Chapter 112

Ibroke away from my sister to find Orion looking down at the bones of the man who had caused him so much pain. There was no sneer on his lips, no hatred left to offer, just relief.

"He's dead." Orion exhaled that fact and the air seemed to shiver with it.

"I thought I'd want to spit on him more than I do," Xavier mused as he grasped Darius's arm, his head shaking with disbelief at the body of his father lying between us all. "Instead, I feel nothing but the urge to turn my back on his bones and never think of him again."

"He's not worth more than that," Darius said.

"No," Xavier agreed, seeming confused by his own reaction. He crouched down to look at Lionel's charred remains, cocking his head to one side. "I hope they're giving you hell in death, old man."

"Mom will make sure of it," Darius swore and my pulse quickened at the sense of The Veil thinning and I swear I could hear a scream carrying on the wind that gusted through the caverns. One of pure, torturous pain that belonged to the tyrant who lay dead at our feet.

Max, Seth and Caleb moved to rest hands on Darius and Xavier's backs, looks passing between them that were a mixture of relief, shock and awe.

Geraldine stepped forward, chin thrust high and her chest puffed. "Grand tidings indeed," she gasped. "Oh fortune sings a song of merry winds to blow. How the birds will tweet and the natterbugs will chatter of this day. For the Lame Dragoon is no more, and the Vega Queens rise, rise, rise! On and on to the evermore!"

Gabriel came to stand beside Orion, clasping his arm, all of us sharing in this moment of victory. Then my brother smiled at Tory and me, gesturing to the passage which led towards the bright light of day.

"It's time to claim your glory. The sun is waiting to smile down upon the new queens," he said.

I looked to my twin, anticipation building in my chest at what was to come. We'd done it. It wasn't a dream or a hope anymore. We'd won the war. And now we had a kingdom to rule, a hundred thousand things to learn and so many wrongs to right. The people of Solaria were counting on us, and I was so damn grateful that I didn't have to take on that role alone. We'd come into this world together, and we'd claimed our crowns together too. From misfortune to fortune, our path had been walked side by side. And as we led the way out of the dark, I knew that we would always be irrevocably bonded by three things.

Our crowns.

Our story.

Our souls.