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

by Caroline Peckham

  Diego shrugged him off, taking his hat from me and yanking it on with a scowl. He seemed jittery, bouncing up and down on his heels as we gathered around him and Darius cast a Faelight, letting it float up above our heads and bathe us in a low amber light.

  “What’s up with you, Duncan?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes as an angry heat spilled from his body, telling me exactly how he was feeling since we’d laid our claim.

  Diego glanced between us all, his eyes settling on mine last and evidently whatever he found there was enough to make him speak. “My parents have added a memory to the web,” he breathed and Orion immediately cast a silencing bubble around us while Darius started casting some other spells which I guessed would deter anyone from coming this way.

  “Show it to us,” Tory said immediately and Diego nodded, rolling up his sleeves and extending his arms into the middle of the circle.

  I took his hand while Orion gripped his forearm and Darius and Tory took hold of his other arm.

  Darkness pushed beneath my eyes, thicker than should have been possible as I was yanked away into the abyss. The shadows started whispering, calling me into their depths as I sank deeper and deeper, Diego’s presence guiding me into the very base of them.

  The strange, white cloud appeared ahead of us and memories crackled amongst it, flashing and flickering in and out of focus. A memory grew brighter and brighter within them all and I gasped as I was sucked right into it like before.

  My lungs compressed at the sight waiting for me.

  Clara stood on a hill in a blood red dress with Lionel at her side in a black cloak. Around them stood hundreds upon hundreds of Nymphs in their monstrous forms, all the way down the hill, their heads bowed, a low and raspy chant leaving them, dragging its way through my ears.

  “You will hunt the land on my command!” Clara called. “You will leave no stone unturned in your search. For the High Lord Lionel Acrux. Your king. Who will do right by you when you do right by him.” The shadows poured out from her in every direction, seeming to tumble right into the very bodies of the Nymphs. At a swish of her hand, they moved and every fibre of my being hummed with terror.

  This was an army of the most fearful creatures I’d ever known. And they were under the control of Clara, of the monster who’d almost torn Orion from this world. And of Lionel Acrux too. The Dragon master. The most powerful Fae in Solaria. And soon, no doubt, to be the one and only king.

  I was suddenly yanked out of the vision and my heart stammered as I found myself staring across at Tory, a mirrored look of shock on her face.

  “Fuck,” she breathed which just about summed up the expressions on everyone else’s faces around the circle.

  “What do we do?” I turned to Orion with anxiety warring in my chest and his brows stitched together.

  “If my sister can control the Nymphs…” he trailed off and I wished Diego wasn’t there so I could reach for him, comfort him. Seeing her standing on that hill beside the man who’d destroyed his life must have been ripping his heart out.

  “We’re fucked.” Darius growled, dragging a hand through his hair as he turned his back on the circle.

  “I’m sorry, I…” Diego shook his head, at a loss for what to say and I squeezed his arm.

  “Lance,” I breathed and he looked to me with real fear burning in his eyes.

  His throat bobbed and his jaw tightened as he forced his emotions down and raised his chin. “No one leaves campus,” he commanded, looking between me and Tory. “And no one goes anywhere alone even on campus, understand me?” He fixed me in his gaze and I nodded.

  “Las estrellas están contra nosotros,” Diego whispered, turning his gaze to the heavens like he was praying.

  “Walk Tory back to your House,” Orion commanded Darius and he nodded stiffly.

  “Just keep far enough away to avoid the earthquake,” he grunted to her, then took off down the path and Tory gave me a grave look before heading away with him.

  Orion started marching forward, the tension in his posture making my heart drum like crazy. “Follow,” he barked when we didn’t immediately do so and we jogged to catch up with him as he headed towards Aer House.

  My head was pounding by the time we got to the tower and Orion left us there without a word. My gut knotted and frayed. He wasn’t okay. I needed to be there for him.

  I ran upstairs with Diego, saying goodnight to him as I hurried into my room with hope in my chest. My heart sank into my gut as I found it empty. And I knew in my bones that Orion wouldn’t come to me tonight. He was going to disappear into the dark and drown in his pain alone.

  I sank down onto the edge of my bed, my body shaking from everything that had happened in the past hour. We’d announced our intention to claim our throne, only to learn that there might not even be a throne to claim soon. Not when Lionel had so much power. Not when he was in a position to take it from all of us and force the entire kingdom to heel.

  Our fight wasn’t with the Heirs right now. And it might not ever be. Not unless we stopped Lionel Acrux from taking the throne.

  Good morning, Gemini.

  The stars have spoken about your day!

  A recent decision will cause sparks to fly in all aspects of your life during the coming weeks and you may be tempted to regret your choice. But take heart, if you stay steadfast in your resolve, this storm will blow over and you will find yourself much happier on the other end of it. Though change can be daunting, making decisions and sticking to them is always character building. And with a bit of hard work, this choice may just work out in your favour.

  I blew out a breath and almost laughed. I was a motherfucking Princess. I mean, I guess I always had been but now that I’d stood up with Darcy and claimed it, it felt more real somehow. Maybe I should have been holding court and walking corgis while eating tiny cakes or something. Instead, I was just going to go for my morning run as usual.

  An article had been published in The Daily Solaria today entitled The Vegas officially announce their intentions to claim the throne. Tyler’s Mom had even had some pictures left over from the last photoshoot we’d done with her, and alongside the interviews we’d given over the phone last night, they’d completed the eight page spread. The two of us were pictured in beautiful gowns while sitting in enormous wooden thrones and with a little addition from photoshop, the old photos had been updated to give me authentically black ringed eyes and the two of us were sporting some rather extravagant crowns. We looked hot as fuck and totally badass too with full resting bitch faces and challenging glares.

  I should have been nervous about it. It was basically a red rag to the Lionel Acrux bull, but fuck it. I was done hiding in the background, letting him talk shit about us and spread lies in that rag The Celestial Times. From now on, we intended to release a counter interview every time an article was published about the Heirs, the Council or Darius’s fucking wedding. Any and every time they made a show of power, we’d make one right back.

  My gut churned at the idea of Lionel trying to strike at us, especially now that we knew he wielded such power over the Nymphs. But I’d stayed up talking the whole thing over with Darcy late into the night and we’d decided to press forward regardless. Lionel had never left us alone before we made this decision anyway and we knew there was nothing to stop him from trying to strike again. In fact, we were hoping that by officially announcing our intentions, we’d actually be gifted some protection from him. It would be even more suspicious if we had a sudden accident now and we were hoping that he’d be forced into the position of waiting for us to make an official challenge.

  I wasn’t going to waste time worrying about how long it would take us to hone our skills enough to do that. The point was, one day, we would. And come hell or high water, we’d see that asshole fall.

  His control over the Nymphs was its own separate level of terrifying, but it also might work in our favour. What he was doing went beyond trying to claim more power – it was treason. He’d infected h
imself with the shadows and aligned himself with the mortal enemies of Solaria. So the plan we had for dealing with that was even simpler than trying to claim our birth right – we were going to expose him.

  If we could get irrefutable evidence of his allegiance with the Nymphs then we could turn Solaria against him, not to mention the fact that the other Celestial Councillors would be forced to take him down. And Lionel may have managed to make himself strong enough to face the other Councillors one on one in the Fae way and win. But if he’d broken the law then that was a whole different kettle of fish. It was the one and only time that the other Councillors would band together to use their combined strength to defeat and arrest him. And the idea of him being carted off to prison in magical cuffs that cut off his access to his magic made me all kinds of happy.

  I dressed in a matching white sports bra and leggings combo and headed down for my run.

  My heart began to beat a little harder as I closed in on the door at the foot of the stairs. Every day, without fail, Darius had been waiting to run with me when I stepped outside. It had been six weeks now and he’d shown up every single day. But…I got the feeling that was about to end. Yesterday we’d stood up and laid claim to the throne after swearing we didn’t want it since the day we’d first arrived at the academy. It was the root of all the issues I’d ever had with Darius and the article which had been published today was nothing less than a declaration of war. A political war, but a war all the same. And I just knew that was going to be the end of whatever tenuous relationship we’d been nurturing with these runs.

  After he’d escorted me back to Ignis House last night, he’d stripped off, shifted and took off flying without even looking at me, much less uttering a word.

  It had hurt, but then I could hardly complain about it considering the rejection I’d given him. And if he’d decided that this was the final nail in the coffin for us then I could accept that too. It wasn’t like these moments we’d been sharing could do anything other than pave the path for some kind of awkward friendship anyway. And it was never going to be easy for me and Darcy to befriend any of the Heirs with the constant rivalry between us.

  No, Darius wasn’t going to be here this morning. And that was just fine by me. We’d always been destined to fight on different sides of this war anyway.

  I bit my bottom lip, raised my chin and stepped outside.

  Darius was leaning against the wall in his running gear like usual, his eyes brightening as I stepped out and my gaze locked on his.

  “You’re here,” I breathed before I could stop myself and his eyebrows rose in surprise.

  We never spoke to each other in the mornings. Not once. He waited for me, we exchanged a look, I ran, he followed, he got my coffee for me in The Orb then he left. That was it. Every day. I didn’t even know what to make of it or what it meant to me. Except that being faced with the idea of him not showing up this morning had forced me to admit to myself that it meant something.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, his rough voice sending a shiver down my spine.

  We weren’t close to each other, but we were alone and distant thunder rumbled in warning. I ignored it for the moment but I knew we didn’t have long before the stars made more effort to push us apart.

  “Because…well, I just thought, the article, the throne…”

  “I’ve always known who you were, Roxy. The only difference is that you’ve realised it now too. You’re a Princess, one of the two most powerful Fae in the whole of Solaria. You were always going to challenge me eventually. Just don’t start thinking I’ll roll over for you because you’ve decided you like the idea of wearing a crown.”

  My lips twitched at the challenge in his tone and I raised a hand, spinning earth magic to my command until I’d constructed a crown out of twisting green vines with little red roses dotted all over it. I placed it on my head and smirked at him tauntingly, taking a step closer before I could stop myself. “You have to admit it looks good on me, though.”

  Darius gave my entire body a lingering look that dragged up from my feet to the crown on my head and my flesh scorched everywhere his eyes landed.

  “It looks even better on me,” he countered, raising his own hand and fashioning a beautiful crown of ice which sparkled in the morning sun as he placed it on top of his black hair.

  Fuck, I didn’t realise I had a Prince Charming fantasy until right now. Although that wasn’t right, Darius was no Prince Charming, more like a prince of darkness and he’d already corrupted me beyond recognition.

  Thunder crashed overhead and thick raindrops spilled from the sky, but for a long moment neither of us moved.

  “Ice melts,” I pointed out.

  “Flowers wither,” he countered.

  “I guess we’re both screwed then.”

  “I was already aware of that.”

  Lightning flashed through the clouds and I bit my lip as I turned and sprinted away from him. His footsteps chased me up the path and I ran even faster as I headed off down the familiar route.

  The rain continued to pound down on us until we’d passed through Fire Territory and into Water, but I just waited for it to stop then siphoned it out of my clothes with my magic. The stars left us to it as we finished up our run and by the time we’d made it to The Orb we’d both tossed our crowns away. It was just a shame that the real thing wasn’t so easy to forget about.

  Darius moved forward to open the door for me but he hesitated before opening it as he stepped close, reaching out to pull a red rose petal from my hair.

  “You’d better be ready, Roxy,” he purred in a deep voice which made my toes curl even as the ground trembled in warning beneath my feet. “Because the wolves are about to descend now you’ve staked your claim.”

  My lips parted to ask him what he meant by that, but he pulled the door wide for me and I gasped as I was met by a tumult of noise.

  The Orb was full of the usual breakfast buzz, but the sound of excited chanting and cheers washed over me as heads turned my way and I was suddenly accosted by the sound of my name being screamed from countless lips.

  Justin Masters caught my hand and tugged me into the crowd and I glanced back at Darius as he watched me go with an almost resigned look on his face. He turned and headed to the far side of The Orb where a just as raucous crowd were screaming their support for the Heirs.

  There was a divide right down the centre of the room and it looked like everyone was picking a side.

  My pulse raced as Justin swept me into his arms, placing a kiss on my cheek before lifting me up to stand on a table beside Darcy who was looking just as overwhelmed as I felt.

  “This is insane!” she shouted so that I could hear her over the chant that Geraldine had started up.

  Vegas for the throne!

  The true queens are home!

  Vegas for the throne!

  The true queens are home!

  “Why do I feel like our lives just got a whole lot more complicated?” I yelled back and Darcy laughed in a way that was bordering on hysterical.

  “No going back now,” she said.

  “No going back,” I agreed as I turned to look out over the sea of bodies that filled The Orb.

  My gaze fell on the four Heirs who were standing up on a table amongst a cheering crowd of their own. Mildred was screaming her support alongside Marguerite, Kylie and countless others, but I was surprised to find it was a fairly even split. Even with all the shit Lionel and the Heirs had spread about us to the press, there were plenty of people willing to ignore them and throw their lot in with us.

  I expected hatred, animosity and outright hostility when I met the Heirs’ gazes, but that wasn’t what I found. Instead, they were all looking at us with a challenge in their eyes and a hint of anticipation too. Like this was what they’d been waiting for. And they were ready to give as good as they got.

  Bring it on then, assholes.

  ***

  The last few days had been…bizarre.

&n
bsp; For a start, no one knew about Lionel and the Nymphs so even though our little group was still reeling from the information and desperately trying to figure out ways to divide him from his newfound army and supposedly save Clara too, nothing had changed. Though that last part was all Lance and the rest of us were too nice, or maybe too chicken shit to point out that the girl was batshit with a capital B and needed putting down pronto. The idea of that tore at me after everything we’d done to help him get her back and I could totally sympathise with his desire to believe his sister still resided in her shadowy soul, but I was having a hard time seeing it.

  Clara hadn’t just been seduced by the shadows, wielding them in her Fae form the way we were all learning to do. She’d literally been devoured by them and sucked into the Shadow Realm for years. I mean, what did she even eat while she was there? No one ever mentioned that, but it seemed pretty important to me. I’d seen enough of the barren wasteland which housed the shadows to feel confident that there wasn’t a toastie maker just sitting there waiting to be fired up. You couldn’t order up a Dominos either. And people needed food to survive for years somewhere. Which made my theory irrefutable in my opinion. No food, no Clara. Whatever that thing was that Darcy and Orion had dragged up out of the Shadow Realm, it wasn’t his sister anymore. It may have worn her face and stolen her memories, but it wasn’t her.

  Even our spies in the Acrux Manor hadn’t given us any reason to suggest otherwise. Not that anyone knew about Darius’s mom reporting to me now as well as Xavier messaging him. But it would be kinda hard for me to explain why she was helping me without being able to reveal what I’d done for her in return. And the last thing I needed was to break a star pact and goad the stars into cursing me with years of bad luck. Those assholes had it out for me as it was.

  I expelled a heavy breath and forced myself to forget about all of that for now. As insane as it was, we knew that the world was in the process of being taken over by a psycho lizard king and his shadow whore - Catalina’s words, not mine – but there was nothing we could do about it. I had to admit that I kinda loved Darius’s mom. Weird, I know. But we were kinda becoming…text buddies. I guessed she was pretty lonely stuck in that fucking manor while still having to pretend to be bound by Lionel’s Dark Coercion. So she’d been using every little excuse to message me about all kinds of things, a lot of which she couldn’t even pretend were related to information on what Lionel and Clara were up to. She was desperately afraid for Xavier and couldn’t even risk approaching him any differently now that she was free in case Lionel realised that he wasn’t controlling her anymore. In my opinion, the idea of him stealing her ability to love and care for her children from her was actually the worst of the things he’d done to her.