Chapter 3

Istalked into Jupiter Hall with magic crackling at my fingertips and revenge stirring the darkness in my soul. I still had enough power in my veins for one more fight, and this one was going to settle a score. I'd watched Highspell give a group of students the slip, running in here to hide, and as my boots pounded the halls of my domain, I had the feeling I knew exactly where she had run to.

I took the stairs up towards my classroom, the familiarity of this path bringing a strange sense of comfort. I'd missed Zodiac Academy; it was where I'd ruled as a king of Pitball, where I'd discovered the immensity of my power, and most of all, where I'd fallen so hopelessly in love with the girl who had pulled me from the dark. And though there was sorrow between these walls too, when I added up all the good and the bad, the good came out on top.

This was the place I had spent more time than anywhere else and laid witness to all that I was in every stage of my adult life. Now it was watching me return at long last, no longer a lost man full of bitterness, resentment, and hate, but one with hope restored in his heart, who had found where he belonged.

Blue was my purpose in so many ways, but not only her. I had found purpose for myself in fighting on the good side of a war, in seeking to restore the Guild and taking up the baton left behind by my father. I knew who I was and where I wanted to be, and that was a gift like no other after walking the path of suffering for so long. I was finally taking steps towards a new life, one I was proud to be a part of and which was built atop a foundation of bonds I had forged with a group of Fae who, frankly, had become like family to me. Those bonds were ones I would protect at the detriment of my safety. Anyone who threatened that would face my wrath on this chaotic earth, and the stars would lay witness to my vengeance.

I brushed my fingers over my old classroom door, sensing magic humming against my hand. A concealment spell urged me to turn away, but it wasn't powerful enough to make me do that. There were deeper spells cast on this door too, boobytraps no doubt, so I moved on, trailing my fingers along the wall instead, a slow smile pulling at my mouth as I realised no magic was cast there. Stupid little mouse. Should have run while you had the chance.

I took a step back, raising my hands and drawing on the power of air, my hair stirring in a tempestuous wind of my own creation.

"First rule of Cardinal Magic," I murmured. "Do not be a fucking idiot."

I blasted the wall with my power and the bricks were obliterated, a hole big enough for me to walk through carved into existence as the rubble crashed into desks and sent them flying.

My strike was punctuated with a scream of fear, and I stepped into the classroom, rounding on Honey Highspell as she flung herself behind my desk and cast a wall of ice between us.

I shattered it with a blast of air, sending the wind spinning violently out around me so desks crashed into the walls and made a path for me to walk straight towards her.

"I suppose I should thank you for subbing my class, Honey," I called to her.

"L-Lance?" she gasped, poking her head out from under the desk.

I cast a ball of ice in my hand and flung it at her, making her shriek and duck to avoid it before it slammed into the board behind her.

"But I've heard rumours about your teaching style," I went on, sending a blast of air against the side of the desk so it was blown aside, the legs screeching against the floor. "And I can't say I'm a fan."

She quivered on the floor on her knees, her pencil skirt split right up to her hip and her red blouse unbuttoned to show off as much cleavage as she could manage, the glimmering aquamarine pendant on her necklace shimmered between her tits.

"The students need a firm hand," she insisted, her palms raising in surrender.

I slowed to a halt in front of her, casting her in my shadow and letting the storm fall away at my back.

"Yes, they do," I agreed. "But do you know what they don't need, Honey?"

She swallowed visibly, shaking her head, her face so ethereally beautiful it was eerie.

"They don't need a wicked little witch telling them whether their Order is worthy. They don't need segregation and persecution. There is only one thing in this world that makes a Fae less than any other. And that is the weight of their soul. So tell me, Honey…" I leaned down to glare at her with a sneer. "If the stars weighed your soul in the scales of Libra, would they find it heavy with sin? Would they see the tarnish of prejudice and cruelty upon the essence of all you are? Because I was born within the stars of justice, and I can see it plain and clear. Beneath the false face of beauty you wear, is nothing but a monster."

I reached for the enchanted necklace at her throat, intending to rip it off her, but she jerked backwards with a cry of terror, blasting shards of ice at me. They slammed into the air shield I'd cast against my skin, shattering against it as she scrambled upright and turned to flee.

I caught the back of the necklace with a spurt of speed, yanking it off of her and making her wail in fright. I crushed the gemstone in my fist, turning it to dust, and the power within it crackled against my palm, dissolving to nothing.

Honey cried out, throwing her arms over her head and running for the door, her hair evaporating as she went and revealing a glimpse of a bald, bumpy head beneath. She made it to the door, trying to keep her face hidden as she worked to open it, and accidentally set off one of her own boobytraps. A blast sent her flying backwards, the door busting off its hinges as she came skidding across the room to lay trembling at my feet.

Three of the Heirs stood beyond the door, staring at me in surprise.

Seth, Caleb, and Max stepped over the threshold, looking like hungry wolves as they gazed down at Highspell. She curled in on herself and I froze her hands in solid ice, then wrapped them in an air shield to stall any further use of her magic, though it seemed like she was done trying to fight anyway.

"Let's see her face." Seth bounded forward excitedly and Max followed, a dangerous energy bleeding from him into the atmosphere.

Caleb and I locked eyes, and the hunter in me purred in recognition of my coven brother before he shot to my side. Our arms grazed in greeting, the two of us regarding the woman beneath me like a fresh kill.

I showed him the crushed necklace in my palm, and he smirked.

"Good work," he said darkly, then prodded Highspell with the toe of his shoe. "Show us your face, wench."

"Wench," Seth echoed to himself in amusement.

"She's terrified," Max said, stepping forward, his eyes alight with all the fear he could feel with his Siren gifts. "It must be real bad."

"Let me see, let me see." Seth bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Come on, Honey, everyone's waiting," I urged, but she only buried her face deeper against her arms, curling up like a baby and starting to cry.

"Do it the asshole way," Caleb urged me, and we shared a grin before I lifted my hand and let air curl between my fingers.

"You had your chance, Honey," I said.

"Please, Lance," she begged. "Please don't!"

"Have I ever responded well to begging in my classroom?" I looked to the others, and Seth shook his head excitedly.

"Nope, not that I can recall," Max said with a wicked look.

"Didn't think so," I said, then used air to lift Highspell up and pin her against the white board, forcing her arms wide so they were spread either side of her, her legs dangling and kicking madly.

"Ho-ly shitballs," Seth exhaled as my jaw fell slack.

"No fucking way!" Caleb roared a laugh.

"By the stars," I said, unable to blink, taking in the hideous view before me.

"Is that a…?" Max trailed off in complete shock, then cracked up laughing as Seth howled in raucous amusement.

The fact that Highspell was bald with a bumpy, wart-bound head was the least of her ugliness, because right there in the centre of her face, instead of a nose, was a huge, veiny, flaccid cock. Balls and all, perched neatly beneath her eyes.

"Don't look at me!" she cried, making the tip of the thing flap against her chin.

Seth ran forward to get a better look, his expression saying he was having the time of his life. "Oh my stars, is it functional?"

"Shut up!" Highspell screeched, and we all laughed.

"What?" Seth balked. "I'm just asking what everyone's thinking. Like, do you pee through it, can you smell with it? Wait, does it get hard?"

"No one is thinking that!" she shrieked, the cock bouncing against her lips with the force she used.

Seth glanced back over his shoulder. "Max? You were thinking it, weren't you bud?"

"Totally," Max agreed.

"Cal?" Seth asked, looking to him, and he nodded, then Seth turned to me. "You're thinking it, aren't you moon friend?"

"Well, yeah, I am actually," I said, letting the moon friend comment slide as I examined Highspell's face again. I mean, holy fuck, how did one even end up with a cock for a nose?

"Don't look at me," Highspell sobbed, making the dick-nose wobble dramatically.

Max moved forward and I shared a glance with Caleb, knowing this was going to be good.

"I can get her to tell us," Max said, the energy shifting around us as he poured comforting vibes her way along with a potent sense of trust. "You can open up to me," he said, laying a hand on her arm, and Highspell stopped crying as she looked to him, clearly wrapped up tight in his Siren powers. "Tell us how this happened to you."

"It was a long time ago." She sniffed and the cock twitched.

Seth looked to me in utter glee over that fact, and I couldn't help but snort a laugh.

"It was an old friend. I slept with her husband," she cleared her throat. "And her father – not at the same time, of course, but… anyway, when it all came out, she tracked me down and cursed me with some twisted dark magic she'd learned from who even knows where. She said if…if I was so addicted to cock then I could have one of my own to look at forevermore." Highspell hiccupped a sob before continuing. "I've been hunting for a way to break the curse for years, but I've never found a way to escape it."

"That's a super great story and all, but does the dick actually function?" Seth pushed.

"Y-yes," Highspell choked out, still trapped in Max's power.

"In what way?" Seth asked keenly.

"All the ways!" she cried.

Max released her from his gifts, and she started crying loudly, realising everything she'd revealed to us.

I rolled up my sleeves, casually moving to the nearest window and opening it up.

"W-what are you doing?" Highspell asked in terror, but I ignored her, whistling down to a group of students below to catch their attention.

Milton Hubert was among them, stamping his foot and mooing excitedly as he looked up to us.

"Hey Professor!" he called, his eyes lighting in recognition. "Is Highspell in there?"

"She sure is. You want her down there?" I asked, and he and the girl he was closest to -who I recognised as Bernice Navis through the dirt smeared across her jaw - mooed again in affirmation. The group they were with cheered as I stepped back and whipped a finger, sending Highspell flying out the window at high speed, flipping over and over as she tumbled down towards them.

They stepped smoothly aside instead of catching her, letting her crash down onto her back between them on the grass.

"By the sun," Milton exclaimed. "She has a dick for a face."

"Dick face, dick face, dick face," they all started chanting, and one of them cast a wooden pole into existence, lashing her to it with vines and carrying her between them so she swung beneath it upside down, her cock nose flapping against her forehead.

They headed off down the path to who knew where and I slammed the window shut, turning to find the three Heirs behind me.

"So where's Darius?" I asked hopefully, glancing at the empty doorway as if he might appear there.

Panic dashed across my chest as an awful thought entered my mind, that maybe his return had been temporary, that some spell had brought him here and now it had worn off and-

"Relaaaax." Seth moved forward and squeezed my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. "He's out playing hero with Xavier. They said they'd meet us at the lake in a bit."

"So, he's really back?" I asked, at a loss for how this was possible.

"You saw him yourself, man," Caleb said with a sideways grin, and excitement crested in my chest.

"I need to see him again." I stepped forward, and Seth caught my arm.

"At the lake," he said keenly.

"Alright," I conceded, though I'd have preferred to have spent some time with him alone. I knew I couldn't exactly keep him from everyone; they had missed him as much as I had. "Will the twins be there?"

I thought of Darcy, hoping to see her after all that had happened. She was a queen now, even if she didn't have her throne just yet. The world was beginning to see the truth of her and her sister, that they were born to rule, side by side. Together, they were a power that rivalled every natural force on earth. They were the gravity beneath the feet of our kingdom, and if anyone could bring about a new dawn, it was them.

"I doubt Tory wants him out of her sight any more than the rest of us do," Max said. "So they're as likely to be there as anywhere else."

"Let's run," Caleb said, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he looked to me, and excitement rose in me over going to see Darius. I needed to know everything, just everything. And most of all, I needed to lay my eyes on him again and assure myself that he really had returned to us. To me.

"I'll carry Seth, you take Max," Caleb added, then scooped Seth up in his arms and the Wolf howled in excitement as they shot away through the door.

Max turned to me with arched brows, and I cleared my throat. I'd never spent much time with him alone, if any actually. And now I was left to carry him. What the fuck was I meant to do? Pick him up like Caleb had carried Seth, holding him in my arms while he looped his arms around my neck? By the stars.

"I can just walk," he said, running a hand down the back of his neck.

"It's fine," I muttered.

"Alright." He moved closer, taking hold of my arm while I ducked down to get his legs, but my head bumped into his chest as we moved at the same time.

"Oh, er, hang on." He lifted one leg up. "Does this help?"

"No, just, stay still."

We bumped into each other again and I stood upright, pressing my lips together in frustration while he gave me a sideways look.

"Just get on my back," I said.

"Riiiight, that makes so much more sense," he agreed with a nod.

"Yeah, I dunno what we were thinking there," I muttered, and he snorted, moving behind me. "Shall I duck down? Or…"

"Er, I got it. I can use air to just-" He leapt smoothly onto my back with the use of his Element. I caught the backs of his knees while he rested his hands on my shoulders, then wrapped his arms around my neck and put his hands back on my shoulders. Fuck, this was awkward.

"Yah!" he cried with a laugh.

"Don't do that," I said, not moving.

"Oh, right. Cool…cool."

"Hold on tight, asshole," I said with a smirk, and his grip tightened on my shoulders.

"Let's go, motherfucker," he replied brightly, and I shot out of the room at high speed, a whoop leaving Max as I took corners as fast as I could.

We were outside in a flash, the campus rushing past us in a blur of green as I made a path towards the lake, the thrill of seeking out Darius setting my pulse to a wild beat.

But as we made it to the glistening pool of Aqua Lake where the sun glimmered on its surface, I found one of my least favourite things awaiting me there: A crowd.

I didn't slow down when we met the edge of it though, rushing through it and sending people flying away from us with yelps of alarm. My eyes moved from face to face, hunting with the gifts of my Order as I sought out my friend.

"Darius?!" Max shouted, his voice booming out with an amplification spell as I knocked a Minotaur on his ass and leapt over him while he mooed loudly in anger.

"Over here!" Seth's voice carried back to us.

I turned sharply towards it, making a small herd of shifted Experian Deer shifters scatter with bleats of alarm. I ran past them and found Darius where the land rose up a little, surrounded by crooning students, many of them muttering prayers to the stars or just staring at him in undisguised awe. Caleb and Seth had crafted a fine seating area from wooden logs, and the moment I made it into the centre of it, I blasted a storm of air out around me to push everyone away from Darius, sending a Golden Goose shifter tumbling away into the air with a honk of rage.

Darius's face split into a smile, and I shot forward the final two steps parting us, crushing him into an embrace and feeling Max's hands wrap around us too as I remembered he was still on my back.

Max dropped down and Caleb whistled to us, drawing our attention to the seating area as Darius and I released each other.

Seth cast a wall of air that kept the crowd from surging forward again, and one guy pressed his face up against it so firmly that his nose was crushed, making him look like a pig.

Xavier was already sat on one of the log seats, his eyes never leaving Darius, a look of complete happiness about him that felt so good to see. It was surreal…this moment feeling like it couldn't possibly be happening, my body and mind seeming somehow detached from reality as I stared at the man I had loved and lost, cherished and grieved, and now somehow found once more.

Caleb cast a silencing bubble around us and pointed to one of the six carved thrones he'd created for us with a tilt to his lips.

I followed Darius to his seat, but before I could take the one beside him, Seth lunged past me and dropped into it, gazing up at me with a wolfish grin.

"Here you go, Lance." He patted the seat beside him, and I gave him a dry look before taking it, and Max and Caleb took the remaining two seats on the other side of Darius.

"Well?" Seth prompted keenly, practically bouncing in his seat.

"What do you wanna know?" Darius asked, acting as if he hadn't just respawned here back on earth, but a note of amusement laced his tone.

"Everything," Max growled. "From start to end, no pieces missing."

"It's a long story," he said with a dark look.

"I don't care if it takes all day, dickweed," Xavier said. "Get on with it."

Darius boomed a laugh and his gaze hooked on mine, his smile dropping away as he realised none of us were laughing. We had to know. I had to know. All of it.

"Start at the battle," I prompted, and his face soured.

"Well, you all know my asshole of a father defeated me," he said bitterly, his hand tightening into a fist on his knee.

"No, he didn't," Seth breathed, leaning in to nuzzle Darius's cheek, and Darius sighed, lifting a hand to scruff Seth's hair. "You're here, and stars be damned, Darius Acrux, if you don't start telling us the hows and the whys and what it's been like and how you've felt and whether you were even a person beyond The Veil, I'm going to lose my mind. Or maybe you were just a floaty little ghost spiralling away through space and time, all alone, or were you with other ghosties? Or perhaps you were just a puff of a cloud, with no thoughts at all as you sailed through the mystical beyond going weeeee-"

Max flicked a finger, casting ice across Seth's lips to silence him. "Speak," he commanded Darius, and the silence between us deepened, all of us on the edge of our seats.

I could hear every one of their hearts thrashing as furiously as my own. We were one in that moment, a single entity with a single need, and as Darius started telling us the story of his time beyond The Veil, I was sure the stars were turning to listen too, the entire attention of the universe aimed this way. We were all sitting at the centre of something so deeply important that it felt paramount to every fate in Solaria from this day forward.

Against all odds, the twins had been crowned, the four Heirs were reunited, and the fate of this war felt like it was spinning on a coin once again. I just hoped when it landed, it did so in our favour.

By the time Darius's story was complete, the sun had made an arc through the sky and was beginning to descend. He'd told us of his passing, how he had been greeted by the Savage King himself in the realm of death alongside his queen. He had spent time with his mother and Hamish, and even his uncle Radcliff, the brother Lionel murdered, and with my father too. He described a great palace filled with endless rooms and a golden mist that hung in the air like stardust, and how he could furnish a room for him to live in and make it look however he liked with nothing but a thought. He had watched us too, pushed against the very fabric of The Veil to stand at our sides during moments when we had thought of or needed him, like our grieving had called him to us. It was terrifying and wonderful in equal measures, knowing how close the dead really were at all times.

The twins hadn't shown up at the lake, and we'd all been so caught up in Darius's tale that it had taken me until now to start worrying about the fact.

It wasn't like I needed to spend every waking moment with Darcy in my line of sight, but it was hard to believe she wouldn't have wanted to hear Darius's story for herself. Though I supposed she had a lot to discuss with her twin too.

I scanned the sky, looking for any sign of flaming wings or blue hair, and tried not to let myself grow concerned, though I knew I'd feel easier when she was back with me again. We'd been through a hell of a lot to make it back here, and after so much time spent locked up and alone with one another, it felt strange to be out of her company for so long.

I felt a little misplaced as Seth, Max, Caleb and Xavier bundled Darius away towards The Orb with talk of dinner.

I hung back, knowing I could follow, but I sensed Darius needed the time with his friends, and I could use the quiet to think on everything he'd told us anyway.

The way he'd spoken of the dead and the knowledge that my father was watching over me, urging me on, even proud of me, was a lot to take in. My grief for him was an old wound which throbbed from time to time, but it felt raw now, picked over and sore from the knowledge that I would never get the chance Darius had in my lifetime. I wished to speak with my father more than anything, wished for his knowledge and guidance in this war, or simply his embrace. One day, I would meet him beyond The Veil myself, but that didn't lessen the sting of his absence in the present.

"I'm trying to do what you laid out for me," I told the sky, uncertain if my father would hear my words or not. Though if Darius was correct in what he had said about the dead, then my thinking of him might just have drawn him close.

Whether he was here or not, I couldn't tell though. The wind didn't stir, the sky didn't speak to me, and the pain of his loss still wound tightly around my heart.

Caleb had informed me that Geraldine and her little Ass society had placed a bag of my things at Asteroid Place, and I itched to look through it and seek out my father's diary. I wanted to pore over his words, drink in the tenor of his voice from his notes and feel…closer to him, I supposed. I may have read through it a thousand times but something about having Darius back, about knowing that my father really was watching over me made me feel like I might just discover something more in the words he had left for me.

I shot away to Asteroid Place, leaving the crowd on the shore of the lake and arriving back at my old chalet. I frowned at the door, so many memories hanging over me here, the good the bad, the downright perfect. I rested my fingers on the doorhandle, thinking of the night Darcy had come to me in a raging storm, her hair dyed blue and a look of purest passion in her eyes. I could remember that night so sharply, it was like stepping back into it, each moment committed to memory and stitched into the corners of my heart.

Despite my long absence, the door still opened at my touch, and I was glad to find the space empty and unused, no sign of Highspell's taint here. I trailed my hand over the back of the grey couch, too many nights lost to it with a bottle of bourbon sending me into oblivion.

It struck me how changed I was since the last time I'd been here, all the powerlessness of my former life no longer holding me in its cage. I was free. Free from that ache at the base of my throat which demanded I quiet the roaring in my skull with as much alcohol as I could consume.

I was free of the Guardian Bond which had stolen my will and forced me into a life of servitude. I was free of the darkness inside me which had seemed so inescapable, always lurking on the fringes of my reality, ready to consume me whole and steal me into the abyss. Until her. Darcy Vega with all her spirit, her light a rapture I had never felt deserving of. But now that I was starting to find a place in this wretched world, it didn't seem so wretched after all. Not while her soul was bound to mine with a ribbon of blue, our fates interwoven, threaded together as one.

Perhaps I could find a role in this new life of mine which could help lead this war to a righteous end. And maybe the Guild Stones were the key to that, if only we could find them all.

I wasn't sure how long I stood there, captivated by the past, present, and future, but when I looked up to the sound of the sliding door rolling open across the room, I wasn't quite prepared to face the man standing there. Because I still couldn't believe fate would be so kind as to return him to me, and I had especially never imagined to be standing in this house again, finding him sneaking in the back door just like always.

"You're here," I stated in surprise.

The heat rising from his body made the air shimmer around him, and I could sense his Dragon shifting beneath his flesh while my own Order stirred in kind, like the two of them were dying to reunite too.

"Great observation skills, Professor," he said mockingly, and I shook my head at him, a grin tugging at my mouth.

"I'm not a professor anymore."

"None of us are what we were the last time we were here," Darius said, and I nodded in agreement of that.

"Everything's changed," I said, and there was a solemness in that. Because even though this new world was the better place to be by far, there was always grief in the thievery of time. There had been good moments, memories I shared with this man from our childhood right up until this impossible homecoming. Because that was what this felt like: coming home to a brother forged in chaos and love. We'd been inseparable for the longest time, but our paths had led us as far away from each other as it was possible to go, only to come full circle back to a place where we'd witnessed each other's struggles through countless nights.

I shook my head in wonder at him. This man who I loved in a way that was only intended for family, the purity of it unsullied by all we'd strived for and lost. If there was one thing time couldn't ravish, it was love. Whether on this plane or the next, Darius Acrux would be a part of me that was as untouchable as the sky.

"The stars told me we're Nebula Allies," Darius said. "I'm your number one Nebula Ally, apparently. There was someone called Gabe who came in at like number three or something."

I barked a laugh. "You're going to fuck with him constantly, aren't you?"

"Fuck with the Seer who's all-knowing?" he pretended to be shocked, then smiled like a heathen. "Oh yes, I'm going to pretend I have far more insight than he'll ever comprehend."

"Same old asshole, aren't you?" I mused.

"Pretty much, just with a little more of a penchant for death than before."

"So, no difference then?" I taunted, not letting myself think on what he'd hinted towards about a price to be paid for Tory's magic in reclaiming him from death. It was too good to see him, and I didn't want anything to spoil it.

"I have a message for you," Darius said, his smile falling away, and my heart thrashed in my chest. I hadn't asked him for too many details about my father or Clara, but I knew without him having to say a word more that he held some news from them, and I was as desperate to hear it as I was anxious.

I said nothing as Darius moved across the room to stand in front of me, reaching out to lay a hand on my shoulder, his expression kind of sad, but hopeful too. "Azriel asked me to tell you that he is forever with you. That he loves you and wants you to know you are worthy of the position you're yet to rise to. He said he'll be watching you through every moment and that he couldn't hold more pride in his heart for you if he tried."

I bit down on the weight of those words, my father's soft voice seeming to echo through them so I could almost hear them spoken just for me. I drew in a deep breath, lowering myself to the couch and running a hand over my face.

"Thank you," I murmured, unable to press my grief back far enough to say more.

"Clara wanted you to know that she's free now. Truly free. And Lance…" Darius's hand landed on my shoulder, his grip tightening. "She is happy there. Really. She even met a guy who-"

A ragged laugh broke from me, and I looked up at him in surprise. "You're telling me that I've been suffering over her death, agonising over the choice I was forced to make to release her from that bitch Lavinia, and she's hooking up with some ghost asshole?"

"Yeah," Darius laughed too. "His name was Rash or something like that."

"Rash?" I arched a brow, knowing full well that Darius did not have that right. Who the fuck would call their kid Rash?

"Yeah, pretty sure that was it." He nodded.

"Like a ball rash?" I pressed, my grief falling into amusement as Darius laughed fully.

"Okay, so maybe it was Ranch or Reg or-"

"She was definitely happy?" I asked, needing to know that more than the name of some mystery fling.

"Yeah, she is," Darius replied, squeezing my shoulder and giving me such a genuine smile that I knew it was true.

A weight I hadn't even realised I'd been carrying seemed to slip from my chest, my lungs drawing in a ragged breath and releasing it in a shuddering wave. Death truly had been a gift for Clara in the end then. I really had done right by her as I'd hoped.

"And what about…" I cleared my throat, choked with some emotion I was yet to put a name to. Since my mother had sacrificed herself for me and Darcy, I hadn't been able to put to bed the feelings I was experiencing over it. I had hated her so viscerally, but now…I could see sadness in her past, even if I didn't want to admit it. And in the end, she had done right by me, even if it would never tally up against all the wrongs. Somehow, I couldn't find it in me to hate her anymore. "Stella."

Darius frowned. "I never saw her. But I think she will have plenty of time in death to sit with her sins."

"She saved me and Darcy in the end," I told him, and his brows raised in surprise. "She died so that we could be free of the Death Bond, of the shadow curse. She did that, despite everything."

"And how do you feel about that?"

I exhaled heavily. "I'm unsure of how to feel about any of it. But somewhere among it all, I feel a sense of closure I suppose. And perhaps that's enough."

"You deserved more, but I'm glad you gained something from her, if only that." Darius dropped down to sit beside me, digesting those words before he leaned close and spoke to me again.

"Azriel has discovered the location of two more of the Guild Stones."

"He did?" I gasped, my grief spilling into excitement in an instant, my stare meeting Darius's as he stood again, a wicked grin on his lips. He drew the axe which was sheathed at his hip, a familiar darkness rising in his eyes and coaxing the darkness from my bones in kind. Magic rose to the edges of my skin and the atmosphere thickened with the promise of peril and adventure.

"Let's slip away into the night like we used to," he suggested, and a buzz of adrenaline rippled through me as I stared at the impossibility of my best friend, back from the dead and carrying the secrets I'd been hunting for as if they were nothing at all. But they were everything, and I could hear destiny whispering my name once again as I stood too.

"I thought you'd never ask."