“I’m guessing you heard about the little fire in Darius Acrux’s room?” I asked her quietly, glancing about in case any more late night wanderers were in the woods. “Well, that was kinda... me.”
“Well pull my tail and call me Miss Whiskers!” she exclaimed. “So this is his gold?”
“Yeah.”
“And we need to bury it before the FIB or the teachers find out,” Darcy added.
“Look no further! Geraldine Grus is a firm friend and trustworthy protector of the true Heirs to the throne of Solaria. Your scandal is my scandal, your war is my war and your enemy is my enemy. Darius Acrux should burn in the fiery pits of the afterlife for what he did to you. If he was on fire and I was in my Cerberus form I wouldn’t even extinguish the flames with my urine. Please allow me to assist you with my earth magic, your highnesses.”
“Please do,” I begged as she stepped forward.
Geraldine raised her hands, commanding her magic to do her bidding and a deep hole sank into the ground. She grabbed the bag of loot and threw it into the hole like it weighed less than nothing.
“Wow, Geraldine, you’re ripped,” I commented.
“Thank you,” she said, flushing red in the moonlight. “I do like to dally in the Pitball arena in my spare time. It would be my absolute pleasure to introduce you to the sport some day.”
“I’d love that,” Darcy said enthusiastically.
“Well that would just be the toad’s pyjamas,” Geraldine squealed excitedly. “Would you perhaps like to come and watch me play at the next match this Sunday? I just know I’d knock your diamond encrusted socks off if you did!”
“It’s a date,” I agreed. Anything to pay her back for saving our asses here.
I snatched the sock from my satchel and took the coins from it before tossing them into the hole too. As I held the dagger out over the hole though, that weird presence it seemed to hold begged me not to release it and I paused.
“What are you waiting for?” Darcy hissed.
My grip tightened on the blade instead of loosening.
Why should I have to toss it away? I like it, it’s mine now... I want to keep it.
I exhaled slowly, all of my instincts warring against the insane idea to keep hold of the dagger. I’d been in enough scrapes to know that wandering around with a stolen dagger while an investigation into who stole it was taking place was an absolutely terrible idea. I shook my head fiercely, shrugging off the desire to keep the blade and flinging it down on top of the bag.
That thing is really weird.
Geraldine raised her hand before her and with a surge of movement, the soil covered the stolen treasure and the ground flattened out above it. She encouraged a patch of pink and gold flowers to bloom over the spot and I dropped a pin on the map on my Atlas at our location so that I could find it again if necessary.
“X marks the spot,” I joked, feeling like we were a bunch of pirates.
Darcy released a breath of laughter.
We all grinned at each other as we moved away from the scene of the crime and Geraldine reached out with her magic to remove every speck of dirt from our clothes and bodies. She even managed to drag the dirt out from under my fingernails and I marvelled at her power.
We kept quiet as we made it back to the path and paused within a clearing where the moonlight spilled over us.
“We keep this secret among the three of us,” I reiterated just in case Geraldine got any ideas about telling the rest of the Ass Club about what we’d done.
“I swear on the sanctity of our friendship that I’ll never breathe a word of this to another soul,” she agreed seriously.
I couldn’t help but smile at the strange girl who had offered us her loyalty so completely. I’d found her disturbing and downright annoying at times but I couldn’t help but feel the truth in those words as she spoke them. We were friends. The kind who met up and buried secrets in the depths of the woods in the middle of the night and never told another soul about them. The kind who trusted in each other’s motivations and forgave their worst behaviours no matter what.
“Here’s to a long and beautiful friendship,” I swore, holding my hand out between us.
“To friendship,” Darcy agreed, placing her hand on top of mine.
“Friendship,” Geraldine agreed, completing the pile with a sniff that announced the arrival of her tears.
We smiled conspiratorially at each other one last time before parting ways and heading back to our individual Houses. I hadn’t expected to spend my evening burying evidence in the middle of a forest. But it wasn’t the worst way to spend a night either.
The FIB had been searching Aer Tower for the past two hours and I sensed from the banging and clattering sounding from the floor beneath mine that it wouldn't be long until they checked this corridor.
Even though Tory and I had hidden the gold in the woods last night, I kept looking under my bed in case we'd missed a piece. It would be just our luck to decide to stay at the Academy and then be kicked out for stealing from an Heir. I was dog tired, but at least my corridor hadn't been the first on their list to search this morning. They must have been here since before dawn.
“Room searches! Get your doors open and stand in the corridor!” I recognised Francesca's voice out in the tower and my heart turned over. I'd tried to go back to sleep for a while but it was impossible while knowing the FIB were on their way here.
I moved to my door, drawing my shoulders back and schooling my expression into indifference as I stepped out of the room in my PJs of black shorts and a vest. I'm not guilty, so why do I feel like a criminal?
I let my door swing wide and placed my back against the wall beside it. Francesca and a team of FIB marched along the hallway led by Orion. He had a savage look on his face that made my heart pound a little harder. The closest room to him wasn't open and he immediately marched up to it and bashed his fist against the wood. I didn't know much about the girl whose room it was, only that I'd seen her hanging out with Kylie a few times.
“Out!” he demanded, then produced a strange looking key from his pocket. A slim, silver thing with multiple prongs on the end. He slid it into the lock and a girl squealed the second he threw the door open.
A boy darted out of the room, tugging up his pants and laughing his head off as he veered around the FIB and out of sight. The girl emerged a second later hugging a sheet to her chest.
“I need five minutes!” she yelled at Orion, but he released a blast of air from his palm that shoved her out of his way before he marched into her room. A member of the FIB headed after him while Francesca directed units to the other rooms.
Diego exited his room down the hall, looking to me with a frown. “You good?” he mouthed and I nodded, offering him a playful eye roll. He took out his Atlas, tapping something on it and a second later mine pinged. I leaned back into my room, plucking it off of my nightstand and reading the private message Diego had sent me on FaeBook.
Diego:
FML.
Wanna grab breakfast from The Orb after this?
I tapped out a reply with a smile.
Darcy:
Sure, I need to stop at the Mars Labs on the way though.
I looked up as I sent the message and Diego gave me a questioning look. I’d done a little digging and discovered that the items I needed for my hair regrowth were kept in stock rooms at the labs. I pointed at my hair then tapped out another response in explanation.
Darcy:
Operation: Hair Repair.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch out for teachers while I borrow some ingredients.
Diego snorted a laugh as he wrote out a reply.
Diego:
Borrow?
Darcy:
;)
Someone yanked the Atlas from my hands and I jolted, glancing up to find Orion thoroughly in my personal space. “Something funny, Miss Vega?” he asked lightly.
I couldn't seem to wipe the smile from
my face so I bit down on my lip to try and hide it. I shook my head in answer to his question. He cast an eye down my messages and that was enough to stifle my amusement.
“Hey.” I grabbed it back from him and his eyes flickered with dark shadows. Why was he always nosing into my private life?
“Have you got any contraband in your room?” he asked.
“No, sir,” I said honestly while a member of the FIB barrelled inside and started rifling through my things.
“Not yet anyway,” he murmured so only I could hear, then walked away toward the next room.
I fought a grin as I watched him in my periphery. Well you put me up to it, Professor.
I locked my fingers around my Atlas, watching Orion as he weaved in and out of the rooms, his brow furrowed in concentration. What's he thinking?
“Ah – give me that!” Diego's voice caught my attention and I spotted him wrestling a wooden box out of the arms of an FIB agent. He hugged it to his chest and Orion came at him with the speed of a charging rhino.
I gasped as he raised a hand, casting a force of air that slammed Diego back into the wall, lifting him off of his feet. The box clattered to the floor and laughter broke out around me as the other students grouped together to watch. I hurried forward to help, horrified that he'd attack Diego like that.
“Let him go!” I caught Orion's arm, yanking backwards and he cast a gust of air that swept me off my feet and sent me flying back down the corridor. I crashed into the legs of several students who only laughed harder. None of them offered me a hand to help me up.
I ground my teeth, pushing myself upright and marching back toward them.
Orion scooped the box from the floor while Diego kicked against the wall to try and get free.
“Don't touch that you asshole! It belonged to mi abuela!” Diego roared, but Orion ignored him, smashing the box against the wall full force, making my stomach lurch in surprise. It cascaded into a hundred broken shards and amongst the debris was a bunch of photographs of Diego tucked under the arm of an elderly woman. Between it all was a red journal which Orion promptly snatched off of the floor.
“Let me down! Tu eres un pedazo de mierda, Vampiro escoria!” Diego bellowed, making the walls shake. I'd never seen him so mad and whatever the hell he'd just said, I sensed it was not please can I get down, sir.
“Anyone care to translate that?” Orion asked the corridor, flipping the first page of the book open. “Although your tone is enough to land you in detention already, Mr Polaris.”
Diego's eyes flared with hellfire as he stared down at Orion with more hatred than I'd ever seen in someone's eyes. “You want a translation? I called you a piece of shit Vampire scum, because that is exactly what you are.”
“Diego,” I gasped, begging him to stop with my expression as he met my gaze. His fury melted away and desperation took its place as he turned back to Orion.
“Don't read it,” he begged as Orion cleared his throat loudly.
“Sir,” I said firmly, walking toward him a little more warily this time.
“Oh good it’s in English.” Orion smiled cruelly.
“I just write journal entries to practice the language that’s all,” Diego growled. “You don’t need to read it!”
“September first,” Orion said loudly. “I found The Awakening to be even better than expected. I think I may have made my first friend-” He paused for effect and laughter carried from the other students. Even a few of the FIB joined in. My stomach churned and anger burned in my gut at him humiliating Diego like this.
Francesca leaned against a doorway, watching Orion with an expression that suggested he was telling a lovely bedtime story.
Orion flicked over a few more pages, grinning darkly. “September third.” He was getting cold, hard revenge on Diego for insulting him, but wasn't pinning him up against a wall and breaking his prized possession enough? “I think I'm becoming attracted to someone of the Pegasus Order. Is it the way she glides through the sky, leaving trails of glitter in her wake? Or maybe it's the way the glitter remains in those alluring eyes of hers even in her Fae form. Sofia Cygnus gets more than my heart throbbing-”
“Lance,” Francesca chuckled in the gentlest of warnings. And I imagined that was mainly because she wanted to get on with her job.
“We're just getting to the good bit,” Orion said with a smirk as he looked to Diego. “Or are you going to stop me?” There was a challenge in his tone and I had the feeling he genuinely wanted him to fight back.
Diego struggled harder, casting air in his hands but it wasn't nearly enough to force off Orion's binds.
“No? Well I'll continue.” He gazed down at the page, his brows jumping up as he silently read the next line.
I stalked forward before he could read it aloud, furious at Orion, at everyone in this Academy for being such cruel, unforgiving bullies.
“Stop it!” I yelled as he opened his mouth.
Magic twisted through my veins, tangling together in a way I hadn't experienced before. Vines flooded from my hands and fire of deepest blue swept down them in a blazing line of fury. Orion immediately whipped a hand out, tugging the oxygen from the air and dousing the flames. I gritted my teeth, willing the vines to wrap around him as he wielded the air with expert skill to keep them away. Through sheer determination, I managed to lock one around his throat, ripping him backwards so he smashed into the ground.
The vines slithered away in an instant as shock jarred my heart and made my magic die in a wave. Diego hit the ground with a groan, gathering up the pieces of his broken box and stuffing the photos into his pocket.
Orion was still clutching onto the journal as he sat upright, rubbing the back of his head. I tentatively moved forward and crouched down before him. A heated lump burned my throat as I reached out and prised the book from his hand, passing it wordlessly behind me to Diego. I couldn't drag my gaze away from Orion as he stared at me unblinkingly.
The FIB were moving again, ordering the students out of their way as they continued their search.
Orion's mouth tugged up at one corner and his dimple punctured his cheek. “I was hoping you'd do that,” he said in a low voice.
I frowned in confusion, unsure what to say to that. “I just attacked you,” I said in disbelief. “I'm waiting for my punishment here.”
I moved to stand and he caught my wrist, using my momentum to help himself up. I glanced at Diego to see if he was alright and I could tell his pride was injured more than his body.
Orion suddenly fisted his hand in the short ends of my hair and I yelped in alarm as he dragged me forward and dug his fangs into my throat. I was too slow to react and my magic was immediately immobilised. He released a feral noise as I went slack in his arms and a deep shiver gripped my bones.
People barely even glanced our way as if this was a completely normal occurrence. And though I was starting to get used to seeing Caleb bite Tory’s neck instead of her wrist, nothing quite compared to being in the jaws of a beast myself.
Diego was muttering to himself in Spanish as he marched back into his room and kicked the door closed.
Oh thanks, buddy.
Orion's arm slid tightly around my waist and my eyes drifted closed as the pain ebbed away, replaced by something much more delicious. And definitely, definitely forbidden. I clutched onto his arm and his muscles flexed beneath my fingers, eliciting a soft, barely perceptible moan from my lips. His bite deepened and though I knew he must have heard me I prayed he'd mistake it for a whimper of pain.
I don't like this I don't like this I don't like this.
If I kept telling myself that it would definitely stop my veins from sparking and my head from spinning.
He finally extracted his fangs, but his mouth lingered on my neck a second longer than was appropriate. His lips pressed against the bite for what could only have been a millisecond but I felt it in every corner of my being, like the ground had just dropped away beneath my feet.
He stepped
back and I tried to process the mad power play that had just passed between us.
He wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb and I sensed he was hiding a smile. “Don't forget you have detention with me on Saturday.” He strode off, just like that and I didn't move for several long seconds.
I finally turned around and found the corridor emptying out. The last of the FIB were walking away empty handed, but I spotted Francesca lingering by the exit as she waited for Orion. He joined her as they walked away and I didn't miss the way she rubbed her shoulder against his, or slid her hand possessively onto his arm.
Some deep, animal instinct inside me made my upper lip curl back as if I was about to snarl like a beast.
A door banging beside me tore me out of that strange sensation and I found that Diego had returned, tugging on a dark green coat. “Are we still going to the Mars Labs?” he grunted, adjusting his beanie hat with a heavy grimace.
I felt a pang of annoyance toward him for abandoning me to Orion's teeth after I'd stuck my neck out for him. “I can manage,” I muttered.
He sighed heavily. “Sorry chica,” he said gently, stepping closer. “I flip out sometimes. I knew it was best to just put some distance between me and Orion for a moment. Didn't mean to run off on you... Thanks for what you did.” He nudged me and I broke a small smile, the weight in my chest lifting. “Come on, let me make it up to you by helping you sort this out.” He rubbed my head, messing up my hair – which didn't mean much considering the current state of it. But my mood brightened by a mile as I realised that might well be about to change.
“Let's go soon then.” I beamed.
“Put on something warm, it’s raining out there,” Diego said, pointing out my PJs.
“Sure, gimme two mins.”
He laughed. “You'll be longer than that when you see what they've done. Knock for me when you're ready.”
He headed back to his room and I hurried away in a panic, speeding through my door. My mouth fell open as I found the place completely torn apart. The contents of my drawers were turned out, my clothes had been pulled haphazardly out of the wardrobe, the mattress was flipped up.
Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 16