Hamish bustled past him, bowing low to me and calling out for me to follow him, but I found my feet rooted in place as the two of us were left behind.
“Waiting for me, Blue?” Orion asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
“You look a little lonely over there in the shadows,” I pointed out.
“I’ve always enjoyed the company of the shadows,” he countered. “Besides, I’m a Vampire. I don’t get lonely. Alone is what I do best.”
“Well I guess I’ll just walk by myself then,” I said lightly and he shot to my side so fast it made my head spin, a smirk twisting up the corners of his mouth as he took hold of my arm.
“Turns out, I enjoy the company of your shadow more than any other,” he said in a low voice that set my pulse racing. “So go ahead and walk away from me, Blue, but I’ll be right behind you.”
Neither of us moved, his fingers tightening on my skin and the heat of that single, innocent point of contact setting a volcano erupting in my body. This man was the most intoxicating thing I had ever known, the cinnamon scent of him like a drug lacing the air, making me so goddamn high I couldn’t think straight.
“Thank you,” I breathed. “For everything you did today. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.”
His eyes blazed with some dark emotion and I felt the very fabric of my soul crying out for me to move nearer to him.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, thinking of Clara. “Your sister…” Emotion burned the back of my throat at the idea of saying goodbye to Tory. How was Orion even still standing?
He hung his head, a crease settling on his brow as a heavy silence passed between us.
“Honestly, Blue, I thought I would shatter from losing her again. But I…feel relieved.” Guilt crossed his features and I held my breath as I waited for him to go on as he kept his eyes on the ground. “I mourned my sister a long time ago, and I saw the truth today. Her soul was trapped inside that shadow monster and now, well…now she’s free. She’s beyond the Veil where she belongs. She’s with my father.”
The conflict in his words made me raise a hand and take hold of his chin, gaining his attention so his gaze flicked up to meet mine.
“Does that make me heartless?” he asked, searching my eyes for the answer to a question that seemed far bigger than the one he’d voiced.
“No,” I swore, seeing the age old grief in his eyes over the loss of his family, but there was acceptance there too, like a burden had finally been lifted from him. And I got it. As much as it terrified me to even consider having to live a life without my sister by my side, having to accept that she was suffering and aching to pass on would be so much worse. There had been hope for Clara while she was trapped in the claws of the Shadow Princess, but at least now she was free of that torment. She could be herself once more beyond the Veil and maybe she would find peace and happiness there too. “I understand.”
“That’s because you are far too forgiving of my sins,” he murmured and his fingers travelled up my arm, spreading goosebumps tumbling out along my skin as he pushed my sleeve aside to unveil the black handprint mark left there by Lavinia’s curse. But as he drew in a sharp breath, I looked down to find it was no longer there, my skin as smooth and untouched as if she had never laid a finger on me. Shock jarred within me as I stared at the impossibility staring back at me. How could it be gone? What did this mean?
Orion swore then picked me up by the waist, shooting us closer to a sconce and placing me down in the light to inspect the bare flesh with a franticness to his movements.
“It’s gone,” he growled, a note of hope humming in those two words, resounding right down to my bones.
I tried to reach within me for any feel of it, any trace of that dark power which Lavinia had forced beneath my skin, but there was nothing. No whisper of shadows, no clawing darkness trying to drag me down into its depths.
“Do you think…my Phoenix fought it off?” I asked, desperate for that to be true. I could feel the fiery creature within me burning right now. It was wide awake and so immensely powerful, that I was certain this really was possible. I’d seen what it was capable of. It had burned away the shadows from my body, so why not a shadow curse too?
Orion stared at me like I was a star fallen from the heavens, a creature so powerful that it was made of magic itself.
“Yeah…I think it did,” he said, his faith in my abilities clear in his expression. “We don’t know everything Phoenixes can do, and you have surprised me so many times that I’m certain you’ll keep doing so. So yes, Blue, if you cannot feel it and there is no mark, then surely you’re no longer cursed.”