“He’ll be alright,” I swore. “He’s Darius Acrux.”
She nodded, but her eyes burned with emotion and I wrapped her in my arms. “We can stay up until he gets here,” I promised.
“You should stay with Orion.” She pulled back, scrubbing at her eyes quickly before any tears dared to fall. “He just lost Clara, he needs you more than I do right now.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” I said immediately.
“I want to be alone,” she whispered, biting her lip. “I need to be, okay? I think if I’m alone I might be able to just…sense that he’s alive. And then I’ll be able to wait instead of leaving this place in search of him.”
“Tor…” I breathed, hating the idea of not being with her tonight when she felt like this. And I could tell that there was more going on with her than just the worry over Darius. Lionel had had her at his mercy ever since he’d captured me and Orion, and I knew that she wasn’t telling me the worst of what she’d been through in the last few days. But I also knew my sister and she would only open up if we were alone. “I need to be with you.”
“You need to be with him,” she insisted, squeezing my arm. “You’ve been apart too long, and you could have lost each other tonight. You love him, don’t you?”
“I-” I started but Geraldine’s voice cut me off as she shouted out beyond the shower room.
“You bat-eared blaggard!” she yelled, her voice followed by a loud thwack.
“Back off, Grus,” Orion growled in response.
“You’re standing out here dropping eaves on the true queens and I shall defend their privacy until my dying breath!”
We stepped out of the bathhouse, finding Geraldine hitting Orion with an eggplant she’d conjured, but it kept bouncing off of an air shield which surrounded him.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Orion said as his eyes snapped to us. “I was just waiting for you.”
His gaze bored into me and suddenly I felt too hot, the urge to move closer to him driving me wild.
The sound of splashing and laughter carried from the men’s bathhouse and Tory and I stepped forward to look.
Caleb was speeding around in one of the pools with the gifts of his Order, turning the water into a whirlpool while Seth tried to escape from the middle. Max tried to blast Caleb with shots of water from up on a rock and Xavier cast glittering bubbles into his eyes.
“Boys!” Geraldine exclaimed, though a smile was dancing around her lips. “Their ding-dongles make them into such buffoons sometimes. This way, my ladies. You must be as tired as a sandgoose in the snow.”
She led the way forward and Orion moved to my side, our fingers brushing and sending electric energy buzzing through my veins. I didn’t look at him, but my breathing was becoming heavy and I knew there were a lot of words that needed to be spoken between us, but right now all I wanted to do was fall into his arms and find peace in them again.
Geraldine led us deeper into the sleeping quarters where oval wooden doors lined the walls and sconces lit the dark tunnel.
“The riffraff may pick any room to share with one other, I will be bunking in with Angelica tonight once she has appeared among the other rebels. But for you my queens, we shall of course be providing quarters worthy of royalty.”
The sound of the other people were carrying to us now, heading this way led by Hamish’s loud voice as he guided them to the showers.
“Here we are.” Geraldine threw a door open to her right which had the royal crest engraved on it, inspecting the space. There were two beds inside, each hung with flowers above the beds, a table set to one side with food and drinks waiting on it. “Is this suitable for you? Or shall I cast some more flowers across the walls? Shall I gild the beds? Or perhaps you would like me to ruffle your pillows and sing you a lullaby of old?”
“Where’s Lance’s room?” I asked, wanting him close after everything that had happened.
“Oh, erm…” Geraldine looked down the corridor just as Hamish strolled up to us with a wide smile on his face.
“How are the royal chambers?” he asked us loudly, not seeming to notice Orion at all as he swept his gaze right over him. “Is everything to your satisfaction?”
“We were just asking where Orion is staying,” Tory asked, tilting her head to one side as Hamish instantly gagged.
“His…his…forgive me, my ladies but he is shamed. He should just sleep in the barn. Or perhaps the scullery-”