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

by Caroline Peckham

  “I’ll eat anyone who touches him,” Darius commented, leaning back on a boulder with a smirk.

  “You don’t have to look out for me.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I’ll always look out for you,” Darius said with a shrug. “But I’m sure you’ll be ready to kick ass by the time you enrol if you keep working out like you are.”

  “I wonder if he’ll get two Elements like you,” Max wondered aloud. “You’re a fire star sign, right?”

  “Of course,” I said. “Mother and Father must have had our conceptions planned right down to the hour.” I grimaced and Darius mirrored me.

  “If I ever have kids, I’m gonna let them be whatever the stars decide,” I said firmly and Darius glanced away with a tight expression, making guilt rack my heart.

  “Sorry…fuck Mildred,” I muttered and he nodded.

  “You’ve got Dragon blood Xavier, you won’t get off that lightly with Father anyway. He’ll force you to do whatever he wants,” Darius said sadly and I glanced around the Heirs, wondering how he was able to say that.

  “Wait, you…” My lips parted as they all looked to me with sad smiles. They knew. And that could only mean one thing. Darius’s Coercion was gone, just like mine had vanished when Tory had burned through it with her Phoenix fire.

  “So you know everything?” I asked warily.

  “Everything,” Caleb said grimly as he cast a silencing bubble around the group. “We tried to talk to our parents, but there’s not any evidence to prove it yet. They’re being cautious though. My mom has had her suspicions about Lionel apparently. She said he disappeared for a while the morning of the Nymph attack at the Palace of Souls. She followed him, but he had a decent alibi and after they fought together against them, I guess she dismissed it. But now…hopefully they’ll take this seriously.”

  “What if we went to the press and just told them everything?” I suggested hopefully.

  “Father’s got this all locked down too well, Xavier,” Darius said with a sigh. “Until he makes a move on the Councillors and reveals his cards, there’s nothing we can do but try to undermine his plans in the meantime. And at least the other Councillors can prepare for his next move to take the throne.”

  “Well, look at all these pretty boys hanging out in the woods.”

  The voice made my blood chill and I swivelled around, finding Clara hanging upside down from a branch in what looked like a wedding dress with a lace corset and a flowing skirt.

  “What the fuck?” Max rose to his feet with his hands raised and Caleb dispersed the silencing bubble as he got to his feet too, a low growl rumbling through his chest.

  Clara dropped from the tree, flipping upright and using the shadows to help her land softly. Caleb, Max and Seth inhaled sharply at the sight. Even though they knew about this, seeing Clara for the first time must have been disturbing. She was like a beautiful monster, her skin laced with shadow, her power emanating from her body almost loud enough to hear.

  I moved to get up but she grabbed hold of the shadows inside me, keeping me still as she dropped into my lap and pushed her fingers into my hair. “Daddy locked me up in the attic, isn’t he a bad, bad man?”

  “Go back to the house, Clara,” Darius demanded as fire flickered in his palms.

  Her touch was icily cold and my stomach churned as she raked a fingernail down my neck. “But I’m hungry.” She lurched forward, her fangs driving into my throat and I hissed, my jaw locking tight as she drank deeply from my veins.

  The Heirs moved closer with danger in their stances and I shook my head to warn them off, not wanting this to descend into a fight. She yanked her fangs free again and grazed her fingers over my neck to heal the wound then giggled softly, getting to her feet.

  She moved towards the others, brushing her hands over their naked chests and licking her lips. “I bet you all taste wonderful.”

  “You try and bite anyone else and we won’t be responsible for our actions,” Darius snarled. “Now go back to the house.”

  “But I want to play.” She pouted. “And I found such a pretty dress to wear and none of you have even told me how nice I look in it. I think it was your mother’s.”

  She released her hold on the shadows within me and I growled as I rose to my feet. “Father will be furious.”

  “He’s always angry,” she laughed. “And he has to catch me first anyway, but you wouldn’t tell on me, would you Xavier?”

  She rounded on me again with darkness in her gaze and Seth caught her arm to try and hold her back. She threw out a blast of shadow and he shielded at the last second, making the dark tendrils spread out over the dome of air like a spiderweb. Clara laughed then directed it at Caleb instead who met it with a tangle of roots that burst from the ground, deflecting it away from him.

  “Go back to the house!” Darius snapped, raising his hands as flames flared in them.

  Clara laughed manically like this was some game we were playing with her, rushing forward and closing his fists as she took hold of the shadows within him. He bared his teeth and she smiled sweetly.

  “Don’t shout at me, Darius. I don’t like to be shouted at,” she whispered.

  A tremendous roar sounded from back at the manor and a twisted smile spread across my face. “Father knows you’re not in the attic,” I breathed and her cheeks paled a little. Which was saying something considering she was practically translucent.

  She pressed her finger to her lips then raced away into the trees with her laughter tumbling back to us.

  “I guess you heard about Clara,” I said to the Heirs, folding my arms. “Father’s new psycho pet.”

  The three of them looked from me to Darius, concern burning in their eyes.

  “So we need to deal with her before Lionel,” Seth said thoughtfully. “That’s how you win against a pack, cut the leader off from the strength of their inferiors.”

  “Yeah, plus if we get rid of her, Lionel won’t have power over the Nymphs,” Max added and hope suddenly lit a path through my chest.

  We all fell into a conversation about how to fight back. How to win. And with the strength of the Heirs on our side and the Vegas too, I had the most incredible feeling that the future might not end up so bleak after all. We had a long way to go before I could truly believe that. But at least I wasn’t alone anymore.

  I filed into the Tarot classroom for our first Arcane Arts lesson since we’d upgraded to learning about all kinds of fortune telling. The layout had changed since Astrum and Washer had run Tarot. The tables had been rearranged over the Christmas break into a crescent to face the front desk and the shelves had been lined with delicate silver and bronze instruments, plus crystal balls, scrying bowls and beautiful pendulums.

  Gabriel was leaning against his desk as he casually spoke on the phone to someone. “-be home a little late tonight, I’ve got something to do. I know….” He laughed. “How hard is the baby kicking?...It matters because if it kicks like a pissed off-” He cast a silencing bubble as he noticed everyone in the class was raptly paying attention to him and he turned his back to us as he continued the conversation. Gabriel had told me and Tory about his wife being pregnant and I was pretty excited to meet her after everything he’d said. They were going to have us over for dinner one night soon and I couldn’t wait.

  I sat beside Tory who looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep again last night as she yawned heavily, taking out her Atlas and Tarot deck.

  “I really hope I’m going to predict that I’m about to be sent back to bed for rest of the morning.” She flipped over the top card of her deck and The Fool stared up at her. “Dick,” she muttered and I laughed as she tossed the cards back into her bag.

  “At least the cards give you actual predictions,” Diego said with a frown. “I suck at this class.”

  “Maybe fortune telling isn’t your gift, but you’re good at other things,” Sofia said from beside Tory.

  “What’s my gift then?” Diego asked and the three of us sat
in thoughtful silence for a moment.

  “Um…” Sofia tapped her lips and my brow creased as I tried to think of something, feeling like a terrible friend. He was still attending a few different kinds of Order Enhancement classes to try and figure out which one he belonged to. He now reckoned the sun was responsible for recharging his magic so he’d narrowed it down a little, but somehow he didn’t strike me as a Nemean Lion or a Harpy.

  “Your hat!” Tory announced proudly and I trapped a laugh in my throat, swallowing it down as Diego hung his head.

  Gabriel dispersed his silencing bubble, turning to us with a stupid smile on his face from his conversation.

  “Are you having a baby, sir?” Kylie asked from across the room, giving him the big eyes. I noticed a shiny gold badge on her chest with the word H.O.R.E.S. printed on it in bold, black letters. And I thought being an Ass was bad.

  “Yes, in the summer,” Gabriel said proudly.

  “Aww!” Jillian squealed, holding her heart where she also had a Hores badge pinned. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

  “We thought we’d keep it a surprise, my wife has banned me from predicting it,” he said with the sort of smile that said he knew exactly what sex the baby was. “Right, today we’re going to let the stars decide our pairs.” He swiped up a gold pot from his desk and shook it about a bit before moving to the end of the row and holding it out to Tyler. “Pick a name.”

  Tyler reached into it, taking out a folded piece of paper and unfurling it. “Tory Vega,” he said brightly.

  “Good, you can all move once you’ve been partnered.” Gabriel walked along the line and when he reached me, I dipped my fingers into the pot.

  I plucked out a folded piece of paper, opening it and my heart sank. “Kylie Major,” I said with zero enthusiasm.

  “Ergh, sir, make her pick again,” Kylie demanded.

  “The stars have spoken,” Gabriel said harshly and I sighed as he threw me an apologetic look before moving on.

  When everyone was partnered, I gathered up my stuff and headed over to take Jillian’s seat as she vacated it. She threw her shoulder into me as she passed and I growled, whipping my head back to look at her and casting a vine from the ground to snare her ankle. She stumbled with a shriek, catching herself at the last second and throwing me a scowl. I batted my lashes innocently before dropping down beside Kylie.

  She kept her eyes pinned on Gabriel, her lips pushed out in a pout as I laid my Atlas on the desk.

  “Today, we’ll be interpreting each other’s dreams using the guide written by the famous Dreamologist, Adelaide Som, over two hundred years ago,” Gabriel explained. “No better guide has been produced since her pioneering work on dreams where she used her gift of The Sight and her Siren Order to study over twenty thousand Fae, following their dreams from inception through to materialisation. The guide is on your Atlases in the Arcane Arts list of references.”

  I located it on my Atlas and found a huge alphabetical list of all kinds of symbols found in dreams.

  “Write down the last dream you can remember in as much detail as possible then swap with your partner and interpret each other’s,” Gabriel instructed. “It is often difficult to study your own dreams as we’re so swayed by things like desired outcome. If you’re hoping for something to happen, you’ll often ignore the bad signs subconsciously and hunt for the answer you want. This can be dangerous, especially when looking for signs on a life or death situation. Of course, your partner may need more details about your life circumstances to draw accurate conclusions, so try to be honest with one another. In your junior year you’ll learn how to detach from your emotions to be able to do your own readings, but only the very accomplished can master it.”

  We remained silent as we both took out notepads and I wrote down a dream I’d had last night.

  Me and my sister had been out walking in a beautiful forest when a dark shadow had suddenly blotted out the sun, then a pack of five wolves had started circling us, moving closer and closer. But when they got near, they didn’t bite like I’d expected, they turned to cubs, rolling onto their backs so we’d tickled their tummies and played with them in the wood.

  I hadn’t really thought much of it apart from the fact that it was kinda weird and kinda cute at the same time.

  When I was done, I ripped out the page and passed it to Kylie while she wordlessly passed me hers.

  I dreamed that I was on a beach, running out towards the water, but it kept getting further and further away. Then the ground became boggy and I was sinking and couldn’t turn back. The water finally stopped moving away and the tide came crashing over me in a wave.

  “That sounds like a nightmare,” I commented, searching my guide for the word beach.

  “It was,” she muttered.

  I found the term and read the description. “Was the beach deserted or were there people there?”

  “There wasn’t anyone there,” she said quietly.

  “Okay, well that means you need to take some time to yourself apparently.”

  “What about the rest of it?” she demanded, clearly not paying any attention to my dream as she stared at me impatiently.

  I fought an eyeroll and looked up meanings for a wave. “How big was the wave that washed over you?”

  “Really big, like a tsunami.” She shuddered.

  “That means you’re about to release some pent up emotional energy,” I read out, looking to her and to be fair, she did look like she was about to blow a blood vessel just from sitting next to me.

  “And what about the bog in the sand?” she pressed.

  “It means…” I found the word bog and one of the meanings mentioned being stuck in it. “That you’re struggling with an unpleasant situation that you can’t see a way out of.”

  Kylie huffed then turned to read my dream.

  “Does that make sense to you?” I asked, wondering if I’d done it right.

  “Yeah,” she murmured. “Total sense.”

  I doubted I was going to get more out of her than that and I guessed I didn’t really care anyway, but the look on her face did have me wondering what was bothering her so much.

  “Walking through a forest in your dream means your soul is entering a new phase of enlightenment,” she read out, then barrelled on as she found the next interpretation. “A shadow over the sun represents a dark change in your world…and the wolves…” She pursed her lips. “Probably means you’re a grade A bitch with a Werewolf fetish.”

  “Excuse me?” I growled, but she just shrugged, her eyes pinned on the guide.

  “A wolf symbolises a guardian in your life, so however many there were - like five did you say?”

  “Yeah,” I said, still pissed about the bitch comment.

  “So you’ve got five guardians and I guess your sister does too, but then the cubs mean you’re unsure of the wolves’ true intentions. But I guess I can clear up one of their intentions for you because my Seth is only screwing you because he thinks it’s funny that he can have a Vega princess who’s supposed to be his enemy. It’s obvious.”

  My brow pinched and I was about to lash back when I suddenly realised that she’d never been set straight about the rumour Seth had spread about us. And now that Darius had told him to back off, there was no reason for me to keep up the pretence.

  “I never screwed Seth,” I said firmly. “He blackmailed me into saying that.”

  “Ha!” She whipped around to face me with her eyes flashing green and snake-like with her Medusa form. “Why would Sethy bother? You obviously spread your legs as often as your sister does. It’s not like he’d need to lie.”

  My hand whipped out before I could second guess myself and I slapped her across the face. She never saw it coming and her jaw dropped as she glared at me. “Don’t talk about my sister like that.”

  “Sir!” she screeched. “Darcy just hit me!”

  Everyone in the classroom was looking at us and I clenched my jaw, turning to Gabriel as I awaited my punishm
ent. Whatever it was, it was definitely worth it.

  “Did she now?” Gabriel mused. “And do you expect me to step in and fight your battles for you, Miss Major?”

  Tory shot me a grin from across the room and I couldn’t help but return it.

  “Argh, I hate you,” Kylie muttered and I scowled.

  “Now, I want you to replay your dream in your mind and hunt for the more subtle symbols hidden within it that you may have missed,” Gabriel called out. “Were there clouds in the sky or none? Was the ground beneath your feet soft or hard? Was it summer or winter? Think carefully, because this is where you’ll find real depth to your fortune telling. Everyone close your eyes and do it now.”

  I shut my eyes and tried to walk through the dream again and remembered there had been little white flowers under the trees around me.

  My Atlas buzzed and I cracked an eye, sliding it subtly off the desk and into my lap. I tapped on the screen and brought up Orion’s message, leaning back in my chair so no one else could see.

  Lance:

  Come to mine for dinner tonight. There’s a staff meeting at six so I can leave the door open for you while the place is empty.

  I grinned, about to reply when Gabriel swooped over towards me. “You have detention with me tonight remember. Seven ‘til eight.”

  I frowned, remembering no such thing, but he gave me a pointed look and I realised what this was about. My gift for Orion. “Of course,” I said as my heart lifted. “I’ll be there.”

  He nodded as he moved away, hiding a smirk as he scratched the corner of his mouth.

  I glanced back down at my Atlas to find another message.

  Lance:

  I forgot to buy dessert but luckily I have a can of whipped cream and a voracious appetite for you. So I won’t go hungry at least. Selfish fucker, aren’t I?

  A laugh escaped me and Kylie shot me a glare. I quickly deleted the messages and brought the dream guide up again, schooling my features.