“Pfft,” I grunted dismissively as I jogged back onto the pitch with Geraldine and headed for my spot in the water quarter.
“Well isn’t he quite the specimen,” she cooed as we ran. “I bet he could give Darius a run for his money in a most smouldering Dragon competition.”
I frowned at her but she was already running away from me, moving into the earth quarter to take up her starting position and I gritted my teeth.
Why is she looking at other guys at all?
“Let them have it Max!” my dad bellowed from the stands as I waited for the starting whistle and I looked up at him with a grin, ignoring the sour trout face on my step-mom.
The whistle blew and a ball shot out of the Water Hole in front of me covered in pale blue ice. I threw a gust of wind at the two Aurora water players, sending them both tumbling away as Gary Jones leapt up and snatched the ball.
I gave chase with a snarl so that I could defend Jones as they raced for the pit, forcing all thoughts of Geraldine from my head.
I held onto my anger though, aiming it solidly at the Aurora Academy team as I took them down one by one with savage tackles and brutal magic attacks.
We were three points up, but that was by no means a big enough lead to start getting cocky. So I got my head in the game and prepared to fight to the death.
The half time whistle blew and I smirked at Bernice as the Pitball team moved off of the field and we headed forward to start the cheer off against the Aurora Academy cheerleaders.
As the hosting team, we were going first and I twisted the solid gold ring on my index finger as I cut a direct line out towards our players. It was a chunky thing with a Dragon’s head carved into it and was far too big for me, but that didn’t really matter. I’d paired it with a ring on my middle finger which held a sapphire the size of a quail’s egg and one on my ring finger with an onyx stone carved with an image of the sun on it. I’d wanted to add necklaces, bracelets and even a gold and diamond tiara to the mix but I had looked kinda ridiculous wearing all of that so the rings were going to have to do. It didn’t matter that they were too big – a simple sticking charm made sure they weren’t going anywhere until I released the magic.
The rest of the cheerleaders fanned out as they slapped the players high fives or offered them hugs if they weren’t too filthy and I greeted Darcy and Geraldine enthusiastically before setting my sights on Darius.
I hurried over to him as he made it to the edge of the pitch and he turned back to look at me in surprise as I approached him.
Most of the Celestial Councillors had shown up to watch the match today but luckily, Lionel wasn’t able to attend. Xavier and Catalina sat in the VIP box, waving down at us enthusiastically and I waved back before giving Darius my full attention.
The entire right side of his face was covered in mud, not to mention the rest of him and his torn jersey fell open to reveal the firm cut of his abs and that perfect V which dipped beneath his waistband.
“You’re killing it out there,” I told him truthfully, flashing a sweet smile which instantly had him narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
We hadn’t exactly talked much since the whole three way thing and I was really curious about how he was feeling about that. But I was even more curious as to how he was going to react when he realised I’d been playing with the sack of treasure I stole from him oh so long ago. There were plenty of times when I’d thought about the little stash we’d hidden out in the woods and wondered why he hadn’t asked for it back and there was only one reason that made any sense – he assumed I didn’t have it anymore. I didn’t know if he thought I’d sold it or destroyed it, but I was about to remind him that I still had it and see how nice he was when his temper flared. I was pretty sure there was a guide book or two out there about not poking a Dragon, but I guessed I was just too stupid to care.
“Thanks. Are you looking for me to make some cheesy statement like I’m thinking of you every time I tackle someone?” he teased and I laughed, tossing my hair. He frowned at me and I had to admit that might have been overkill, but whatever.
“Nice to know I’m on your mind every time you have someone pinned beneath you in the mud,” I purred.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Mildred rising to her feet in the stands with a face like an angry Koala which had been hit by a car. I didn’t have long before she came over here to stake her claim on her Dragon, but I didn’t need much time.
“I think I’ve made my desire to pin you beneath me pretty clear,” Darius replied in a low voice which had my toes curling, but I wasn’t here to flirt, I was here to poke a Dragon.
“Good luck for the second half,” I said in a sweet voice, reaching out touch his bicep, making sure that the gold rings pressed against his skin.
Darius looked down the moment he felt his magic stir in response to the gold and his eyes widened in surprise which was quickly followed by a flash of fury as he recognised the jewellery from his stash which I’d stolen.
I whirled away from him with a dark laugh before he could do any more than suck in an angry breath and I jogged out to join my squad just as they started up a chant.
V – E – G – A!
She’ll wipe the floor with you today!
Veeeeega! Veeeeega!
I fell into the moves of the chant, clapping my hands as some of the others rustled pom-poms and Darcy offered me an appreciative smile from the side of the pitch. We had little chants like that for all of the team members, but we often forgot to call out for the Heirs.
The music suddenly dropped and 7 Rings by Ariana Grande burst from speakers around the stadium as we moved into a full routine filled with dance moves and tricks. The song choice turned out to be perfect for taunting a gold obsessed Dragon as well as performing a badass routine to and I couldn’t help but smirk like a psychopath throughout.
Darius stood glaring at me from the side of the pitch even when Seth tried to drag him into the locker rooms and my heart thundered at the pure fury in his eyes.
Remind me again why I thought poking the Dragon was a good idea because he looks ready to shit a brick!
I turned my eyes from him, grinning out at the crowd as I moved between my girls, running forward as I performed a set of hand springs which ended in me throwing a huge blast of multicoloured petals up into the air so that they fell over the crowd.
The other girls swarmed around me, casting their own magic in sweeping arcs over our heads, fire and water colliding and cancelling each other out in clouds of steam which the air Elementals whipped up into a mini tornado which caught a lot of the petals in it before throwing them all over the crowd again.
I ran forward and leapt up into the air with Phoenix Fire bursting from my outstretched palms, arching up toward the open roof high above us before I executed a perfect flip and used my air magic to land it.
The crowd erupted into cheers for us as I grinned at them, but my gaze was drawn back to Darius as he glared at me with his jaw tight and his Alpha Dragon bristling beneath his flesh.
Was this a terrible idea? Maybe. But did I need to see what he’d do when I backed him into a corner? Damn right I did.
Orion appeared beside him, cutting a dark glance my way before grabbing his arm and forcing him to head on down to the locker rooms for their half time pep talk and magic recharging.
A nervous laugh spilled from my lips as Darius finally tore that furious gaze from me and I wriggled my fingers in farewell as he backed away, the gold rings flashing in the light.
The look in his black-ringed eyes was filled with darkness and violence and the shadows inside of me were having a fucking field day over that, but I pushed them down hard, refusing to rise.
Darius might have been trying to remain calm and considerate towards me up until now, but he didn’t have to. And it wasn’t like I wanted an all out war – I was just sick of him tiptoeing around me.
He’d been doing a damn good job of keeping that beast within his flesh asleep around me si
nce I’d cursed us, but now I’d woken it again, I was actually a little excited to let myself get burnt.
I raced across the pitch with Max right on my heels in the second half of the game, chasing down the Aurora Earthraider, Rosalie Oscura, as she sprinted around the pit, howling at the sky like she already thought she’d won it.
We were in the final round of the game, the timer ticking down the last minutes and Zodiac were six points up. She was trying to buy time as every member of her team went on the defence and tried to score points by pinning our players in the mud.
Orion was bellowing at me to run faster and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted three of their teammates overwhelming Justin Masters and slamming him into the dirt. Our lead was down to five points and the little Wolf I was chasing howled again.
She was fucking fast, I’d give her that, but as Seth and Cal circled the other side of the pit to cut her off, she had to know she was done for.
“Come and get me boys!” she hollered, slowing down for a moment as we closed in on her.
I raced forward but suddenly, the ground beneath my feet disappeared as she carved a huge chasm into the earth all around her and the four of us dropped down into it immediately.
A snarl of rage escaped me as I cast water beneath my feet, using it to blast me up and out of the crater again as she raced away once more.
Seth sent vines to trip her, but she danced over them with a bark of laughter before tossing up a wall of dirt to block the fireball Cal shot her way.
I didn’t bother with magic, letting the other three aim their power at her as I ran for the kill.
She charged towards the pit as Darcy stood before it, arms wide as she cast a wall of air to block the ball. Rosalie threw her free hand out and suddenly, the earth beneath Darcy’s feet collapsed, causing her and all of the Pit Keepers to fall down into the Pit which was now twice the size it had been.
She threw the ball with a howl of glee half a second before I slammed into her and pinned her down in the mud with a deep growl.
I turned to see if she’d scored the Pit but as the ball shot towards it, it collided with an air shield, bouncing back off again as Darcy managed to maintain it despite her fall.
Seth howled wildly as he leapt up to catch the ball and Darcy dropped the shield half a second before he slammed it down into the Pit and the whistle blew to sound the end of the game and our victory.
“Are you going to stay on top of me all evening, stronzo? Because if that’s your plan, we could do with getting rid of some of these clothes,” Rosalie purred as she wriggled beneath me.
I snorted a laugh as my attention moved back to the girl I was crushing and I stood, offering her a hand up as I grinned my fucking head off. The moment she was standing, I released her and ran across the pitch with a roar of victory as my team all leapt on each other in celebration and we jumped up and down in a tangle of limbs.
Seth howled to the sky and every member of our team joined in a second before Lance jumped onto the pile too and we all fell back in the mud laughing.
I caught Darcy’s eye as she grinned at me and a deep laugh escaped me as I pulled her in for a hug. “Nice work on that shield, Gwen,” I teased, scrubbing my knuckles into her hair as she shoved me off.
“Nice work on that tackle, Dari,” she joked back just as Lance leapt on me.
“You fucking beauty!” he snarled, grabbing my face between his hands and placing a rough, scratchy kiss on my forehead as he straddled me in the mud.
The other Heirs all started piling on top of us one after another and when we were finally done exchanging hugs and congratulations, we stood to accept the applause from the crowd.
Rosalie Oscura was running back and forth on the far side of the pitch, howling excitedly as the students from Aurora Academy went wild for her. And I guessed for the lowest funded academy in Solaria, coming that damn close to beating us was almost as good as winning. They’d definitely stepped up their game in the last few years and we’d have to be even more prepared for them next season.
The cheerleaders were all up, jumping around and calling out our names and I caught Roxy’s eye as she shook a pair of sparkly pom-poms at me and called my name out along with the rest.
My gaze snagged on my rings on her fingers as she continued to flaunt them at me and a growl rumbled through my chest.
I took off across the pitch towards her as Nova’s voice rang out announcing the final scores as if no one could read the scoreboard for themselves.
“I want my treasure back,” I said in a low voice, gravel coating my tone as my Dragon shifted beneath my skin. I came to a halt right in front of her and she gave me a killer smile which said she’d been dying for me to ask.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Roxy replied sweetly, moving to stand in front of me with her hands on her hips, pom-poms and all.
My gaze lingered on the ribbon she still had tied around her neck. I’d never asked a girl to cheer for me before and when she’d said yes, I’d had to fight hard not to grin my fucking head off and sweep her into my arms. Ignoring the fact that the stars would get pissy obviously. And I’d thought that she was happy about it too. So why had she chosen to do this shit with the treasure now? Why was she so fucking insistent on drawing out the rage in me, the worst parts of me, no matter how hard I tried to shield her from them?
My gaze trailed down over her navy and silver cheer uniform before I could help it and my gut tightened as I noticed the letters DAR painted on the side of her toned waist. Did she really paint my name on her skin? And why do I like the idea of that so much?
Roxy tossed the pom-poms and folded her arms as she waited for me to reply and I managed to read the rest of the letters which curled around her side CY. Right. Idiot. Of course she wouldn’t paint my name on her body.
“You know exactly what I mean. Where’s the rest of my treasure?” I demanded, taking a step forward. But before I could reach her, Xavier and Mother appeared, throwing their arms around me in congratulations.
Roxy offered me a taunting smirk and slipped away into the crowd before I could stop her.
Where the fuck is she going?
What the fuck is she playing at?
And where the fuck is my gold??
By the time I’d received a round of congratulations from what felt like every single fucker at the school and said goodbye to my family, she was long gone.
My jaw ticked as anger trickled through my limbs, seriously dampening my post-win buzz. Taking a Dragon’s gold was like taking the moon from a Werewolf. It was just wrong on so many levels and I couldn’t let it lie. Not now. Not knowing that she still had it. I’d tried to make peace with the idea that it was gone before now, but this was taking things too fucking far.
I was more than a little relieved when the team finally headed down to The Orb for the after party. We were still filthy, our uniforms torn and bloody from the match but it was tradition for us to turn up like this, bathed in the filth of our glory.
We arrived in The Orb as a team, the rest of the school screaming and cheering us, the divide between Heir and Vega supporters forgotten for once in favour of something much more important. Pitball.
There was music blaring and people were dancing and drinking everywhere. My gaze instantly locked on Roxy as she danced above the crowd in the centre of the room, her cheerleading uniform clinging to her body like a second skin.
For a moment I couldn’t help but think about the time we’d stolen from the stars beneath the lake after Seth and Max’s party. It had been a beautiful form of torture which had haunted me daily ever since. I only wished it could have been ours alone. Or that I could have spoken with her properly afterwards. We hadn’t discussed it since, though Cal kept making offhand comments about setting something up again. But I didn’t even know if she wanted that. She’d been the one to say no to me after all. So maybe she’d just been taken by surprise that night and the ache she was forced to feel for me by the stars had combined
with the drinks we’d had to make her give in to temptation. Or maybe it had been Cal. Though it hadn’t felt like that. It had felt like her attention was on me most of the time. But maybe I was just bullshitting myself because I still couldn’t bear the idea of them together.
An arm landed around my shoulders and a full Dragon growl escaped me as Caleb yanked me against his chest with a broad grin. His eyebrows went up in response and he released me before I could bite his damn head off.
“Thinking about it again, then?” he teased, pushing a hand through his mud stained hair.
I grunted in agreement, not trusting myself not to snap at him as I fought to wrangle my own anger back. It wasn’t his fault. I knew what he’d done was for us and I knew there was no chance at all of me having her to myself with the stars haunting us, but I just…
“Fuck,” I cursed, swiping a hand over my face. I couldn’t cope with my jealousy alongside my rage over the fucking treasure and the never ending agony of knowing that I would never be able to call Roxy mine anyway.
“If it’s got you this knotted up, we don’t have to do it again,” Cal said with a frown, pushing a beer into my hand. “I was trying to help, not make you feel worse.”
My heart dropped at that suggestion and the shadows suddenly reared up within me, offering a pit of oblivion to dive into to escape this hopeless feeling. Part of me wanted to agree with him. To say I didn’t want to try and do it again because I couldn’t take having him there with us too, that it cut me open and made me bleed all the time I was with them. But then I considered the alternative. Not having her at all. Never getting to feel her body against mine or kiss her full lips or make her heart pound to a rhythm that matched my own. And surely that was worse. But either way, it broke me. Either way, she wasn’t really mine at all.
“I know.” I blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s not…I’m not angry with you really. I’m angry with myself. If I’d just done something different, so many things…”
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 44