weren’t planning to take his magic, I’d seen them do this before, getting high on connecting with a Fae’s magic source without ever actually exchanging it for the Elements they’d already claimed for themselves.
Astrum never moved his eyes from the sky and Alejandro growled in anger as he didn’t get the reaction he wanted. And as Astrum slumped backwards onto the ground, Alejandro unleashed a furious fire from his veins, burning him as he grinned at the carnage he caused, the huge flames heating my cheeks as I stumbled back and watched the fire twist higher and higher, burning Astrum’s body away to nothing beneath him.