A tingle of magic rushed over my skin as her presence set off the detection spell I’d set up around the bike a moment before the elevator doors opened.
Roxy was still wearing my pitball jersey as she stepped out with Darcy and Geraldine who were both stumbling a little from the effects of their celebratory drinks.
“There you are you lickable lobster,” Geraldine hiccoughed as she spotted Max, raising the tequila bottle in her hand to point at him.
Max grinned like all his dreams had just come true as she sauntered towards him, dancing to the music playing from Seth’s car as if she were in a night club instead of a parking lot.
Roxy snickered at her and Darcy offered me a half smile as she skirted me to snag a beer from the crate before hopping up to sit between Cal and Seth on the hood of his car.
“I finally got you here, then,” I said, stepping closer to Roxy as she watched me with interest.
“I’m weak,” she admitted. “I knew the moment I looked at the bike I’d be drooling all over it and riding it all day and night. So if I wanted to have any hope of resisting, I had to avoid it.”
“Is that how you feel about Darius too?” Seth called and I growled at him halfheartedly. This whole group hang out situation was seriously annoying already. I just wanted her to myself and the way she was looking up at me made me wonder if she was wishing for the same thing.
“Is there a reason you’re wearing my Pitball jersey?” I asked as my gaze raked over her.
“We decided to have a private celebration in the Pitball stadium for the end of exams,” she replied with a shrug. “We were playing a game of dares and Geraldine thought this was hilarious.”
My lips twitched with amusement as I glanced over at Grus who was looking pretty damn pleased with herself. In fact, all of them were staring at us and I cleared my throat as I looked away again, wanting to get some measure of privacy.
I pointed out the bike on the far side of the lot with a jerk of my chin and Roxy fought a smile as she fell into step beside me.
I watched her from the corner of my eyes as she approached the bike. I’d thrown a cover over it, but I was wondering if I should have put a bow on it or something too. But she didn’t really seem like a bows kind of girl and I wasn’t really a bows kind of guy either.
She bit into her full bottom lip as she stopped before the bike and I reached out to grab the cover as the others all fell still to watch too.
I tried to ignore the feeling of their eyes on us as I focused on her and I whipped the cover off while my gaze stayed trained to her face.
Her eyes widened and her lips parted as she took in everything about it from the bodywork to the engine to the custom navy blue paint job and the diamonds inlaid in the shape of her constellation over the engine cover.
“Holy shit, Darius,” she breathed as she stepped closer and ran her fingertip over the diamonds. “How much did this cost you?”
“I’d buy you fifty of them if I knew they’d all make you smile like that,” I replied dismissively as I stepped closer to her.
“This is a limited edition, they didn’t make fifty of them,” she scoffed, smacking my arm lightly as her gaze stayed glued to the bike.
“You wanna take her for a ride?”
“I’ve had a bit too much tequila,” she pouted.
“You can still start her up.”
Her gaze lifted to meet mine and the smile she gave me was all danger as she moved to straddle the bike, placing the key in the ignition.
She started it up and the deep roar of the engine filled the space as she closed her eyes and moaned in appreciation. She looked so freaking hot straddling that thing in my Pitball jersey that I was hard for her instantly and I damn near groaned at the fact that I couldn’t touch her.
She revved the engine a few times with a huge smile on her face before finally cutting it and letting our ears recover.
“I know I totally won this and I don’t have to thank you for it or anything,” she said as she looked up at me.
“But?” I asked.
“Thank you,” she replied, her voice rough in a way that made my dick twitch.
The way her gaze kept slipping to my mouth made me wonder if she was aching to close this distance between us as desperately as I was. I reached out slowly and plucked at the edge of my jersey so that it shifted against her skin.
“I like you wearing this,” I said as my gaze drifted over my name where it was splashed across her back.
“Is that so?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“Yeah. A bit too much,” I admitted and her gaze dropped to my crotch as she bit her damn lip again.
I groaned as I had to force myself to release my grip on the jersey before the stars set her new bike alight or something.
“What did you get for him?” Seth called and I growled at him irritably.
“Can’t you just be the kind of chaperones who just shut the fuck up and look at the wall or something?” I snapped.
“No chance,” Max called back.
“Don’t be a bothersome barracuda,” Geraldine chastised and that might have even been worse.
Roxy snorted a laugh and slid off of the bike. Although she claimed to have consumed too much tequila to drive, she didn’t seem drunk to me, so I was guessing she’d only had three or four shots.
“It’s…a bit of a strange gift,” she admitted hesitantly. “And you don’t have to accept it if you don’t want it.”
“Why wouldn’t I accept it?” I asked.
“Because it’s kind of permanent,” she replied.
“You’ve lost me,” I admitted.
“Right. Well, before Orion was…” She cut a glance at her sister apologetically before going on. “Before he left, he gave us some books on Phoenixes and our gifts and things we might be able to do with them. And a lot of it seems like speculation or myths or maybe we just haven’t figured it all out, but there was also stuff in this old script and – well, long story short, Darcy figured out that we can imbue things with Phoenix fire. And then I did a bunch of research and managed to find this dusty old book which detailed the way Phoenixes can block out interference from other Orders and Dark Coercion. So basically, I made this.” She pulled a large, gold bangle from her wrist which looked like a pair of Phoenix wings gilded in flame and spread wide to create a semi circle.
The Dragon in me rose to the surface of my skin as I instantly recognised the value of it and I had to work damn hard not to snatch it and growl mine at the whole room.
Roxy’s green eyes danced with amusement like she’d read that desire in my gaze and a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I waited for her to go on.
“Erm, yeah, it’s pretty and all but if you want the magic of it to work then you don’t get to keep it. At least, not like this,” she said.
“How then?” I asked as she pressed it into my hand and the warmth of the metal made my skin tingle.
“It’s called a Phoenix Kiss. And it’s basically a conduit,” she explained. “I think I can use it to place an ounce of my Phoenix fire beneath your skin. But when I do, the bangle will fuse with your flesh and brand you, kinda like your Guardian mark-”
“It would bind me to you?” I asked.
“No. It will bind you to an ounce of my fire. I’d gift it to you and the brand would keep it safe beneath your skin. There’s no link to me involved, I’d be giving up the flame I offer you for good. But without the magic of the brand, the fire would burn too hot and, erm, burn its way back out of you again…painfully.” She smiled sheepishly and I barked a laugh.
“Why would he want to risk your fire burning a hole in him just to get a new tattoo?” Seth asked from behind me and I huffed at the interruption. Why couldn’t they just pretend they weren’t here?
“Because once it’s living in you, it will work like it does for me. No one will be able to influence your mind. Not even-”
“This can stop my father from Dark Coercing me?”
I breathed as my heart stumbled over itself.
“Yeah. At least, it should do, if I made it right…” Roxy gave me a shy kind of smile which didn’t have an ounce of bullshit to it and I didn’t think I’d ever been more furious at the fucking stars for stopping me from kissing her than in that moment.
“She made it right,” Darcy interrupted. “She must have gone over that magic a thousand times before she was willing to give it to you.”
“I just didn’t want to do it wrong and accidentally burn a hole in you,” Roxy explained, rolling her eyes.
“I would kiss you right now if the stars wouldn’t smite us for it,” I groaned as excitement surged through me and I had to physically restrain myself.
“Not near the pretty bike,” she agreed though her gaze fell to my mouth again like she was sorely tempted. “So, you want me to do it?”
“Fuck yes.” I made quick work of ripping my shirt off before offering her my right arm to do whatever she needed to.
The others all drifted closer, forming a circle around us as they watched but I ignored them, my gaze fixed on Roxy as she slid the bangle over my right hand and up my forearm until it was pressed to the bare patch of skin beneath the crook of my elbow.
“Ready?” she asked, looking up at me from beneath her lashes as if she was nervous.
“I trust you.”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the bangle, her black hair falling all around her and concealing my arm as a deep burn pulsed through the flesh where the metal was touching it.
I grunted as the intensity of the flames picked up and the burn slid beneath my skin and into my veins before rushing through my body like a storm until I could feel it everywhere.
I was well used to all kinds of fire, but I’d never felt anything like it before. It was wild and tempestuous, savage and free. I could taste it on my tongue and hear it crackling in my ears. It was all consuming and never ending and yet somehow utterly euphoric too.
Roxy pulled back, looking up at me hopefully as her flames finally settled beneath my flesh until they weren’t overwhelming anymore, just present. They danced with my own Dragon Fire and the sensation almost tickled as they skipped around my body.
“Well gobble my goose and call me Gertrude,” Geraldine breathed and as I looked down at my arm.
Where the bangle had been, I found a new tattoo on my flesh instead. A pair of stunning wings which almost seemed to ripple with life as they curved around my arm.
“Did it work?” Roxy asked, her gaze cutting to Max as she stepped back again to put distance between us before the stars intervened.
Max caught my eye before placing a hand on my shoulder and pushing happiness beneath my skin. He fed me enough to make me grin, then I started laughing harder and harder until it felt like I’d never stop. But that wasn’t right, I didn’t want to laugh, and the moment I decided I didn’t, I stopped. It wasn’t like putting up mental shields. The Phoenix fire didn’t work like that. It simply listened to my command, swept through my body and destroyed Max’s magic like it was nothing but tissue paper trying to stay firm before a flamethrower.
I stopped laughing instantly and Max grunted as he pushed more of his magic into me. The others started laughing around me, all except Roxy and Darcy whose own fire burned through his command to protect them from it.
When he finally gave up, I was grinning for a wholly different reason than his power.
“You set me free,” I breathed, staring at Roxy like she was some kind of mythical creature given flesh as I tried to figure out what the hell I could ever do to repay this. She’d just answered every wish I’d ever begged of the stars with a smile pulling at her lips and was offering me up a shrug in return like it was nothing.
“I wasn’t going to let you head back to that house with that fucking monster for the summer and be at his mercy,” she growled fiercely. Protectively. Like I was something she cherished and wanted to protect in the same way I ached to look after her.
I glanced at the others, but I didn’t really care that they were here to listen to this. They already knew how I felt about her, so why shouldn’t I just say it in front of all of them?
“I already told you I love you, Roxy,” I growled and her eyes widened as she looked up at me in surprise. “But now I’m telling you I want you too. Only you. No matter what it takes to make that happen.”
“Darius,” she breathed, her gaze flickering to the others as they backed away a bit to give us some privacy. I could have thrown a silencing bubble over us, but what was the point? I didn’t care if they knew how I felt about her. They were our family and despite all the reasons why they should have been encouraging us to stay apart, they’d been trying to help push us back together. Because when it came down to it, they cared about our happiness more than some fucking throne and I should have realised a lot sooner that that was more important too.
“I get it,” I said as I stepped closer to her. So close that we were almost touching. “I understand why you made the choice you did. Forever is a hell of a long time to give to someone you don’t trust. But what if forever was just a day? What if all we had was today and the clock was ticking down to midnight? What if giving yourself to me meant just that? Being mine until the strike of midnight. Would you be mine forever then?”
Roxy’s eyes widened as she looked up at me, dragging her bottom lip between her teeth as my heart thrashed against my ribs and I could only think of all the reasons she still had to say no.
“Why would you want to spend forever with me after what I did to you?” she asked, and I frowned at her as I tried to understand how she could doubt that. “You were offered true love by the stars and opened your heart up to it willingly, only to have me crush it in my fist. So why would you want a second shot at this at all?”
“Because in my heart I know I deserved the answer you gave me,” I replied honestly. “I wasn’t worthy of your love then and I’m still not worthy of it now. But if you gave me forever then I’d spend every second of it trying to be.”
She was looking at me as if she’d never looked at me before and I had to fight with everything I had to hold her eye and wait for her answer. Because I had to have it. I had to know if she was willing to try and fight this too or if I really had ruined everything beyond all hope.
Her eyes were wide and fearful as she looked up at me, but there was something else in them too. Something strong and fearless and unbroken despite everything she’d been through in her life at my hands and the hands of others.
“Yes,” Roxy breathed, her voice shaky like she was afraid of saying it out loud. “I can’t keep denying it anymore. I’m sick of denying what my heart wants.”
“Forever?” I confirmed, moving so close to her that the sweet scent of her skin enveloped me and I never wanted to exhale again.
“Forever,” she agreed, with a finality that weighed on us so heavily that for a moment I couldn’t breathe.
“Then we need to figure out a way to force the stars to reconsider,” I growled fiercely. I’d been fighting all my life for one thing or another, but there was nothing I’d ever wanted like the girl standing before me. And I was willing to fight for her until my dying breath.
The others started cheering and Roxy laughed as I rolled my eyes at them. The day that I could get her alone again would be an absolute dream compared to this goddamn chaperone hell.
“Gabriel,” Roxy said, her eyes shining with hope as she looked up at me. “He can give us a reading.”
My heart pounded as she grabbed her Atlas and sent him a message. Knowing she was as sure about this as me was making me feel all kinds of overwhelming emotions. And more than ever, I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and never let her go again.
“He’s going to meet us in the amplifying chamber,” she announced and I glanced at Caleb, but he was too interested in something Seth was saying to have heard her.
Roxy pushed through our friends and headed for the opening on the far side o
f the parking lot as she yanked my Pitball shirt off and climbed up onto the ledge in her bra and panties. She tossed a grin over her shoulder at me before she leapt out into the air and her flaming wings blossomed from her back as she took off.
I cursed as she sped away without me, kicking off my shoes and dropping my pants before folding them and clamping them between my teeth as I leapt out after her.
I shifted as I fell and I beat my wings hard as I raced after her while the others whooped and cheered behind us.
“Go yonder on a quest for true and brightest love!” Geraldine cried and I glanced back over my shoulder as she fell sobbing into Max’s arms. He didn’t seem to mind that at all and I shook my scaly, Dragon head as I charged after Roxy.
That girl was utterly fucking insane. But I had to admit she was growing on me a little.
By the time I landed beside the lake and shifted back, Roxy was already wearing my Pitball jersey again and she headed down into the amplifying chamber without waiting for me to pull my pants back on.
Gabriel was waiting for us in the Elementally balanced dome beneath the lake. I eyed him nervously as he waved a hand for me to take a seat opposite him beside Roxy without looking up from the deck of tarot cards he was shuffling.
“I can’t promise that I’ll be able to see anything,” Gabriel murmured as he cut the deck and held it out for us. “Whenever I’ve tried to see anything about Elysian Mates before, the stars have been less than helpful.”
“We just want to know if there’s any chance,” Roxy said as she reached out and took a card from him without hesitation. “Just the slightest indication that we could change this…”
Gabriel offered her a sad smile then looked at me. His gaze instantly narrowed and I got the distinct feeling that he was pissed at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’d better mean this, Darius,” he growled. “If you’re not going to offer her the world then I’m not going to help you. And if you ever hurt her again, I’ll hunt you down, cut your balls off and wear them as a necklace.”
“Jesus, Gabriel,” Roxy muttered and I glanced between them as they seemed to be trying to communicate via eyebrow motions alone. It was weird.
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 72