“Never.” Seren promised.
Cyrus sighed. “I know your weakness and it's in the form of a pretty blonde girl currently in a place near and dear to my heart. So unless you want her to meet an unfortunate end, say like, Icarus’ mother for instance, you will give me that stone.”
Icarus leaned in towards Seren and whispered, “I’m sorry.” just as he took the Omnis stone from her unsteady hands.
Cal’s eyes flew open, “Icarus and Seren found the omnis stone. Do you know where they are? It’s a garden.”
“Yes,” Ara said, her voice calm but shaking with an undercurrent of anger. “The conservatory. I’ve been there a thousand times but the room has always been dead.”
Ara’s eyes went distant again, this time her face filled with horror. She grasped Cal’s arm, her nails digging into his skin.
“Cal, Cyrus is going to kill Seren if Icarus doesn’t give him the stone. His magic has gone all black. I’ve never seen anything like it. It's not black like Seren’s magic. It . . . it's wrong.”
“Icarus will give him the stone then. He’d never let her die,” Cal assured her.
His brother would sacrifice himself before he ever let Seren get hurt. He knew this because Icarus looked at Seren the same way he looked at Ara and the same way his father had looked at his mother.
Another pang of guilt came with that thought. How could he have believed his uncle? He knew now that his father would have killed himself before ever hurting his mother, no matter what madness may have consumed him.
Ara’s face paled. “Cal, you have to find them. Find them and bring them here. We can’t let Cyrus keep the stone.”
“Okay, where is the conservatory?” Cal asked, he couldn’t get a sense of it the way he usually could when attempting a portal.
“You won’t be able to portal in,” Ara told him. “You have to go to the eighth floor. The castle moves and changes but it’s always there.”
Cal opened a portal and prepared to step through it but Ara jerked him back.
“Wait, Cyrus is leaving with the stone. He can’t see you.” Ara’s hand tightened and then released him. “It’s safe. Go, find Icarus and Seren and bring them here. I’ll watch over Elias. I don’t want him to wake up alone.”
Cal turned her face up to his and kissed her. He kissed her as if he might never see her again. He kissed her to say everything he might not ever be able to say but he could show her. He would show her for the rest of his life if she let him. She melted into him and returned his kiss with the same sense of urgency he felt. He could have kissed her forever, but she pulled away, her eyes filled with the same desire he felt.
“To be continued, remember?” Ara whispered, kissing him one more time before pushing him towards the portal. “Find them.”
“So bossy.” Cal grinned at her. “I like it.”
Cal exited the portal and found himself on a spiral staircase. “I guess I climb then.”
As he climbed what seemed like an endless flight of stairs, he began to wonder just how necessary it was that he find Icarus when he finally reached the eighth floor. The hallway was dark and quiet, no sign of his uncle or a garden.
Towards the end of the hall. The door will be hard to find but it’s there.
Ara’s sweet voice sounded in his head and he found it wasn’t quite as terrifying anymore.
He trailed his hand down one wall and then the other before an ornate door carved with vines and flowers appeared. He opened it and found his brother embracing a paler than usual Seren in what must have been a heartwarming moment for the two of them.
He smirked and leaned against the door frame. “Well this is a weird fucking scene, but I’ve got news that will rock your sad little world, brother.”
Chapter thirty-one
Icarus Atwood
Inthequiethalloutside of Arabella’s dorm room, four figures stood in the shadows that lurked on the solstice eve, trading heated whispers.
“You can’t be serious? Father is right on the other side of that door, alive and breathing Icarus, yet you would rush off into the dark after our uncle who, evidently, could kill you with a flick of his hand now?” Cal’s voice was scathing hot–something that could have lashed out and burned against Icarus’s skin but he was determined. Though his thoughts flashed back to the unbelievable display of dark magic Cyrus had unleashed in the conservatory, he would not budge.
"You cannot tell me you don’t want revenge, brother. After all he has done. After everything." Icarus couldn't bring himself to go to Arabella's door as he spoke, the emotion heavy in a way that thickened at the back of his throat. His fury was a surprisingly quiet beast within him now, dormant and waiting to be released when the moment came. He knew what must be done and refused to let the three of them change his mind.
Yet, it was Arabella's gaze that scorned him with the greatest contempt. Surely, she shouldn't care less what he did as long as Calder made it through unharmed. Lifting a curious eyebrow, he watched her soft features harden further as she gritted her teeth and crossed her arms tightly in front of her.
