Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne

by Caroline Peckham

  I pushed her door open just as Caleb stepped out of his room down the hall in a pair of white sweats and yawned as I waved a hand at him, letting him know I was on it. But as I headed into her room, using my gifts to calm her down, he slipped in behind me.

  "Does this happen every night?" Caleb breathed, his brow furrowing as Tory tossed and turned in the sheets, her skin lined with a sheen of sweat and little whimpers of fear escaping her.

  "Not when she sleeps with Lionel," I muttered, telling him what she'd told me. "He trained her mind so that she feels safe in his presence, but the longer she's away from him the worse this gets."

  "Does Darius know?" Caleb asked as I reached out to take her hand and push more calming energy into her. Her fingers gripped tight around mine and my breath caught as her power slammed into me, forcing a full memory into my head even though I hadn't been trying to look at one.

  "Whose fault is this?" Vard asked as I found myself peering out of Tory's eyes in that same cold, stone room with the beige walls and single lightbulb hanging overhead.

  I blinked up at him through the pain in my body as I tasted my own blood on my lips. I couldn't look down at my flesh to see what they'd done to me, the sight was enough to turn my stomach and if I threw up then the punishment would only be worse. But the pain consuming my flesh told me well enough how bad it was.

  My lips parted on a word that stuck in my throat and Lionel tutted irritably.

  "You're strong of spirit, I'll give you that, Roxanya," he commented, moving to stand before me as Vard stepped aside with a bow of deference. "But that's only making this take longer. Tell me who you love."

  "You," I gasped out as he reached forward to caress the side of my face, smiling like he was proud of me as healing magic slid into my skin and a whimper of relief crept past my lips.

  "Good girl. You know how much I hate seeing you like this, Roxanya. I only wish to look after you, but I can't help you until you give Vard what he needs. Don't you want to please me?"

  I nodded mutely and his soft touch on my cheek grew firm as he moved to grasp my chin tightly in his big hand and turned my face so that I was forced to look straight into Vard's single Cyclops eye with no warning.

  "Darius Acrux," he spoke inside my mind and I fell into a memory of kissing him before I could even try to fight it.

  The second my mind latched onto the memory, pain burrowed into my body so deep and fast that a scream tore from my lips, ripping my throat raw.

  I blacked out, falling into the soft embrace of oblivion willingly as I begged it to take me away, but I woke again with a gasp as ice cold water crashed down over me.

  "Whose fault is this?" Vard asked as I recoiled in fear, the chains binding me to the chair not letting me escape.

  "Darius," I breathed and he nodded, stepping back as Lionel moved forward.

  "It's alright, Roxanya," Lionel purred, placing his hands against the bloody wounds on my stomach and healing me as I choked against the pain. "I'm here now. I'll take care of you."

  The chains holding me down came loose and I sagged forward into his arms as he picked me up easily and held me against his chest.

  "Who do you love?" he murmured as my tears slowed and I curled against him.

  "You, my King," I whispered, leaning into him while my limbs still trembled with the memory of pain. "Only you."

  I grunted a curse as I took control of her memories with my gifts, gently reminding her of the truth and separating my psyche from hers as I soothed away her fear and pain until her breathing settled.

  As I drew back into myself, I realised Caleb's hand was on my shoulder and I turned to look at him with a frown, finding his face pale as he slowly stepped back.

  "Did you see that?" I asked, a little pissed that he'd done that without asking.

  "Yeah," he muttered, his gaze straying to the girl sleeping in the bed as her brow furrowed again. "I'm sorry. But you were broadcasting bits of it without me touching you. I was getting flashes of screams and pain and I just...sorry."

  "It's alright," I said, releasing a heavy sigh. "But you might want to apologise to her in the morning - it wasn't my memories you snooped on."

  Caleb nodded, his throat bobbing as he looked down at her again and I swiped a hand over my face.

  "You're taking that fear and shit away from her like this a lot?" he guessed, eyeing me as I cringed a little.

  "Yeah...well if I don't she just gets worse and I-"

  "That's gotta be fucking with your emotions though," he said, knowing too well how my Order gifts worked and the way I was affected by the kinds of emotions I fed my power with.

  "A bit," I admitted. "It's not too bad doing this once or twice a night, but she won't really settle unless I sleep in here with her and then I end up automatically feeding on it all night. It makes for a kinda sucky night's sleep." I shrugged as I moved to get into the bed with her and Caleb caught my arm.

  "You want me to stay too? I'm not exactly laughing my ass off, but I've probably got some lighter emotions than that going on in my head to balance you out."

  My shoulders dropped as some of the tension spilled from me and I gave him a smile as I nodded. "Yeah, you're nowhere near as deep as Tory. So if you've got the magic to spare-"

  "I had a snack earlier," he said with a smirk, pushing a hand into his blonde curls and I caught a taste of laughter, joy and lust on him as he thought about that which made me grin.

  "Come on then," I urged as I pulled the blankets back and moved to get into the bed with Tory, lifting her a little and moving her across the sheets to make room for us. She was more than used to me doing this in the night now, so she didn't wake, but the tension in her body relaxed as I laid my head on the pillow beside her and drew her back against my chest.

  Caleb climbed in behind me and slung an arm over me too as a tendril of amusement slipped from him.

  "You're my little spoon, Maxy pad," he laughed and the taste of his joy to counter Tory's fear was enough to make me let that name slide as I used my gifts to make us all sleepy and we drifted off.

  ***

  An incessant buzzing against my thigh woke me and I groaned groggily as I frowned at the dream I was currently taking part in. Caleb and Tory's sub-consciousnesses had clearly connected to mine to create a weird ass jumble of thoughts. I snorted a laugh at the sight of Mildred Canopus getting her ass kicked by Tory while a shirtless Seth whooped and cheered in between doing a strip tease to Milkshake by Kelis. Caleb and I danced on the back of a golden Dragon while Gerry's voice intermittently called out types of fish in a seductive voice.

  I groaned as I managed to pull my Atlas from my pocket, frowning at the messages I'd received and the notification that I'd been tagged in multiple news stories.

  Tory mumbled something sleepily and I wriggled out of the bed so as not to disturb her, managing to catch Caleb's knee in the gut before I made it out.

  I paused and pushed more sleepiness over the two of them as they rolled towards each other before slipping back out into the living area and opening up the messages I found there.

  I had eight missed calls from my dad and a bunch of texts from him telling me to phone him and I quickly tapped on the newspaper links to see what the hell was going on.

  A headline stared up at me, slapping me in the face as I took it in.

  Water Heir Max Rigel not really an Heir at all.

  What the fuck? I clicked the next link and my gut plummeted as I realised exactly what this was.

  Max Rigel - bastard! The truth about the Water Heir’s hidden parentage and everything you need to know about his secret Minotaur grandfather.

  Shit. This wasn't good. Especially right now while Lionel had half the country believing that the Minotaurs were in on some secret plot with the Sphinxes to steal and hide knowledge from the rest of the Fae population.

  My Atlas rang again and I answered my dad as I sank down onto the couch with my heart racing.

  "Max? I take it you've seen?" he dema
nded.

  "Yeah, Dad," I said in a hopeless kind of tone. "Who the fuck leaked it?"

  There was a long pause before he replied. "You...already knew?"

  "Yeah. I found out years ago so I’m not freaking out over that. And believe me, I'm not upset that that bitch you married isn't my mother, but...this is really fucked up timing, isn't it? I mean, it would have been a scandal before but with Lionel going after the Minotaurs-"

  "I've already got all of my people on this," he growled. "Don't you worry. Besides, you still have my blood in your veins which is what really counts. Everyone screws around before they get married, so the idea of a bastard being a scandal is absurd in this day and age. You're still my Heir as far as I'm concerned and you're more than powerful enough to fight off anyone who tried to challenge you for your place which is all that really counts anyway. Fae fight for their position and no one is strong enough to unseat you. Don't worry son, we'll weather this storm."

  I smiled weakly, endlessly grateful to my father for standing by my side like this. "Thanks, Dad."

  "Nothing to thank me for. Now we just need to focus on damage control. We'll play down the Minotaur thing as much as we can. What about the other Heirs, how will they take it?"

  "They already know, Dad," I admitted. "They don't give a shit. We're loyal to each other." I'd gotten over the fear of losing my place amongst my brothers the moment they'd found out the truth about me being a bastard. They didn't care about my bloodline - they cared about me. We were family, unbreakable, united always. And knowing that took away some of the fear I held getting through this shit.

  "Well that will make this a lot easier then," Dad said firmly. "Assuming they're willing to say that publicly?"

  I opened my mouth to say they would but then I paused. "I'm pretty sure they will, but I guess it depends on what their parents' take on it is... I wanna think that Cal and Seth won't be any issue, but I guess if Lionel tells Darius he doesn't want him speaking out in favour of someone with Minotaur blood-"

  "I'll be making house calls to Melinda and Antonia today. If we're united then hopefully our king will see sense and back you up too." I couldn't help but doubt that and I didn't miss the way Dad spat the word king.

  "Do you know who leaked it?" I asked, knowing there was no point pursuing that topic right now.

  There was a pause then Dad sighed. "Not for certain, but... Your mother was-"

  "Not my mother," I growled, glad at least that I wouldn't have to pretend about that shit anymore even if everything else was fucked.

  "No, I suppose not. Well, she was most upset about those videos that were circulating yesterday of you and Ellis," he said heavily. "Of course I told her that was just usual Fae on Fae posturing and that Ellis needed to figure out how to handle it without coming crying to us but Linda wasn’t satisfied with that. She wanted me to force you to make a formal apology and said that I should make you give Ellis private tuition daily to improve her magic at an accelerated rate. When I told her you needed to concentrate on your own studies and pointed out that Ellis wasn't the Heir anyway, not to mention the fact that she was only gifted one Element so she really isn’t ever going to be-"

  "The bitch decided to go public," I summarised. "You think she's going to try and push Ellis to challenge me for my place one day?"

  Dad grunted an agreeing noise. "Well she does have very high ambitions for her and of course I love Ellis dearly, but the girl just isn't cut from the same cloth as you, son. You're my oldest and my strongest. There's no doubt in my mind over who the Heir is. We just need to make sure the rest of the kingdom stays in agreement with us over that."

  "Okay," I agreed, trying not to feel too hopeless. "I'll see if I can get the Heirs to release statements in support of me and let you get on with damage control."

  I made a move to cut the call, but Dad called out to stop me.

  "I love you, Max," he growled. "We'll fix this."

  The line went dead and I smiled a little even as panic consumed me at the knowledge that this secret was out. One thing was for certain though - I wouldn't be helping Ellis learn shit. If she seriously thought her single Elemental ass could take me on then she could come at me like Fae.

  For now, I was going to have to work on damage control and just hope that this didn't all go to hell.

  I flew a short circle around the academy grounds with the drizzle in the air sticking to my scales and my breath rising in a fog even though I wasn't breathing fire. It was one of those depressingly damp and cold winter days that were better off spent inside, but I'd had trouble sleeping and so I was out in it all the same.

  I looked over the sea to the horizon where the sun was rising, wanting to leave the protective wards that surrounded the academy and fly for hours, really stretching my wings. But that would require me to land and exit via the gate before heading off and then Father would be informed that I'd left the grounds. And I couldn't really sneak out either because it was pretty hard to hide the passage of an enormous golden Dragon through the sky. I was fairly certain I was the only golden beast of our kind currently alive and people talked when they thought they'd spotted an Heir.

  I'd asked Father why the wards were even still in place now that he had control over the Nymphs and we were no longer at war. He'd told me he was concerned about the threat in the north where there were rumours of small villages being entirely wiped out over night, houses found empty and bloody with no sign of the Fae who had once lived there.

  I suspected him of course. He'd marched squadrons of his so-called tame Nymphs up there to counter the threat and I didn't trust that one bit. But the attacks seemed to come at random. Little towns all over the place were struck out of nowhere. I thought it was strange that none of the Fae living in any of the destroyed towns had ever even managed to get a phone call out, but without any survivors to ask, it was impossible to understand what the reason for that could be. And Father certainly had very little interest in discussing it with me. There had been next to no newspaper coverage on any of it either which stank of conspiracy to me, but there wasn’t much I could do unless we managed to get a lead on a town when it was being attacked so that we could go there and figure out what was doing it. Gabriel was looking out for information with The Sight, but he hadn’t seen anything useful yet. And as it wasn’t affecting anyone he knew closely there was little chance of him seeing what was going on, especially while he was watching so many other things closer to home.

  I wanted to head up to one of the destroyed towns and investigate it, but so far between classes, the obligations Father put on me, my research with Orion and the Nymph hunts we were still sneaking out on whenever we got the chance, I hadn't been able to find the time.

  I spotted a white Wolf racing through the trees close to King's Hollow and tucked my wings as I dove from the sky to intercept him.

  I was silent as I shot towards the ground and the moment Seth bounded out into a grassy clearing, I reached out and plucked him from the field in my talons.

  Seth yelped in surprise as he was hoisted off of the ground and I snorted a Dragon laugh as he began to buck and kick before sinking his teeth into my foot.

  I almost dropped him, lurching towards the ground as I scrambled to keep my grip and he shifted in my hold so that he slid between my talons in Fae form and used his air magic to land safely on the hillside below.

  I circled around before landing too and I shifted back at the edge of the clearing, shooting him a taunting grin.

  "You wanna go?" he called out in a challenge, thumping his chest like a dudebro who had sunk too many beers and wanted to fight everyone in the vicinity.

  "You wanna wrestle me naked?" I teased as I stalked towards him through the long grass which brushed around my waist and he smirked as his gaze moved down my body for a moment.

  "I mean...I've had worse offers in my life."

  "Let's just eat first," I suggested. "I prefer to do my ass kicking on a full stomach."

  "Race you back
to the Hollow then?" Seth didn't give me the chance to reply before he took off into the trees and I cursed him as I took chase.

  The moment I stepped out of the clearing, I knocked against an air shield and barked a laugh as I almost fell back on my ass before blasting it down with fire magic and tearing after him.

  The asshole sent vines to trip me, rocks bursting out of the ground in my path then a huge hole tore open in the ground beneath me, my gut lurching as I fell.

  I managed to cast water beneath me before I could hit the bottom of the pit and I cast a bridge of it above the ground, running on the liquid as I spotted Seth's bare ass just about to reach the entrance to the Hollow.

  A flick of my wrist set an explosion of fire to life right in front of him and as he flinched back, using air to steal the oxygen from it, I knocked him from his feet with a blast of water from his right. He howled as he was washed away through the trees and I laughed as I charged over my water bridge and made it to the door.

  I reached out to wrench it open and my fist slammed against solid air again, my knuckles crunching at the impact. I growled as I attacked the shield with fire while my instincts prickled to let me know he was right behind me already.

  Seth's shoulder slammed into mine as he tried to knock me aside to get to the door, but I didn't move, planting my feet and using my Dragon strength to hold my ground as he yanked the door open.

  The two of us lunged through it at once, our shoulders jamming in the frame as we both burst out laughing before tumbling through together.

  "I guess we're still evenly matched then," Seth joked as he nuzzled against my arm affectionately and I shoved him off with a snicker.

  "Put your dick away before you start pawing at me, mutt," I joked, opening the cupboard beside the door and tossing him some clothes as I pulled a pair of cream sweatpants and a grey tank on.