Zodiac Academy: The Awakening: An Academy Bullymance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  I ran past them as their laughter poured over me. Embarrassment stabbed at my cheeks as I desperately tried to avoid more photo ops, making a beeline for Jupiter Hall as I cupped my hands over my head.

  Just keep running. Don't stop.

  “Mud monster!” a boy shouted at me as he exited The Orb and the girls around him ran about screaming and giggling.

  Tears burned my eyes as I was consumed by the utter shame of this situation. And the worst was yet to come. Because I had to ask god-damn Professor Hot-As-Shit Orion to help me while looking like the beast from the bog.

  Inside Jupiter Hall, I found my way to his office by following a long corridor. I clutched the door handle and hesitated for several long seconds.

  Please swallow me up, ground. That would be really great right now.

  I turned the handle, but found the door locked. I frowned, pulling my Atlas out to check the time. I was five minutes late so where the hell was he? Had he given up waiting already?

  “I hope that's not a fashion choice, Miss Vega.” Professor Orion appeared in jeans and a white shirt, his hair damp as if he'd just showered – it's alright for some.

  His obsidian eyes dragged down me from head to toe and his mouth pulled up at one side, revealing the dimple in his right cheek.

  “Oh yes, I just love rolling in mud in the evenings,” I deadpanned, trying my best to front this out. But it was pretty hard when all I could see in my periphery was clumps of mud.

  He stepped right into my breathing space, pushing his key into the door. He headed inside, leaving the door open for me to follow and I trailed in after him, feeling like an ogre in a ballroom as I took in his lavish office.

  A crescent-moon desk built from cherry wood sat at the heart of it, behind which was an archway of shelves filled with leather-bound books. A closed door in the arch stopped me from nosing any further in that direction so I stared around at the rest of the room. The tall window to my left looked over The Orb and the sound of laughter and conversation carried through the cracked-open window. I was almost certain I heard someone mentioned my name and pig-shit in the same sentence. A ping from my Atlas told me all I needed to know. My photo was now live and waiting for me on FaeBook for the entire school to see.

  My insides withered and died.

  I stood awkwardly on a deep crimson rug as Orion dropped into his large Ottoman chair, pulling something from a cupboard in his desk. He placed a crystal glass on the surface followed by a large bottle of bourbon. I guess Falling Star’s assessment about him was true.

  He continued to ignore me as he poured himself a measure than sat back in his chair, tipping the contents down his throat. He smacked his lips, placing the glass down and moving to refill it.

  “Excuse me?” I interrupted his rudeness.

  Orion's eyes flicked up. “Yes?”

  “Well, it's just that apparently I'm standing in your office looking like a swamp monster and watching you get drunk.”

  “That does appear to be happening, yes. Very observant, Blue. Or perhaps I should call you Brown now?” He nearly choked on his laughter at his own joke.

  God this guy was a piece of work.

  I placed my hands on my hips and he tried to rein in his laughter as he stared at me – he did not manage it.

  “Right, screw this.” I marched toward the door, done with this day and every bastard I'd encountered during it. How could I have thought for one second that this teacher would help me? I had to remember the faculty in Zodiac were as heartless as the students.

  As I grabbed the door handle, the mud on my skin heated with a punishing warmth. I winced as it was scraped off of me inch by inch then washed away by a stream of water that wrapped around my skin like a film. The combined magic dragged the mud from my flesh and it sailed right out of the window.

  Relief swept through me as my body was cleaned of the muck and my hair fell about me in a soft fan of blue and black.

  As I turned to Orion to thank him, a harsh wind forced me back against the door. I had to shut my eyes against the onslaught of air and my heart raced as I was held in place.

  When the wind died away, I blinked a few times and found Orion standing before me. The scent of bourbon floated from him. He was frighteningly tall and all those muscles made me weak, but he was still just another asshole with a pretty face.

  “Thank you,” I forced out.

  “Your gratitude isn't what I want.” He snatched my arm and in one, single heartbeat I knew what he was going to do. My thoughts went haywire and my body tumbled into panic mode. Before I realised what I was doing, my hand smashed against his face and a loud clap filled the room.

  Oh holy shit I just slapped a teacher.

  The moment following my strike lasted for two whole eternities. Orion stared at me and I stared right back. His cheek was pinking with the imprint of my hand and he lifted his fingers to touch the mark as if he was unsure whether it had actually happened.

  My tongue was a desperately dry lump of flesh but I managed to speak in a hoarse voice. “Don't bite me.”

  He leaned down so he was nose to nose with me and the heavenly scent of cinnamon sailed from his skin, tangling with the sharpness of bourbon on his breath.

  His lips pursed and all amusement fled from his expression. “How are you going to stop me?” he asked as if he genuinely wanted an answer out of me. I suddenly felt like I was in a quiz.

  I took a slow breath, the proximity of him making my thoughts harder to grasp than usual. “I know how to wield air. I can push you back.”

  “Are you sure about that?” He shifted closer, opening his mouth to reveal the sharp points of his fangs.

  I shook my head. “Honestly? No. But I'm asking you not to and I'm telling you I'll try to fight you if you do.” My voice barely quavered and I gave myself a mental pat on the back considering the night I'd had. Small victories and all.

  Orion stepped away, a thoughtful glint in his eyes. I tried to move around him but he snatched my arm and sliced his fangs into my skin. I gasped in horror, bringing up my other hand as I tried to will magic into my fingers. But I couldn't focus and the second my hand got close, he slammed it against the door behind me. The hard plain of his chest flattened me to the wood and I winced as his bite deepened, my heart hammering like a rabbit's.

  A draining feeling tugged at my insides and power flowed in a channel toward my wrist. My magic was being taken from me, swallowed by this ruthless creature.

  His hands on me were unyielding and as hard as I concentrated, I couldn't conjure so much as a gentle breeze against him. Now he was drinking from me, he seemed to have my power in his grasp and it was all moving toward him, the well inside me emptying out.

  He released me at last and my head spun, darkness momentarily curtaining my vision. A stream of the vilest swear words in my vocabulary swarmed through my head as I clutched the two bloody pinpricks on my wrist.

  Orion gave me an even stare. “Everything in Solaria is about power, Miss Vega. Don't forget that. Everyone takes what they want. It's our way. And if you don't start taking it yourself, you're going to fail at this Academy before you've even attempted to pass The Reckoning.”

  My heart pounded out of rhythm as his words sank in.

  I am Fae. And I need to embrace the darkest part of me if I’m ever going to survive here.

  Orion sailed away from me, dropping into his chair with a satisfied sigh. “Sit down.” He gestured to the seat opposite him.

  My heart crumpled with frustration as I moved to take the chair, refusing to show him how rattled I was. Part of me wanted to run back to my room and hide under a blanket, but that wasn't exactly constructive...or dignified.

  I eyed the ends of my hair, the blue tips feathery and smooth since Orion had essentially put me through a car wash with his Elements of air and water. I supposed I had something to thank him for. Though he'd taken plenty in return for it.

  He poured himself another glass of bourbon and I frowned. “Isn'
t this supposed to be a lesson?”

  “Nope. I'm supposed to be providing guidance for you. But I'm doing so on my time. And on my time, I like to have a drink. So here we are.”

  “Right,” I said through tight lips. “So what exactly am I going to learn here while you're enjoying yourself?”

  “Trust me, I'm not enjoying myself.” He planted his glass down, giving me a hard stare. “Hand,” he commanded and both of my hands curled up in refusal.

  He half rolled his eyes. “Don't make me Coerce you. It's rather draining and I just added a nice chunk to my own power.”

  “You mean you sucked out my magic like a mosquito.”

  “Sure.” He shrugged. “Whatever colourful analogy soothes you.” He grinned, sipping his drink slower this time. “Hand, come on, we've only got forty more minutes of my life to waste.”

  I pressed my lips together, thrusting my right hand at him.

  “Flat on the desk, palm up,” he instructed and I did so. “Is this your dominant hand?”

  I nodded.

  “Good, I'm going to do an assessment.”

  “What kind of assessment?” I asked.

  “Of your power.”

  “Okay...”

  “Don't move. And don't giggle – for the love of the sun I hate the gigglers.” He took my hand and heat stroked my veins as he brushed his fingertips over my palm. It tickled like hell and laughter bit at my throat.

  He glanced up at me as if judging whether I was going to be one of his hated gigglers. I gave him a straight face, refusing to let it out.

  He traced his thumb across the line at the centre of my palm and my skin tingled with sensitivity. Heat dug a needy pit at the base of my stomach and I tried my absolute best to ignore it.

  Why are the hot ones always jerks?

  “In palmistry mortals usually have four lines on their palms.” Orion pointed them out from top to bottom. “Heart, head, life and fate. Fae, however, have a fifth line. A power line.” He pressed his thumb to the middle of my palm again and I shifted in my seat as my body reacted much too keenly toward Professor Asshole.

  Curiosity got the better of me and I leaned in closer to see the line he was pointing out. It stretched right across my palm and had little prongs running off of it.

  “Most Fae have shorter lines here.” He rolled his own hand over, showing me his palm and I noticed that on his wrist he had the triangular symbol of air tattooed there. “Mine extends two thirds of the way. Yours, however, is a complete line.” He gave me a once over and I sensed he was somehow angry about that, but I couldn't understand why.

  “The strength of each particular Element is defined by these intersecting lines.” He plucked a small ruler off of his desk and laid it on my palm.

  He fell into a rhythm as he noted down the length of each line, working across my palm. The brush of his rough fingers and the repetitive movements were making me heady and I tried to focus on anything else in the room besides his touch.

  Orion eventually released me and a breath of relief passed my lips. He started jotting down numbers on his pad, totalling up those he'd written down, doing some complicated calculations. Finally, he had four numbers underlined at the bottom of the page: Seven, eight, nine and ten.

  “These are your power rankings.” His eyes were dark as he pushed the numbers in front of me. “Ten is the strongest you can be in any Element. To put it in perspective, Miss Vega, even a seven is considered high.”

  I stared at the numbers in awe, unable to believe what he was saying. That I was this powerful in a world that had been a mystery to me forever. “Your weakest Element is fire, although I use the word weak very loosely. You're an eight in earth, a nine in water and a ten in air.”

  A breath got trapped in my lungs as I glanced up at him, trying to comprehend all of this. “And we’re this powerful because...our parents were royal? The king and queen?” It sounded so mad coming from my own tongue. But that was what everyone kept telling us. That we were essentially princesses.

  “Yes. Your father was the most powerful Fae in Solaria. He held three Elements: fire, water and air. Your mother had just one Element: air. She was a Gemini like you and was named the most beautiful woman in Solaria. That was after he returned with her from a faraway land his army had invaded. King Vega married her, disregarding tradition. The powerful families tend to breed with their own kind; it keeps bloodlines pure and usually produces offspring of the same Orders. The purer the line, the more powerful their magic.”

  “And not doing that is...bad?” I asked, trying to understand.

  “No, just foolish. Their children are more likely to be weaker but...that is clearly not the case with you and your sister. Your mother and father have produced two of the most powerful Fae to ever walk in our world.” He leaned back in his chair, swilling the amber nectar in his glass.

  “What were they?” I breathed, wishing I had someone more reassuring to discuss this with but he was all I had. “What were their Orders?”

  For a moment, I was almost certain an ounce of pity entered his eyes but it fizzled away just as fast. “Your mother was a Harpy and your father was a Hydra.”

  My skin prickled at the mention of a Hydra. My Greek mythology knowledge came pretty much entirely from Disney’s Hercules, but that serpentine beast had stuck in my mind.

  “Hydra?” I whispered, my blood chilling. “Like the monster with multiple heads?”

  Oh God please don’t let me be one of them.

  “Yes,” he said quietly. “They are one of the rarest Orders in the world.”

  I took a slow breath as I tried to process it all. “So what do you think me and Tory are, sir?” I asked, nervous of the answer.

  He drummed his fingers on the desk then swallowed the last of his drink. “Trouble,” he muttered and I stiffened.

  “That's not fair. It's not like we asked for this.”

  “What's not fair, Miss Vega, is that you and your sister now have a stronger claim to the throne of Solaria than the four Celestial Heirs who have been training their entire lives to rule.” He slammed his empty glass down on the table and a jolt went through me. “When your parents died, the Celestial Council claimed the right to rule together. But now you have returned, it is our law that you be placed upon the throne if you can prove yourselves strong enough to claim it. Which is just our damn luck.” He pinned me in place with a knife-sharp stare and my heart fluttered madly at his words. “Do you have any idea of the dangerous times we're living in, Blue?” he demanded and heat scolded my neck as he eyed my hair with disdain.

  “No, but maybe if you'd tell me-”

  “Tell you what? Even if I relayed the entire history of Solaria to you, do you really think that would be enough?” He released a dry laugh. “The world has already fallen out of balance and now you and your sister have shown up to tip the scales even further into chaos. Whole families are turning up dead. Powerful ones too. Your parents were the first but not the last and it's only a matter of time before-” He halted himself mid-sentence, seeming to think better of finishing his line of thought.

  “Are you saying my birth parents were murdered?” I asked in horror, the knowledge dripping through me like melting ice.

  “I'm not saying anything.” He cleared his throat, pouring himself another glass of bourbon.

  It might have been a Monday night but if it was loosening his tongue, I sure as hell wasn't going to remind him of that.

  “Anyway,” he grunted. “Your Order will emerge sooner or later. Your power source will give you a clue as to what you are so pay attention. Different Orders’ magic is replenished in specific ways. A Werewolf draws their power from the moon, a Medusa draws from mirrors, and if you hadn’t guessed it yet, a Vampire draws powers from others through their blood.” He flashed his fangs at me and I shuddered.

  “Well I’m definitely not like you,” I said coldly and his brows pinched for a moment.

  He glanced down at his Atlas, his lips tight as h
e tapped something on it. “If your magic swells try to focus on what is in your immediate vicinity that you could be drawing power from. It could be the sun, the shade, a goddamn rainbow for all you know, just keep your mind sharp. In the meantime, I'll sign you up to all of the Order Enhancement classes. Those who develop late tend to evolve under the influence of their kind.”

  A notification pinged on my Atlas and I took it out, finding I'd been enrolled in several more lessons on my timetable. And tomorrow I was due to hang out with the Werewolves. My stomach dipped as I thought of Seth and his touchy-feely ways. That wasn't like me at all. There was no way I was one of them.

  I looked up, preparing to tell Orion that but the glacial look on his face stopped me.

  “You and your sister won't pass The Reckoning,” he said if he was stating the truth. “The world doesn't need two ignorant girls in power right now. And as much as most of the Celestial Heirs piss me off to no end, they at least know how to deal with the Nymph population.”

  “Nymphs?” I questioned, trying to ignore his insulting tone and latching onto the nugget of knowledge.

  He cursed, pushing the glass of bourbon away from him. “They're another race, don't worry about it. You'll be long gone before they become relevant to your life.”

  I folded my arms, growing tired of his tone. “Professor, I know you think I'm useless because I don't know anything about magic or Fae, but I'm not stupid. I can learn. Isn't that what these classes are supposed to be for? Guiding me? Catching me up on everything I've missed out on? So at least give me the chance to prove myself.” I wasn't quite sure where the determination had come from, but being dismissed so easily just rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn't like I thought I was fit to run a kingdom I'd never even heard of until two days ago, but I at least wanted to be given a chance to learn about my supposed birthright.

  His brows arched and a soft smile brushed over his mouth. “I suppose that's only fair, Miss Vega. And as a Libra, I’m a sucker for fairness,” he said and my mouth parted in surprise.