Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne

by Caroline Peckham

  "I can't be with her like that," I growled. "I can't be with anyone but you. It would fucking kill me, Roxy."

  She smiled weakly, reaching up to hold my cheek in her palm as her other hand fisted my shirt over my heart.

  "You're mine where it counts, Darius. And I'm yours. Nothing can change that."

  Her lips met mine and I tasted her tears and my grief between us for the sweetest, most painful moment I'd ever known.

  Something heavy knocked into my leg and I cursed as pain shot through the limb, breaking away from Roxy as I stumbled back.

  I looked down at the fallen lectern which had hit me as the minister gasped his apologies for somehow knocking it over.

  But it hadn't been him. Not really. That was the fucking stars stealing her from me again and as Father tore her away and pushed her down into the pew at the front of the chapel, I knew that we were never going to truly be allowed to be together. And the fact of that coupled with the knowledge that I couldn't protect her broke something inside me that hurt so much I couldn't fucking breathe.

  Xavier caught my arm, squeezing tightly as he tried to reassure me and the minister directed me to stand to the side of the aisle to await my bride. My fucking bride. What the hell had I done to the stars to deserve this? Were they really that pissed about me and Roxy managing to be together despite their best efforts to keep us apart that they felt I deserved this fate? On fucking Christmas? Who the hell would do something this fucked up on Christmas?

  Clara, Stella and Vard entered the chapel amongst the few guests Father had invited, alongside a handful of his favourite Dragons and my heart fell as I realised he hadn't even invited the Heirs and Councillors. They had no idea this was happening to me. And that was the very last hope for help I'd been holding out on.

  When everyone was in their seats, the door swung open once more and Mildred's unmistakable frame darkened the doorway.

  She was wearing a voluminous white dress and thankfully had a veil pulled down to cover her mismatched features, but it wasn't much comfort. I was still going to have to lift that thing and look upon her star-damned face as I swore to be her fucking husband.

  Fuck only knew how I was supposed to get an Heir in her belly. But if I didn't figure it out then Roxy's suffering may as well have come from my own hand. And despite what she said, I knew this would break us in ways we couldn't repair. We might still own each other but if I had a child with that monstrous girl how could Roxy ever look at me the same way?

  Mildred took her sweet time walking up the aisle, almost falling out of her high heels more than once before stopping at my side.

  She leaned towards me like she expected me to lift her veil, but I just stood there, scowling, giving no shits if everyone could see how much I didn't want to marry this fucking woman. I felt like I was rooted in place with an iron rod through my spine, no choice but to follow through on this twisted fate while every inch of my being begged the stars for a different fate. But the heavens had forsaken me a long time ago and it was clear they weren’t done punishing me yet.

  Mildred giggled and lifted it herself, grinning broadly at me and revealing the brown lipstick she'd smeared across her mouth and teeth. I had no damn idea why she had decided to start taking Faeroids or when but the effect they’d had on her body was beyond grotesque. What was to say she could even get pregnant with all of that shit affecting her so much?

  My dick was going to shrivel up inside my body before it would ever end up inside this fucking specimen. She batted her spiky eyelashes at me and I shuddered as I looked away from her, my gaze finding Roxy as I spilled a thousand silent apologies into the air that hung between us while the ceremony began.

  The ringing in my ears grew too loud for me to focus on the words that were spoken to me as the minister read out the vows and promises and I only jolted out of my reverie when he nudged me to make me clasp Mildred's hand for the binding.

  Her hairy knuckles brushed against my fingers and I swear her fucking hands were bigger than mine. She gripped me so hard I felt my bones grinding together and my cock retreated further at the thought of her getting her death grip on it.

  "You must now both speak the words of the binding," the minister announced and the words seemed to push their way into my mouth unbidden as I spoke in unison with Mildred.

  "I choose to bind myself to you in marriage. Let us both enter this union with clarity and honesty and forever be linked by the stars."

  I felt so sick at the finality of those words that I didn't even feel the clap of magic that must have accompanied them, locking me in marriage to the woman I'd sworn I'd never wed.

  My gaze found Roxy again, but before I knew what was happening, Mildred had lunged, her moustache was brushing over my upper lip and her thick, wet tongue was swiping across my mouth. She gripped my head so fucking tightly that it felt like she might bust my skull open and I could only keep my mouth stamped firmly shut and wait for her to fucking stop.

  The motherfuckers watching this farce were clapping when I finally wrenched myself away from her and I swiped a hand over the back of my mouth to remove that fucking brown lipstick from my face.

  "You are now bonded in a marriage everlasting in the eyes of the stars. May fate never tear you asunder and may destiny always shine on you kindly," the minister announced with a flourish and my gaze met Roxy's once more as a weight heavier than any I'd ever carried before seemed to fall around my neck.

  Father smiled widely as I looked at him, pulling the vial of spring shine elixir from his pocket and handing it to Roxy so that she could heal herself before the autumn bloom took root in her heart and killed her.

  Father stepped up to me as Mildred squealed in delight, hanging off of my arm and posing for photographs that I wasn't even looking at.

  "Well done, boy," he purred, clapping me on the back. "Now go and fuck her before you come and join us for the rest of the celebrations. I want that Heir on the way as soon as possible - and don't think I won't know if you lie about it. Mildred is a virgin and we'll be making sure that's no longer the case once you're done with your marital duties."

  "What celebrations?" I asked, refusing to comment on the horrors of what I was going to have to do next and picking up on how excited he'd looked when he mentioned that.

  "You'll see," he replied elusively. "But I can assure you, it will be a day to remember for all of Solaria.”

  Before I could reply, Mildred yanked me away from him and I stumbled against her muscular frame as she reached out and grabbed my junk in her massive hand and squeezed.

  "Come on, lover boy, I'm going to rock your world," she promised as I managed to knock her fucking hand off of me.

  She still had hold of my arm though and she dragged me towards the door at a fast pace, clearly desperate to get to the next part of this while my heart was racing with the horror of it.

  I couldn't go through with it. How the fuck could I? She was vile and vulgar in every single way and even if she hadn't been, she wasn't my girl. I didn’t want her or anyone else. Only Roxy. Only ever her.

  I twisted to look around at my girl as Xavier stood at her side, his fingers curled around hers. The pain in her green eyes as she watched me go fractured something in me that I wasn’t sure would ever be mended. I’d sworn I’d never hurt her again and here I was tearing her heart out when I wasn’t even worthy of owning it.

  I tried to dig my heels in, Roxy’s name catching in my throat as I ached to call out to her, rip my arm free of Mildred’s death grip and run back to her. But as Father stepped up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, I knew it was no use. I had to do as he said if I wanted to save her, but how could I go through with that when I was certain it would destroy us?

  Mildred clearly didn't share any of my concerns as she dragged me back towards the palace and I was forced to leave my girl with that monster yet again, I began to wonder if I was seriously going to end up doing this.

  If I thought the wedding had been awful t
hen I had no fucking idea how I was supposed to survive the consummation.

  I'm so sorry, Roxy.

  I ’d expected to die, not to wake up cold and shivering in a damp, dark cell. My eyes cracked open and I groaned as I pushed myself onto my knees, my heart clenching as I found my wrists bound in glowing blue magical blocking cuffs. My Phoenix lay dormant inside me and there was a needle puncture wound in my arm that spoke of the Order Suppressant I’d been given.

  Basically, I was fucked and as I looked around the dank space, from the ancient bricks curving up around me to the iron bars in front of me, I knew there was no way out.

  I reached up to my throat in a panic, but found the Imperial Star miraculously still hanging there. Lionel didn’t know. He doesn’t know.

  “Blue?” Orion’s anxious voice reached me from beyond the wall to my right and I wheeled around in hope, rushing toward it. “Are you awake?”

  One of the bricks was missing between our cells so I could see into his. His hand shot through the hole and clasped mine, tugging it through to his side, his mouth pressing to the back of it. The heat of his lips was like a bonfire, burning through the cold clinging to my bones. I rarely felt the cold these days, always able to use my Phoenix to keep me warm and I’d almost forgotten how deeply it could bite.

  Orion’s magic cuff bumped against mine as our fingers locked together and panic sliced a path through my chest. I had no idea how long it had been since Lionel had captured us or where we were or what that bastard had planned. And the unknown was worse than the fear. Worse than even this dungeon we were locked in.

  I pulled my hand free, looking through the gap instead and his gaze met with mine.

  “I won’t let them hurt you,” he swore, but whatever Lionel had planned for us, we weren’t going to be able to fight. Without our magic and Orders, we might as well have been mortals.

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Lance,” I breathed hopelessly.

  He growled, swiping his hand over his face as tension lined his features. He looked desperate, lost to a sea of fear, but the way he kept glancing at me told me that fear wasn’t for himself.

  “I know I broke your trust before,” he said with pain coating his voice. “But only because I thought it was the right thing to do. I wouldn’t break a promise to you unless the alternative was worse. So when I did it, I was sure it was.”

  I rested my forehead to the wall above the hole, taking in a breath. “I know,” I admitted.

  At some point during our time together these past few months, I’d come to see the truth in how he saw things. It didn’t make it right, or better. But the bitterness over him abandoning me had become less sharp. Now we were sitting in the Dragon King’s dungeon awaiting an inevitably terrible fate and there was so much left to say.

  Why we weren’t dead yet was a mystery, but maybe Lionel planned on torturing us first. If he had any inkling that we knew the location of the Imperial Star then maybe that was what he was after. But why weren’t we strapped to some torture device right now if that was the case?

  I traced my finger over my necklace and Orion shifted closer, sharing an intent look with me.

  “I wish you could use it,” he sighed.

  “I’d have to be a queen,” I said sadly.

  “You are,” he growled and the ferocity in his voice made me wrap my hand around the Imperial Star. There was a faraway echo of power thrumming within it, but there was no way it could answer my call.

  “You always had so much faith in me,” I said sadly. “I’m so grateful for that.”

  “I would have been horrified at myself once if I’d seen what a royalist I’d become,” he laughed humourlessly. “Master of the Zodiac Guild,” he scoffed at himself. “No regrets when it comes to that though, beautiful.”

  “Do you still have the diary?” I asked him and he nodded, patting his pocket. As it was concealed to look like a coin, I guessed Lionel hadn’t bothered to take it from him. I quickly pushed my hand into my pocket, finding Diego’s hat there and a sigh of relief left me.

  “Darcy, I…” He shifted closer to the wall, reaching through it once more and I laced my fingers between his as my heart ached. “If this is my last promise, please know I won’t break it. I swear that no matter what happens, I will fight to save you.”

  Tears burned my eyes as I gripped his hand tighter. “I’ll fight for you too,” I swore. Just like we had all those months ago. Before I’d lost everything.

  “I know this means nothing now, but if I don’t say it I’ll hate myself,” he said, his voice dark and rough. Silence stretched for a long moment as I waited for him to continue. “I love you, Blue. I loved you then, I love you now, I’ll love you tomorrow even if I’m no longer on this earth. No time exists where I won’t love you.”

  “Lance, please don’t say goodbye,” my words caught in my throat as pain burrowed into my core.

  “I have to,” he rasped. “Just in case. I’m so fucking sorry for everything I did to you. To us. I ruined everything. And I know it can’t be fixed. That I made it nearly impossible for you to trust me when we first met, and when you finally did and I earned your heart, I broke that trust irreversibly.”

  “Maybe it was always meant to be this way,” I said heavily, my chest tight. “You wouldn’t have accessed the diary if you hadn’t gone to prison. Your father knew that. It was where you had to end up for us to get the Imperial Star.”

  “But it cost me you,” he said, his tone full of loss and regret.

  I clutched his hand harder as tears spilled down my cheeks, accepting that I had to open my heart one last time, because I may never get a chance to do it again.

  “Lance,” I said, my voice breaking, shattering. His words were the sweetest poison, tailor made to kill me. I wiped my tears away and summoned the courage to tell him what needed to be said, but then the sound of a door opening reached us and heavy footsteps pounded this way.

  Orion’s grip on my hand tightened painfully and I peered through the hole as a Faelight illuminated his cell and fear yanked on my heart.

  A clunk sounded as his cell door unlocked and two large men strode in wearing the uniforms of the King’s Taskforce.

  “Hey look, it’s the princess fucker,” one of them sneered and a growl built in my throat. “You’re on trial again, you power shamed piece of shit,” the other one said, smiling cruelly. “My bet’s on the King showing no mercy. You’d better say goodbye forever just in case.”

  They lunged at Orion, dragging him to his feet and his hand was ripped from mine. He tried to fight, throwing furious punches, but without magic, they quickly tied his hands with a vine and hauled him to the door. One of them slammed their knuckles into his gut, making him snarl and my breathing stuttered.

  “Wait!” I cried as panic tore at my heart with sharp claws. “Take me too! Take me with him!”

  They started laughing, ignoring me as Orion turned his head to meet my gaze with an agonised expression as they dragged him away.

  I started screaming his name with a raw desperation, because I had a horrible, heart-breaking feeling it was the last time I was ever going to see him.

  M ildred practically dragged me through the palace until we made it to a suite in the guest wing that I guessed Father had given to her.

  She unlocked the door and I frowned as she tugged me through magical wards and a silencing bubble until we stepped into an enormous white and blue suite laid out with a massive bed in the centre of it which was covered in red rose petals.

  "I've got a surprise for you," she breathed in what I was guessing was maybe meant to be a seductive voice, but it came out more like a snake hissing as spittle flew between the gaps in her teeth and I cringed.

  "Maybe we should just get this over with," I grunted, not having any desire to do that at all, but I still had no fucking way to get out of this.

  Unless...maybe I could just bend her over and force her ugly face down into the pillows so she couldn't see what I w
as doing. Then I could create a magical illusion of a cock to fuck her with and she'd never even know we hadn't really done it.

  That wouldn't help me with the Heirs issue, but I didn't want her having my fucking kid anyway. And maybe if I could just buy a bit of time, we could get Roxy away from my father somehow.

  It wasn't much of a plan but it sure beat sticking my dick in her.

  Mildred grabbed my hand and tried to drag me across the room, but I growled at her and used my strength to whirl her around and toss her down on the bed instead.

  She bounced with the force I used and her eyes widened as I stalked after her, my jaw gritted with determination.

  "Wait - I haven't shown you the surprise!" she gasped, her voice sounding even more masculine than usual, but I needed to get this done, not engage in conversation with her or indulge her with fucking surprises.

  "Stay quiet," I growled, grabbing her waist and flipping her face down before lifting her hips up to point her flat ass at me.

  I shuddered as I used water magic to create ice so that her arms were frozen to the headboard and the angle I stretched them at forced her face into the pillows like I'd planned.

  I flipped up the massive skirt she was wearing as I tried not to give too much thought to what I was about to find beneath all these layers of fabric.

  At least I'm not really fucking her. I repeated those words over and over in my head as I hunted through the fabric for her panties. My hand suddenly ran over a bulge between her legs and I reared away in alarm.

  “Woah, hold the fuck on - you’re a guy?” I balked, but it actually did make a lot of sense now I thought about it. “Is this your fucking surprise?” Holy shit, maybe this is my way out. I can’t impregnant a man.

  Her big ass foot suddenly slammed into my chest and knocked me flying back against the table beyond the foot of the bed.

  "What the fuck?" I roared at her, my temper fraying as she melted the ice restraints off of her arms and rolled over.