Next, she gathered the crystals that weren’t broken and set them in a box in her office. Once that was done, she began to clean up the mess.
When Darcy finished, she looked up to find only an hour had passed. At least she’d had sixty minutes of not worrying. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to give her a bit respite.
Darcy looked at the shattered window on the door hoping for some glimpse of Warrick. She didn’t get one. Not only was the rain coming down too hard to see more than a few feet from the door, but the dark skies cast shadows everywhere.
Storms like these were a common occurrence, and they didn’t keep people from going about their business. They kept their heads down and hurried from place to place.
Humans weren’t the only ones walking about however. Her gaze snagged on a Dark here or there. Just her luck they wouldn’t go away. Most likely they would return with more. Would she survive another encounter?
Would Warrick and Thorn?
Darcy was about to turn away when she saw a woman hurrying past the front of her shop bump into a Dark. Darcy shouted to get the woman’s attention, but one look into the Dark’s red eyes, and the woman was his.
They walked off together, the Dark shooting Darcy a smug smile.
She prepared to send a blast of magic at him, but stopped as she remembered the woman. There was a chance Darcy could hit her and kill her. Was that better than the poor woman having her soul sucked out by a Dark?
By the time Darcy came to the conclusion that it was, the couple was out of sight.
She was so distraught by what she’d seen that she couldn’t move. Darcy stared, unseeing, into the rain thinking of what the woman would endure.
Darcy then spotted two college-aged girls come splashing down the sidewalk. Only one had an umbrella, but they were too busy having fun and seeing who could get the other the wettest to notice the danger fast approaching.
Three Dark made a beeline for them.
“Hey!” Darcy shouted. “Those guys are dangerous! Do you hear me?”
When the laughing girls kept coming her way, Darcy yanked open the door and moved forward until her toes hit the threshold. She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Hey! Keep away from the guys!”
The girls finally stopped, their laughing dying instantly. They looked from Darcy to the three Dark who approached them.
Darcy held her breath, hoping the girls would realize how perilous the situation was. “Please,” she whispered. “Walk away.”
Instead, the girls were soon giggling again. One sauntered off with a Dark while the other two pushed the second female against the front of Darcy’s shop and began to kiss her. Darcy covered her ears as the girl’s sighs grew louder and louder. The only way Darcy could help the girl was by going out of the shop and away from the dragon magic that protected her.
She contemplated it for a minute. The Dark weren’t going to give up, and the longer she held out, the more humans they would take.
Darcy took a step back and shut the door. The Dark were going to take the people regardless. They had been doing it for centuries, and they weren’t about to stop now just because she gave herself to them.
With her heart heavy, she walked to her office and leaned against the wall. She slid down to the floor and simply stared off into nothing.
If only it was a dream. What spurred all of this almost three years after she unbound Ulrik’s magic? Why would the Dark just now be coming after her? None of it made any sense. Why not do it when she first helped Ulrik? Why wait?
She knew it wasn’t Ulrik after her. Why would he tell her she was in danger only to send the Dark?
It wasn’t the Dragon Kings either. They wouldn’t protect someone they wanted dead.
The Fae? There was that option. It could be the Light who weren’t happy she helped Ulrik, but why would they care? And if it was them, why was Rhi assisting her? Because Ulrik asked her to?
Darcy shook her head as her thoughts jumbled. She had no idea what was going on between Ulrik and Rhi, and she didn’t think she wanted to know.
As for the Dark? Again, why would they wait three years to come after her? Unless it was in retaliation against Ulrik for something.
The only other possibility was that there was another player no one knew about. Which was ludicrous. The Dragon Kings knew all the participants in this war. If there was someone else, Warrick would have told her.
No closer to figuring out anything, Darcy leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. How quiet the shop was without Warrick.
It wasn’t as if he ever talked a lot, but his mere presence changed everything. All these years she’d never minded the quiet. Why had that changed after Warrick?
*