even if you wanted to force us to do that, the stars would never let it happen."
"You're right," Father sighed, leaning back in the throne and gripping the heads of the stone Hydras that created the arms of the chair. "I suppose if I decide to follow through with that idea, I'll have to put the bastards in her myself."
Clara snarled loudly and shadows rose up around the room as she lunged towards Roxy as if she’d been the one to suggest it, but Father managed to catch her arm to stop her.
"I haven't made any such decision, my love," he said to her firmly. "You are still my favourite. But you won't be if you attack my pet."
"I can give you bastards if you want them, Daddy?" she offered and he laughed coldly before pushing her back to stand to the side of the throne, looking away from her.
"What use would I have for Vampire bastards? Your Order is as common as soot and worth a whole lot less. Besides, you're a void of darkness inside, Clara. I can only imagine you're barren anyway."
Clara's face scrunched up in pain and she burst into tears before jumping up and tearing away from us with shadows billowing around her in a sea of darkness. She ran up the stairs at the side of the huge throne room and her sobs echoed back to us as she raced away.
No one said anything for a long moment and I actually almost felt sorry for Clara. Not that she deserved anything less than an excruciating death for her part in all the evil my father had brought upon Solaria, but sometimes I wondered if there was anything of Orion's sister left in her. Especially as I was so adamant that Roxy was still trapped inside the vacant vessel which currently sat before me. But then my girl hadn’t spent years alone in the Shadow Realm, so it was a lot more likely that she was still essentially herself beneath the corruption.
“I’ll calm her down for you later, Your Highness,” Stella simpered, rounding the throne and moving up the steps to take Clara’s place on my father’s left. She reached out to run a hand up his arm and the look he gave her had me wondering if he was still screwing her too despite the way he’d shot her down the other day. Fucking hell.
"I didn't actually summon you home for the chance to have this thrilling discussion," Father said once Clara's sobs had faded into the distance. "Today I intend to begin cleansing Solaria of all of its issues and the stars have guided me towards the first and most worthy cause which requires my attention."
"You don't need to bother with that star bullshit in front of us," I said in a low voice as I glared at him. "We all know that you're just a psychotic megalomaniac who has such a hard on for power that you'd do anything and everything to claim it."
“You will not disrespect the King like that!” Stella exclaimed but Father silenced her with a shake of his head.
Father's fingers curled into a fist as he glared back at me but rather than strike me himself like I'd expected, he nodded once at Roxy who immediately got to her feet.
Shadows darkened her eyes until all I could see in them was black as the thick fog of the dark power rose up all around her.
"Please don’t," Xavier begged at my side, trying to move in front of me but I just flicked my fingers, creating a lasso of water magic to tug him away from me before she could strike.
He may have had three Elements, but he had very little control of them and there was no way for him to fight off my magic.
The shadows struck me right in the chest as Roxy drove them into me and I grunted as I took the hit, refusing to even shield against them as I accepted the pain she was driving into my body. I didn't care what happened to me now anyway. I only cared about doing anything and everything I could to save her from him.
Darkness flooded my vision as the pain of a thousand cuts slicing into me from the inside filled my body and I dropped down to one knee as I fought to stay conscious.
Just as I was certain I was going to black out from the agony, a fist crashed into my jaw