Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne

by Caroline Peckham

  “Fucking hell, Hadley,” Athena growled, tipping her head back against the wall. For a girl who hated being fed on by so-called parasites, she sure as hell seemed to be enjoying herself.

  Hadley finally stood up, wiping a line of blood from the corner of his mouth and sucking his fingers. He got up in her face and she raised her chin defiantly, masking the bliss on her face I’d seen a few seconds ago.

  “Are you done?” she asked icily and he shook his head, checking his watch.

  “I’ve got you for another full minute.”

  Man, I really needed to leave.

  “You taste like a summer’s day,” he said breathlessly.

  “Well I imagine you taste like the dead of winter,” she said with a shrug.

  “Do you wanna find out?” he murmured then lowered his head to look her in the eyes, pressing his hands either side of her on the wall as he caged her in. “You can taste me if you want, Athena. I won’t tell anyone.”

  “I’m good,” she said lightly. “And you’ve got about ten seconds left before you become my little bitch, so are you finished being a leech?”

  He snarled then lunged forward and took her lower lip between his teeth, drawing blood and making her wince. She swallowed visibly as he released her lip, their mouths grazing and his body pressing flush to hers. Their eyes were locked and for a moment I saw a hint of something more in Athena’s eyes as she gazed at him.

  “Time’s up,” she said with a victorious smile.

  “Worth it,” he said heavily.

  “Carry me back to the party, little bitch,” she commanded with a smirk and he rolled his eyes before whipping her off of her feet and shooting away through the door.

  My boner was officially dead so I got to my feet, waiting a few seconds before following, planning to keep what I’d seen to myself. I was no snitch, and I didn’t like drama.

  My gaze fell on Sofia again, dancing with Tyler beside Darcy, Geraldine and the Heirs in their masks. My brother caught my eye, jerking his head to beckon me and I smiled as I jogged over.

  “Nice hair,” I taunted, eyeing the long golden locks hanging around his shoulders.

  “Nice lipstick,” he tossed back and I quickly wiped my mouth with a furious whinny.

  “Join us Xavier!” Darcy called and I realised Geraldine was teaching her, Seth, Caleb and Max some sort of crazy dance involving a lot of weird hand movements.

  “It’s the Crockenberry Jive,” Geraldine announced like that might entice me into it. It kinda did to be fair.

  Sofia pulled away from Tyler to learn it too and I dove into the fray with a grin, copying the wiggling hand movements Geraldine was doing as she circled her hips.

  Darius drank his beer, shaking his head at us but the ghost of a grin hid at the corner of his mouth.

  Sofia’s hip bumped mine and I smirked down at her.

  “You sure you can keep up, Xavier?” she asked, her eyes glittering with mirth.

  “Yes, little mare,” I teased. “I can keep up.” And not just with this dance, but with Tyler too. I’d be running our herd soon enough, and he’d be bowing to me with my girl by my side. And once I won her, I was never going to let her go.

  "T hat's it!" Washer cried as he waded through the water in the Aqua lagoon to come and see what we were doing. "But if you really bend into the motion and thrust your hips you would get better drive on the cast."

  Darius arched a brow at me as Washer came to stand beside us, bending in half at the waist so that his head was almost submerged in the water before flicking upright and thrusting his hips forward. The bulge in his budgie smugglers was front and centre as he threw his hands out and cast the magic. A shudder of disgust ran down my spine which I absolutely let him feel with his Siren gifts. A surge of motion rippled beneath the waves before four perfectly casted horses leapt above the surface entirely crafted from water and galloped away from us.

  He had something of a point; water magic was fluid and worked best in motion, so adding movements to your body could increase the power of the cast - but that was something weaker Fae needed. With the kind of power we were packing, we really didn't need to do anything like that, and if he thought I was gonna bend over with my ass in the air then thrust my junk towards the sky as I lunged upright, he had another thing coming.

  "Come on, I'll show you," Washer insisted, moving behind me with his hands held out like he actually believed I'd let him hold onto my hips while he showed me how to thrust in that tiny fucking speedo of his.

  "I think I've got it, thanks. That visual you gave me really helped," I said firmly and he bumped against the air shield I'd put up between us with a pout on his face.

  "Everyone needs a little help sometimes, Max," he insisted, pressing himself up against my air shield so that his chest was pressed hard against it like it was a pane of glass and his nipples were smooshed until they looked like a pair of pink fried eggs. "Even Heirs need a teeny weeny bit from time to time."

  "I think I'm good," I insisted and he sighed dramatically before plodding away, looking like a dolphin who’d been slapped by a seal.

  "Are you sure you don't want the extra tuition, Max?" Darius joked. "I heard you can get some real power into your moves with a mega thrust like that."

  "Yeah and I heard that Washer keeps a photo of you in his wallet and calls it his cheeky boy piccy," I tossed back.

  "Sure he does. I signed it. We all know that the Fire Heir has the most fans."

  "Psh, I don't think so, I got like fourteen pairs of panties sent to me this week,” I replied casually. I mean it was kinda gross but still true.

  "I'm not really interested in your choice of underwear, dude. But some crazy chick was arrested for breaking into my car and laying herself out naked on the back seat last Sunday,” Darius said.

  “What car?” I asked with a snort of amusement.

  “That Faerarri I never drive. One of Father’s servants takes it out once a week to make sure the engine doesn’t go to shit from lack of use and I guess she recognised it somehow when he parked it up in town. I don’t think she was banking on a middle aged Manticore with a moustache to find her – apparently she threw a fit and refused to get out of the car unless I came to get her.”

  “That’s fucked up,” I sniggered. “Was it that crazy stalker one again?”

  “Yeah, Cindy Lou something,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “The FIB said they’ll inject her with a tracker if she tries to come near me again but I’m not all that worried about some deluded psycho. Anyway, point is – I’ve got a stalker and you don’t. If that’s not proof that I’m more popular then I don’t know what is.”

  I barked a laugh and threw a fistful of water at his face which he dispersed with a wave of his hand before diving through it and tackling me.

  His big ass Dragon body slammed into me and I was knocked beneath the surface of the water where I instantly locked my arms and legs around him and used my control over the Element to shoot us back towards the shore like a torpedo.

  As we made it to the sandy beach that ringed the lagoon, I propelled us out of the water and managed to flip us over so that I landed straddling him in the sand. Darius laughed as I threw a punch into his ribs with a snarl as my heart raced with adrenaline.

  Darius took the hit with a grunt but the second time my fist came down, pain splintered through my hand as my knuckles met with a layer of ice that he'd used to coat his flesh.

  I reared back with a curse of pain and he lunged upwards, flipping me beneath him and wrestling me down at the edge of the water where the waves crashed over us as we fought.

  Darius shoved my head beneath the surface and I laughed as I cast a bubble of water around his head. I could have shifted or used air magic to help me breathe, but this was a water Elemental lesson after all so I just entered into the drown-off with the hopes that I could hold my breath for longer.

  Darius held me down and the two of us glared at each other through the blurry water dividing us, dari
ng the other to flinch first.

  My lungs began to burn and bubbles slid from my lips as the seconds ticked past and neither of us let up on our positions for a single second.

  Just as I was sure one of us was going to have to crack, a whip of water slapped down across my thighs so hard that the pain broke my concentration and my hold on the water surrounding Darius fell apart. He released me in the same moment and I lurched upright, sucking in a breath as I found Geraldine standing over us with a water whip held in her hand poised to crack again.

  "You pair of wet Wallys will get yourselves killed with this machismo lollygagging one of these days, mark my words," she announced, raising the whip threateningly.

  "I should put you on your ass for that," Darius growled as he stood, offering me a hand and as he pulled me up I noticed a pink whip mark crossing his back where she'd hit him too.

  "I'd like to see you try," she scoffed, lifting her chin. "Some of us actually pay attention in class, so I'm sure that I'll be above you in the pecking order soon if I'm not already."

  "You wanna put your money where your mouth is, Gerry?" I teased, casting some water over myself to remove the sand from my skin.

  "Why are you always trying to tangle your tentacles around me, Maxy boy?" she demanded.

  "I'd have thought that was pretty obvious by now," I said in a low voice.

  "Oh hell no," Darius growled drawing my attention to what he was glaring at on the far side of the lagoon.

  Tory and Darcy were working on lifting whirling water up above the surface into mini cyclones, and Tory was lost in the movements of the work, trailing her fingertips so that the water swirled all around her legs while she moved in circles to draw it up around her. As she worked, Washer was closing in on her, whirling his hips around and around in circles like he was using a hula hoop and shouting, "Rotate! Rotate! Gyrate!"

  Darius took an angry step towards them but Tory beat him to it, sinking her fingers into the water and pushing more magic into it before the cyclone took off, leaving her behind and crashing into Washer. It scooped him up and spun him around while he wailed something about the powerful thrust she'd created then he was launched away from her towards the centre of the lagoon.

  She did a pretty good job of keeping her bitchy shadow girl mask in place, but as she turned and looked at Darcy, a smirk escaped her hold and the tension ran out of Darius's limbs.

  While I'd been distracted, Geraldine had taken the opportunity to stride away from me and I sighed as I watched her go, my gaze finding her ass in the tight swimsuit she was wearing as I sagged in defeat.

  "Dammit, why is she always walking away from me?" I grumbled but Darius had ditched me too, heading over to Tory with water magic swirling around his arms before he cast a field of liquid flowers to bloom all around her.

  Tory's lips twitched as she stole control of the water and created a miniature city instead, the Empire State Building rising up in the centre of it. Enough lust was pouring from the two of them to make my skin tingle and I decided to leave them to it.

  I made the decision to hound after Geraldine, but before I could, my little sister stepped in front of me, arms folded and chin raised in a challenge, causing me to sigh as I felt the lecture coming even without using my gifts. She really was her mother’s daughter.

  "What do you want, Ellis?" I asked her in a tired tone.

  "Mom said you had to help me master my water magic, Max," she said haughtily. "And you haven't even helped me once. Am I going to have to call her and tell her all you do is hang out with the other Heirs and laze about all the time?"

  "Do what you want, Ellis. I don't have to teach you shit, especially when you're being a little snot bag. Go cry to Mom about being a single Elemental who needs extra tuition, because it's not my job to help you make something of yourself."

  Sometimes I felt kinda bad about the relationship I had with my sister. Her mom had forced her into rivalry with me from the moment she was born, always showering her with more love and praise than me, comparing us and finding me wanting, making comments about the way Ellis was a more natural leader just to rile me up. But I knew the real reason for all of that didn't have anything to do with my so-called mother's low opinion of her son. It was all about the fact that she wasn't my birth mother, and it ate her up that her own kid wasn't going to be the one in power after my father retired from his spot on the Council.

  There had been a time when that had worried me a lot, that I'd been genuinely concerned about Ellis being stronger than me even though we both would have inherited our power from our father as he was the strongest of our parents. But not anymore - especially since she only had water magic. The idea of her taking my place now was practically laughable.

  "Don't walk away from me, Max," Ellis snarled as I turned to do exactly that.

  I chuckled just to piss her off and kept walking. But as the water around my ankles was drawn away and I felt her anger crashing against my senses, I threw up an air shield at my back.

  A tidal wave crashed over my shield as she screeched in anger and threw all of her power at me in an unrestrained, wild act of fury which made my blood boil.

  Who the fuck did she think she was to be attacking me in public like that?

  "Do you really wanna play this game with me, Ellis?" I asked, turning back to face her with a taunting grin plastered in place as pretty much everyone in the lagoon turned to look our way.

  In reply, the cocky little brat swept her hands through the water and flung another huge wave at me like she seriously thought she could take me on.

  I widened my smile, flicking my fingers and parting her wave as I walked right through the centre of it with my feet stepping on the surface of the water.

  Ellis shrieked at me as she threw more unshaped water at me with nothing but brute force and I laughed as I slapped it aside with a casual gesture then dunked a torrent of ice cold water over her head.

  I would have left it at that, but she ran at me, screaming furiously and making the water all around me rise up like she intended to drown me with it.

  With a twist of my wrist, I lassoed the back of her swimsuit in a rope made of water and lifted her up by it so that the material was pulled right up her ass, giving her a mega wedgie as I carried her over to the sandy beach.

  Ellis kicked and flailed wildly, looking like an octopus on killblaze as she tried to fight her way free. But I just dropped her face first onto the beach, using my magic to force her head beneath the sand so that she was left there with her ass in the air for everyone to see like a turtle set to lay its eggs.

  The sound of laughter tore out all around me and I caught sight of a couple of girls filming from just outside the changing rooms, where I guessed they'd run back to grab their Atlases when our fight started. Maybe that had been a dick move, but it had also been a necessary one. The only people in Solaria powerful enough to face me were the Vegas, the Heirs and their siblings.

  The spares weren't likely to pose much threat with their lack of training, but they had just as much magic in their veins as us and if they wanted to claim our spots then they only had to challenge us and win to take them. It didn't happen often, but it had been done more than once in the history of the Council and I wasn't going to allow so much as a whisper of a rumour to get out suggesting that Ellis might be able to match me one day.

  The bell rang to signal the end of class and I turned and strode out of the lagoon, leaving my little sister to scramble back out of the sand, coughing and spluttering as she wrenched her swimsuit out of her butt crack. My power swelled with the rush of amusement and cruelty that I drew in from the surrounding crowd and my smile widened as I headed back inside to get changed.

  I pulled my uniform on to a chorus of sycophantic praise from the dudes who had just seen me put her in her place and wanted to make sure they made their loyalty clear. It was political bullshit but I still lapped it up.

  When I opened my Atlas and found myself tagged in a post which included
a video of me handing Ellis her ass, I couldn't help but laugh aloud.

  Tyler Corbin: It looks like the Water Heirs decided to have a throw down during class today and I just received this video from an anonymous classmate of theirs. It's just a shame that @EllisRigel made such an ASS of herself looking like an ostrich with a plucked butt after @MaxRigel was done with her. Are we sure she's a Siren, because she might have lost control of her Order form and I'm pretty sure I saw a camel toe.

  #fullmoontonight #watershame #whoissheanyway #feelingbutthurt #mindthecrack #spareforareason #camelshifterindisguise

  Lucy Burfoot: Do you want some cheese on that butt cracker? – maybe a slice of camelbert?? #shesgotthehump

  Sophie Ruddock: They might have room for you at the court of Camelot, Ellis! #knightoftheroundtoeble

  Annemarie Mclaren: Watch your mouth, Corbin! The only one who’s going to end up with a plucked butt is you just before the true king roasts you and eats you for dinner. #Pegatwat #lesserFae

  Tyler Corbin: Could you tell the King thanks for the offer, but if he wants to spit roast me he should really eat my ass beforehand, not after. Besides, I don’t fancy getting split in half by his monster dick #longdongsilver #kingdong #Lionellongschlongenstein #dicktator

  Erica Collins: @TylerCorbin no way! He’s so big headed, he’s definitely overcompensating for his tiny todger #lillionel #minimeat #hunglikeadragonfly #dinkypinky

  Telisha Mortensen: @EricaCollins his junk so small that when a Lionel dick pic got leaked everyone thought it was a photoshoot for a Lagulian Worm Shifter #hiswormmakesmesquirm #canhiswormevengetfirm

  ***

  I woke up in the middle of the night in King’s Hollow to the feeling of Tory's panic and fear slamming into me and I shoved myself upright with a curse as I stumbled towards the door.

  She was sleeping in the room beside mine which had become a habit since we'd pulled her back from the shadows and her nightmares were the reason for that. At night it was harder for her to keep the memories of her torture at bay and they often crept up on her, disturbing her sleep and slowing her recovery.