Darius Bonus Chapter #3
I left them to their ridiculous argument and turned to hunt the floor for that fucking gift, cursing myself for ever even getting the thing in the first place. I wasn’t going to give it to her. She fucking hated me, and I…was not a fan of her. At least, I wasn’t a fan of what she was.
Fuck. Was I really this screwed up over a Vega?
I frowned as I turned around, looking everywhere for the little box before finally spotting it right by the foot of the steps which led up to the throne. I moved to pick it up but paused as I realised the box had come open, the lid fallen off and the contents gone.
“Looking for this?” Max asked quietly, and I whirled towards him, finding him leaning against the wall, the small crystal ball rotating slowly in his hand as he inspected it.
My spine prickled as I stalked towards him, reaching for the glass sphere and glancing into the heart of it as he released his hold on it without protest.
It was about the size of a plum, the thing itself fairly unremarkable so far as crystal balls went. The magic I had added to it was what I had been attempting to hide from the three assholes I called brothers.
I watched as a little motorcycle ridden by a tiny girl all made of flame sped across the centre of the crystal ball, a fiery Dragon chasing after her as they weaved back and forth in a hunt which was almost a dance.
The echoes of the memory clung to the magic, pulsing against my skin as I held the crystal ball in my hand, watching as the bike veered away, then raced over a cliff formed out of ice crystals.
It fell out of sight, turning to smoke while a Phoenix leapt from it, facing off against the Dragon, then tearing away through the sky.
The chase went on and on, the fury, excitement, and heat I had felt during those moments rattling through the crystal ball with enough force to make my heart race like it had that day.
I didn’t know what the hell I’d been thinking when I’d poured my power into the thing to capture that moment for her.
Maybe I’d wanted her to know how fucking furious I’d been while I’d chased her, but the heat, the desire, the boundless energy which crackled through the crystal ball into my skin was all too clear as well.
Max flicked a silencing bubble around us, and I shoved the stupid thing back into my pocket, sighing in anticipation of what he was going to say.
“You got something you wanna tell me about that?” Max asked, his dark eyes serious as he studied me, and I kept every grain of emotion locked up inside me as I gave a nonchalant shrug.
“Just another way to fuck with her,” I said dismissively. “I wanted to remind her how close I came to destroying her that day.”
“Uh huh.”
Max stared at me expectantly, and I just stared right back, waiting for the reprimand, the reminder of what we all had to do, the endless reasons for why it all mattered so fucking much and why me having any kind of feelings beyond hatred and the full desire to get rid of the Vegas would be utter insanity.
Instead, he just sighed, clapping me on the arm and turning for the exit, releasing the silencing bubble. “We should get back before our parents lose their shit about us not doing our part for the press. A few family shots and we’ll be free to get ready for the ball.”
“Oh, I can’t wait for the ball,” Seth cried excitedly. “I’m gonna get so wasted, and I’m gonna hook up with someone so hot they burn me.”
“Like who?” Caleb asked as we all turned our backs on the throne which had caused so much turmoil in our lives, returning to the sham Christmas we were putting on for the press.
“That is yet to be decided, young Caleb. But don’t you worry, I’ll be balls deep in someone ultra, magma-level hot before the night is done. Mark my words.”
* * *
A knock at my door jolted me from the reverie my mind had drifted into, and I called out for Lance to enter without needing to ask who was there.
Father had just left, and I was sitting on the edge of the bed I’d been given to sleep in while we stayed here, bloodstains still splattered over the front of my shirt and my broken arm screaming in agony.
“One of these fucking days,” Lance snarled as he dropped onto the bed beside me, snatching my arm into his grip a little rougher than he probably meant to as his anger burned through into his actions, and I sat quietly while he healed me.
“I swear, Darius, the time will be upon us soon, and you’ll be the one left standing over him when it does. ”
I made a vague noise of affirmation, letting my friend fuss over me as he drew the bloodstains from my clothes with his water magic and started straightening out my shirt, brushing imaginary dirt from the shoulders and cursing my father the entire time.
Sometimes I joined him in his verbal annihilation of the man who had sired me in these situations. Other times, I felt like this, absent from the world, from my own flesh, unable to really feel any of it or even care about what punishment I’d endured at Lionel Acrux’s hands.
It was nothing new. Just a part of my day to day which I might have preferred not to endure but was well beyond used to by now.
“Darius,” Lance growled, and I forced myself from the view through the window to meet his steely gaze.
“I’m good,” I told him, my voice a touch robotic but it was the truth nonetheless. “How late are we for the ball?”
Lance pursed his lips, glancing at the ornate clock which hung on the wall beside the door. “A little. Wanna blow it off and get shit faced on cheap bourbon with me?”
I weighed his offer for a moment, but as he glanced at the clock again, I got the impression he didn’t actually want to do that. For some reason, he was looking forward to this fucking thing.
“Nah,” I said, brushing him off as he began to fuss with my bow tie and getting to my feet. “I’d say it would be better if I didn’t piss my father off again quite so soon.”
“Right,” Lance bit out, and I knew he was holding back on saying a shitload more, but what was the point? This wasn’t our first trip around the bullshit reality of my life, and it wouldn’t be the last. Better to just suck it up and move on than sit here crying about it.
I strode up to the long mirror standing beside the window and carefully retied the black silk bow tie, eyeing myself critically and pushing my hair back away from my face before working some product into it to keep it there.
I needed a shave, but I never bothered entirely removing the stubble from my jaw, so it wasn’t that noticeable really.
“Darius,” Lance began behind me, but I didn’t reply, my gaze catching on my own eyes in the mirror and fixing there.
Did I always look like that? So empty and fucking hollow inside? Like I didn’t care about a single thing in this world and nothing could touch me. No wonder it was so easy for Roxanya Vega to see the worst in me at all times.
“Darius?” Lance repeated, and I blew out a breath lined with a hint of smoke.
“Let’s go,” I said, moving to grab my jacket from the hook by the door where Father had ordered me to hang it to save it getting rumpled during his lesson on the importance of never backing down.
I slid my arms into the sleeves and took a step towards the door, but Lance was suddenly between me and it, his brow lowered over a dark expression, his hand on my shoulder to stop me.
“Tell me he’s a piece of shit,” he demanded, and I arched a brow. “Tell me he’s a fucking bully and a coward and one day soon, you’re going to show him the monster he created over all the years of treating you this way.”
“I dunno what you want from me, Lance,” I sighed. “Yeah, he’s an absolute cunt. And yeah, I still plan on beating his ass in front of as many witnesses as possible and taking his place on the Celestial Council just as soon as I can. Is that what you wanna hear?”
“Mostly, I just want something from you, Darius. Some sign that you’re in there and not…”
“Not what?” I asked. “Broken? You think he fucked me up so good this time that it was the final straw and something snapped beyond repair in me? He gave me a kicking and a broken arm. I was hardly close to death, so I dunno why-”
“It’s fucked up that you dismiss it like that.”
“Well, my entire life has been fucked up by that man every damn day, so what do you want me to say about it? You don’t need to worry that I’m losing faith in our plan or backing out or anything like that. I can have shit on my mind and it not be about Lionel fucking Acrux, you know?”
Lance sighed, shaking his head as he released me, backing up a step to give me some space.
“You wanna tell me what that shit might be?” he asked, and I pushed my tongue into my cheek, unsure where to even begin or how to say it, especially after the argument we’d had on this subject the last time it had come up.
I turned away from him and strode towards the windows once more, looking out of them over the darkened landscape of the palace grounds.
It was peaceful here in a way that I hadn’t experienced in many places in my lifetime.
Everything felt expectant, like the walls themselves were waiting for something big to take place to wake them all up again.
“I can’t get her out of my head,” I muttered, my eyes on fat snowflakes as they tumbled from the sky.
“Every cutting word, every taunting look, even all the shit she does which isn’t aimed my way.
I’m always watching her, my eyes finding her in every room, and if I can’t look directly at her, I’m stalking social media for any and every glimpse I can get.
Grus posts so much that I can pretty much track her entire day if I want to.
I see what she has for breakfast, who she hangs out with, how often that fucking hat kid sidles in too close, who she faces off against, who she smiles for, where she disappears to when it’s just her and her closest friends, and I can’t stop looking. ”
“Tory?” Lance guessed, and I looked over my shoulder at him with a scowl.