Darius gazed intently at me as he continued to lean forward with his forearm pressed to the tree above my head, his other hand sliding back up over my chest, caressing my neck before he was holding my cheek in his grasp. He cupped my jaw with his fingertips and teased them into my hair, causing goosebumps to blossom all over my flesh.
His magic shifted to the surface of his skin and the deep heat of it called to my own power like they were one and the same, destined to be together always. My walls fell away and his magic tumbled beneath my flesh, filling me up and burning in the best possible way.
A soft moan escaped me and his dark eyes flared as he kept me captive in his gaze. Being this close to him hurt in the sweetest way and made my broken heart bleed.
We were standing so close to each other that I could feel the heat of his body pressing against mine. My hands seemed to move of their own accord as I reached for him, my palms sliding up and over his hard chest before landing against his pecs like I intended to push him away. But I didn’t. I just touched him as his magic washed through me, blinding me, intoxicating me, branding my soul as his from the inside out.
My gaze was still hooked on his eyes. Our foreheads still pressed together and his lips so close to mine that I could almost feel the movement of them as he spoke.
“I love you, Roxy,” he said in a rough, dark voice which held no room for lies or falsehood, no space for tricks of cruelty. Only the truth. I could feel it just as keenly as I could feel the rush of his magic beneath my skin.
A tear slipped from my eye, searing a burning trail along my cheek as it spilled from my flesh and fell between us.
How many times had I ached to hear someone say that to me? How many times had I wondered if anyone even could love me like that? I might have denied it to myself more times than I could count, but I’d been aching for this for a long time. Needing it more than I’d ever wanted to admit, more than I’d ever needed anything. And not just from anyone. I needed it from him.
“And I know it doesn’t change anything. That it can’t change anything,” he growled. “But I’m going to prove it to you. I’m going to do everything I can to make it up to you, for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes. I’ll never forgive myself for bringing this curse on us. And I’m never going to stop loving you either.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, I didn’t know how to process it, what to do with it. Did I love him? How could I love a beast who’d tortured me? What would that make me if I did? Just a broken, fractured, beaten, stupid girl who’d fallen for her tormentor. But maybe I was all of those things. Maybe I was worse because I’d hurt him too while placing all of the blame on him. Maybe we were just two sides of the same coin.
His lips brushed against mine and another moan escaped me as I tilted my chin to meet him.
It was the faintest touch of his mouth to mine and yet it felt like an earthquake was taking place in my soul to rival the one rocking the ground at our feet.
My lips parted and he leaned in, his body pressing against mine and his presence overwhelming me until he was all I could see, smell, feel, taste and it was just too good to pull away.
A crash of thunder sounded overhead as my arms slid around his neck and I moaned as he drove me back against the tree, his lips moving with mine as a desperate kind of hunger passed between us.
The Pegasus herd whinnied and squealed as lightning flashed bright enough to show through my closed eyelids and my heart pounded as I drank in the fragile moment before it burned out.
A huge groan sounded and the earth beneath our feet shuddered as the sound of more panicked Pegasuses reached us and people started shouting our names.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I kissed him harder, my whole body tangling with his as I threw an air shield up over our heads, pouring my magic into it as I fought to buy us just a few more seconds.
He kissed me like he’d die if he didn’t, like the only reason his heart was beating at all was so that it could be mine, and I kissed him like the world could cave in around us and I wouldn’t even care so long as I was still in his arms when it ended.
Lightning flashed beyond my closed eyelids again and we were surrounded by screams and whinnies, a stampede of hooves racing to escape us as an echoing groan tore from the trees to our right.
Something slammed into the shield above us with a force so hard that I gasped, falling back out of Darius’s arms as the two of us looked up to find the enormous trunk of a fallen tree bearing down on my magic right above our heads.
“I meant what I said,” Darius growled passionately before stepping back, breaking the contact between us and fracturing my shattered heart once more.
He backed away and I did too, holding his gaze as we made it to opposite sides of my air shield and out from beneath the falling tree.
I released a shaky breath before dropping my shield and letting the tree crash to the forest floor where we’d just been standing.
It hit the ground with an echoing boom which sent dirt and gravel flying up in a cloud between us and stole my view of him across the clearing.
By the time the dust settled, he was gone. And I was left with a desperate ache in my heart which I knew would never go away.
It was waiting for me when I exited the bathroom. Someone had pushed the letter with the Court of Solaria seal on it under my door and I dropped to my knees with my heart cramming into my throat as I opened it up and read it.
Dear Miss Gwendalina (Darcy) Vega,
You are hereby summoned to the Court of Solaria on March 30th for the trial of Lance Azriel Orion for breaking Law 303 of the constitution. In accordance with said law (outlined below*), you are required to provide a statement to determine the fate of the defendant.
The High Court Judge’s ruling will also decide if any motion need be taken against you.
Please note: your position at the prestigious Zodiac Academy has now been brought into question.
You MUST appear on the date of your court summons or a default judgement will be passed on you based on the evidence provided in court.
Regards,
Ravis Darkice
High Court Judge of the Court of Solaria
Griffin, Libra, Justice of Fae
*Law 303 of the Education Sector of Solaria: Any teacher or teaching aid in the position of authority over Fae studying at their institution of employment are prohibited from engaging in sexual relationships with their students on punishment of arrest and prosecution.
I wiped the tears from my eyes before they could fall, finding I didn’t have the strength to stand up. Everything hurt. And the shadows kept calling to me, begging me to dive into them, to take some relief from this pain. But I refused them again and again. I needed this burning agony, this rage. Because I was going to turn it against Seth.
I’d skipped lessons all day again, unable to bear facing the world. I still didn’t have my Atlas so I couldn’t check FaeBook, but I could have guessed I was plastered all over it by now. The rumours about me and Orion would be rife. The story thrown out of proportion a thousand times. Maybe the reason I hadn’t left this room yet was because the second I did, this would all be real.
Guilt ate at me for snapping at Tory. I hadn’t meant to say the things I did. Well, certainly not in the way they’d come out. But I just wanted the best for her so badly and it hurt me that she’d thrown away any chance at love when she’d defied the stars. I would have given anything for the stars to choose me and Lance as Elysian Mates. But it wasn’t to be. The stars had been laughing at us all along. And maybe Tory was right after all. Fate was bullshit. The fact that the stars would offer us something so sweet only to rip it away again made me sick to my core.
But I wasn’t done fighting for us yet. I had to talk to Orion. I had to find a way to call him. To know that he was alright. To plan a way out of this together.
I pressed my hands to my eyes, willing away the tears that threatened to start falling again.
It was almos
t seven o’clock and everyone would be heading down to The Howling Meadow for Elemental Combat class. I was going to walk out of this room and face my demons. One in particular, in fact. Seth Capella. That was what gave me the strength to get off the floor.
I headed to the mirror, wiping my eyes and using a vanity spell to hide the blotchy mess my face had been reduced to. I wore a mocha coloured crop top and matching yoga pants. And I decided not to bother with a sweater as I strode to the window and shoved it open, planning to fly. I leapt forward into the cool breeze and my wings burst free of my back in a fiery inferno, seeming to burn hotter with my anger as I swept around Aer Tower and headed over the trees, my eyes falling on all of the students gathering down below in the meadow.
I set my gaze on the boulders in the middle and plummeted towards them, dropping out of the sky like an arrow let loose from a bow. People started pointing as they spotted me and I clenched my jaw, determinedly ignoring them as I landed in front of Seth, not even stumbling a single step. All four of the Heirs were shirtless and covered in a dusting of dirt like they’d been fighting in the mud already.
“Darcy,” Tory said in surprise, a note of hope in her voice as she rushed to my side. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I answered truthfully, a crowd gathering around us as I faced the Heirs.
“By the eye of the storm on Jupiter,” Geraldine breathed. “Perhaps we should go for a ramble in the forest, Darcy? We could all have a heart to heart.”
“I’m fine right here,” I said firmly, stepping toward Seth and his brows pulled together. “Well?” I demanded as a hush fell over the class. Even Washer had stepped up to watch, apparently not planning to direct anyone away from staring at me. “Aren’t you going to say something? Aren’t you going to cheer and laugh and congratulate yourself for being such a fucking clever boy?”
Darius kicked away from the nearest boulder, his forehead creasing. “Seth?” he asked, like it hadn’t occurred to him that his beloved friend would be the one to throw Orion to the wolves. But who better to do that than the Alpha of the pack himself?
“You think I told the FIB?” Seth balked and mutters broke out in the crowd as the news that he’d known about me and Orion moved from ear to ear.
I released a bitter laugh. “I know you did. Who else would do it? My sister wouldn’t have done it and Darius is Lance’s best friend. So who does that leave, huh? Just a heartless Wolf with a sad little vendetta against me which he can’t fulfil like a man. Like a Fae,” I spat, raising my hands in preparation to fight him. I wanted him on his ass, but more than that, I wanted the truth. I wanted the whole school to know that this piece of shit had wronged me. And that I was going to destroy him for it.
“Why would I give you up?” Seth asked innocently and Max and Caleb moved back a few steps, sensing the fight that was going to break out.
“Maybe you should stop throwing the blame around, Darcy,” Kylie’s voice cut into me and I whipped my head in her direction, my wings casting her in an orange glow as they flared hotter. “You’re the one who spread your legs for grades. Maybe you should point the finger at yourself.”
I bared my teeth, stepping in her direction and she backed up into her friends with a look of fright in her eyes. Whatever I looked like right now, it must have been enough to strike fear in her heart. But she wasn’t who I’d come here for.
I turned to Seth and Tory gave me a nod of encouragement. She knew I needed this. If it didn’t have to be Fae on Fae, I had no doubt she’d beat his ass alongside me. But this was my fight. And I was going to win it even if it cost me every drop of magic I had to give.
“I didn’t do it,” Seth lowered his voice so only I could hear, stepping closer and reaching for my arm.
I yanked it away from him, horrified that he’d consider touching me. Lying to me. After everything, could he not even just admit that he was the one to get Orion arrested? That he was the one to dig through my flesh with sharp claws and tear my heart out?
“Fine, you wanna fight?” He raised his hands as the wind twisted between his fingers. “Then don’t hold back.”
I let my wings fall away then threw out my hands, forcing a huge surge of magic into them and releasing a tornado at him that launched him through the air. The crowd backed up as the storm tossed him to the ground with a hard whack, but he was up again in seconds, throwing his fist into the earth with a smirk on his features.
My heart drummed against my ears as the ground split in two and I started running toward him, trying to close the distance between us before it tore apart completely. A savage snarl ripped from my throat as the dirt tumbled away into a huge abyss beneath me. I threw out my palms, casting cushions of air to catch me, jumping from one to the next as I raced across the space dividing us with adrenaline zipping through my veins.
His long hair whipped around him in the breeze and his eyes were set on me in a way that was goading and hungry. I despised that look. Like he wanted this. I was going to make him regret every single second of that thought. He’d be bleeding and begging by the time I was done.
When there was just a meter parting us and the huge chasm echoed below me, I leapt into the air with a yell of determination, casting ice blades into my palms as I fell towards him.
A vine wrapped around my ankle before I made it and I was yanked down into the pit, falling and falling, a strangled scream stuck in my throat before my back impacted with the dirt. I was twenty feet below ground and staring up at Seth as he stood on the edge of the chasm, a twisted smile on his face.
“Fuck you!” I cried, sending the ice blades spearing from my hands towards him with another wave of rage crashing through my chest.
They shattered into shards as they collided with his air shield, but he’d been distracted long enough that I was back on my feet, causing the air to pummel him from behind so he was thrown head first into the pit with me. My heart soared but he caught himself before he hit the ground, landing lightly on his feet.
I dove at him with the force of a hurricane at my back, tackling him with the ferocity of a rabid animal.
He hit the ground and I straddled him with victory singing in my ears, grabbing his throat and throwing a fist into his face. An air shield covered it and I swore as my knuckles impacted with it, but I didn’t give up. I kept slamming my fists into it, covering them in flames as I battled to break through the shield and they started to bleed. He laughed wildly, getting cocky, but that was when the shield cracked and my fist slammed into his cheek, sending his head whipping sideways.
“Fuck,” he gasped then threw me off of him with sheer force, rolling over and pinning me down into the mud with the hard plain of his chest, his hands latching around my wrists and holding them still.
“Why did you do it?!” I demanded, battling to get my hands free as I hunted his eyes for a crack in his façade. This bullshit lie he was feeding me. And why? What difference did it make now?
“I didn’t do it,” he snarled, coming nose to nose with me, not blinking even once so all I could see was the depths of his earthy brown eyes. “I kept your secret. I never told anyone. I never even planned to.”
I encouraged fire to bloom down my arms where he held me and he let go with a dogish whimper, lurching upright to sit over my hips. I cast a vine from the ground, latching it around his throat and yanking him backwards so his spine hit the dirt once more. I was on my feet in seconds, holding my hand above him as I tightened the vine mercilessly, my breathing coming raggedly as he suffered beneath me.
The shadows stirred under my flesh, urging me on, whispering terrible, deadly, enticing things that I wanted to lean into in that moment.
Then the ground swallowed Seth whole and he disappeared into the mud, making my lips pop open as I hunted for him.
Dirt suddenly fell over me in a tremendous flood and I gasped, staring up above me as Seth stood at the top of the pit, covered in mud and casting a tumult of dirt down as he tried to bury me alive. He must have made a t
unnel in the earth right to the top – asshole!
The weight of the earth slowed me as it pressed up to my thighs already, but I wasn’t beat yet. I clawed my way out then lifted one hand in the air and used the wind to drag me out. I shot towards the sky, my eyes pinned on Seth as I raced towards him. He leapt back a moment before my feet touched the ground and I collided with the air shield surrounding him. He smirked that awful smirk which turned my blood to ice and a growl poured from my lips.
“Go on Sethy! Put the teacher fucker in her place!” Kylie called and her little friends started laughing.
I threw everything I had at Seth’s shield, spears of wood, a raining shower of ice shards, a storm of air, but it didn’t give.
“Did Orion take pity on you, Darcy?” Marguerite’s voice called, setting my cheeks on fire. “Did he let you suck his cock and let you pass Cardinal Magic so no one would see what a loser you are?”
Tory waved a hand at her and Marguerite was knocked to the ground with a gust of air, her face smashing into the dirt.
“Woops, careful Marguerite,” Tory smirked.
I blinked to try and refocus, pouring more magic at Seth’s shield as I continued to blast it with everything I had.
He stepped back, watching me silently as I hounded forward with every spell I cast. It occurred to me that he couldn’t fight back. He was using all of his magic to keep that shield in place. So if I could only shatter it…
Exhaustion was gnawing at my muscles, making everything feel heavy, but adrenaline kept me going. And I realised Tory and my friends were cheering me on, screaming and clapping on the side lines. My heart lifted slightly at the sound and I focused my mind, trying to figure out how I was going to break his defences.
The answer came to me clearly. Fire. It was the most violent of Elements. And it lived in my core like a molten slice of the sun.
I cast two whips of fire in my hands that were as blindingly white hot as my rage. I knew I was running into the last reserves of my magic, so I had to make this count. I wielded the two huge whips with anger coursing through every inch of my flesh then brought them down on Seth’s shield with curses pouring from my lips at the effort it took.
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 51