“Diego?” Darcy gasped, dropping down beside me as horror lined her features. She rested her hands over my chest, trying to heal the wounds, but I knew it was far too late. And there was so much more I needed to say. But one thing more than any other.
“I’m so s-sorry, Darcy,” I forced out, needing her to hear it though knowing there wasn’t enough time to explain why.
“I don’t understand,” she sobbed, still working to stop the flow of blood, but I was already falling away. “Max!” she screamed, turning to him but I clutched her arm, desperate for her not leave when I was only moments from death.
“Fae magic can’t heal me,” I whispered.
“How can you…how are you here?” she croaked, tears running down her cheeks and I hated to see her crying over me. But it reminded me that she cared, that someone really cared. And I had meant something on this earth in a world where I should have meant nothing.
“I’m not your enemy,” I swore, needing her to know that and she took hold of my hand, squeezing tightly and making my fear lessen just a little. My heart was slowing and the stars above me were whispering of my end, so I had to give her the key to everything I knew, things that could help her defeat my uncle, my mamá, even Lionel Acrux. “You’ll see… you need to…take my hat.” I coughed and blood rose in my throat, the taste of it everywhere, but the pain was turning to a cold numbness now.
Darcy wiped the blood from my lips, pain written into her features as she tried to keep me here. And it felt so, so good to be wanted like that. To know that I would be missed.
“Just hold on,” she begged. “There must be something I can do.”
I shook my head slightly, understanding what the stars were asking of me now. I had to face my fear, and this was it. I just hoped there was something waiting for me in death beyond darkness, I hoped there was a place for me among the stars.
“I just wanted to be useful. Did I do okay? Was I good friend?” I asked as a tear rolled from my eye as I knew I’d never see Sofia again, or Tory, or Geraldine. The friends who had given me a life I had always dreamed of having.
“You’re the best friend, Diego,” Darcy promised and before death could steal me away, happiness spilled into every inch of my being and for a single second, I felt like a Fae who was dying a worthy death for his friend. His queen.
And as her face faded from view, and I slipped away somewhere far warmer and safer, I felt mi abuela’s hand taking hold of mine and drawing me into her arms, her voice so familiar and comforting as she held me. “I am so very proud of you, Diego.”
I was forced out of the shadows of the hat, finding my face wet with tears as Orion pulled me onto his lap and I let myself cry against his shoulder at reliving that awful goodbye once more.
Geraldine wailed behind me, sobbing Diego’s name as Orion stroked his hand up and down my back.
It was so much to take in and I didn’t know whether to even be angry with him at all for the things he’d done, because in the end he’d given his life to save me and he’d made his choice to tell us the truth, he’d just never gotten the chance.
When I finally looked around, I found the Heirs and Xavier deep in thought and Tory wiped tears from under her eyes.
Orion tugged the hat off of my head, tossing it onto the bed and kissing my wet cheek as I pulled myself together at last, the grief in my chest a tight pinch which wouldn’t go away.
“The hat kid’s name was Diego? I swear it was Darnell,” Darius murmured to Tory and she punched him in the arm with a muttered curse about him being an asshole.
“He will not have died in vain,” Geraldine said, rising to her feet and sniffing loudly as she reined in her tears. “We shall avenge his brave soul and destroy the wicked witch who laid him in the ground.”
I nodded my agreement, looking to my sister as she reached out to squeeze my arm and I saw the need for revenge in her eyes as keenly as it lived in me.
“Her life is marked,” I growled. “As is Alejandro’s.”
“For our mother and father too,” Tory growled.
“We’ll send them into death screaming for mercy, and tear our parents’ Elements free of their veins,” I hissed.
Geraldine kissed her fist and held it to her chest. “For the true queens!”
“S o Nymphs can be…good?” Xavier questioned, resting his elbows on his knees as he looked to Darcy like she held the answer to that. But we’d all seen what we’d seen.