“I need you to get Darcy out of here,” I demanded. “If you meant all the things you said to me, if you feel any of it at all, you’ll make sure she’s safe.”
“Don’t do this,” he begged and my heart twisted with agony as I felt the pain I was causing him by giving in to his father.
I leaned forward, closing the distance between us and the brush of his lips against mine was an agony unlike anything I’d ever known, because I knew what it was. What it had to be. It was goodbye.
“Please,” I breathed, refusing to open my eyes as I pulled back and the warmth of him was lost to me.
“Roxy,” he growled, and the raw agony of that one word was enough to drown me.
“Now,” Lionel snapped and I forced myself to turn away from Darius as my heart broke for him all over again.
My gaze locked on Darcy’s as I let the shadows in because I was weak. I couldn’t face this darkness on my own. I wasn’t sure what I even had if I didn’t have her.
Tears flowed down her cheeks as Seth held her back and she watched as I sank into the darkness.
I couldn’t count the amount of times I’d been tempted by the promise of oblivion the shadows offered me in the past few months, but she’d always been the reason I’d fought them off. It was a cruel twist of fate that she was now the reason I was giving in to them too.
But as the agony of that truth washed over me, the shadows rose up to claim it. To claim all the pain and heartache and sorrow in me and whisk it away like none of it had ever mattered at all.
The shadows swept up and over me like a tide which rushed through my veins in the most elating way. They ran beneath my flesh, lighting me up with a pleasure so intense that I forgot everything else in favour of serving them. They were ecstasy, rapture, bliss and euphoria and they set me free of all of my demons. There was no more pain or heartache, sorrow or despair. Just the darkest parts of me which hungered for corruption and thrived in sin. I let them have me with a smile on my face and a moan escaping my lips as I finally invited the darkness in.
It was a relief to give in at last. No more pain or regret or anguish.
Just power.
And I was more than ready to claim my share of that.
Before I could do anything to save my sister, Lionel transformed into his enormous green Dragon form, tearing down the ceiling and grabbing Tory and Clara in his claws.
I screamed as the world literally came crashing down around us and didn’t have the strength to shield, my heart pounding a desperate, broken tune as I tried to run after my sister.
Darius ran to me amongst the falling roof and it took me a moment to realise that Max and Seth were shielding us as the whole house collapsed.
The walls crumbled around us and my heart crumbled along with them as Lionel stole my sister away and seemed to steal all hope along with her. We were buried beneath a ton of rubble and darkness descended as we were trapped in a bubble of a safety.
I turned my hands to the roof, looking to the Heirs. “Open the top of the shield, I’ll blast through the rubble,” I demanded and they did as I said, trusting me as they opened the shield enough to let my air magic blast a hole in the debris. I didn’t waste a second, casting air beneath me to propel myself out onto the broken roof and Darius was thrown after me by one of the others.
“Darcy,” he growled, but I ignored him, getting to my feet and racing up the shattered pieces of the roof as I searched the sky, agony spilling through me at the loss of Tory to the shadows and Lionel’s clutches.
Please come back. I can’t bear to be without you.
Darius stayed beside me as I scrambled up the bricks and mortar and the Heirs hurried close behind us as we made it onto the top of the rubble. Nymphs were clawing their way up the debris towards us, but I didn’t care. I kept my gaze on the sky as I finally spotted Lionel in the distance, his dark green form nearly camouflaged against the night sky.
I gritted my teeth as I tried to force my wings from my body, fighting against the Order Suppressant even though it was futile. But I had to get Tory back. I couldn’t just abandon her to this fate.
Darius caught my arm with a growl. “We have to get back to the academy, I promised to protect you.”
“Screw you, let me go,” I snarled as Max, Seth and Caleb formed a triangle around us, blasting magic at the Nymphs to keep them back.
“I’ve broken the wards around the house so we can stardust the fuck out of here,” Max called.
Darius took a pouch of stardust from his pocket and I tried to snatch it from his grip, desperate to go after her, but he held it out of reach.
“Take us to Acrux Manor,” I demanded, clawing at his arm and nearly drawing blood. My heart had been obliterated, a full half of it torn out and taken when she’d sacrificed herself for us, giving me no choice. But I refused to accept it.
“We can’t fight him like this. We have to regroup. And I promised to keep you safe so I’m taking you back to Zodiac,” Darius snarled, dragging me against him as tears burned heated trails down my cheeks.
“It’s not your choice to make!” I screamed, shoving him in the chest as he struggled to hold onto me and try to open the pouch of stardust at the same time.
“We have to fucking go,” Caleb barked, wheeling around and snatching the stardust from him.
“No!” I yelled, trying to pull free as he tossed a handful into the air and we were yanked into a galaxy of stars, my heart shattering, feeling as fragmented as the universe spreading out around me in splinters of light. But the pieces of my heart didn’t glow, they were dark and jagged and full of pain.
My feet hit the ground and Darius yanked me into his chest, his arms crushing me in a fierce embrace as we landed beyond the fence ringing campus. And I finally gave in, falling apart in his arms.
“We can head to the Hollow, we’ll make a plan,” Seth whimpered, running his hand over my back as my tears flowed free. For my sister, for Diego. For everything I’d lost.
I ached for Orion with every part of my being, needing to crawl into his arms and seek the comfort of his words. He would have known what to do. He would have found a way to fix this. But he was gone. He’d cut me from his life and now Tory was gone too and I didn’t think I could handle the loss of them both. It was too much to bear.
“I can’t just leave her with him,” I hissed, trying to pull myself together as a frantic energy crashed through my limbs. I stepped out of Darius’s arms, wiping my tears away as I willed my heart to turn to iron, needing to focus. To fight.
“We won’t,” Darius agreed fiercely. “I’ll tear the world down for her, but we can’t win tonight.”
I hated to accept those words, but I knew he wouldn’t say them unless it was absolutely true. We were all tired, weakened and we had no idea what Lionel’s next move would be.
But I had to rescue her. I would rescue her. If it cost me every broken piece of my soul to do it.
“This isn’t over,” I growled as the Heirs gathered around me in a circle. I looked between them, finding resilience in their eyes, their nods promising me they would fight for her too. I met Darius’s dark-ringed gaze last and his head dipped.
I caught his chin, yanking it up so he looked me in the eye. “You don’t give up on her.”
“Never,” he vowed with a dark growl that promised bloodshed. “But I fear my father is going to take the throne, Darcy. And there’s nothing we can do to stop him now he has her.”
I swallowed the sharp lump slicing into my throat as I clenched my jaw. “Then we make an oath. Right here. That we’ll find the Imperial Star before he does. It’s the only chance we have against him.”
I held out my hand, wondering if they’d really do this, but they all moved forward without hesitation, laying their hands over mine.
“I vow on the stars that we’ll find the Imperial Star before Lionel does,” I breathed. “No matter what it takes.”
They all spoke in unison, a clap of magic binding all five of us together in a star-bou
nd promise that echoed through the universe. “No matter what it takes.”
Strong hands gripped my upper arms and shook me until I blinked the shadows from my eyes.
I was standing on the roof of a tall tower on top of Acrux Manor with the warm wind tugging at my hair and the stars shining brightly above me.
“Are you ready to get to work, Roxanya?” Lionel purred as he looked into my eyes and I sighed as I glanced back at him. Something about him just made me feel like I belonged.
“What work?” I asked, a frown tugging at my brow as the shadows slipped around me, kissing my skin and whispering sweet nothings in my ears. They were hungry…so hungry.
“Do you want to please me?” Lionel asked, his hand moving to grasp my chin as he forced me to hold his gaze.
His eyes were dark green like his Dragon and captured all of my attention as I gazed into their depths and hunted within them for his shadows, wondering if they’d rise for me too. He’d put on a pair of grey slacks, a white button down and brown loafers which I guessed he’d kept here for his return.
“Yes,” I breathed as my heart beat harder. I did want to please him. I wanted that more than…anything.
“Good girl.” He shoved my face out of his grip, knocking me back a step as he turned and headed inside with Clara skipping forward to take his hand in hers.
My lip curled back as I watched them descending a curving staircase and I was left to follow behind.
Down we went. Down and down and down. Until all the summer warmth was stolen and we entered a corridor well below the Manor where it was just as cold as the empty space inside my heart.
Lionel led the way through a long stone corridor, lighting sconces as we went with his fire magic.
Clara kept hold of his hand, swinging it back and forth and my gaze narrowed on the point of contact between them as the shadows swirled within me.
“Why?” I snapped, when I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Because I’m the favourite,” Clara hissed, shooting a glare over her shoulder which made me snarl.
Lionel tsked as he moved to open a heavy wooden door and I followed them inside. He pulled Clara aside so that I could look at the huge stone chamber. There was a chair in the centre of it with thick leather straps on the arms and legs. A row of hooks and knives and other torture devices hung along the wall to the left and a tank of cold water lay to the right.
“Do you want to be the favourite, Roxanya?” Lionel purred as he released Clara’s hand and took a step towards me.
The shadows shifted within me, aching to feel that with an urgency I couldn’t comprehend. “Yes,” I breathed, taking a seat on the chair and waiting as he strapped me in.
“Then tell me who you love.” He walked away from me as I frowned at the question, the shadows wild and seething beneath my skin.
I closed my eyes as I tried to answer, searching the deep chasm of nothing within me until I caught a glimmer of something which I’d lost.
“A girl with blue hair,” I breathed as the echoes of memories stirred within my heart. “And a man with a dark soul.”
Something slammed into my gut and the electric slice of pain that crashed through my body shattered me into a million pieces as agony ruled my flesh and the shadows reared up hungrily to feast on it.
I moaned in pleasure as the torture lingered in my body and my vision blacked out as the shadows veiled my eyes for a moment.
I sagged forward in the chair, panting and heaving as my heart raced and the bliss in my limbs threatened to ruin me as I bathed in the pure power of the shadows. It was so much pain and so much pleasure. I didn’t know if I was screaming in agony or ecstasy.
“Wrong answer, Roxanya,” Lionel growled as he moved to stand before me, my gaze landing on his expensive loafers as I tried to catch my breath. “Who do you love?”
I tipped my head back slowly, my gaze moving over every inch of him until I finally met his eyes and the bottomless depths that were waiting for me within them.
The Aries brand on my arm burned with the need to be closer to him and I whimpered as the shadows let me feel that ache for a moment before burying it again. But it was enough to give me my answer.
“You,” I breathed as I stared up at him and the darkness in his eyes blossomed like the shadows in my soul. “Only you.”
_________________________________
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What do a heartless Dragon Shifter, a cold-blooded Basilisk, an arrogant Lion Shifter and a brooding, tattooed Harpy have in common…?
Me.
Elise Callisto. Vampire. Angel of vengeance. And a girl on a mission to destroy one of them for murdering my brother. I just don’t know which one did it yet.
When I kicked the ass of a Werewolf who was high on a new and dangerous drug called Killblaze, his final words painted a dark reality for me. The King of Aurora Academy killed my brother. The trouble is, there’s four kings at that school and each of them have motive and cutthroat natures.
Aurora Academy isn’t a place for the faint of heart. To put it lightly, my town is the asshole of Solaria where the dodgiest Fae in the kingdom reside. The school itself is divided by the two gangs who run this town. The Lunar Brotherhood and the Oscura Clan. And guess what? Two of the kings run the gangs at the school, their hatred for each other so fierce I hear a day doesn’t go by without blood being spilled in the halls.
I might be a petite, lilac-haired girl who looks like a fragile doll, but they haven’t been introduced to my fangs yet. And they don’t know why I’m really here. Or that I’ll do whatever it takes to bring down the Fae who took my flesh and blood from me.
I don’t believe in fate, but I do know this… the King who killed my brother is a dead man walking. And I’m prepared to sacrifice my heart, body and soul to ensure I get my revenge.
This is a reverse harem series set in the world of Zodiac Academy four years before the Vega Twins were Awakened. Expect some character cross-over, dark and hot romance, and a twisted murder mystery which will leave your head spinning.
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THE VAMPIRE GAMES: SEASON 2
WOLF GAMES
WOLF GAMES: ISLAND OF SHADE
WOLF GAMES: SEVERED FATES
THE VAMPIRE GAMES: SEASON 3
HUNTER TRIALS
HUNTER TRIALS: INTO THE DARK (COMING SOON)
THE RISE OF ISAAC SERIES
CREEPING SHADOW
BLEEDING SNOW
TURNING TIDE
WEEPING SKY
FAILING LIGHT
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FALLING FIRE (PART ONE)
FALLING FIRE (PART TWO)
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Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 80