“Fuck you.”
“Say it,” Father snapped and a ring of Dark Coercion laced his tone so thickly that I had no choice but to obey.
“Sorry.” The word left my lips, but the contempt with which it was delivered was clear for everyone to hear.
Clara didn’t seem to care about that though, and she used her shadows to force me back to my feet before making my spine bend until she could place her cold lips against mine again.
“All is forgiven,” she breathed as she pulled back, placing my dagger back into my hand casually, like she had no fear at all of me using it on her again. “And tell Lance I forgive him now too. Daddy says I have to.”
“Good.” Father took her hand and drew her away from me as he headed down the corridor to the smoking parlour and we all trailed along in his wake.
I hooked the dagger through my belt as anger and defeat twisted through my gut, falling back into line like always. But one day soon, I was determined to buck this trend.
Xavier gave me a wide eyed expression to convey his concern, but I shrugged it off. The physical pain in my body was nothing to the gut wrenching ache in my heart anyway.
I hesitated a moment as I spotted Lance and Clara’s mother, Stella, sitting in a chair by the fire, but no one else commented so I guessed she’d been here a while already. She didn’t seem too worked up by her daughter’s reappearance either. In fact, as Clara strutted in with her fingers laced through my father’s, she looked decidedly put out. I guessed if he really was going to start fucking Clara that would be awkward for his old side piece as her mother.
“Aren’t you going to greet your aunt, Darius?” Stella cooed and I moved forward to place a kiss on her sharp cheekbone before taking a seat by the fire.
Father sat opposite me and Clara instantly climbed into his lap. Stella clucked her tongue like she didn’t approve and I wondered if they were going to discuss this new development or if Father just planned on trading her in for the younger model and leaving it at that.
Mother and Xavier crossed the threshold, but Father fixed them with a glare and sent a gust of wind to push them back out of the room before knocking the door shut for good measure. He threw a silencing bubble over us and I waited to see where this was going.
“You interrupted our discussions, Darius, but I suppose it makes sense for you to join us,” he said darkly. “But you may not repeat any of these plans after you leave this room.” The Dark Coercion swept under my skin and bound me to his words like a chain tightening around my neck.
“What plans?” I asked. I may not have been able to repeat them, but I could sure as hell work against them if I could figure out how.
“With the shadows firmly in our grasp and Clara returned to me, I believe that I am closing in on my goal of securing enough power to claim the throne for myself. Now that I can control the Fifth Element, I have a clear advantage over the Vegas and-”
“They have the shadows too,” Clara pointed out casually and my heart dropped as she revealed the secret we’d been guarding like it was nothing at all.
I gritted my teeth as I forced myself not to react in any way outwardly, but inside my pulse was hammering and fear was closing in on me. Roxy might not have wanted to be mine, but that didn’t change how I felt about her. It didn’t mean I’d be letting anything happen to her.
“What?” Father demanded, leaping from his seat and damn near knocking Clara on her ass as he dropped her. She managed to recover and flitted back and forth before the fire as he paced.
“Are you sure?” Stella demanded of her daughter.
“Yes, Mom. Quite sure. I almost got Tory to join me in the dark through them a little while ago and I tasted them on Darcy too. The shadows never lie to me,” Clara said with a childish smile.
I didn’t know what she meant about drawing Roxy to her, but I didn’t like it. I knew she’d been tempted by the shadows and I’d been checking up on her as often as I could to try and help her, but that hadn’t been easy before she’d chosen to be Star Crossed with me. What hope would I have of helping her with them now? If anything, this curse on us would only drive her closer to them.
Silence fell and my heart pounded as I took in the darkness in my father’s gaze. This was it, the final straw. Between their Phoenix Order being revealed and now their hold on the shadows too, it was impossible for him to deny that they were more powerful than him.
And that could only mean one thing. He’d want to kill them.
“They’re not even close to mastering their magic,” I said quickly. “And they have no way to learn about the shadows, so-”
“Are you seriously trying to shield your whore from me after she ripped your heart out and tossed it to the wind?” Father sneered. He hadn’t even asked which one of us had refused the bond. He just knew. He knew and he wanted to twist the knife.
“I just think that trying to kill the Vega Heirs would be incredibly risky. If anyone ever figured out-”
“The Vegas are a problem which I will solve without your help, boy. You’ve made it clear that your judgement has been impaired by them. But don’t worry, once you have time to adjust to the curse Roxanya has placed on you, I’m sure you’ll feel less inclined to shield her from anything. And once you’re ready to impart some revenge on her, I’ll be waiting to help. In the meantime, I think we should focus on my more immediate competition. It’s time I made progress towards claiming the throne for myself. My grasp upon the shadows is improving. I need to prepare to rise above the other Celestial Councillors.”
My heart pounded at the thought of that. I’d known it was coming, but I’d hoped we had more time. And with the Dark Coercion he’d placed on me, I couldn’t even warn the other Heirs that he was coming for their parents.
“When?” I breathed, wondering how long I had to derail these plans, how long I had to figure out how to challenge him myself and remove him from his position as the Fire Councillor and take his place.
“Soon.” Father growled, refusing to give me more than that despite the binds he’d placed on me. “In the meantime, you need to get back to school and keep an eye on those girls for me. Make sure they’re kept beneath your heel a while longer yet. I’ll inform the press about your little…incident.” His gaze scrutinised the black rings in my eyes for a moment before he shrugged. “I’ll tell them that you were the one to refuse. That you put your responsibilities as Heir before the selfish desires of fate. And for good measure, I think we’ll bring your wedding forward too.”
“What?” I gasped. “You can’t- I can’t get married until I graduate, it’s the law. I’ve got two and half years left at Zodiac before-”
“Fine,” he snapped like the law was nothing more than an irritation to him. And I guessed technically it was because he only needed to get the other Councillors to vote with him to have it changed. “We’ll make it two days after your graduation then. But I think it’s prudent you spend more time with you fiancé in public. I’ll set up a photoshoot for the weekend…and I’ll get the beauticians to do some work on her too…and make sure they photoshop the pictures…maybe we’ll have the shoot at night so there’s plenty of shadow…”
I just stared at him with my lips parted as he continued to prattle on about getting the kingdom excited for my marriage to fucking Mildred Canopus just hours after Roxy Vega had torn my heart in two and set my soul alight for good measure. My fucking hideous second cousin with a personality even more repugnant than her face. But he didn’t care. He didn’t give one shit about that. It was all just a game to him, and I was just a piece on the chessboard. He needed nice little Dragon grand babies to carry on the Acrux name, and who gave a shit if I’d never even be able to get my dick hard enough to make them with her? He’d probably just have her inseminated once he figured that out anyway. That’s what he’d done to his Storm Dragon pet when he wouldn’t fuck my Aunt Juniper to get her pregnant. And now she had three boys running around her ankles, waiting to see if they’d turn into Storm Dragons too when their
Orders Emerged.
Because that was what my father did. He got his way. In everything. No matter what it cost other people. He didn’t care that he made Dante Oscura father children he’d never see with a woman who wasn’t his wife, he just wanted Storm Dragons with the Acrux name attached. And he certainly didn’t care about tethering me to a life of misery so long as I produced the right kind of Heirs too.
Fuck my life.
Eventually, Father grew bored of my silence and miserable expression and told me to fuck off, though he used slightly politer words. We had guests after all. I needed to get back to the academy to make sure Lance was alright anyway. And I guessed I had to face everyone too. No doubt the entire place would be whispering about me and Roxy for the rest of term and I couldn’t say I was looking forward to that.
But what other choice did I have? I’d offered her the world, but I’d waited too long to do it. So now I just had to face the consequences of that and live with the fact that this was all my fault. And there wasn’t a thing I could do to change it.
“Tory!” Darcy’s voice found me where I was hiding in sleep.
I groaned as I rolled over, tugging a pillow over my head as an incessant thumping started up at my door.
“What’s going on, Tor? Let me in!”
I shifted towards wakefulness, but my body recoiled like I was afraid of what I’d find there. My thoughts were fuzzy with sleep, but there was an ache in my body which resounded right down to my hollow soul. I couldn’t remember why. I didn’t want to remember.
The sound of the door bursting open assaulted me and I recoiled further into my bed as everything came crashing back in on me. The blizzard, the broken promises to Darcy and Orion, the look in Darius’s eyes when-
“What the hell is going on?” Darcy demanded. “And where the fuck were you last night? We needed you, Tor! I needed you.” Her voice hitched on that last sentence and I shoved the blankets off of me as my heart throbbed painfully.
Darcy had thrown her hands over her face to try and stop her tears and I instantly jumped up and wrapped my arms around her, tugging her close.
“I’m sorry, Darcy,” I breathed, my soul aching as I felt her pain. I’d let her down last night. She’d been waiting for us in that cave with Orion when- “What happened?” I asked, fearing that I might not want to know.
“We got Clara back, no thanks to you and Darius,” she said, trying to wrench out of my arms but I wouldn’t let go. “It took everything we had to create the bridge. And then…then…”
“What?” I breathed, sensing the desperation in her voice as a sliver of fear raced through me.
“Then she turned on us. On him. She stabbed him with the draining dagger and drank so much of his blood that he barely had a drop left. He almost died without the two of you there to help us!”
Darcy ripped herself out of my arms and my lips parted on a thousand empty apologies. But what could I say? I’d done what she said. I’d let her down when she’d needed me more than ever. I couldn’t even get that right. She deserved so much more from me than broken promises and meaningless apologies.
Darcy strode away from me towards the foot of my bed, her fists clenching as she tried to restrain some of the emotions warring within her and I dropped my gaze to the carpet by my feet.
“How did you save him?” I asked because she said he’d almost died and I could only imagine that she wouldn’t be here now, wasting her time on me unless he was alright.
Darcy barked a merciless laugh. “Seth. He heard me screaming for help and proved that he has some kind of soul rattling around in the depths of his depravity. And then Darius finally showed up to help with the rest. Even with all three of us, it was a close call.”
“Darius came to help you?” I breathed, my heart throbbing painfully as I spoke his name.
“Better late than never,” Darcy muttered bitterly.
I nodded, looking down at my toes where they were curling against the carpet. I’d painted my toenails pink for some reason at some point before all of this and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the colour. It was so light and happy and innocent. Like baby pink. It didn’t suit me at all. Why had I chosen such a cheery colour?
“You’re not even going to explain yourself?” Darcy demanded, whirling back towards me, but I didn’t lift my gaze to her. I didn’t want her to see my eyes. I didn’t want to give her this excuse like it was okay that I’d let her down just because the stars had a shitty sense of timing.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my breath catching in my chest as I curled my fingers so tightly that my nails cut into my palms. “But sorry doesn’t feel like enough. It doesn’t make it okay. It doesn’t excuse me letting you down like that…”
“So why did you?!” Darcy screamed, making me flinch. I wasn’t sure she’d ever yelled at me like that before.
I shook my head, my heart throbbing painfully as I remembered where I’d been last night. The way I’d been getting ready to go and meet everyone down at Aer Cove, but I suddenly found myself late. How I’d felt this urgent tug in my chest, demanding I walk straight out of my room then leading me away from my sister and Orion and the magic I’d promised to play a part in and drawing me down a path I couldn’t turn from. My bare feet pressing into the snow because I hadn’t even grabbed any shoes, let alone a coat. I’d felt like a puppet on a string, dancing to a tune I didn’t know and yet I hadn’t been afraid. I’d been hopeful. At least I had been until my brain had caught up with my heart.
“Tell me, Tory!” Darcy demanded, striding towards me and shoving me as her rage and heartache fuelled her actions.
I stumbled back a step towards my bed and she shoved me again when I still failed to offer her an answer.
“What could possibly have been so urgent that you would let us down like that?” The third time she pushed me, my legs knocked against my bed and I fell back on my ass.
I let out a heavy breath and raised my gaze to meet hers.
Darcy sucked in a horrified breath, recoiling as she raised a trembling finger to point at me. “What the hell has happened to your eyes?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, knowing I had to tell her. That she had to hear it from me even if it tore me apart to say it.
“Last night, I…I don’t really know how to explain it but, while I was waiting to meet you, something happened. It was like time just slipped away from me and then all of a sudden the stars were calling me to them. I didn’t choose to go, they just took me and when I followed the path they’d laid out, I came to a clearing in the snow and…”
“And what?” Darcy breathed, dropping into the space beside me and taking my hand in hers. Blood smeared against her fingers from the crescent shaped wounds on my palms, but she didn’t comment on it.
I swallowed a thick lump in my throat. “Darius was waiting for me,” I murmured.
My heart lurched, but I forced myself to go on. I’d stood across that clearing from him and he’d looked at me like everything somehow made sense to him. My heart had pounded for him and I’d wanted to dive straight into his arms and never let go. But I’d held myself back, knowing in my soul that that wasn’t right. That it wasn’t how I’d felt about him the last time I’d seen him. Yes I’d wanted him, ached for him, desired him, but I’d also hated him, feared him, despised him. There was something in the magic of that place which had wanted me to forget all of that, but I knew my own heart. I knew it and I wasn’t going to have it governed by anyone but me.
“I don’t understand,” Darcy said slowly. “You mean he’d lured you there somehow, or-”
“No. The stars brought him too. Our constellations appeared in the sky overhead and we were locked in this little bubble of solitude that no one and nothing in the world could shatter. It was ours. He called it destiny.”
“What destiny?” she whispered, her grip on my fingers tightening like she already knew. Which she must have. We’d learned about this in class. We’d talked about it with Gabriel. She’d seen
my eyes. She just didn’t want to believe it any more than I did.
“Apparently the stars chose him for me,” I said. “And me for him. And they wanted us to choose it too…”
“He’s your Elysian Mate?” Darcy whispered.
“I always did have terrible taste in men,” I muttered. “The stars obviously pick badly for me too.”
“Did he do this to you? Did he say no to-”
“It was me,” I said, shaking my head. “He wanted it. Wanted me. Wanted to own me and keep me and have this hold on me for the rest of my life.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, Tory. He would have loved you, he would have-”
“Love?” I scoffed. “Who has ever loved me? Look at all the things he’s done to me. That isn’t love. It’s hate.”
“But maybe he could have changed. He isn’t always so bad. He looked after you before when you needed him, you fought together against the Nymphs. Hell, you even slept with him twice. Why would you deny yourself the chance to-”
“Because it wasn’t a chance, Darcy,” I said bitterly. “It was forever. All or nothing. Saying yes meant letting him own me. It meant I’d have to love him no matter what he did to me. What if he was just as cruel to me in love as he’d been in hate?”
“You think you might have been stuck in a life where he’d continue to hurt you?” Darcy asked, shaking her head like it was so obvious that wouldn’t have been the case.
“Yes…no…maybe. The point is I don’t know. How could I agree to forever with someone who had treated me like that? He never even tried to make up for any of it before last night. He never felt a drop of remorse for it until he realised he’d been doing all of those things to the girl who fate had chosen for him.”
“But Tory you’ve still got forever with him,” Darcy said desperately, her eyes swimming with tears for me. “Instead of forever with him loving you, you’ve got forever pining for him. Don’t you remember what Professor Zenith told us about Elysian Mates? You only get one. And if you don’t choose them, you’ll never love or be loved by any other…”
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 7