“What’s this one?” Darcy asked as she pointed to a dark red stone and Xavier, Seth, Caleb and Max all stood up to get a better look.
“Ruby for Cancer,” I said as Darius rounded on me again, his eyes locking on the gems in my palm.
“Give them to me,” he commanded, but the Heirs caught hold of his shoulders to keep him back, his fist still locked tight around the diamond.
“These aren’t yours, they belong to the Guild,” Tory said with a grin. “So unless you wanna sign up, you can’t play with them.”
“Never,” Darius hissed.
I rolled the light green gemstone over in my hand next. “That’s Peridot for-”
“Leo,” Darius finished in a snarl. “My star sign. My gemstone. Mine.”
“Calm down, bro,” Xavier tried, but Darius was in a Dragon treasure frenzy, his eyes flashing gold and smoke spilling from his mouth.
Tory handed me the one she’d managed to get hold of the final of the six, and Darcy’s eyes lit up at the sight of the incredible blue sapphire.
“This is for Virgo,” I said, the light of the moon making the gem glitter beautifully.
“I’ll keep them safe,” Darius insisted.
“Can I see the diamond?” Tory asked, holding out her hand but Darius’s fist only tightened around it.
The Heirs wrestled him down onto his back and Seth sat on his chest while Caleb used his Vampire strength to prise his fingers apart.
“No!” Darius snarled as Max snagged it and tossed it to me.
“Bad Dragon,” Tory teased but Darius just fought harder to escape the others who were having a whole lot of trouble restraining him.
I slid all six of them back into the chalice and guided the cup back into the moonlight, the whole thing disappearing just before a Dragon collided with me.
I fell off my seat, hitting my back on the ground as Darius clawed at my hands in desperation.
“Bring them back,” he ordered, his eyes bright gold and narrowed to slits.
“Nah, I’m good.” I smiled mockingly and he growled deep in his chest in frustration. “But let me know if you change your mind on becoming a Guild member. I’m gonna be recruiting soon. Maybe I could make you the keeper of the stones if you do.”
“Asshole,” he muttered as he got up, but I could see the tension leaving his posture now that the gemstones were out of sight.
I pushed myself upright, picking up the diary which was on Darcy’s lap and finding the page blank again where the zodiac circle had been.
“I guess we need to find the rest of these…”
“And how are we gonna do that?” Tory questioned with a frown.
“Hm…gemstones like that are very rare. There must be some record of them,” I said thoughtfully. “But unfortunately, the book I need to tell us more is in my office back at Zodiac Academy. I have a tome called Stones of the Sky that lists all known powerful stones in Solaria dating back over two thousand years.”
“Of course you do,” Darcy said with a teasing smile and I grinned at her.
“Well it’s no good to us there,” Caleb sighed. “How are we gonna get it?”
“I’ll ask Gabriel in the morning,” I said. “Maybe there’s another version we can get hold of…though that was a particularly rare edition my father gave me. If he wanted me to find these stones, maybe there was a reason he gave me that book.”
“Do you really think we need some random gems? What’s the Guild good for anyway?” Max asked. “Seems like a load of old traditional bullshit to me. And it’s not like the Vegas are gonna rule anymore anyway.”
Tory swung a punch into his arm. “You sure about that, big man?”
He grinned in reply, letting water slip between his fingers in a challenge as he faced her.
“We can find out here and now if you’re looking to get your ass beat?” he offered and the look in Tory’s eyes said she was damn tempted by that.
“Lance’s dad wouldn’t have gone to all this effort to make sure he knew about this stuff if it wasn’t important,” Darcy said, drawing everyone’s attention back to the matter at hand and I nodded my agreement.
“Fine, we’ll find the mystical rocks or whatever. But right now, I’m sleepy,” Seth said through a yawn.
“Here.” Xavier stepped toward me suddenly, slitting his thumb open with a blade of ice in his palm. “You need the blood for the elixir, right?” he mumbled and I smiled in thanks, creating a small vile of ice in my palm and collecting what I needed from him before sealing it over and putting it in my pocket.