strode over to the solid gold chest at the back of Darius’s room, opening it up and taking out a wooden box of Pitball cards I recognised. He retrieved a draining dagger from it and I stiffened. I’d seen Orion stabbed with a blade like that. Tory had succumbed to the shadows so many times because of one too. I didn’t want that shit near anyone I loved ever again.
He packed it up with a bunch of bones and tools in a backpack before shouldering it. Then he met my gaze and I stepped toward him, fighting away any fears I had about using this stuff, because we had to get the Imperial Star. And I’d do anything to make sure we got it before Lionel did.
“What do we need to do?” I asked.
“What happened to you and me going alone, brother?” Darius’s voice boomed as he stepped into the room with Tory a few steps behind him.
I smiled at her and she grinned, pushing through the Heirs to reach my side.
“Seriously?” Orion groaned.
“Well you didn’t really expect me and Darcy to just bow out, did you? I thought you’d have learned your lesson about that a long time ago,” she said airily.
Geraldine let out a squeal of excitement, clapping her hands. “The Vega princesses shall never bow to anyone!”
“Uhuh,” Darius said then muttered something else under his breath which sounded suspiciously like ‘we’ll see about that’ before continuing in a louder voice. “Let’s go. Get your weapons.” He turned around and headed out the door, revealing the axe strapped to his back that glinted with the flames that lived within it.
“That reminds me.” I looked to Geraldine in excitement. “Me and Tory made you a weapon.”
“Gracious!” she gasped. “What unworldly thing could I have possibly done to deserve such a gift?”
“You’re you, Geraldine,” I said with an earnest look. “That’s enough.”
“Never change,” Tory added with a smile, grabbing her hand and towing her out of the room after the Heirs.
I went to follow but Orion caught my arm, turning me back to face him with a look of uncertainty.
“Can I…” He had a long box in his arms and he placed it down on the bed with an expression of longing. The wood was carved with the Orion constellation which I’d engraved in it myself. My breath snagged in my lungs and I stepped past him, opening the box and taking out the beautiful sword forged in Phoenix fire. The one I’d made for him as a gift the night before he’d been arrested. I’d tried not to think about that night, but it was written into my soul as clearly as the zodiac was written into the stars. There was no escaping it. No way of hiding how much it had meant to me. But it only made his betrayal sting deeper.
I held it out to him with a taut frown. “It’s yours. Always. Just because we’re not…well, just take it, okay?” I handed it to him and his fingers brushed mine as he accepted it, an arrow of electricity firing through me from his touch.
“Tentacles on a tuna fish,” Geraldine exclaimed from the other room. “Look at me go!”
I gave Orion an awkward smile and jogged out of the room, finding Geraldine with the flail we’d made for her, the spiked ball of metal swinging on a chain at the end of the huge stick. She swung it around her head, under her leg, over her shoulder, all with impossible skill.
“I’ve flung a flail or two in my time,” she announced. “It is absolutely divine, my ladies. I couldn’t be more grateful. In fact, perhaps a song is in order?”
“We don’t have time for songs,” Caleb growled, glancing at Darius. “Right?” His eyes were pleading and Seth slung an arm over his shoulders, his hands wrapped in his metal gauntlets.
“Don’t be a killjoy, bro. Let’s sing that Vega song about them sucking our cocks,” Seth said with a smirk and Geraldine bristled, pointing her flail at him.
“Do not besmirch my beautiful lyrics ever again, you foul mouthed mutt!”
Max laughed and Geraldine rounded on him with a growl.
“And what are you chuckling at, you overgrown sea cucumber?” she demanded.
“Calm down, Gerry,” he said.
She looked like she was about to explode, but Orion shot to the centre of the group with the sword in its scabbard at his hip. “We’re leaving. Stop bickering or some of you will get left behind when we stardust out of here.”
“Pfft, as if