I watched him smile and laugh with his friends and enjoy every single second of his time at Zodiac Academy, and I saw him grow stronger right before my eyes, more than I’d ever even noticed when he’d been right there in front of me.
I fell into another memory which made my heart lurch with fear because I knew what was coming as I walked in his shoes, shedding his clothes and hanging his hat on a branch in the woods that bordered Stella’s property.
I shifted into my Nymph form and felt the tug of the Shadow Princess’s power rolling through my veins as I was called to battle. “Time to fight. Time to kill. Come to my aid.”
Alejandro and Mamá crashed through the woodland close by as they fought against Darcy and some of the Heirs.
The shadows beckoned me into them deeper and deeper, but I wouldn’t go. Not tonight. Not when Darcy and Tory were in trouble. Mi abuela had told me that I was strong enough to fight against the will of the Shadow Princess if I only believed it was so, and tonight I’d finally found that strength in me, refusing to be a pawn to that creature any longer.
I may have been sent to Zodiac to capture them, but I was done playing my uncle’s game. And now when they were in danger, I wasn’t going to let them down. They’d been loyal to me and I would be loyal to them in return, even if it meant my uncle saw what I was. I had friends now. They’d help me. They’d accepted my connection to the shadows, so maybe they could accept that I was a Nymph too. Because I was done lying, done betraying them.
And I’d stand beside them tonight and fight like the Fae I wished I could be, and pray they could forgive me when they learned the truth.
“I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Clara Orion. You’re just a hollow thing full of shadow and death,” Darcy spat as I crept up behind the Shadow Princess, feeling the stars turning their gaze towards me.
“So which would you rather I give you, Darcy Vega? Shadow or death?” the Shadow Princess flexed her fingers and Darcy’s eyes widened as she prepared to shield. I knew in that moment she was going to act too late to protect herself.
I lunged forward, ramming my probes into the Shadow Princess’s back with a bellow of defiance and lifting her off the ground as I raised my arm. My lungs laboured and victory rushed through me as this golden moment gilded every one of my veins and made me feel like a god as I finally made a move against the monsters I’d been enslaved to my entire life.
Darcy cast a fireball to finish the bitch off, but the Shadow Princess twisted around to avoid it, forcing me to drop her as she gripped the shadows within me and I growled in frustration as she hit the ground on her knees.
Before Darcy could strike at her again, the Shadow Princess shot away with a burst of Vampire speed.
I looked to Darcy, triumph pounding through me, but it was quickly followed by uncertainty as she raised her hands at me, a frown pulling at her brow as she tried to work out if I was her enemy or not.
I took a step back, bowing my head to one of the true queens, because of course that was what she and her sister were. I’d seen them blossom into the most incredibly powerful Fae and I’d happily kneel at their feet and serve them in any way they wanted. They may not have known it, but they’d given me a family, a home, and I would repay them for that in any way I possibly could.
The Shadow Princess suddenly leapt onto my back and I was too slow to act as she reached around and drove a blade into my chest.
The shock of the strike made me roar, but the sound died as she drove that knife into my chest over and over until pain was all I could feel as I tumbled to the ground in a heap, blood washing over my body and making me dizzy.
It had all happened so fast, and I was finding it impossible to draw in any breath as I felt the stars press closer.
“Son of the shadow born, do you remember what Fae do with their fears?” the stars whispered to me as terror wound its way around my thrashing heart.
“You dare attack your princess?” the Shadow Princess snarled as she stood over me and I nodded, the answer to the stars’ question now so blindingly clear.
I do dare. Because Fae face their fears. And I’m almost as afraid of you as I am afraid to die.
Darcy released a flare of Phoenix fire at her, but the Shadow Princess darted out of its way and blackness curtained my vision for a moment as I lost consciousness.
When I woke, the shift had fallen over me, so I lay there naked in the mud with blood pouring down my chest and death calling my name. I could see the stars through the trees, shining so bright it almost seemed like day.