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

by Caroline Peckham

  “Believe what you want, Seth,” Darcy said, sounding tired of me. I’d probably be tired of me too if I was her. “Did you bring me out here just to try and convince me I’d be an asshole if we traded lives?”

  A whine left my throat and I clutched the railing, forcing my gaze away from her again and trying to set free the emotions I needed to offload. To slit open the wounds I so desperately wanted to heal. Maybe this wasn’t about putting on a good show for the moon. Something was plaguing me about her lately. That if I didn’t deal with all the shit that had happened between us, I was never going to be worthy of the throne when I claimed it. I’d just be an unworthy fuck up who didn’t deserve to rule his people. So it needed to be done. But I just couldn’t…dammit why is this so hard?

  After so many years of stifling and repressing my emotions, it was all locked down too tight. But I had to try.

  “I don’t want you to hate me,” I forced out, my shoulders tensing, stealing a glance at her. She looked suspicious of course. “So…that’s what I wanted to say,” I finished weakly. Fuck, that was the worst apology ever. In fact, it wasn’t even an apology. It was a statement. But even as I tried to think of a way to actually say sorry, the word got stuck in my throat and I heard my mother’s voice ringing clearly in my head.

  Don’t ever let your enemies see you have a heart.

  The box of emotions inside me ceased to rattle and I drew in a breath as I became numb all over again.

  “You don’t want me to hate you?” she echoed hollowly. “After you cut off my hair? Humiliated me? Hurt me? After you blackmailed me and my boyfriend?”

  “Boyfriend,” I tsked, unable to stop myself as a surge of anger rose in me. I rounded on her with a snarl and butted against a solid air shield she’d cast around herself. But I wasn’t aiming to hurt with magic anyway, I was going to do it with words. “You’re living in a fantasy, Darcy. You’re a Princess of Solaria. You and your boyfriend are going to end in a fiery fucking blaze if you don’t stop it before it’s too late.”

  Her eyes flared with fury. “Is that a threat?”

  “It’s a warning,” I growled. “Don’t be an idiot.”

  “I don’t need advice from you,” she snipped. “I know what I’m doing.”

  She went to storm away, but I cast a wall of air in front of the doorway so she couldn’t and she turned back with her teeth bared. She was looking more and more like a true Fae these days. There was hardly any fear showing in her expression anymore. And when she got the last of it under control, she was going to be a force to be reckoned with.

  “I know better. I know this world. And I know what they’ll do to him when it goes to hell,” I growled. “And do you know what will happen to you?” I stalked closer and that venom in her eyes seeped over my flesh, making it sizzle and burn.

  “What?” she demanded on a breath.

  “You’ll fall from grace. You won’t get backing for the throne. The papers will rip you apart. Seizing power is pointless if no one in the kingdom will work for you and help you rule the entirety of Solaria. Are you willing to lose your chance at that because of him?”

  It wasn’t like I wanted her to rule. Maybe I should have been encouraging her to keep fucking Orion and wait patiently for her imminent downfall. But I just didn’t have it in me to swallow the truth. She deserved to know what she was risking.

  A moment of tense silence stretched between us and I got to see what she was truly afraid of. It was written in every corner of her beautiful damn face. She wasn’t scared for herself, she was scared for him.

  “Leave Lance alone,” she warned in a powerful voice. “If you want to take me on, then do it with everything you’ve got. But leave him out of this.”

  “Might not be my choice to make in the end, babe,” I said with a shrug, dropping the wall of air.

  She stared at me for a long moment and I opened my mouth to go on but she walked inside, taking out her Atlas, no doubt to text her Professor and tell him what a fuckwit I was.

  And the award for the worst apology ever goes to…

  I hated to admit it, but the Heirs really knew how to throw a party.

  The venue they’d created for the celebrations was seriously cool. The huge room crafted from a combination of earth and water magic took my breath away and I couldn’t help but marvel at everything. From the walls built out of crisscrossing vines and layers of glimmering ice to the waterfalls which cascaded over boulders glimmering with veins of precious metals inside them, it was breathtaking.

  The building was half on the lakeshore and half over the water itself, the surface of the lake frozen into a dance floor painted with patterns in the frost. At the far side of the room, a portion of the floor was missing and there were two pools filled with people who had chosen to go for a dip. One side had been imbued with fire magic so that the water was hot and perfect for the countless people lazing in it while the other was ice cold and gave access into the rest of the lake where Sirens in their shifted form were diving in and out of the water.

  A bar had been set up using what looked like a tree that had been grown into the perfect shape to provide all manner of cocktails as the bartenders put on a real show of mixing them, adding magic to more than a few of the recipes as they went.

  Geraldine dragged me through the dancing bodies over to the bar as she wafted a hand dramatically to cool herself down.

  “Well, if I don’t just feel like a turnip in a sack of potatoes,” she gasped. “Sorry to be a Betsy Buzzkill but I just need a breather for a moment.”

  I laughed as I followed her to the bar and she barked at the people gathered there so that they moved aside to make room for us. And I mean she genuinely barked like a dog, channelling her Order form and damn near giving me a heart attack as the huge sound rang out from her lips.

  “Two Footloose Faradays,” she ordered and the bartender grinned as he began mixing her order.

  “What’s that?” I asked, watching as he added tequila to grapefruit juice then threw in some other dashes of colourful drinks and a few raspberries too before casting a spell over the canister then closing it up and beginning up an impressive routine of tossing it into the air and spinning around as he caught it again.

  “It’s a magical cocktail which helps you to lower your inhibitions,” Max’s voice came from behind me and I turned to look as him and Darius moved to stand beside us at the bar. “And can you make enough of those for all of us?” he added, catching the bartender’s eye.

  My mouth dried out as I looked up at Darius and he looked back at me with enough heat in his gaze to set my core burning molten hot.

  I’d chosen a cute skirt and top combo in a bold flower pattern which left my midriff on show. The top buttoned in the front and I’d left a few open to offer up a view of the girls in my push-up bra which Darius clearly noticed as he closed in on me.

  He took a spot right beside me at the bar with Max on his other side and my gaze drank in the sight of his muscles straining against the confines of the black button down he was wearing. Several buttons were undone at his throat and I tried not to think too much about what hid beneath them.

  “You look incredible tonight, Roxy,” he said in a low voice which sent a shiver running right down my spine.

  “You scrub up pretty nicely too, Dragon boy,” I teased with a seductive edge to my voice.

  I didn’t know why I was bothering to flirt with him considering our situation, but it was impossible to resist with him looking like that.

  The bartender lined up four of the pale pink cocktails in tall glasses before us and I glanced at mine hesitantly. After the last magical drink I’d consumed had resulted in me grinding up against anyone and everyone I could get near, I was hesitant to repeat the incident. Especially as I remembered being all over Diego of all people. Bleugh. Even drunk Tory wouldn’t have made that mistake. Just imagine screwing him with that creepy grandma soul hat on. Ew.

  “Happy birthday,” I said, shifting my gaze t
o Max and giving him a smile which was pretty close to genuine. “Are you having fun?”

  “I am,” he said with a wide smile, his gaze slipping from me to Geraldine as she totally checked him out. He was wearing a red button down and had a silver crown sitting on top of his mohawk with the words birthday boy scrawled across it. “Here’s to me,” Max said as he lifted his drink to his lips and took a long swig of it.

  “Bottoms up!” Geraldine announced as she drank hers too, swallowing again and again until the whole glass was gone. “Down the hatch milady!”

  I laughed at her and she bounced her hip into mine, knocking me sideways so that my arm brushed against Darius’s and I glanced up at him again as I shifted away quickly.

  “Aren’t you drinking yours?” I asked as his pale pink drink stayed sitting on the bar beside mine.

  “I’m concerned about what I might be tempted to do if my inhibitions are lowered,” he replied, his gaze dropping to my mouth for a moment before hooking on my eyes again.

  “Oh, I see,” I said, nodding my head. “So you’re chicken shit?”

  He expelled a breath which was almost a laugh and shook his head. “Hardly.”

  “Is it more like you can dish it out but you can’t take it then? It’s okay to give me a potion that made me grind up against a bunch of random dudes in my underwear so that you could sell me out to the press and tell lies about me, but you don’t wanna risk your own precious reputation on doing the same?”

  Darius pursed his lips, but Max spoke up before he could.

  “Technically I’m the one who put that potion in your drink and Darius actually tried to stop Seth from sending the footage to the press - but he was too late.”

  “Oh you devilish scoundrel!” Geraldine chastised as I looked up at Darius in surprise. I hadn’t known that, I thought it had been all him if I was being totally honest. Though he clearly knew all about the plan and didn’t try to stop it until after the fact so I still had a right to bear a grudge. “That move was beyond low! You don’t see my ladies using tricks and lies to win this fight, do you? They are the epitome of poise and decorum and-”

  “Would it make you feel better if I drank this then?” Darius asked me, cutting her off. “An eye for an eye and all that.”

  “It’s hard to say,” I replied, tossing my long hair over my shoulder as I glanced down at the drinks which twinkled with pink light as the magic swirled within the liquid.

  Darius reached out and grabbed his drink as if I’d challenged him to, draining it in one as I watched his throat bob with each swallow. He took mine next and lifted it to his lips, ignoring the bartender’s warning that drinking two would have more potent effects.

  “So?” he asked me as he placed the glass down. “Have I paid my dues over this incident?”

  “I’ll be needing a half naked picture of you grinding up against some people you’d never want to hook up with before I’d say that,” I hedged, my lips twitching in a smile. “And you’d want to get that posted online for good measure.”

  “Fair enough, but Father won’t like it,” he said, dead serious as he looked out into the crowd for someone who would fit the bill and began unhooking some more of his shirt buttons.

  My lips parted in surprise as I realised he was really willing to do it and I wondered if the drinks could have taken effect that quickly or if he actually felt bad enough about doing that to me to try and make us even.

  I was almost tempted to let him go through with it, but my gut tightened at the thought of Lionel punishing him for this game and I reached out to stop him, my fingers curling around his bicep as he looked down at me with a confused frown.

  “Forget it, I was only joking,” I said with the hint of a smile.

  A girl stumbled as she walked past us, tripping over her heels and falling right between us so that my hand was knocked off of his arm. She smacked into the bar and cried out in shock a second before shifting into her Sphinx form and tearing through her dress.

  “Fuck biscuits,” she cursed on a hiccup.

  Her underwear had actually survived the transformation which meant I had to try really damn hard not to laugh my head off at the sight of her huge lion ass wrapped in a black thong with her tail poking out the side of it.

  She staggered away as some of her equally drunken friends hurried to help her while murmuring apologies and I looked back at Darius as we exchanged a smile. On occasion, the way the stars chose to part us was hella funny.

  He looked like there was something else he wanted to say, but I caught Geraldine’s hand and slipped away from him into the crowd before the roof could cave in on us or something as I tugged her back towards the dancing.

  Darcy and Sofia spotted us and they moved to join us in the middle of the dancefloor where we carved a space for ourselves and danced to the beat of the music as I lost myself in the warmth of my friends’ company.

  The time slipped by and eventually someone rolled out an enormous cake with twenty tiers covered in candles as everyone moved to sing happy birthday to Seth and Max.

  They both grinned as the chorus of voices filled the space and for a moment it didn’t feel like we were taking part in some battle for the throne. It just felt like we were a group of teenagers enjoying a birthday party exactly like everyone else in the world would. I mean sure, most people didn’t have twenty tier cakes and a table so overloaded with gifts that it had actually caved in, let alone over a thousand people in attendance, but blowing out candles and singing that song was universal.

  Cake was handed out and I took a huge bite of vanilla goodness with a moan of appreciation as I grinned at my friends, icing smearing across my cheeks.

  “I have a new game I want to play with you,” Caleb’s voice came from behind me and I turned to look at him as I sucked icing from my fingers.

  “Is that so?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

  “Yeah. But it’s a surprise,” he said, leaning close to me and licking my cheek to get some more of the icing.

  I laughed in surprise, batting him off as I wiped my cheek to remove his saliva. “What are you up to?

  “How about you just come with me and find out? We made a deal, so you know it’s nothing bad,” he reminded me, his navy eyes twinkling with a secret.

  I glanced at Darcy and she shrugged. “Go have fun if you want to,” she said and I didn’t miss the undertone which said she thought I might hook up with him. But was I really going to go there with Caleb again? I hated to admit it, but the only person I really thought about like that these days was Darius. But that was an impossibility now. So was I going to just become celibate because I couldn’t have him? The scariest thing about that question was that I didn’t even know the answer.

  If the stars have stolen sex from me then is life even worth living??

  “Look, just come with me and see what I’ve got planned,” Caleb urged. “If you’re not up for it you only have to say the word and I’ll shoot you back here in the blink of an eye.”

  “You seriously won’t tell me?” I asked, looking up at him again, my heart beating a little faster in response to the wild look in his eyes.

  “I promise you’ll enjoy it,” he replied. “But you’ll have to trust me, sweetheart. Can you manage that?”

  I looked into his navy eyes, a playful smile toying around my lips as he suckered me in to whatever game he was playing. “I suppose I can. At least while you’re bound by our deal,” I replied slowly.

  “Come on then.” He offered me his hand and I took it, waving at Darcy and letting him tow me out of the party.

  He didn’t release me and I noticed a few lingering looks at our intertwined hands, but he didn’t let go and I didn’t care about what people thought of me anyway. I was already the sex addict who Darius Acrux had said no to, so what difference did it make if they thought I was sucking Caleb’s dick too? It wasn’t like I hadn’t done it before anyway.

  He led me along the lakeshore, looking back over his shoulder at m
e with a grin that was so filled with trouble that adrenaline surged into my veins. The music faded away behind us as we followed the path around the curve of the lake and Caleb kept shooting me excited glances as we went which had anticipation pooling in my core.

  I wanted to lose myself in whatever trouble he had planned. The smile which was currently stamped on my lips wasn’t easy to come by recently and Caleb had always been able to make me laugh. It was so hard for me to feel happy ever since I’d become Star Crossed with Darius, and even if he only helped me forget for a little while, it was still better than lingering in what ifs.

  Caleb pulled his Atlas from his pocket as we walked, typing out a quick message on it and giving me a furtive look as he angled it so that I couldn’t see what he was writing before hitting send and pocketing it again.

  A few moments later it pinged in his pocket and he glanced at the reply he’d gotten, once again holding it so I couldn’t see before smirking as he put it away.

  I figured he was hoping I’d ask who that had been, but I didn’t. It didn’t make much difference to me anyway and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of refusing to answer.

  He suddenly turned off of the path, moving towards a group of boulders clustered on the lake shore and I frowned in confusion as he led me around them and revealed a door hidden between the stones.

  “What is this place?” I asked as he released my hand to open the door.

  A long, dark staircase stretched away ahead of us, leading down to somewhere beneath the lake.

  “This is an amplifying chamber,” he explained. “It’s a place created with an entirely equal blend of all four Elements, making the space inside entirely neutral. The natural amplifying qualities of the water above makes it easier to take a peek at what the stars have in store.”

  “So you want to take me fortune telling?” I asked in surprise.

  “No,” he said, smirking like a fox who’d just found his way into the hen house. “Put these on and I’ll explain more once we’re inside.” Caleb pulled a set of bangles from his back pocket which I recognised from the fun house at the Fairy Fair. They would cut off my access to my magic if I wore them.