Chapter 35

35

“We need to evacuate the space station,” Bellamy says at the same time Hassan sweeps all the food off Gregory and pulls him off the table.

Darcy places a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it hard. “Go find the flinks and get them to mobilize the evacuation.”

“I’m probably going to need to explain why they need to evacuate,” I mention, standing.

“The Hollow is entering the solar system.” Santanos’s words hit like a brick.

The ginormous gargoyle person at the other table stands, pulling his person up off the table. They walk over with the human holding his hands in front of his junk.

The gargoyle up-nods Darcy. “What’s going on?” they ask in a deep, raspy voice.

Darcy’s hand ends up around my neck, holding me back from doing the task he assigned me. “Faulkes. Where the fuck are your clothes?” Darcy demands, looking at the gargoyle. They’re only wearing a loincloth, which is clothing, and honestly, they’re super buff and pretty to look at without a shirt on, so I’m not sure what Darcy’s on about.

Faulkes looks down their body. “I’m trying something new,” they rumble.

Darcy snorts. “I don’t like it. Your clothes are meant to be an outward expression of your inner divinity. This isn’t your inner god, boy.” He shakes his head, but before Faulkes can respond, he adds. “Evacuate the space station. Tell Maxime that The Hollow is entering the solar system. The Avatars are going to deal with it, but just in case, start moving people to Andromeda. It’ll take a few thousand years for it to consume this galaxy before it turns its eyes to the next.”

“That’s more pessimistic than I expected from you, especially after your whole plan with the council,” I point out. To Faulkes, because he looks like he needs a bit more optimism than the plan to evacuate the solar system, I add, “They came up with a whole plan for how to banish The Hollow again a few hours ago.”

“It was mostly, ‘We’ll wing it,’” Gregory snorts.

Faulkes’s thin lips disappear into a straight line on his face. “I don’t know what The Hollow is, but Maxime is looking into it. Is there information in the archives in Cairo?”

Darcy’s whole body twitches, but his voice is steady when he replies. “There should be. Previous Avatars banished it after the archive was established.”

Faulkes dips his chin. “I’ll get the space station evacuated. Do you want any of my brothers to help you?”

Darcy’s fingers flex on my neck. “There’s nothing you all can do for us that I can’t do myself.”

Faulkes dips his shoulders, getting in close to Darcy. “Just because you can do it all on your own, doesn’t mean you have to.”

“My man.” I hold out a fist to him. “Yes.”

Faulkes bumps my fist with his and gives Darcy a pointed look. “Well?”

Darcy looks between Bellamy and Santanos. “Do you want the gargoyles with us?”

Bellamy grunts thoughtfully. “Technically, rebuffing a solar system invasion is their job.”

Impressive. I didn’t know our solar system had appointed protectors keeping invasions at bay. That’s pretty cool, and it also explains why Earth isn’t under alien dominion, to be honest.

“It’s The Hollow,” Santanos points out. “We’re the only ones who can do anything about it.”

Darcy hums darkly and points in turn to Edovard, Hassan, Gregory, and then me. “If something happens, it would be good to have the gargoyles there to teleport our mates out.”

“You have a mate?” Faulkes gasps, full of disbelief.

Darcy’s fingers flex on me again, and I smile up at the big guy. “I think we’re as surprised as you are, but it makes sense. The emotional chemistry between us is off the charts. We vibe in harmony.”

Darcy’s grip on me relaxes, and he runs his hand up and down my back. “The other chemistry is also off the charts.”

“I like the idea of having gargoyles there in case our lovers need to be teleported out,” Santanos interrupts. “Do we need one for each of our lovers, or can gargoyles carry more than one passenger at a time?”

Huh. I bet that’s why Darcy had those other gargoyles with him earlier. They were teleporting him to my location. That’s fucking lit.

“One in each hand,” Faulkes replies.

“Then we would appreciate two of your brothers accompanying us,” Santanos informs him, then he clicks his fingers at the server. “We need Gregory’s clothes. And this gentleman, as well,” he adds for Faulkes’s partner’s sake.

Faulkes doesn’t so much as blink before two more really big gargoyles dudes arrive. They aren’t as big as Faulkes, but they’re still bigger than the rest of us. One is cosplaying the 1980s, and the other looks like a John Wayne movie era cowboy. They both do a double take when they see Faulkes, and the cowboy one gives him a dirty look. “What the Sam Hill are ya wearing?” he demands in an accent he definitely learned from watching old westerns.

You know what? Cowboy aliens in space? I’m here for it.

Faulkes points at us. “Solar system invasion is more important right now. I’m evacuating the space station; you are helping the Avatars.”

With that, he turns on his heels and marches out of the restaurant, taking with him his date, the server, the host, the kitchen staff, and a stressed out gray striped alien with at least twelve spindly arms who’s wearing a black form fitting shirt that says, “I own the joint.”

Darcy gestures to the tables. “Shove these fuckers outta the way. I gotta make an array big enough for all of us, and then I’m gonna need a lil donation from everyone.”

All the big dudes immediately scootch the tables out of the way. Me, Santanos, and Gregory crowd around Darcy so he can get his donation. Santanos holds out his wrist for Darcy, who slices him open without remorse, whipping out an empty vial from his utility belt and catching Santanos’s blood in it.

The vial disappears into the belt, and Darcy turns to Gregory, who follows Santanos’s lead, donating a vial of blood to my man. Darcy is less violent with me, and he cuts my forearm instead of my wrist to get the blood, and when he’s done he closes the wound with a tingling lick to it. He didn’t do that for Santanos, and I’m not upset about getting special treatment.

With all the tables out of the way, Darcy collects blood from everyone else. Notably, the gargoyles bleed black, and since they’re gray people, I can’t say I’m surprised.

Once he has everyone else’s donation, my man cuts himself open and starts drawing the array. He uses his own blood to draw the inner circle and the outer circle and part of the swirly bits in the middle, but then he starts pulling out the donations to complete the inner swirly bits between the two circles. It’s the most intense array he’s done, and as I watch his skin pales and a sheen of sweat breaks out on him. He trembles slightly when he opens the third vial, and by the time he opens the eighth one, his whole body is shaking and his breath is coming out in clouds like he’s standing in a freezer.

Before this moment, I hadn’t noticed any kind of supernatural, psychic tether between the two of us, but as he expends the bulk of his magical energy and borrows more, I feel it, but only because it becomes a thin wisp, as if whatever he’s doing is borrowing from the magic that makes us vibe so strongly. As he finishes the last swoop and empties the final vial, the tether between us wavers, blinking in and out of existence.

Discomfort sits below my heart, a stabbing ache that feels like some vital organ inside me is getting ripped out slowly. I didn’t know that I could miss this fucking viscerally something that I didn’t know existed until now.

Rubbing the spot, I wait breathlessly for the array to light up with Darcy’s magic, watching him sprinkle his glitter component over it, and when it finally does, a gasp chokes me. Worry and fear that were harboring in my heart disappear as Darcy straightens his shoulders and wipes his brow, and the tether tying us together stabilizes again.

“We’re taking the array to the edge of the solar system. We’re going to follow the Magic’s instructions for how to banish The Hollow.” Darcy isn’t weak, but he’s expended a lot of magic, and the gaunt look of his cheeks tells me he’s on the brink of an empty tank.

“Why is this array so much harder than the last few?” I question, taking my place beside him.

Darcy grimaces with a look of disgust. “Because I’m carrying so many more people, because this array needs to provide a livable atmosphere for those people, and because we’re about to face an indescribable evil and I’m trying to protect this array against anything that might destabilize it. I require Hawthorn and Ethan to have your hands on our mates in case my protections fail.” He gives the gargoyles a pointed look.

The cowboy one immediately grabs me and Edovard by our elbows, pulling us in close. “Don’t you worry, Darcy. I’ll keep these civilians safe.”

The John Wayne style accent really works for him.

“Thank you,” Darcy says, then glares at the 80’s cosplayer. “Ethan?”

Ethan wraps his arms around Hassan and Gregory’s shoulders (oh, hey, Gregory is redressed again, how did I miss that?). His devilish smile reminds me of an evil cartoon character grinning wickedly, like Alastor from Hazbin Hotel . It’s surprisingly less attractive in real life than on a cartoon character. “Weird.”

Everyone glances at me except Darcy, whose eyes bounce between all of us, landing on Bellamy. “You’re gonna lead this, ain’tcha, Bella?”

“Bella is worse than Red.” Bellamy decides, takes a deep breath, and nods. “Let’s go banish this fucking thing.”

Darcy checks on Santanos, who dips his chin with an eloquent grace that I’m thinking more people need to practice in the mirror. The confidence in that movement inspires hope, and I wasn’t feeling particularly hopeless since I know The Hollow’s been banished before. “Let’s.”

Darcy presses his lips together, shoots me a heated look, and then we fly, traversing the endless, soulless expanse of space.