Chapter 40

It had been less than an hour since the battle had ended, and the academy was still in chaos with the dead being counted and every corner of campus being searched for any signs of enemies lingering within our walls. Darcy and I had resurrected the wards, but despite the immensity of their power, I no longer felt so reassured by their presence surrounding us. Lavinia had torn through them with a legion of less than five hundred of their army and we had come far too close to failure in that skirmish than was acceptable.

I'd heard news that Darius was safe, and the moment my duties were done, I got word of his location and flew across campus as fast as I could, the wind whipping through my hair and my own blood staining my cheek from a wound I hadn't paused to heal. The moment I spotted him standing outside The Orb, I dropped from the sky like a bullet and collided with him in the next moment.

Darius closed his arms around me as I wrapped all of my limbs around him and let my wings fade to nothing, tasting his rough and demanding kiss against my lips.

"Can't leave you alone for five minutes without carnage breaking out," he grumbled against my mouth.

"Can't let you out of my sight without knowing you'll go creating carnage of your own," I replied in kind.

He set me on my feet and led me inside, the heavy weight of Geraldine's anti-spying measures racing over my skin as I crossed the threshold. She had placed every spell imaginable on this place to prevent anyone who wasn't invited from attending our war councils and I released a small measure of my magic to confirm my identity as we headed inside.

My gaze was drawn to the roof of The Orb where patches of new metal had been forged to cover the damage done during the battle, the work rough and obvious though it was good enough to have sealed the space again. The scent of smoke lingered, and I noticed a few bloodstains in the far corner but for the most part, Geraldine had restored everything to its former position with her earth Element.

"My lady, I am pleased to see you have energy to spare beyond the battlefield," Geraldine called from behind a mountain of maps, military directions and bagels as she spotted me. "You look a bit wan, like the brightness of your button has dimmed. Is all well?"

"I'm fine," I said quickly.

I didn't want to admit to the fact that fear laced my limbs in the wake of that fight, but how could I deny it? It was written plainly over my face.

That was barely a taste of the full might of Lionel's army, and the power Lavinia had somehow wielded against us had almost resulted in their victory.

The Councillors were already here, Xavier, Caleb, Gabriel and Washer too. Max was slumped in a chair beside Geraldine looking close to unconscious with exhaustion, a small girl sitting upright beside him, probably around seven or eight years old, her hand in his and her eyes wide as she spotted me.

"Where the hell have you been?" I asked pointedly, looking back to Darius and taking in his dishevelled clothes and the fact that he hadn't appeared anywhere that I'd noticed during the battle.

"Visiting my father," he said in a low tone, making my skin prickle with concern and my grip on his hand tighten. But he was here, right in front of me, unharmed if looking a little ruffled.

"Explain," I demanded, authority ringing in my tone which had him arching a brow at me. Yes, I was his queen, but pulling rank didn't tend to go down too easily with my Dragon consort.

The doors opened again, Darcy striding in with Orion a step behind her. "How many did we lose?" she called, ignoring the flurry of bows just as I had when I'd arrived. "And what the hell was that magic Lavinia used?"

"It was the power of a fallen star," Darius said, causing Tiberius to suck in a sharp breath and Caleb to look at Max for confirmation.

I frowned at my sister, moving to take up my place beside her at the table while the others moved to sit down too.

"I feared it was something like that," Darcy said grimly. "It looked just like the star power Orion and I saw in the vision from Arcturus. But how-"

The door banged as Seth appeared looking like he'd been through hell with his hair in a chaotic tangle and such wildness about him that it was clear he'd struggled to survive out there. He'd evidently taken no time to clean up since the battle, offering out help to the rebels just like the rest of us.

To my surprise, Gabriel got to his feet and moved to embrace the mutt. "I owe you a debt," he said seriously. "Luca's life was in your hands and you kept him safe. Without your help I saw…" Gabriel grimaced and cut himself off. "The fate you kept him from will never be forgotten. Ask anything from me and it is yours."

Seth grinned, clapping Gabriel on the arm. "Right now, I'd settle for some snacks," he replied easily, the two of them dropping into chairs to my left beyond Darius, and Gabriel tugged a plate of bagels closer for Seth to pick from.

"I want that story in full," I said, pointing at the two of them. "But first, I think Darius and Max have the more pressing tale."

Everyone looked between the two of them and Max waved a hand at Darius, urging him to explain, the small girl still sitting there, expressionless and mysterious, but I got the feeling her presence was important if Geraldine had been convinced to allow her access to this meeting.

"Tonight, before the battle broke out here, Max Siren Spelled me to him, but when we shared a kiss, the power of his gifts were awakened in full, and he connected to the pleading spirit of something that was in desperate need of his help."

We all sat in silence as their story unfurled, none of us interrupting with questions or any kind of comment as the incredible reality of what they'd somehow managed to survive spun out between us. They'd been to Lionel's stronghold, knew where it was, had seen his army amassed there – though I fought against the knot of horror that built in me when he confirmed that our information on its size had been severely lacking – they'd spoken with Tharix and lived to tell the tale, though Orion physically balked at the suggestion that Lionel's new Heir might actually have helped them escape, and Seth began muttering about demon vaginas beneath his breath.

When they described the star they'd discovered lashed in shadows and forced to fall to Lavinia's will instead of releasing its power back out into the world, we all fell into a heavy, terrifying silence.

"How can we fight the power of a star itself?" Antonia muttered aghast.

I swallowed against the thickness in my throat as I turned over everything Darius had said, trying to find some positive amongst it and coming up short.

"What does the girl have to do with it?" I asked, casting around for something, anything which might not be filled with more and more horrors.

The child didn't flinch as all eyes turned her way, though there was something akin to horror in the depths of her expression as she looked between me and Darcy. She was so young but something in her gaze said that whatever she'd been witness to had aged her beyond her years.

"That…well, she was there and Max said we had to take her…" Darius seemed as uncertain as I was about the child's importance, but Max finally roused enough energy to speak.

"You forgot the part about the man with the sallow skin," Max said, pushing himself more upright in his seat and leaning forward to rest his forearms on the table. "But I felt his aura and he was no Fae."

Dread pooled in my stomach as I turned to the shattered-looking child, taking in the horror which was simmering in her gaze as she glanced between me and Darcy. A truly horrendous thought burned into me which I didn't want to dare put a voice to.

"Did that man…" I asked the girl slowly, hoping against hope that she would deny what I was about to ask. "Did he…always appear that way? Or has he worn another face? Maybe two other faces?"

The girl blinked at me, her gaze sliding between my sister and me, then her head dipped into a nod.

Geraldine gasped, her hand flying to her chest, a platter of bagels scattering across the maps which had been spread out before her while she noted down the details of everything Darius had shared about Lionel's location and the size of his army.

"Clydinius?" Darcy hissed, realising the same thing I had. "Lionel has aligned with fucking Clydinius?"

"Doom!" Gabriel cried suddenly, making us all flinch in surprise. "Fire, bloodshed, carnage. Xavier lying in a pool of blood, Caleb's head on a spike and-" He cut himself off sharply, gripping the edge of the table and scrunching his eyes shut as he fought against the vision.

"We have to go now and strike at Lionel before any of that happens," Seth snarled, leaping up from his chair.

Washer got to his feet too. "I shall lead a battalion out at once. I shall sing a song of dread so potent that Lionel will quiver in his teeny-"

"Forget it," Gabriel snapped, taking hold of Seth's arm and yanking him back down into his chair. "Fate shifted again, that won't come to pass."

My lips parted on some response to that, and I glanced across the table to Caleb who touched two fingers to his neck as though checking it was still very much intact and his head definitely wasn't going to end up on a spike any time soon.

"You were with Clydinius," I said, my gaze moving back to the girl as I drew the focus to the issue at hand again. "He…what? Imprisoned you or-"

Her lips parted like she might reply but she looked between me and my sister again, then bit back whatever words had been so close to leaving her.

"It's okay," Max said softly, offering her his hand and she hesitantly took it, allowing him to soothe her with his gifts.

We sat in silence, waiting while he helped ease whatever trauma held her captive until a soft sob suddenly broke from her lips.

"He looked like you before," she breathed, tears wetting her eyes as she raised them in accusation. "When he came to the Nebula Inquisition Centre, we thought it was you saving us. But then…everything was burning and everyone was dead."

"But not you," I pointed out and Darcy elbowed me, giving me a look which implied I needed to go easier.

I shrugged, gesturing for her to take the lead in my place and she offered the girl a deep frown.

"I'm so sorry he did that. I'm so sorry we didn't get there ourselves and help everyone in that place before it was too late."

"Their deaths and our failure in helping them stain our souls," I added. "But we want to offer them justice. Can you help us with that?"

The girl looked to Max once more, tightening her hold on his hand and Geraldine placed her hand on his other arm, offering up her power while he wielded it to help the child.

"I don't know why they kept me. They said I might be the answer, but I don't know what to. It…he…they took me with them and let me watch while they killed and destroyed and searched for something. They took me to see The Ferryman too. They wanted to make a bargain with him."

"What bargain?" I breathed, my horror at this line of events only increasing with every new piece of information I could glean. "A bargain to cheat death. But he said death did not want them. He refused to help them, and I think…I think perhaps he hated them."

I exchanged a look with Darius, knowing all too well how the hatred of The Ferryman felt and yet still wondering, if that creature wrought from the power of the world itself held no fondness for Clydinius in his un-beating heart, then might he wish him ill?

"Then the Dragon King came and offered up a deal of his own," the girl said.

I cursed. "Trust Lionel to ally himself with that fucking snake of a star."

"This might be a good thing," Gabriel said, surprising us all with that ridiculous assessment.

"How in the hell might it be a good thing that the two of them have allied against us?" I demanded and his mouth fell into a grim smile.

"Because the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Or perhaps they could be," he said simply.

"Who-" I began, but Darcy cut me off.

"The stars," she breathed, seeing what I hadn't because the stars fucking hated me. Despised and reviled me for what I had done and yet… Maybe, just maybe there could be some truth to that claim. Because if there was a single being in this world who the stars might just despise more than the girl who had defied them, broken through their rules and spat in the face of their dominion, then it would be the traitor who had fallen from the heavens and defied the very nature of what they were and what they were destined to become.

"That's…insane, but it could just be fucking genius too," I said. "Although, I have to wonder if there is any chance at all that they could ever consider allying themselves with me after what I did."

"What if we made up for that?" Darcy suggested, a feral, dangerous look in her eyes which I knew would both be brilliant and spell all kinds of chaos. "What if we freed the star that Lionel has trapped away in his palace of traitors?"

"That's madness, Blue," Orion growled. "Darius and Max got in there by chance alone and they were damn lucky to escape unscathed. It won't happen a second time. In fact, Lionel will no doubt be putting every resource at his disposal into place to guard that fucking thing with all he's got, especially knowing the strength of the power Lavinia can steal from it."

"We'll find a way," Darcy said stubbornly, and Orion's lips twitched at the corner.

"The star is sleeping now," Max said in a low voice. "She won't be able to claim any power while my song holds it captive."

"And how long will that last?" Orion demanded.

"If I'd cast it on a Fae? A hundred years. On a star? Well, how the fuck should I know? But hopefully a few months, long enough to-"

"A week," Gabriel interrupted. "Perhaps ten days. I cannot see the star itself, but I can see the destruction Lavinia might cause with it."

"A week," I repeated, the word sounding like a death sentence to all around the room while our eyes fell to the maps, charts, lists and plans which were now mostly useless in the face of all we'd just discovered.

"Seven gallant days to change the fate of the world," Geraldine announced like that was the best news she'd heard all year and we all looked to her in utter bewilderment. "Come now, did Urgut the Urgent give up when he foresaw his death in the face of a lake?"

"I think that story ends with him drowning despite his refusal to accept that fate," Xavier replied, but Geraldine ignored him.

"Did King Buront pale in the face of the army of Inor?"

"That guy definitely died – didn't he get his head cut off in battle?" Darius said.

"Did Olaf Von Clemmins give up his dream of playing the harp after losing all of his fingers?" Geraldine demanded, and no one had anything to say to that because I had to assume no one knew who the fuck that was.

Geraldine yanked out her Atlas, selected an album and began playing a piece of harp music while brandishing the screen in our faces so we could see the Olaf dude's name on the cover, his wriggling toes held aloft in triumph.

"High level toe flexation, that is," Washer gushed like he was in awe of the man.

"Alright, alright," I agreed, kinda liking the harp music as it continued to play on while I spoke. "We aren't giving up. Of course we fucking aren't, but the odds are stacked against us, the stars despise me, our two greatest enemies have aligned and the army we face is far bigger than our worst guesses had surmised. So where the fuck do we go from here?"

"Beautiful speech, Tor," Darcy teased, and I blew out a defeated laugh as I slumped back in my seat. "How about we lay it out piece by piece. We can work our way up to the overarching problem – first of all, if Lionel's army is bigger than we accounted for then we need to think of better ways to fight them. In the last battle, the Nymphs' rattles immobilised countless rebel units' magic and forced them to fight hand to hand. I think I have an idea for how we might combat that." Her gaze moved to Gabriel and his expression glazed then brightened as he saw something in her suggestion which looked damn hopeful from where I was sitting.

"Yes, that might work," he agreed. "But it is a tentative fate that can be changed by many hands, so let us keep it between us for now."

The rest of the room muttered their agreement to that, and I nodded, wondering what they might have up their sleeves and trusting they knew what they were doing.

"Miguel and the Nymphs who weren't infected by the shadows might still join us," I suggested. "It would help even the playing field if we had a Nymph army of our own and fuck knows we need them. They hate Lavinia for what she did to the shadows and they want her dead as badly as we do, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to convince them."

"We'll figure it out," Darcy replied determinedly, and I nodded.

"We should hit the rest of the Nebula Inquisition Centres and bring the Fae who are trapped in them to join our army. Our plans for the strikes are in place, and we should enact them as soon as possible," Caleb said, pushing a hand into his golden curls. "We can offer shelter to those who don't want to fight, but if the survivors of the other camps are anything to go by then we will likely find ourselves with thousands of Fae who want nothing more than to fight back against the tyrant who imprisoned them."

"Good. Let's hit them all at once though in a coordinated attack," I said. "I don't want Lionel figuring out what we're doing and killing more innocent Fae. We hit them all together and get them all out." I looked to Geraldine in hopes that she could make that work and she nodded firmly.

"It will happen by my nelly or my nolly," she agreed.

"Tyler can ramp up the campaign to get more civilians to rebel and join our ranks," Xavier suggested, and Darcy smiled grimly in appreciation of that.

"The Bonded Men are going to make it damn near impossible to get near my father. It was bad enough before but with a hoard Dragons willing and ready to throw themselves between him and death, it's going to be a fucking massacre," Darius growled.

This was a problem which had been hounding us ever since Lionel had created the Bonded Men and it was one we were no closer to solving. Some of them had been killed in the fight but there were still far too many left to make getting close to him simple.

"We can keep working on ideas to draw them apart and pick them off, but if we can't even the odds and take down his army then we will just have to hit them head on. If I have to cut through every last one of them to take that bastard's head from his neck then I'll do it gladly," I said, the idea of it making my pulse race with the thought of all that bloodshed and I exchanged a heated look with Darius as we both got lost in the idea of it.

"That is a problem," Orion said forcefully.

I looked around to find him pointing at the two of us, his brow furrowed with concern.

"It is kinda disturbing," Xavier agreed, and I glanced at my sister, finding her watching us too. In fact, all of them were looking between me and Darius, and I got the distinct impression that this was a discussion which had gone on behind our backs before this moment.

"Spit it out," I demanded.

"Well, Tor, you must have noticed the way you and Darius get when it comes to killing since you returned from beyond The Veil," Darcy said. "It's not entirely rational. And you both get all excited and bloodthirsty, and we're just worried that-"

"It's the price," I supplied, knowing it was the case even if I hadn't admitted it so candidly before now. "When I used the ether to cross over and steal him back from the clutches of death, I knew there would be a cost. Unlike the fucked up deals the stars make with Fae, ether only ever takes a price from the Fae who wields it, so I knew I wasn't putting any of you at risk of harm. The only way to circumvent a personal cost is by supplying a sacrifice, but I happily took on the price of this myself which was the only possible way I could have achieved what I did. The cost wasn't specified but we are almost certain that it's being accounted for with this bloodlust somehow. Perhaps I should go to The Ferryman myself and demand a precise answer to it…"

No one looked comfortable at that suggestion, but it wasn't like I would be able to glean the answer anywhere else.

"That's it then. We'll go to The Ferryman," Darius agreed.

"I will continue to gather information and collect the latest reports so that we can strike at the Nebula Inquisition Centres as soon as a nary can take flight," Geraldine swore.

"Any more luck with the Guild Stones?" Caleb looked between Orion and Darcy.

"Eugene Dipper has been sending books to us whenever he discovers anything of use," Orion said.

"And has he found something?" Caleb pressed hopefully.

"No," Orion grunted.

"It's not nothing," Darcy said encouragingly. "There's clues and hints. Things that lead us to another book, then another. Eventually we'll find the right one."

"Or the knowledge is lost to time and we're all fucked," Caleb sighed.

"We'll find the answer," Darcy growled, and his eyebrows arched, his head inclining.

"Alright, I trust you," he said.

I looked to Darcy as the discussions went on, plans and destiny being forged right in front of us while all we could do was hope against hope that the decisions we were making were right, acts that would hopefully see the people around this table and all those who followed us survive this war and revel in victory.

But as I silently took my twin's hand beneath the table where no one could see, I couldn't help but think that all of this, every piece of it, no matter how well thought through or planned out, just might not be enough.