“You stink,” he said as he shook his hand out. “That’s Griffin shit.”
“What?!” I cried. No wonder I was burning up, that stuff was practically toxic. “Those Starlight assholes must have sabotaged me!”
“Well unless you can prove that you can’t start throwing around accusations. The only cure for that rash is bathing in a potion which you’ll need to get from Uranus Infirmary. I’m pulling you from the game-”
“No,” I snarled before he could make the call official. “My father came to watch me play.” My gaze slid to the stands where my dad’s eyes were on me, filled with concern. Behind him, my step mother watched too and though she hid it from the world, I could see the pleasure she was taking in seeing me fail. I couldn’t let that stand.
“If you’re going to keep playing then you need to suck it up,” Orion demanded. “Head in the game, work through the pain.” His favourite catch phrase had never seemed so literal.
“I’m in,” I growled, forcing my thoughts away from the constant burn.
I looked back at the pitch just in time to see an inflatable Pegasus sex toy floating over the Starlight crowd with Caleb’s name scrawled along its side and an arrow pointing at its open ass.
Cal noticed it too and he fumbled his throw, his aim way off as he passed the ball to Darius who dove forward to try and save it. His fingertips brushed it but the Starlight Airsentry threw a gust of wind at the ball and it fell to the ground with a wet thump.
My lips parted with horror as the scoreboard lit up with a -5 score to Zodiac and the Starlight crowd went wild.
Darius snatched the ball back up and managed to hook it to Seth who slammed it into the Pit but that only brought us up to -4.
“What the fuck is happening?” Orion murmured in disbelief.
My time out of the game was up so I raced back onto the pitch to await the next ball without another word. I moved from foot to foot, trying to ignore the burning agony which had now firmly found its way between my ass cheeks.
The whistle sounded, a flaming ball burst from the Fire Hole and once again the game was on. I just had to force my way through it until the end.
I watched the game with wide eyes and laughter bubbling in my throat. As if watching the Heirs completely fall apart wasn’t enough to make my day, I had a front row seat to Lionel Acrux and the rest of the Celestial Council falling prey to humiliation too. It was just too damn good. Too damn poetic.
Ah sweet justice.
And even though this mild form of torture only really came down to embarrassment, it still went a good way to making me feel powerful again. After what they’d put me and Darcy through, this was the very least of what these jerk-offs deserved and I hoped they were enjoying the dish of karma they were tasting.
Laughter fell from Darcy’s lips and I followed her gaze to see Seth scratching at his ass like he’d lost a ferret up there. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing too and I could feel the death stares it was earning me from the Councillors in response. Their faces were the perfect masks of the well-to-do proud parents they were embodying here today but the tension in their posture told the true story. They were mortified by the display that was being put on here. Reputation was everything to people like them and right before a whole swathe of cameramen and reporters, their precious Heirs were losing the plot.
Swift footsteps drew my attention to the row behind me and I turned my head from the game for a moment to see Washer squeezing between the crowd, calling Principal Nova’s name.
The Principal turned irritably as he reached her and he shouted to be heard over the crowd, allowing his words to carry to me.
“The cards gave me a vision, Headmistress!” he said urgently, the usual lecherous tone to his voice missing for once as his eyes bulged, revealing way too much of the whites.
I elbowed Darcy to draw her attention to him and she tilted her head to listen too.
“Not now, Washer,” Nova said, trying to wave him off as the Starlight Academy Principal looked around curiously.
“But there was terror and fire and death!” Washer insisted, his voice trembling on the last word. “It isn’t safe here, this place has been marked-”
“Trying to find a way to forfeit the game?” The Starlight Academy Principal mocked as Nova’s brows dipped with concern. “Just because you can see that Starlight is going to win?”
Washer’s eyes were wild with fear but Nova’s cheeks flared at the implication from the other Principal. “Certainly not,” she snapped. “No other predictions have been made like this about today and let’s be honest, you have made very inaccurate predictions in the past, haven’t you Professor Washer? Remember the time you were convinced your nephew was going to be eaten by a Nemean Lion on his birthday?”
“That was different,” Washer implored.
“Or the time you told Professor Perseus he was going to catch the Faeonic Plague? He wouldn’t come to work for a week!”
“I know but-”
“I will discuss this with you after the match has concluded, Professor Washer,” she said firmly.
“But I-”
“Enough, I’ll have no further distractions from the game,” she commanded.
Washer backed up like she’d struck him and his gaze landed on my sister and I as he started to move away. Before the crowd could swallow him, he mouthed one, single word to us, sending a shiver tracking down my spine.
Run.
I exchanged a loaded glance with Darcy. “Do you think he really does know something?” I breathed, looking around for some sign that something was about to go horribly wrong here.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “But it sounds like he often makes wrong predictions.”
I shrugged at her. We both knew I was the more skeptical of the two of us and if Nova didn’t feel the immediate need to flee then maybe there was nothing to worry about. What were the chances of something happening while we were surrounded by so many people anyway?
Before I could give it too much thought, my attention snagged on Darius as he charged across the pitch like a stampeding rhino, tackling a member of the other team so hard that I heard something crack.
My breath caught in my throat as the Starlight player groaned on the ground while Darius snatched the ball from him and launched it across the pitch with the force of a torpedo.
A timer was counting down as the Starlight player failed to get up and Darius raced away from him without a backwards glance. I knew it was part of the game but it was insanely brutal. Although if I was being totally honest, watching all of them brawl like that and seeing the power they exuded even while they were losing, was totally hot too.
Darius’s muscles pumped fiercely as he sprinted away from me and I found myself staring at his legs which were splattered with mud and somehow looked even better because of it.
“Olef you’re Out!” Prestos yelled but the Starlight player still didn’t move. A pair of medics jogged onto the pitch and gave him a quick inspection.
“Broken back!” one of them yelled. “This is a long heal, call in a sub once his time out is up.”
My lips parted, I stared on in shock and I couldn’t quite believe what I’d heard.
“Did he just say that Darius broke that guy’s back?” I asked in disbelief.
“That’s the risk you take when you play,” Orion said darkly as he walked past me to regain his seat.
Darcy raised her eyebrows at me and I returned my gaze to the match just as Geraldine tore up the pitch with a rumble of writhing earth magic, knocking the Starlight Waterguard off of her feet and forcing her to drop the ball. A huge -5 flashed into place on the Starlight scoreboard and I leapt from my seat in excitement to applaud my friend.
“Go Geraldine!” I screamed and she flashed me a smile as she somehow managed to hear me.
Seth almost missed the ball as it was thrown to him next while he was distracted by scratching his head. He managed to wrangle it with a gust of air magic and starte
d sprinting for the Pit as the timer above us ticked down to ten seconds.
The crowd started counting down, “Nine! Eight! Seven-”
Seth leapt into the air, propelling himself forward with his magic but the two air Elementals on the opposing team threw their own magic up to counter him.
“Three! Two-”
Seth gritted his teeth as he threw even more power into his propulsion but he was out of time.
The ball in his arms exploded in a blast of pure air which snapped his head back and sent him tumbling out of the sky. He hit the ground hard as the crowd oooohed in disappointment. For three whole seconds my heart didn’t beat at all as I stared at his prone body in the mud, wondering if he was dead.
Seth coughed, pushing himself into a sitting position just as Darius appeared to offer him a hand up. He shook his head to clear it and my eyebrows rose all the way into my hairline.
“This game is crazy,” Darcy breathed, her eyes wide with the thrill of it.
“I think I love it,” I agreed.
“What the fuck is going on out there?!” I roared, pure fury dripping through my body like melted plastic.
It was half time and the team were sitting on a bench before me in the locker room, looking defeated already. Caleb hid his face in his hands while the other three Heirs tried to comfort him after the chants of ‘Did you get a BJ from a horsey? Did you get a horn stuck up your ass?’ had chased him out of the stadium.
Max was patting his lumpy, purple skin and Seth kept scratching his head and frankly, they were falling the shitting hell apart.
No one answered me. Real surprising.
“Starlight Academy are a second rate team. You are elite. Your parents don't pour their not-so-hard-earned money into this place for no reason!”
Silence.
“ANSWER ME!” I bellowed.
Geraldine Grus trembled as she stared up at me. “Suffering sausages, Coach. We'll do better, I'm sure we can if we all-”
“Quiet,” I commanded and she nodded obediently. I pointed at her. “You are the only player out there working your ass off. And you're supposed to be playing defence not scoring Pits.” I glared at the other team members. “Grus is picking up all of your slack out there. If you don't win this match, you'll be starting the season at the bottom of the league and the matches only get harder from here. You were lucky to draw Starlight so early, this match should be child's play!”
I looked to the Heirs again, my jaw tightening as Max groaned, pawing at his body and Caleb still didn't look up as Seth rested a hand on his shoulder. Darius was glaring at the far wall like it had taken a shit on his dinner plate.
“You four. Up. Now,” I ordered.
They moved toward me, dragging their heels and I shook my head at their morose display.
I jabbed Caleb under his chin, forcing him to look at me. “Altair, fuck what the crowd thinks. I don't care if you're into bondage with leprechauns, leave that shit off the pitch, you got it?”
He took a heavy breath then nodded. “Got it,” he said with a little more enthusiasm.
“Rigel.” I snapped my fingers at Max and he stepped closer, lifting up his shirt to show me the raised purple rash now covering almost all of his body.
“Hell, it's getting worse.” I released a low whistle.
“Healing it doesn't work,” he moaned. “I need to go to Uranus Infirmary-”
The rest of the team started laughing and I shot them a glare to silence them as Max hung his head.
“Well it's your call. I can sub you for someone else,” I said, cupping the back of his neck to make him look me in the eye. “But so help me Rigel, if you choose to stay and you play like the turd on strings I've just witnessed for the first half, I will make sure this rash lasts the rest of the damn term, understand?”
“Yes, sir. I want to play on,” he muttered and I released him, snatching Seth by the collar and yanking him closer. I was maybe one percent rougher with him than the others. But he had cut off Blue's hair and I just couldn't fucking forgive it. End of story.
I fisted my hand around his man bun, pressing my forehead to his. “Do we have a problem, Capella?”
“No,” he gritted out.
“Then why are you scratching every corner, every nook, every damn orifice of your body in front of four thousand people?” A vein was popping somewhere in my temple and my heart was slamming itself against my ribcage with such vigour it was a genuine concern. Maybe I needed this win more than they did. Maybe they weren't driven with all the desperate passion of a guy who'd lost his chance to play for the Solarian Pitball League. But so help me, in all the years I'd either played for or coached the Zodiac Academy Pitball Team, we had never come last in a tournament. So we weren't going to start this year.
“I've got fleas!” Seth lamented and I shoved him away from me on instinct. He sank down to his knees and clung onto my legs, seemingly in the midst of a nervous breakdown. “My pack won't sleep with me or run with me or spend any time with me and I'm not meant to be alone. And it itches so much, Professor!” He stared up at me in desperation and I scowled down at him, shaking him off of my legs. This is pitiful.
“Get up. Try and bring your dignity with you. Every Werewolf in the Academy is getting flea dipped next week. So until then, suck it up. I'll give you the same choice I gave Rigel. Are you in or are you out?”
He glanced at his friends, seeming to draw strength from them. “I'm in,” he sighed. “I'll do better.”
“Good.” I smacked him overly hard on the shoulder so he stumbled forward and I tried not to acknowledge the fact that that had anything to do with Darcy. Because it didn't, dammit.
“Darius.” I beckoned him and he moved toward me, splattered with mud as dark as the scowl on his face.
“What's gotten into your head?” I asked, softer than I was with the others.
He shrugged his huge shoulders and I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to drop the act.
“It's fucking Milton Hubert,” he snapped. “He was the one who broke into my room, stole my shit and burned my goddamn room down. He was supposed to be my friend.”
By the stars, could all of these issues have occurred at a worse time?
I sighed heavily. “Are you sure?” It hit me suddenly that if Hubert had done that, he might have the draining dagger we'd been looking for. But I'd searched all of the students rooms...where would he have hidden it? - shit I can't think about this right now.
“Yeah,” Darius snarled. “I'm sure. The guy had the gall to wear one of the gold rings in front of me.”
“That seems moronic,” I commented.
“He's not exactly the brightest spark.” Darius shrugged though his teeth were still clenched hard.
“Alright.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “I need you to put this aside for the last half. Then if you want to, you can go full Dragon asshole on him later. I'll even bring a flame thrower and help you do it to make sure we get back every item he stole. But your friends need you on point right now. Look at them.” I gestured to Seth who was sticking wet toilet tissue to Max's rash as if that would be any help at all and Caleb who was wiping at the glitter which was still stuck to his crotch no matter what magic he used to try and remove it. It was pathetic.
“They need you, man.” I shook Darius a little and he nodded, seeming to see that at last. He moved to join his friends and they looked up hopefully as he arrived.
“Right team.” I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Go out there and destroy Starlight Academy like you were made to do. You were trained by the best, so be the best.” I gazed across the lot of them as they lined up. The Heirs pulled ranks, clapping each other on the shoulders but some of them still looked miserable.
A familiar chant carried from the crowd back in the stadium and hope burned through my chest. Perfect timing!
“You can't scare the Heirs, the Heirs don't care. You can't scare the Heirs, the Heirs don't care!”
The rest of the team t
ook up the chant, grouping together and locking their arms over their shoulders in a circle, though I noticed Ashanti Larue kept her distance from Seth. The Heirs soon joined in, jumping up and down and pumping their fists.
I folded my arms, grinning as I watched. The funny thing was, that chant was the biggest lie I'd ever heard. Because I’d never, in all the years I'd known them, seen the Celestial Heirs look so rattled.
As half time finished, we grouped together and prowled back out onto the pitch like we were the kings of the goddamn world. Rage still coiled in my gut, hot and bitter but I couldn’t let it rule me again; I had to channel it into this match.
We were eighteen points down. Eighteen! I didn’t think we’d ever come into a second half at such a disadvantage before. Hell, I wasn’t sure we’d ever come into a second half at a disadvantage at all.
The other team were already back on the pitch. There was still ten minutes to go before the second half was due to start and they were spending that time riling up the crowd.
To my right, the Starlight students were still bellowing a song about Cal hooking up with a Pegasus and I gritted my teeth as I looked towards my friend.
The moment of weakness he’d caved to in the locker room had given way to cold, hard fury and he glared up at the Starlight stands with venom in his gaze. There were now four huge blow-up Pegasus sex dolls drifting back and forth amongst them, and my scowl deepened as I spotted my own name scrawled across one of them with Seth and Max’s on the other two.
The Zodiac crowd roared yet another chorus of ‘The Heirs don’t care!’ and I wished in that moment that it was the goddamn truth. I’d never really experienced this kind of mocking before. Sure, we’d all had more than one scandalous or scathing story printed about us but we’d never had to stand and listen to this kind of abuse before.
It occurred to me that I’d inflicted this kind of humiliation on people countless times and for half a second, my mind snagged on the Vega Twins and the way they’d looked after Lance had pulled Roxy from that pool. But this wasn’t the same. I’d had to do that. It was for the good of Solaria and I stamped down the little voice in my head which was trying to question that fact with a vengeance.
Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 42