“What doesn’t?” I pushed.
“Lionel is drawing closer to finding a very special artifact,” she said, her dark eyes brightening with a hunger that had nothing to do with her Order.
My pulse started to race as I waited for her to finish the dramatic pause and give me the answer. This had to be what we’d seen the Nymphs hunting for, why Lionel had tasked them to search the entire kingdom.
“The Imperial Star,” she breathed and my heart jolted sickeningly.
“It’s a myth,” I shot back immediately, but the fervour in her gaze made me doubt it. As if they had some proof I wasn’t aware of.
“It’s no such thing. It’s real. And we’re drawing closer to it day by day. Once Lionel has it, he can wield it to ensure him and his loyal subjects are invulnerable to other Fae’s power. No one in Solaria will be able to unseat him from the throne. All will fall beneath his unconquerable power.” She pulled out of my grip, heading to the door and slipping through it without another word, leaving me with that bomb going off in my face.
The Imperial Star had supposedly fallen from the sky thousands of years ago, found by the first queen to ever sit on the throne of Solaria after she’d seen the blazing arc it had made through the sky as it fell. Once she had it, she started receiving visions in the night, whispers as if from the star itself that told her the ways of dark magic. She was the first Fae to learn it, wielding the powers to her advantage.
Then, from one generation to the next, she passed the star along to her heirs with the knowledge of the magic she’d learned. And when it came into the hands of her great grandson, he discovered another power the star had. It could hold magic within its depths. So before he died, he imbued it with a gift for his successors.
The legend said that the first gift was one of necromancy, giving the possessor the power to speak with the dead. With each passing generation, more gifts were added, the myth growing blurry until the stories told about the gifts became wild and exaggerated.
It was said that no one could wield the star without royal blood, but as the rumours of it spread far and wide, many sought to steal it. So a society was put in place called the Zodiac Guild, made of powerful Fae who were trained in the ways of dark magic to protect the Imperial Star and ensure it never left the hands of the royals. There were a thousand versions of how the star was kept, some saying it was embedded in the hilt of a sword or blade, others a crown, a ring, a chalice. And the legends surrounding its power were even more wild and varied.
There was one thing most versions of the story generally agreed on, and that was that the star held a gift to make its possessor invulnerable to magical attacks. So if it really did exist and Lionel got hold of it, it wasn’t just a threat to our world, it would be the end of life as we knew it.
As the school year drew to a close, exam season hit hard. There were Sphinx support groups for anyone suffering from a study addiction, constant Fae on Fae fights breaking out as people snapped under the pressure and a whole host of supposed study enhancing amulets, potions and spells were being sold around campus to any idiot gullible enough to buy them.
I’d retreated to King’s Hollow with the other Heirs as often as possible to study away from distractions. Principal Nova had even granted us permission to take rare texts from the Venus Library so that we could avoid the fan clubs lurking in the stacks and I was just glad to be able to effectively avoid Mildred in as many situations as possible.
The only downside to our segregation was that I was seeing a lot less of Roxy than I wanted. I still ran with her every morning and even though I hadn’t touched her again since we’d run up onto the cliffs and tried to deny the stars, it felt like a lot had changed between us since that day. She’d been the one to initiate that. And even though I was fully aware that she found it a lot easier to express herself physically than to open up emotionally, I now had every reason to believe she wanted both with me. It was a blessing and a curse.
With Lance gone, there wasn’t anyone available to dedicate much time into researching a way out of our Star Crossed status. Especially as he’d been hunting the archives for answers and half the scripts down there were in ancient languages that none of us could read even if we had the spare time to look. So that meant that effectively, any progress that might have been made in undoing the curse on me and Roxy had come to a grinding halt. Not that I was convinced there even was a way out of this, but I’d embarked upon a feeling which might just come back to bite me in the ass, rip my heart out and leave me choking on my own heartbreak in the end - hope.
The more I considered the idea that we could find a way out of this, be together somehow, the more my soul ached for it to be true. And no matter how much the rational part of my brain didn’t want to give myself to the feeling, I couldn’t help it. Every time I learned something new about her, I just came up with more questions to ask. Every time I caught sight of her, I just ached for her even more ferociously than the last time. I was lost to this idea. Lost to her. And there really wasn’t any coming back from that even if it really was all hopeless.
I’d asked her about the place she’d been living before coming to stay at the academy and she’d given me a half answer, calling it a dive and moving on without elaborating. It was eating at me that I hadn’t told her that me and the other Heirs had been there. The bag with her and Darcy’s belongings was sitting in the base of my closet, burning at my conscience every time I got clothes out. The problem was, I wanted to get her alone to talk about it with her properly and doing that was impossible. And I also didn’t want to sabotage her exams by possibly upsetting her during them. So for now, I had to live with the fact that I was a lying asshole. Then I’d beg forgiveness when I could admit that we’d been there, and offer her the chance to have a full conversation with me about it. I just hoped she wouldn’t be too upset by us intruding on her privacy and end up hating me all over again.
I’d been heading home more regularly recently too, wanting to check in with Mom and Xavier as much as I could. Fortunately, Father was away from home more and more often with Clara. He was searching for the Imperial Star but so far, he didn’t seem to have had any luck in finding it. We were doing our own research into its location too, desperate to lay our hands on it before him, but as it stood, I hadn’t found a single solid lead to follow in our search. I was growing afraid of the day he found it, because he was searching with such fervour that I could only imagine that him getting his hands on it would be disastrous. But unless we figured out how to find it first, I didn’t know what we could do about it.
I knew I was going to have to challenge him soon. But now that I didn’t have Lance to help me practice dark magic, I couldn’t risk trying to progress that training on my own. I still met with Roxy and Darcy to practice with the shadows, but it wasn’t the same. Dark magic was linked to the shadows, but the power of the bones and other spells of that nature had little to do with them. And I couldn’t risk the girls getting too close to the destructive power of that kind of magic. It was outlawed for a damn good reason. I just wished I had some other way to gain an edge over Father. But if I challenged him before I was ready, the punishments he’d rain down on me would be immeasurable. And his rage would circle out to encompass anyone I cared about too. I couldn’t risk his wrath falling on those I loved. When I struck at him, he had to lose. More than that, he had to die. And as much as it pained me to admit it, I wasn’t strong enough to win that battle yet.
We were finishing up our final exam - written Astrology – and as soon as this was done, it was all over. Then I was staring a long, lonely summer back at Acrux Manor right in the eye.
To make it worse, I knew I was going to rank last among the other Heirs in a lot of my subjects. Particularly in the written exams. The four of us easily outstripped every other student in every subject in our class, but it was always a battle between us as to which one would steal the top spot. But with Lance so far away from me, the Guardian bond itched and burned with a desp
erate need which I couldn’t fulfil. It was like a gremlin breathing in my ear all the time, its rancid breath dancing beneath my nose and refusing to let me ignore it. Which was distracting to say the least. It had made studying damn difficult and even concentrating on my exams was proving close to impossible.
I was visiting him weekly, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to sate the bond’s needs and my grades were going to suffer. Which in turn meant father would be furious. If the other Heirs bested me in too many subjects, rumours would start up about me being the weakest of the four. And though I knew that was bullshit and that the other Heirs would never try and take my position from me, Father hated any kind of scandal to do with weakness.
I sighed beneath my breath as I looked down at my completed paper and pressed my thumb to the bottom of the page to seal it with my magical signature. I caught Professor Prestos’s eye to let her know I was done before getting up and striding out of the examination hall which was on the ground floor of Jupiter Hall.
The other Heirs were lingering in the sun outside as they waited for me and even the fact that they’d all finished before me was an indicator of how much I was lagging.
“We’re free!” Seth howled as he spotted me and Max whooped in excitement as he shot himself into the air with a blast of air magic in celebration of the exams ending.
I laughed along with them, breathing a sigh of relief as I let the pressure of the exams slide from my shoulders. They were over. And even if I did end up ranking beneath the other Heirs, I’d still out do the rest of our class by a mile. I was capable of performing magic that even seniors couldn’t attempt, and I’d proven it repeatedly throughout the practical exams as well as showing it in the written tests. So there was no point in me worrying beyond that.
“I can’t wait for the party tonight,” Caleb said with a wide smile as he tilted his face back to let the sun kiss his skin.
I shrugged out of my blazer and loosened my tie for good measure as they all began discussing the party which was being thrown at the Shimmering Springs. It was being hosted by Max as Aqua House had won the most points this year and he was insufferably smug about the whole thing.
“I’m taking Grus as my date,” Max announced and we all looked at him in surprise.
“She said yes?” Seth asked, cocking his head like an excitable puppy.
“No. She has actually refused me about fifty separate times,” Max admitted. “But I’m just going to show up at her door and demand she comes with me. I even got the green light from Dad to date her publicly…assuming I can pin her down.”
“How the hell did you manage that?” I asked. Geraldine Grus and her family were so pro royals that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out she had Roxy and Darcy’s faces tattooed on her ass cheeks.
“I just told him how good it would look if one the Vegas’ biggest advocates suddenly jumped ship and started riding the Heir express instead,” Max replied innocently.
“That’s not what you want her to be riding,” Cal quipped.
“And there’s no way she’s gonna switch her allegiance,” I snorted dismissively.
“I know that…but my dad doesn’t.” Max grinned so widely that I didn’t have it in me to tell him that this plan sounded like a terrible idea which would only blow up in his face once his dad realised that Geraldine was firmly Team Vega. I wasn’t going to burst his bubble.
We headed toward The Orb and I trailed at the back of the group as I pulled my Atlas from my pocket and considered messaging Roxy. We generally didn’t message each other until the evenings when we were alone in our beds and we could concentrate on our conversations, but the freshmen had had their final practical assessment this morning and I wanted to know how her exams had gone.
Fuck it.
Darius:
What are you wearing?
I wasn’t really sure at what point that had become our standard conversation opener, but we hadn’t actually started sexting each other. A part of me really fucking wanted to, but every time we got talking, I got so caught up in all the things she said that I never quite went there. And I was afraid the stars would notice if we crossed that line and stop us from messaging each other too. I couldn’t risk it. They definitely hadn’t liked it when we’d used Caleb to get around their rules and I couldn’t bear losing this point of contact with her.
In answer to my message, she sent back a photo with the caption this is either hilarious or mortifying, but I’ve had a few tequilas so I’m going to let you decide. In the photograph, she was standing in the locker rooms at the Pitball stadium, pouting at the camera in an overly suggestive way as she wore my Pitball jersey like a dress.
My gaze roamed over her in it, taking in her knee length academy socks beneath it as well as the crumpled uniform tossed on the bench in the background. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I swear that girl was never hotter than when she wasn’t trying to be.
Darius:
You should keep it, it looks better on you.
Roxy:
I’m choosing to take that seriously. I need a new shirt to sleep in anyway, your other one is getting seriously battered.
I frowned as I tried to figure out what she meant by that. Was she saying that she’d been sleeping in one of my shirts? Because it really seemed like she was. And the idea of that made me grin like an idiot.
Darius:
Consider it a gift. Speaking of which, when are you going to go and see your bike?
I knew I was asking her about the bike a bit too often, but it was niggling at me that she still hadn’t been to look at it. I couldn’t totally figure out why not. If she didn’t want it, she could have just told me to take it back, but if she did want it then why hadn’t she even been to look at the damn thing?
Roxy:
I have a gift for you too, so I guess we can swap…
I fell still as I read her message. Why did she have something for me? It wasn’t my birthday. I hadn’t done anything to earn a gift. I needed to send her a reply and I didn’t know what to say.
“Why are you grinning like someone just offered to suck your cock?” Seth asked me and my head snapped up as I tried to school my features.
“I don’t grin,” I replied, rolling my eyes at him. “I occasionally smirk. That’s about it.”
“Well, what are you occasionally smirking about?” Cal asked, shooting forward and snatching my Atlas out of my hand.
I cursed him, but he just laughed as he shot away to read it.
“Why does it feel like you’re gonna blush?” Max asked, reaching out to catch my arm as he tried to get a read on my emotions.
“Fuck off. I definitely don’t blush.”
“Tory’s bought him a present,” Cal cooed and I groaned as he started typing a reply to her.
“Give that back,” I grumbled without bothering to try and snatch it. He was too damn fast for me to catch him if he didn’t want me to.
“She’s gonna meet us at the parking lot in half an hour,” Cal said, tossing my Atlas back at me with a grin.
“Us?” I asked with a sigh as I looked down at the messages he’d sent. He’d called her sugar baby three separate times and ended each message with a row of ridiculous emojis and countless kisses. I considered messaging her again to explain that that wasn’t me, but the laughing emojis in her replies made me think she’d guessed.
“Yeah. You need a chaperone, remember,” Cal said, pointing up at the sky like the stars were listening in. And they probably were. Sparkly assholes.
“Why does that have to mean you douchebags?” I asked as we started heading for the parking lot.
“Because she’s bringing her little Ass Squad too,” he replied like it was obvious that we’d want to make this some huge group situation. Though I guessed we didn’t have much choice about that as we couldn’t be alone.
“Is Grus coming then?” Max asked instantly and Seth groaned dramatically.
“You seriously need to start playing it cool with that gir
l,” he said. “You’ve totally lost your game when it comes to her.”
“Her busty Barrys have him blinded,” I joked, happy to move the ribbing off of me and onto Max.
“I can’t help it,” Max groaned. “She’s like my own personal brand of fucking insane, curvaceous, utterly addictive Killblaze.”
“You’re comparing her to a drug addiction?” Seth scoffed. “The entire world is going to shit. You guys do realise that, right? We’ve told the whole school – no – the whole kingdom to pick between us and the Vegas and now we’re off to hang out with them and exchange little gifts and Max is gonna go down on their chief supporter and it’ll end up getting leaked to the press and then fuck knows what will happen.”
“For someone who’s complaining, you sound pretty damn happy about all of that,” I commented.
“I’m ecstatic,” Seth agreed with a wolfy grin. “The Vegas might be a total pain in our asses, but life has been so much more interesting since they came along.”
We all laughed at that and we upped our pace as we headed to the parking lot.
No one mentioned the fact that if we somehow managed to succeed in this little plan to force the stars to reconsider me and Roxy, we’d have a whole new problem. But I guessed none of us wanted to consider the implications involved with me ending up with a Vega. There was no reason to think this would even work yet anyway. And if it ever did…well, we’d just have to figure out how the fuck we were going to cross that bridge when it came to it.
We arrived before Roxy and her friends so we took up positions leaning on the hoods of our expensive cars as Seth switched on the ignition of his white Faezerati and started up some music.
Cal shot away from us and returned within two minutes with a crate of beer and I accepted one as he tossed it to me, trying to join in the conversation as we waited for Roxy to arrive.
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 71