Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts)

by Caroline Peckham

  “So there are loopholes?” I asked, unable to stop myself. Besides, this was the first time he’d spoken more than two words to us about his situation with Tory Vega since it had happened and I was curious as fuck about it.

  “I guess,” Darius replied with a shrug.

  “Like how you can talk to her and shit with other people around, the way you do in class?” Cal asked, tapping his finger against his lips like he was trying to figure something out.

  “Yeah. So long as there’s one other person there, I can get close to her, talk to her…but if I touch her, the thunderstorms and shit start up again.” Darius turned back to his work, ending the conversation.

  I scratched at the stubble lining my jaw wondering why the fuck the stars would come up with such a cruel fate for him. He might have had a lot of darkness in him, but he’d been given a shit father and a difficult life. An Elysian Mate could have been the answer to all the things he was missing – love, affection, devotion, but denying him her was so much worse than never offering it in the first place. And I knew that the two of them had had a choice in this, but the odds had been seriously stacked against them from the moment they were born. Celestial Heirs didn’t marry royalty. Never had. Never would. Not unless they wanted to forfeit their own place on the Council to a sibling. But Darius had worked too hard to claim his position and Xavier had no desire for it. Besides, now that he’d emerged as a Pegasus there was zero chance of Lionel allowing him to ascend.

  Caleb exchanged a look with me which said he was up to something and he let a tendril of cunning slip past his defences just to taunt me.

  The door burst open and I looked up as Orion growled at the interruption, my heart falling still as I saw who had arrived.

  Principal Nova strode into the room with a polite smile on her face and a girl following behind her. Not just any girl. Mildred fucking Canopus. Darius’s second cousin and fiancé.

  She was built with the full size of a male Dragon shifter, her broad, muscular frame damn near rivalling my own. She had a lion’s mane of frizzy brown hair which stood up in all directions and had a polka dot bow clipped to the top of it. Her lower jaw protruded further than her upper, making her look a bit like a shitzu, and her upper lip had a coating of fine hair which I could see even from my position at the back of the room.

  “Oh, shit,” I breathed as Darius fell scarily still.

  He’d said his father had been making him spend time with Mildred at the weekends, going out for dinners and letting the paparazzi catch them on purpose, that kind of thing, but he clearly hadn’t known she’d be coming here too.

  Mildred’s eyes did this weird wandering thing like she could never quite settle on what to focus on, though at that moment they managed to hold their position on Darius quite easily as she spotted him.

  “Snookums!” she cried as Nova began to explain that we had a new student joining our class.

  “Fuck this. As if my life didn’t suck enough, he has to twist the fucking dagger in my back by sending her here?” Darius growled and the rage that slid from him was enough to make my own blood pump hot.

  She raced across the room with her arms held wide like she thought he’d leap up and embrace her. There were more than a few assholes filming his reaction already, and if he gave her anything less than an enthusiastic greeting then Lionel’s whole plan to paint them out as this great love story defying the odds was going to fall to shit. And that could only hurt Darius.

  Before I could think of anything to do to help him, Mildred suddenly tripped and crashed to the floor. I caught a glimpse of a green vine tangled around her foot as she hit the ground hard, her chin slamming down on the floorboards so that undercut jaw of hers sliced into her hairy upper lip. A hint of smug satisfaction fluttered against my senses from Seth as he flicked his fingers to destroy the earth magic he’d conjured before hiding his smile beneath his hand as he gasped like he was shocked by what had just happened.

  “Canopus!” Orion barked as she scrambled upright. “Your desk is at the front of the class where I can keep an eye on you and see if you’re able to keep up with the other students here or not. You can greet your fiancé on your own time!”

  Mildred began to protest but he flicked his fingers, scooping her up on a gust of wind and dumping her onto the empty desk at the front of the class.

  “Thanks,” Darius murmured, his gaze slipping between Seth and Orion at the front of the class.

  “I thought you might be able to be Miss Canopus’s Liaison, Lance?” Nova asked him as she moved towards his desk, totally ignoring the way Mildred had just entered the room.

  The rest of the students were all starting to whisper excitedly, their eyes flipping back and forth between Darius and Mildred. My Atlas started pinging with notifications as more than half of them uploaded the news of our new student to FaeBook and I wondered if Tory Vega was sitting in class somewhere reading about this and feeling as shitty as the guy she’d turned down.

  For a moment, I really hoped she was. I hoped she was there with her heart shrivelling and tears burning her eyes in payment for the shit she had cursed the two of them with. But then I remembered the way her emotions mirrored Darius’s whenever I caught a whiff of them and I found I couldn’t even harbour my animosity towards her like I used to. She was hurting over this too. And as fucked up as the whole thing was, as much as I wished she’d made the other choice, I could understand why she’d said no. Especially as she hadn’t grown up here. The concept of fate and Elysian Mates and curses was still so new to her that I doubted she’d even had a full comprehension of what she was condemning them to with her refusal. But she was clearly paying the price now.

  We worked in silence through the rest of the class and five minutes before the bell rang, Orion asked Darius to go and run a message to Professor Washer over in the Water Elemental Lagoon. It was clearly a bullshit mission designed to let him escape Mildred as there was no chance of him making it back here before class ended, but there wouldn’t be much escaping after lunch when we had our next lesson.

  Darius left without a word, sending us a message on the group chat to say he was going flying during lunch and he’d see us later. I made a mental note to take a few subs to Tarot for him to eat and started to pack up my things as everyone began to file out.

  “Altair, Rigel and Capella, I need a word if you wouldn’t mind waiting,” Orion called out. “And Canopus, we need to sort out your House allocation before you leave too.”

  Mildred puffed up her broad chest as she strode over to Orion’s desk and I couldn’t help but stare at her funny strut as she approached him. Darius had told us a few weeks ago that he was pretty sure she injected herself with performance enhancing Faeroids to help her bulk up. She didn’t like being smaller than the male Dragons and believed that stacking on the muscle (and accompanying body hair) made her presence more domineering, which in her opinion suited her role as future wife to an Heir.

  For years, the three of us had been ribbing Darius about his betrothal to this strange girl, the whole thing seeming like a fucked up kind of joke that would never really come to pass. But now that Lionel was pushing them together more and more, had moved up their wedding date and kept getting the press to write articles on them, it wasn’t exactly funny anymore.

  “I understand you have Fire and Earth magic,” Orion said as Mildred came to stand before his desk and the three of us hung back.

  “Yes,” she replied, straightening her spine proudly.

  “Then I’m going to have to insist you choose House Terra. We don’t allow the students to have sex while you are in our care and knowing that you are in a relationship with Mr Acrux, I can’t in all good consciousness allow you be put in the position of temptation.”

  I bit down on my tongue at that declaration. Yeah, I was pretty sure there was a no sex rule in the student guidebook somewhere but the students at this school were fucking like rabbits in every cupboard, corner and clearing in the woods at every opport
unity and he knew it. The teachers never enforced that rule and clearly knew we didn’t adhere to it, offering out sex ed classes instead of detentions. But as Mildred was new, she wouldn’t figure that out until she was in House Terra and couldn’t switch back. It was a twisted kind of genius.

  “But Uncle Lionel said that he’d get me a room right next door to my snookums and-”

  “Absolutely not. It wouldn’t be appropriate. How would I explain an unplanned pregnancy to him? No. You will head to House Terra after classes this evening and Mr Altair will sort you out a room.”

  Mildred pouted as Cal tossed her a salute with his middle finger and she stomped from the room in frustration.

  “I hate you a tiny bit less now,” Seth purred as he grinned at Orion and the asshole even grinned back.

  “I think in this particular situation, it’s a good idea for the four of us to work together to help protect Darius from Mildred and whatever the fuck else Lionel decides to throw at him. Don’t you agree?” Orion asked.

  “Hell yes,” I growled.

  “Good. And on that note, I thought I might as well tell you that I’m trying to research a way to break this curse that Darius and Tory have put upon themselves. If there is any way in hell for them to get another shot at this then I’m going to find it.”

  “But everyone knows you don’t get another shot,” I said helplessly. “That’s it. They’re bound to be apart forever, pining and yearning and never loving another and-”

  “There have been so few cases of people becoming Star Crossed that I refuse to bow down and believe it that easily,” Orion growled. “So are the three of you going to help me out or what?”

  “But how?” I asked, wanting to do that more than anything while feeling endlessly helpless at the same time.

  “I can handle the research,” he said. “But what I need you three to do is help him win Tory over. Because there’s no point in me finding a way to make the stars change their minds and give them another chance if she still doesn’t want him.”

  “She does want him,” I growled. “I can feel the heat between them from a mile off.”

  “She might want to fuck him, but she doesn’t want to love him,” Seth said darkly. “And that’s the problem, isn’t it?”

  “How are we supposed to make her love him?” I asked. “She doesn’t even like us, let alone value our opinions.”

  “And the two of them can’t even get close to one another without the fucking ground and the sky trying to force them apart again,” Caleb added.

  “Well, those are the problems I need you three to figure out,” Orion snapped. “Or don’t you care enough about this to get your hands dirty for it?”

  “We care,” I growled, my heart lurching with the thought of us being able to change fate for him.

  “Good. Because you’re three of the most powerful Fae alive. And I believe that if we all set our hearts to this then we might just be able to achieve it.” Orion looked between the three of us, holding out his hand in offering.

  “You want us to vow to it?” Seth asked in amusement.

  “Yeah, I do. I want us all to swear we will do everything in our power to overcome the odds for the sake of our brother. So what do you say?” Orion asked.

  “Hell yes,” Cal agreed, slapping his palm into Orion’s fist before I clasped mine over the top of it with a grin.

  Seth and Orion exchanged a loaded look before he laid his hand on top and we all swore to it at the same time.

  Magic rang between as and we grinned before stepping back. We might not have had the best chance of success with the stars stacked against us, but it felt pretty fucking good to be doing something.

  Orion shot out of the room with his Vampire speed and the three of us followed on after.

  “I’ve got an idea, but it might be insane,” Cal said slowly as we began to walk.

  “What’s that?” Seth asked.

  “There are holes in the way the stars force them apart. I’m not convinced they monitor them as perfectly as it seems. But I need to look into it more. Maybe I’ll ask Gabriel for some insight into the future to let me know if I’m on to something or not.”

  “Okay. But getting them close to each other will only help if she doesn’t think of him as the worst person she knows,” Seth said thoughtfully. “I think he needs some help planning a grand gesture.”

  I snorted a laugh at that, wondering if he’d have any success there. I mean, the bike had been a pretty big gesture but I was guessing Seth had something a little more public in mind and I just couldn’t see Darius going for that. Especially with his father monitoring his every move and holding Xavier’s safety to ransom.

  “Well, I don’t think Tory Vega is going to listen to me if I start spouting Darius’s finer qualities to her,” I said slowly. “But I happen to know a Cerberus who she just might care about enough to listen to.”

  “You just want to use Grus so that you can try and get in her pants again,” Cal teased and in fact, he wasn’t fucking wrong there. But it was also a solid plan. She was Tory’s friend. She was anti Heir. If I could get her convinced over Darius then Tory would be a walk in the park.

  “No, it’s a solid plan. But if I happen to end up with Grus in my bed again as a part of it, I definitely won’t be complaining.”

  The others laughed as we stepped out into the sun beyond Jupiter Hall and I felt a lightness in my chest at the thought of executing this plan. Sure, it was probably one in a million that it would work. But we had to try. I couldn’t just watch Darius suffer for the rest of his life without doing everything I could to fix it. So now all I needed was to get Geraldine alone.

  ***

  I sat on my own on one of the upper levels of the Venus Library, working on my advanced star charting assignment with one eye on Grus and the Vegas and some of their little Ass squad friends.

  They were sitting around one of the group tables on the lower level of the library as they studied. None of them noticed me here. I’d figured out their little routine and come to set myself up here right after dinner, using concealment and distraction spells to make myself damn near invisible. They would vaguely know there was another student sitting up here working, but as they had no reason to look any closer than that, I was pretty sure none of them would figure out it was me. Besides, I didn’t need any of my friends, followers or wannabe groupies to distract me tonight – because I was on a mission.

  The rest of their friends slowly filtered out of the room, calling goodbye and blowing air kisses. The hat kid lingered, casting looks at the Vegas that made me wonder if he was crushing on one of them before he left too and eventually it was just the three of them and me left in the darkened library.

  They stayed there, moving through different tasks and assignments, talking in low voices and laughing from time to time.

  I tried not to look at Tory too much. There was a darkness to her which made my skin prickle. A deep sadness that had my Order gifts pressing against the surface of my skin and pushing me to go and feed on her magic. It was a primal kind of need, seeing a Fae as powerful as her in emotional turmoil.

  My Order was termed a parasitic Order by classification and I guessed in black and white terms that was correct, but Sirens weren’t just leeches made to suck emotion and magic from others. There was an innate need in us to provide peace and calm, to soothe others with our gifts and help them with the burden of their emotions when they got too much. There was a reason I liked feeding on pain and sadness which had nothing to do with enjoying the suffering of others and everything to do with that instinctual need in me to help them. And right now Tory Vega needed that kind of help. If she’d let me, I could soothe away that heartache and fill her with a sense of calm that would at least let her sleep well for one night. But I knew she wouldn’t accept without me having to offer. Even Darius wouldn’t let me help him like that. He was too fucking sure he deserved to feel like this that he refused to let me ease the burden of it at all, insisting on fe
eling every heart wrenching, gut churning minute of it for himself no matter what pain it caused him.

  Finally, the Vegas called it a night and headed off, leaving Grus behind as she wandered into the stacks to return a book she’d been using.

  I slipped out of my chair, gripping the wrought iron railing before me as I hopped up onto it and jumped over. I used air magic to slow my descent and dispelled the concealment spell that surrounded me before heading down the row that Grus had taken.

  She was singing beneath her breath as I closed in on her in the far back corner of the room, swaying her hips to a beat in her head and drawing my gaze to her ass for a long moment. It was dark down here, the light from the lamps back in the main part of the library barely reaching out to illuminate the quiet corners like this.

  I moved up close as she slid the book back onto a high shelf, leaning my shoulder against the stack and watching as her skirt rode up, revealing the tops of the thigh high socks she’d paired with her uniform.

  “Are you putting on a show for me on purpose or are you just this hot without trying?” I asked in a rough voice.

  “Bouncing bananas, you slippery eel!” Geraldine cried in surprise as she whirled around to look at me.

  Shock, fear, excitement, lust – She slammed her mental walls up tight, but I’d caught it and that was more than enough encouragement for me.

  “Sorry, Gerry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” I gave her a lazy smile as my eyes drank her in and she looked me over too. I’d abandoned my tie and blazer up at my work table and had unhooked several buttons, leaving some of my chest on show and I practically growled as her gaze lingered there for a long moment.

  “Apology duly noted and accepted. Good night.” She made a move to pass me and I shifted into her path.

  “We need to talk,” I said.

  “I’m afraid I have matters to attend to that don’t require a tricksome tuna-”

  “I’ll wear a buttery bagel as a cock ring for the day if it will make you stop and listen to me for a moment. I’m asking for your help, Gerry, and I don’t do that lightly,” I growled, interrupting her.