Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky
Heartless Sky: Chapter 53

I sat in my bed draped in gold and feeling like the world’s biggest asshole as I just bathed in the silence that had followed me facing the truth of my situation at last. I’d tried to stay with my friends and family but after a few hours, my mom’s tears and their devastated expressions just got too much and I begged for some time alone.

But now that I was alone, I was starting to think that it was worse. I wanted them around me, to bathe in their presence and soak it all up while I could. But that was exactly why I hadn’t told them about this before now. Because they wouldn’t act that way anymore. I was the doomed man now, biding my time until death came for me. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The fear, pain and pity wouldn’t be banished from them, and I would never again get to spend time with them without its company.

I was grieving that loss as I sat there. The simple joy of spending time with the people I loved without them knowing our time was running short.

But I was missing Roxy most of all.

I hadn’t healed the split lip she’d given me. The small sting of pain an all too little reminder of what this would do to her. And I hated myself for that more forcefully than I hated myself for every other awful thing I’d done in my life combined. 

If I tried to consider our roles in reverse, knowing that I only had weeks left before her death and that I’d be facing a future without her beyond that, I couldn’t breathe. The mere thought of living without her was a horror unlike any other I could imagine, and I knew it wasn’t a future that I would have been able to bear. It terrified me that I might be destined to leave her in even an inch of the pain that I knew I would suffer when being torn from her embrace when my time came and the stars collected on this debt I owed them. It had seemed like a long time when I’d agreed to it, but now? Now it was a drop in the ocean of the endless amount of love I wished to share with that girl. She deserved so much better than this fate. So much fucking better than me.

There was a knock at the door and my pulse quickened as I called out that it was open, hoping like a fool that it would be her, that she would have returned and would be in my arms again where I needed her.

But of course it wasn’t her. That wasn’t her style. She was hurt which meant she was angry, and fuck knew how long she would maintain that rage for or how long she would keep away. And I got it. I wanted her to have that time to rage at me if she needed it, to fucking hate me all over again for doing this to her, but I was also running so low on time with her now that the thought of days or weeks going by without her forgiveness terrified me far more than the fate that awaited me on Christmas Day.

I didn’t fear death. But I did fear a destiny which meant I never got to kiss her goodbye.

Darcy stepped into the room, her eyes red and puffy but her expression firm.

“Hey,” I said lamely, unsure what I was supposed to say to her, knowing she must hate me too for what I was doing to her twin. Hurting her all over again after I’d sworn I never would.

“Darius…” she said softly, her gaze moving over me as she hesitated a moment before darting forward and throwing her arms around my neck as she lunged at me.

It took me a couple of seconds to return her embrace, the shock of it catching me off guard as I’d expected anger from her too.

“Thank you,” she breathed against my ear, a tear falling on my neck as she squeezed me tightly. “I can’t imagine how much you must have been hurting, keeping this secret for so long and I hate that you made this deal, I hate it so goddamn much. But I get it. You did it for her. Because you love her. And I can’t be angry at you for making this sacrifice to save my sister’s life no matter how bitter the price may be.”

I sighed, relaxing into her embrace as I let that pain in my chest lessen just a little, holding onto that one fact which I’d clung to throughout all of these months every time I’d been tempted to fall into the trap of fear over my fate. Because I didn’t regret my choice. I would have made it again a thousand times over for her. For them.

“I did it for you too,” I told her. “The stars showed me your death on the cards too, little shrew. And I couldn’t have that.”

She sobbed as she clutched me harder, more tears falling against my skin as she held me like she really cared about me. And I realised just how much I cared about her too. She was like a little sister to me now. My silly little shrew of a sister who ran me around in circles as easily as breathing.

“You’re a good man, Darius. So much better than the monster who tried to forge you in his image. The world will be a far emptier place without you in it.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, though the words meant more to me than I could describe, especially coming from her. She saved me from trying to answer them by pulling back, cupping my cheek in her hand and smiling sadly. 

“She loves you so much that she doesn’t know what to do with it all,” she breathed. “Don’t hate her for being angry.”

“I could never hate her,” I murmured and she nodded, getting up and backing away.

“She could never hate you either. Even before, even when she wanted to with all her heart. She didn’t, Darius.”

The door closed behind her and I was left with those words and the endless regrets I had over the way I’d treated Roxy when we’d first met. Everything between us could have been so different if only I’d found a way to defy my father sooner. Though I knew now that regrets weren’t worth the memories they lingered in.

I sighed, getting up and hauling my chest of gold into my arms before pouring the lot of it across the bed so that I could replenish my magic faster. Not that I intended to head out after my father now. I couldn’t risk death without trying to fix this with Roxy. Without saying goodbye to her properly before I went.

I tugged my shirt off and sat on the bed again, placing more rings, necklaces and bangles on before picking up a golden crown and looking at it thoughtfully. Somehow, I didn’t want to feel the press of it on my head tonight. 

I hadn’t ever been born to wear a crown. All I really wanted was for Solaria to be ruled by people who knew what was best for its subjects. And I had to accept that whatever way this war went now, that was never going to be my fate. I wouldn’t share the throne with the other Heirs, I wouldn’t take my place on the Celestial Council. I wouldn’t even see in the new year ever again. 

This was it for me. My final days on countdown and all I could hope was that I would at least see my father fall before I left this world behind and passed beyond the Veil.

I closed my eyes and I didn’t even bother to fight sleep as it pushed at me, the exhaustion I felt from using too many wakefulness spells and anti-sleep draughts weighing down on me after so many months of avoiding it. I hadn’t wanted to miss a moment of the time I had left to me, but now I found myself wanting the escape of sleep at last. 

I wanted to leave this empty room behind and dream of the girl I loved, have her in that way if I couldn’t hold her close in reality.

I drifted off quickly, but my sleep was far from restful, plagued by nightmares or visions of Roxy grieving me when I was gone.

But as I fell deeper into the despair which was summoned by knowing how much I was going to cost her, I was called back from the brink by the sound of a door clicking closed.

I jerked awake, a small cascade of gold coins falling to the floor as my eyes found hers across the room and I fought to hold myself still, staring at her as intently as she was staring at me.

“I’m so fucking angry with you, Darius,” Roxy breathed, her voice laced with pain which I wished I could banish.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said, knowing it didn’t fucking matter how sorry I was.

“I’m really, really angry,” she reiterated, her wings flaring at her spine as fire danced in her eyes. “But…I’m not going to waste the time we do have on that feeling.”

“You’re not?” I asked, my throat bobbing with hope at that idea, and she shook her head as I moved to sit up.

“We have a war to win,” she said firmly, taking a step towards me. “Hamish and the others are already working on the details. We will bring the fight to The Palace of Souls before the week is out. Darcy and I will have hundreds of weapons to bless with our flames to help arm the rebels against the Nymphs so that they can stand against them. And you will swear to me that you won’t attempt to go after Lionel before then.”

I stared at her as she took another step closer, the distance between us dissolving as she made her demands of me, and I found all of my desire to fight her just fading away. I’d made this deal for her. She owned me anyway. So why keep fighting against the commands of my queen?

“Okay,” I agreed.

Roxy stepped forward and pushed her hand into my hair, tilting my head back as she looked at my eyes and I fell into the trap of hers. Those endless green eyes which held my entire soul captive and owned every piece of me entirely. 

“Are you wondering what they would have looked like ringed in silver for you?” I asked her and her lips lifted a little as she shook her head, her wings flexing at her back.

“No. I don’t want the stars to choose you for me, Darius. I chose you for myself and that’s exactly how I like it. Fate doesn’t get a say in it. You’re my mate because I picked you, not them. You’re my match because you proved that you were the only one for me, not destiny. Our love burns hot with unmatchable passion and eternal devotion as endless as the entire universe because we fucking fought for it in a way no other Fae have ever done before and none ever will. You’re not some gift from the stars to me, Darius. You’re the spoils of a war no one else ever could have won but us. So I’ll take your eyes as endlessly dark as the day you first set them on me. And if the stars come offering us rings in them again, I’ll give them the same answer as I did before. Because no, I don’t want them to choose you for me or me for you. I don’t want them to do a damn thing for us. We don’t need them. I made you mine without them and I’m yours without them too.”

“So goddamn stubborn,” I commented and she gave me the ghost of a smile.

“I just know what I want.”

Her hand dropped to skim along my jaw, her eyes moving over my face like she was committing it to memory and as much as I loved the feel of her attention being focused on me, I hated the reason behind it. I hated that she needed to be able to remember me and that this moment and any other I stole with her between now and my end was limited.

Her hand trailed down my neck, fingertips gliding over my shoulder and caressing the ink there, her chin dipping as her gaze roamed lower, drinking me in inch by inch until her hand made it all the way down my arm and she was clasping her fingers with mine. 

“Swear it,” she said, her tone unwavering and her gaze hard. That was my girl. Any softness was always tempered with steel and she might have been back here, might have wanted to hold me close and kiss away the hurt of this, but she was still angry as all hell with me and I knew I deserved it.

“You don’t trust me?” I asked.

“After finding our you’ve been lying to me throughout our entire relationship? Strangely, no, I don’t.” Her eyes flashed with Phoenix fire which made my pulse spike and her wings shuffled a little, the sound of rustling feathers drawing my gaze to them.

“Our relationship started long before I got hold of you in my arms,” I protested.

“Well if you would like me to count all of the days I spent expecting you to hurt me in any and every way you could imagine then that won’t help your case much. Besides, this is arguably the worst thing you’ve done to me,” she replied.

“Roxy,” I breathed, my voice breaking on that name, a plea there for something though I wasn’t certain what I could possibly ask of her now.

“Swear it,” she repeated, tone unwavering and I gave in because when it came down to it, I would always do anything for her.

“I swear I won’t go after my father before the battle,” I replied, magic crashing between our palms and binding me to that oath.

“Now swear you won’t allow this fate to pass,” she said, her tone darkening and something sweeping through her eyes which reminded me of the shadows. There had always been dark in her though, exactly like there was dark in me. No doubt it was part of the attraction.

I wetted my lips, my heart tearing open at that demand in her eyes and the fact that she wanted me to make a vow like that at all.

“You know me swearing that won’t change it,” I said softly.

“I know you’re giving up,” she replied in a deadly calm tone, though I could see the pain in her green eyes. “And I know that the man who fought so damn hard to claim me from the stars wouldn’t just give up on me that easily.”

“That’s what you think?” I asked, my blood heating at her suggestion as she just arched a brow at me and didn’t take those words back.

“I think you got too used to taking a kicking when you lived with your father, Darius. So now, instead of fighting this with all you have you’re just rolling over and taking it.”

“You’re a bitch sometimes,” I growled.

“That doesn’t make me wrong,” she replied, shrugging one shoulder. 

“What do you expect me to do, Roxy?” I demanded, my temper rising despite myself.

“Well you defied the stars for me once already. So what’s once more?” she asked.

“This fate was the price of that defiance,” I said, my soul aching at the words I was having to speak, but I’d thought about this. I’d thought of nothing but this for months on end and I couldn’t see any way to change it. “I was gifted a year to love you and that’s what I’ve done.”

“If you love me so much then why are you so set on leaving me? Destroying me?” she asked icily.

“I‘m not,” I protested.

“So swear it, Darius.”

“Gabriel already looked into my future. He knows there’s no way around this. No way out of it. My fate is already decided. Even if I’d told all of you months ago, he knew as well as I did that all it would do was distract you from the war because you’d all have been looking for a way to change this fate and there isn’t one. Don’t you think I would have done everything in my power to change it if I could?”

“Apparently not.” Her fingers tightened around mine and I growled at her, letting her see the Dragon in me but she just flexed the bronze wings at her back in reply, letting me see her monster too.

Roxy took a Lapis Lazuli crystal from her pocket, turning my hand over and painting the constellation of my star sign on it before painting her own hand with hers. She arched a brow at me as she took my hand again, the demand clear that she wanted me to make a star promise with her.

I looked at this woman, this princess, this ultimate fantasy of mine and she stared me down as she waited me out, knowing that when it came down to it, I could never deny her anything she desired of me. So if she wanted me to swear I’d pluck my fucking soul from the grip of the heavens after I died and return it to her keeping where it belonged then I’d swear it. No matter if I was just one man going up against all the stars in the heavens for her, because there was no fight I wouldn’t face in her name. No matter how impossibly the odds were stacked.

“I won’t allow this fate to pass,” I said.

“Neither will I,” she replied darkly and I gasped, trying to snatch my hand from hers but the magic clapped between us before I could pull away and she was left standing over me, smiling triumphantly and waiting for me to lose my shit over what she’d just done.

“Did you seriously just curse us both?” I demanded as I snatched my hand away from hers and she tossed the crystal aside.

“No,” she replied. “I intend to keep that vow.”

“And what if you can’t? I can hardly release you from it beyond the grave.”

“You won’t need to if you stick to your word.”

“What you’re talking about is impossible,” I insisted.

“We were impossible once, Darius Acrux. So don’t try to put limitations on what we can or can’t do.”

My throat bobbed as I looked at her, wanting to break that vow out of fear, but wanting to uphold it even more out of love. Because of course I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to lose her. I wanted to agree to every want she had of me and promise her the entire world at her side.

“I love you, Roxanya Vega,” I said, my voice raw with the truth of that. “No matter what happens with this fate, the war, my father, the throne, all of it pales beside my love for you. And I know I’m not good enough for you but that just makes it all the easier for me to worship you the way you deserve because I won’t ever stop trying to live up to being the man you deserve to have. Not until my dying breath and beyond that too if it’s what you want.”

“You’re what I want,” she replied firmly. 

Her palm moved to my chest and she pushed me back so that I shifted to sit against the headboard, my gaze latched to hers as she slowly stripped out of the clothes she was wearing, dropping them to puddle at her feet and stepping free of them in her matching black bra and panties.

My gaze roamed over her deep bronze skin, taking in the swell of her tits and the rise and fall of her heavy breaths before dropping to the hourglass curve of her toned waist and round ass, descending to that tattoo which bound her to me and made my fucking heart sing every single time I laid my eyes on it. 

She was right. The stars couldn’t have this. They couldn’t take us away. It was too powerful, too beautiful, too fucking right. And I wouldn’t let them have it because it was mine. She was my most prized treasure and I would hoard her away from the sight of the stars themselves if that was what it took to keep her.

Roxy moved onto the bed, climbing into my lap and dropping her forehead to rest against mine as she closed her eyes and breathed me in just like I was inhaling her. She was intoxicating, this creature of mine, soul destroying, heart breaking, endlessly everything.

I ran my hands up her spine beneath her wings until I found the place where they joined with her shoulder blades and I started to run my fingers back and forth along that ridge of skin and feathers. 

“Mine,” I murmured, repeating what I’d said to this girl more times than I could count now, but it had never felt so brutally honest. 

“Even beyond the Veil,” she breathed and I nodded, turning my face and kissing her neck beneath her ear, making her shiver for me as I continued to massage that sensitive spot where her wings emerged from her back.

Roxy shifted her hips over mine and I groaned as she rode over the solid ridge of my dick within my pants, a breath drawn in between those most kissable of lips as she felt how much I wanted her in every atom of my body.

I moved my mouth to the corner of her jaw, kissing her again and she rocked her hips once more, this slow, sensual movement which made a growl build in the back of my throat as coins cascaded from the bed beneath us.

I found the corner of her lips and kissed her once more, my stubble biting against soft flesh and the taste of saltwater coating my tongue as a tear tracked down her cheek.

“I love you,” I swore to her, knowing I couldn’t take that hurt away with those words but hoping she felt the truth of them all the same.

“I love you too,” she replied, turning her head to meet my kiss and the taste of her tears passed between us as I kissed her so sweetly that it made me ache. I could feel every heart breaking thump of her heart where my hand still caressed her spine, her whole body seeming to thrum with that pulse which held so much fear and sorrow.

She parted her lips for my tongue and I deepened our kiss, wishing our first could have been like this, that she could have felt how much she meant to me in it instead of only ever seeing the worst of me.

But that wasn’t true anymore. I stood before her ripped open and without barriers and still she was here in my arms, her hands clasped behind my neck as she held me close and kissed me like I was the sole reason for her existence. I was the empire she was looking to conquer. I was the destiny she had picked for herself. So if she needed me to keep fighting for us beyond this life then I would. I’d fight to stay and I’d refuse to leave even when the heavens came to drag me from this unworthy body, even if it cost me my place in the afterlife. 

Because an eternity with the stars meant nothing to me in comparison to a life in her arms.

Roxy rolled her hips once more and I groaned with the need to have her. It didn’t matter how many times we came together, I always hungered for her like this and now more than ever I needed to feel our bodies connected as one.

I ran my fingers down her spine as I continued to kiss her tears away and I slowly unclasped her bra, dragging it down her arms and tossing it aside as my hands found their way to her nipples.

She moaned softly as I moved my fingers over her pebbled flesh, her nipples two hard and aching points which I tugged and teased before breaking our kiss and dropping my mouth to suck one of them between my lips.

Roxy arched back, her long hair tumbling down her spine as she continued to rock her hips against mine to that slow and heady rhythm which had my cock straining for more against the fabric containing it.

The noises which filled the air from her sultry lips made my flesh come alive and as I moved my mouth to her other nipple, I dropped my hands to grip the sides of her panties and began to roll them down.

Roxy drew back, standing once more and dropping her underwear, watching me as I took my pants off too and her gaze fell to my dick as it was revealed, her tongue wetting her lips as she climbed back onto me.

I kissed her again as she moved to straddle me, the slickness of her pussy grinding up the length of my shaft and making us both shudder with the need to claim one another.

My cock found her entrance without either of us needing to guide it, her spine arching in the most seductive way as she leaned forward and the tip of my dick moved inside of her.

“There is only you, Roxy,” I said, finding her evergreen eyes and holding them. “The stars can have it all, everything else of me but you.”

“There’s only you too, Darius,” she replied, her hands moving to my shoulders as she sank the rest of the way down onto my cock, a moan escaping that perfect mouth of hers which made my entire body tremble with want for her.

She held my gaze as she started up a slow rhythm on top of me, tears still slipping free to roll down her cheeks every few moments, but as I was consumed by my need for her, they began to sizzle away to nothing when they fell against my chest, the heat of my Dragon burning through my skin as I came undone for her.

Roxy’s eyes blazed as the heat between us continued to rise and I dropped my fingers to her clit, devouring her moans of pleasure with my kisses as I began to rub slow circles around the sensitised spot in time with the rhythm of her hips against mine.

Her palms pressed to my chest and the weight of her magic against mine had me cursing as I dropped my barriers and let her in, the combined heat of our magic tumbling through my core like liquid flames.

The heat between us continued to rise as I moved my hips to her rhythm, guiding her with my hands on her as I started to drive myself in deeper, making her breath catch with every deep thrust of my cock inside her.

I could feel the pressure in her body building and building like a coil just begging to snap and continued to massage her clit as she fought against that pleasure, growling her name in demand as I drove up into her and kissing her hard until she finally fell apart for me.

But as her pussy pulsed and squeezed my shaft, the heat between us grew even further, the flame she’d gifted me with that Phoenix Kiss rising up in my chest to meet with her own flames once more and suddenly, we were burning.

I cursed as I broke our kiss, my eyes widening as I looked at the blue and red flames which had consumed not only her flesh, but mine as well, this fire between us catching light and claiming everything around us just like we were claiming each other.

Roxy rolled her hips again and a Dragon’s roar escaped me as the burn between us ran through my veins making every single point of contact between us buzz with a pleasure unlike anything I’d ever known.

Her wings spread wide at her back, the fire gilding them so beautifully that I could only stare at this stunning creature and marvel at my luck for making her mine.

Roxy moaned as she rode up and down the length of my cock and I thrust up into her, staring at her as she cried out for every drive of my cock inside her and I felt the gold coins melting beneath us with the power of our flames.

The red and blue fire was interspersed with the gold of my Dragon and there was something so captivating in the way it coated her flesh that it was all I could do to stare at her and try to make this moment between us last and last eternally.

But of course, my body could no sooner hold off her destruction than I could stop the days from passing us by and as I continued to fuck her deep and slow, I knew I was closing in on my end.

I pushed up to kiss her again, the tears burned away by the fire now so that all I could taste on her lips was the desire and love I felt just as keenly for her.

I gripped her ass and rolled us over, pinning her wings beneath her as I hooked her leg over my arm and drove my cock in just right to make her gasp my name for me as I found that perfect spot inside her body and delivered her all the pleasure that I could manage.

Roxy’s lips found mine once more as I drove my hips down on her, keeping up that slow torment as I kissed her deeply, my tongue dancing with hers as I thrust into her one more time and she came for me so beautifully that I had no choice but to join her in her climax.

I kissed her hard as I came inside her, filling her with my seed and marking her as mine as her pussy pulsed around me and the flames between us finally died out.

We fell panting onto the bed which still dripped molten gold to the floor, and I couldn’t even find it in me to care about my destroyed treasure as I wound my arms around her and held her so tightly that I could almost convince myself I would never have to let go.

“Marry me, Roxy,” I said, knowing it was unfair of me to ask but doing it all the same. Because there were a lot of things I wasn’t going to get to do with my life now but I didn’t want to miss out on that. 

“Stay with me, Darius,” she replied, asking me to do the one thing I was almost certain I couldn’t. But if there was any way in which I could, then I’d do it for her.

“If I can then I will,” I replied honestly, hating that I couldn’t swear it any more definitely than that.

“Then I’ll marry you,” she replied. “No bullshit. Just us.”

“Really?” I asked, my chest swelling with the idea of that, of her being mine in such an unmovable way.

“Really.”

***

I woke in the arms of the woman I loved with melted treasure coating the bed and sticking us to the damn mattress. 

Roxy groaned as she woke too, one of her legs also stuck in the now solidified gold though the rest of her body had been draped over mine, so she’d escaped the worst of it.

I wasn’t really sure where to start with trying to fix it, but she just rolled her eyes at me when I made a comment about it as she lifted her hand, using her earth magic to take control of the metal and force it all back into the form it had taken before we’d managed to turn it into a molten gloop. She tossed the coins and jewellery back into the treasure chest beside the bed with a flick of her wrist then got out of bed before I could stop her. 

“We need to plan our attack on your father today,” she said, moving across the room and opening the wardrobe, flicking through her clothes aggressively. 

“We do,” I agreed, trailing her movements with my eyes and trying not to focus on how many more mornings we had left before the stars came to collect their debt. Because I knew they would. I could make as many vows as I liked and fight as hard as I was capable of, but in the end I saw no real way out of this fate for us, despite how much I wished there could be.

“So we need to hurry.” She took the long, golden dress she’d worn back from The Palace of Flames out of the wardrobe and dressed in it while I continued to watch her. “I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be looking at me, dude.”

“I’m not your dude,” I growled irritably. “And why shouldn’t I be looking at you?”

“Have you changed your mind already?” she asked curiously. ‘Because you’re the one all set on marriage. I’m perfectly content living a life of sin.”

“Truly?” I asked, suddenly feeling a whole lot more awake as I pushed myself upright.

“I told you, no bullshit. You want to do this, or you don’t. I’m not doing the whole massive crowd and virgin white thing either. You can take me as I am or not at all.”

“You know how I like to take you,” I said roughly and she offered me a smirk in return.

“Let’s go then. I already texted Geraldine and the others so no doubt she’s freaking the fuck out and making some insane preparations with zero timescale. I don’t want to give her long enough to make it fancy.”

“Heaven forbid,” I teased.

“War council starts in half an hour,” she tossed back and I arched a brow.

“You’re serious,” I stated.

“Are you going to become a Vega or what?” she asked irritably and I could tell this whole thing was pushing her out of her comfort zone, but there she was, looking good enough to eat and waiting for me to marry her.

“You’ll be an Acrux,” I corrected and she gave me a wicked smile.

“Oh no. I know how it works here. The couple takes the name of the most powerful Fae in the relationship. And that would be me in this scenario.”

My lips parted in surprise as she said that and I realised she was right. My whole life there had never been a prospect of there being a mate for me who could be the more powerful party, so I had always assumed any wife of mine would take my name. But her claim was true. Then again, she still hadn’t taken me on and won, so I was unlikely to bow to her power any time soon.

“You’ll have to put me on my ass before I’ll admit that’s true, baby,” I replied.

Roxy glanced at the golden clock which sat on the nightstand and sighed. “No time. We can figure out the name thing after we kill your father then. His severed head can sit and watch me kick your ass so he gets a front row seat to the moment when his precious Heir is forced to bow at long last and the final shred of hope for his empire dies. It’ll be romantic.”

“Fuck I love it when you talk like a psychopath,” I said.

“I do it a whole lot more since I met you,” she replied.

A frantic pounding at the door drew our attention and she sighed.

“That’ll be the bullshit. Hurry the fuck up before this whole thing gets too weddingy.”

“Stars forbid,” I agreed sarcastically and she flipped me off before heading to the door where Geraldine’s shrieks of excitement pierced the air so loudly that I feared for my eardrums.

I caught sight of Darcy and Sofia there too and raised my hand in greeting half a second before Roxy was tugged outside and the door was slammed in my face while Geraldine commanded me to scrub my eyes of the sight of her queen.

That girl was honestly fucking insane but I could admit that she was growing on me a little.

Xavier, the Heirs and Orion arrived within another few minutes as I was buttoning my shirt and I couldn’t help the shit eating grin that pulled at my lips as they all leapt on me, howling congratulations and slapping me on the back. Seth had shorn his hair down on the side that Orion had burned, with braids winding across it and through the other side of his hair too. Darcy said he looked like a Viking warrior, whatever the fuck that meant, and despite us mocking him for it, I was pretty sure we all quietly thought it looked damn good on him.

I headed up out of The Burrows, finding my mom and Hamish in the farmhouse which hid it from view with Gabriel and his family and she rushed at me as she saw me, wrapping me in her arms and telling me this was the proudest day of her life.

I crushed her in my embrace, trying not to feel the resentment I harboured over the years that had been stolen from us by my father in favour of just holding tight to the time we’d been gifted now.

“I’m so proud of you,” Mom breathed, clutching the front of my shirt and looking up at me with tears in her eyes. “Your father worked so hard to make you into a mirror image of the man he was but despite all of the odds set against you, you fought off the weight of his influence and grew into your own man. A man who could win back your heart from the clutches of the stars themselves. A man who is worthy of the love of that girl out there.”

I pulled her into my arms as those words touched a chord deep inside me and plucked on it with a resounding note that echoed right down to my bones. Because those words embodied everything about what I had been trying to prove I could become over this last year and hearing them from the lips of the woman whose love I had been denied for so long meant the world to me. We should have been gifted more time to enjoy together, but if I could believe those words then at least I could pass out of this world knowing that I’d done enough to prove what kind of man I could have been to everyone around me and they could remember me as a man who was worth remembering.

Roxy was waiting for me at the furthest edge of the boundary which surrounded The Burrows where the hills dropped away to reveal the stunning view beyond where eagles swooped across the landscape and every shade of autumn bloomed across the trees, their leaves racing through the sky on the cold wind that promised an end to their glory.

My eyes fixed on my girl as I closed the distance between us with the others clustered behind me, striding through a field of stunning wildflowers which had definitely not been there the last time I’d been out here.

Roxy looked to me with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, now wearing a stunning blood red dress made from hand stitched lace which left her back bare and had a train which swept out around her feet. Her long, dark hair had been pinned up with loose curls escaping to caress her neck and her face was painted with makeup, her eyes lined in black and lips ruby red like the pendant she wore around her neck for me.

Fuck knew how Geraldine had transformed her in the ten minutes since I’d last seen her or where the hell she’d found that dress but my pulse hammered hungrily as my eyes feasted on the sight of her waiting there for me.

Geraldine started sobbing loudly and Darcy beamed with tears in her silver eyes which I knew were for our situation, but I couldn’t focus on that in that moment. All I could see was her. The girl who had owned my heart before I’d even met her.

“Aren’t you supposed to walk the aisle to meet me?” I asked as I closed in on her, my brothers and family clustered close.

“I told you, no bullshit,” she replied with a shrug and I noticed the bouquet of roses that had been tossed by her feet, a breath of amusement leaving me as I looked at this woman who I wanted to offer eternity to, trying not to let my heart break at the knowledge that our happily ever after would end in a few short weeks.

“Are we going for traditional vows?” Geraldine choked out but Roxy shook her head instantly.

“No. I’m just going to stand right here and tell the world he’s mine. If anyone refuses to take my word on that then they can bring it up with me themselves.”

“Always so aggressive,” I teased as I moved to stand over her, noticing the flawless makeup and perfectly styled curls in her ebony hair which shifted in the cool breeze that danced all around us. Geraldine really did work fast under pressure. 

“Says the Dragon who tried to drown me.”

I shook my head, unable to believe she would bring that up right now while simultaneously wondering why I hadn’t known she would. This fucking girl would be the end of me. But I was alright with that.

“Do you have rings?” Darcy asked me as Lance moved to drape an arm around her shoulders, looking at me with an expression that told me he was both happy and devastated. Which was pretty much the sentiment of all our guests unfortunately.

“He’s a treasure obsessed Dragon, you know he’s got rings,” Caleb joked and I breathed a laugh, pulling them from my pocket and offering Roxy the one meant for me to wear.

She eyed the simple platinum band for a moment, looking up at me in surprise and I shrugged. “You said no bullshit.”

A smile broke across her face like sunshine through the clouds and she took it, stepping in to me and taking my hand, pushing the ring onto my finger without so much as a proclamation.

“I claim this man to be my husband,” she said, a ring of power to her voice which defied the heavens themselves to deny her.

“I claim this woman for my wife,” I replied, taking her lead and slipping the ruby inlaid ring onto her finger in return and giving her a hungry smile.

Geraldine started gushing about our union and the stars and some shit which I guessed was her way of making this whole thing official, but I wasn’t able to concentrate on a single word of it as I swept my girl into my arms.

Roxy’s eyes burned with love for me and I dipped my mouth to claim hers, unable to believe that I would be this damn lucky as I found the woman of my dreams in my arms and my ring firmly placed upon her finger. She lifted her shin to meet me, her fingers curling into the front of my shirt and I closed the last remnant of distance between us, kissing her breathless beneath the grey clouds without a single fucking star in sight.

She’d been right about that. We didn’t need fate or rings in our eyes to know that we belonged to one another. And right here, without any of that, I felt the power of our connection far deeper than any bond could have granted us as I laid my claim on the woman who I had hungered for for so damn long.

And I knew that even death could never tear our souls apart again now.

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