Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  Ryder stood, snarling around at anyone close to make them back up.

  “Get the fuck out of my sight,” he spat at the guy on the floor and he scrambled onto his knees, whimpering as he scurried away.

  Ryder dropped back into his seat, cracking his neck and sighing satisfactorily. He flexed his fingers, his breathing heavy as he looked to me again. “Why are you still here? I said no, asshole.”

  He leered at me and I hurried to my feet, sure he would attack me if I remained there a second longer. I headed out of the circle, my heart beating a desperate tune as I marched back toward the fire, furious at myself for failing. But I still had another option in mind.

  If Ryder wouldn’t offer me work, maybe Oscura Clan would. So tomorrow, I had a date with a Storm Dragon.

  I sat on Devil’s Hill during my lunch break with Laini and her friend Daniel, enjoying the benefits of our combined magic as it shielded us from the cold day. A late frost had shown its head again this morning and though the icy blue hue had left the grass now, it was still too cold to be sitting outside really. But that seemed to be how it worked at Aurora Academy. The cafaeteria benches remained empty during lunch hour and students only ventured inside to collect food. Nothing more. Our solution was a stroke of genius though. Laini had cast a small blaze to burn on the ground between us and I’d created a bubble of air around us to trap the heat inside. It was so warm that I was almost tempted to have a nap.

  Laini and Daniel were both Sphinxes so they liked to spend a lot of time reading which was how they replenished their power. They were Juniors and had been in Gareth’s class but I didn’t have any reason to think they’d known him well. I wanted to ask them what they remembered about him but it was hard to come up with a good excuse for me to be asking questions about a dead guy I wasn’t supposed to have even met. I’d started spending a lot of my free time with them, studying Gareth’s journal and occasionally getting some of my own work done too. We had a quiet kind of bond but it was solid. Each day I’d learn a little more about the two of them as we chatted while we ate lunch before descending into companionable silence as the books took over. Today Daniel had admitted that he was building up to ask someone to the ball but he hadn’t said who. Tomorrow I’d get an answer out of him for sure. Our friendship was slow and steady but it was one of the few genuine things I felt I had in this place.

  However, today my mind was on other things. Concealed within the heavy Tarot book perched on my knees was Gareth’s journal and I was currently trying to decipher a sketch he’d done which looked almost like a circular maze.

  I felt like I was missing some key component to make it make sense though. No matter what way I turned it or which route I followed through it, I always came up on a dead end. And that just couldn’t be right. Beneath it were the words pay for the passage in blood. But what passage was it referring to?

  I wasn’t even entirely sure why this particular sketch kept drawing my attention back to it. There was just something about it that screamed important to me. But I was missing something here and I knew it.

  “What if the wind changes while you’re frowning like that?” Gabriel’s voice came from right behind me and I just about managed not to shriek in alarm, slamming the book shut in my lap as I turned to glare at him.

  “What’s with the sneaking, Gabriel?” I demanded as my heart damn near burst out of my chest.

  He was standing over me, shirtless, wings out and his back to the sun so that his face was in shadow. My heart was pounding with fright and more than a bit of nervous energy too. He didn’t bother to give my question a response before he went on.

  “The best of things move on swift and silent wings, look closely dear and you can have it all, but beware my love, for even angels fall...”

  I stared up at him, totally confused for a moment as I craned my neck. With the sun shining behind him like that he really did look like a fallen angel but I was guessing the quote had more to do with him trying to unnerve me than it had to do with his ungodly looks. The words didn’t mean anything to me though, aside from the last part which I happened to have tattooed on my ribs. Something he’d clearly noticed when he’d gotten me naked.

  Heat clawed along my spine at the reminder and I opened and closed my mouth at least twice before I managed to find my words. Why did he have to have that effect on me? I could go toe to toe with the meanest of assholes but give me a guy who looked like a demigod and made me bathe in awkward silences and I became a mumbling wreck. I found my balls lurking in the back of my purse and strapped them on as I prepared to face off against him yet again. For a guy who claimed to want me out of his way, he sure made it his business to get in my face a lot.

  “Is that supposed to mean something to me?” I asked eventually in a bored tone when it became clear he wasn’t going to add anything else.

  Laini raised an eyebrow at me then scooted away with Daniel, twisting so her back was to us like she didn’t want to have any part in our conversation. I wasn’t sure she’d ever spoken to Gabriel despite the fact that his bunk was above hers. It seemed his intimidation tactics worked a little too thoroughly on her.

  Gabriel dropped down to crouch in front of me, a knowing smile hooking up one side of his mouth. I looked at his lips for a little too long and his smile grew. Why did I have to choose him to take to my bed? And why the hell had he seemed like a totally different person that night? Had it all been fake just to get what he wanted from me? But if that was all he wanted then why keep hounding me now? The only interest I took in him was in trying to figure out if he had any link to my brother which he knew nothing about. I didn’t talk to him, sit with him, hell, I made it my mission not to look at him most of the time so why did it feel like he wanted my attention despite his warnings to stay away?

  “It just came to mind while I was circling in the clouds,” he said with a shrug. “And it made me think of you.” He punctuated the final word by reaching out and touching his fingers to my ribs just below my left breast, exactly where my tattoo sat.

  My heart leapt. I swallowed thickly, looking into his grey eyes as he looked right back. Waiting. But for what? He’d told me to stay away from him and I had. So why was he breaking his own rule?

  “Umm, thanks?” I offered when I couldn’t bear the silence a second longer. I wanted to tell him to fuck off but I was biting my tongue for Gareth’s sake. I’d come to this academy with the intention of getting close to the Kings which would certainly be easier if I could make nice with them. Even if this one was a particularly dickish specimen of asshole.

  Gabriel’s gaze fell to my lips and my stomach cartwheeled involuntarily. I tucked my knees under myself more firmly, clenching my thighs shut as an echo of desire slid through me, my mind playing over what had happened between us on that rooftop. And I had the feeling that was exactly what he wanted me to be thinking about too. Why was he always able to do that to me? I didn’t want him in my head or my bed so why was he making me think about that?

  “You wanna tell me what made a girl with the most indecisive star sign decide on that tattoo? What makes it so special?” he asked in a low voice which made me lean closer so I could hear him.

  My gaze automatically dipped to the countless tattoos lining his flesh.

  “Clearly you don’t have an issue deciding on yours,” I muttered, swerving his question.

  “I see flashes of the future. I already knew I’d end up with these tattoos before I’d even considered getting them. So I got them done in advance. Why delay fate?” The intensity of that question had me blushing all over again.

  “I make my own fate,” I replied instantly.

  Gabriel’s jaw locked, the storm in his eyes roiling for a moment and I knew I’d said the wrong thing. I also wasn’t going to be taking it back. Gabriel Nox might be the most intense and intimidating guy I’d ever met but I sure as hell wasn’t going to be bullied into changing my opinions.

  The silence stretched for so long this time that I had to
resort to chewing on my bottom lip to hold my tongue. But I refused to let him push me into changing my point of view.

  Gabriel let out a soft snort of amusement and turned away from me for a moment, looking out over no man’s land like it was a pleasant view instead of a war zone waiting to blow up.

  “You gonna keep holding out on me about why you got that tattoo then?” he asked casually without looking back at me.

  His persistence on the subject forced an answer from my lips despite myself. “I made it up. It’s because my br-” I cut myself off, snapping my mouth shut before I could mention my brother. He used to call me the little angel child when we were kids and when I swore to exact vengeance on the person who had taken him from me the words had just seemed to fit. I marked my skin with them for him and for me.

  It symbolised the moment I’d changed and headed down this path. And I knew in my soul that by the time I’d done everything I’d set out to achieve, I’d never be an angel in anyone’s eyes ever again.

  “It’s personal,” I ground out.

  “It’s kinda like mine though, isn’t it?” Gabriel pressed, holding his wrist out to show me the words he had inked there. The script was eerily similar to that on my own skin and the words sent a shiver down my spine. We fall together...

  I read it twice before blinking up at him again. “Kinda,” I admitted warily.

  “Almost like they match,” he pushed, his voice low and sending a shiver down my spine. “Four months ago, I saw a flash of a future where I had this tattoo while holding the hand of the girl I loved. That’s why I got it... Will you tell me why you got yours?”

  My mouth was too dry and my heart beating too fast. I couldn’t concentrate when he looked at me like that. It made my head spin.

  “No,” I replied on a breath. My tattoo wasn’t for him. It was for me. And Gareth. It might as well have been etched into my heart. I certainly didn’t know Gabriel well enough to try and explain that to him. I didn’t even like him, let alone trust him and if he’d decided he was interested in me all of a sudden then that was his problem, not mine.

  Gabriel twitched a smile at me which seemed to say you will and I dropped my gaze to the grass between us.

  Before I could make any effort to explain myself, Gabriel reached out and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.

  His touch on my skin sent heat skittering through me and I looked up at him between my lashes as I tried to figure out what he expected from me. I was so shocked by the gentle gesture that I didn’t even bat him off of me, I just stared, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

  “You can tell me when you’re ready,” he breathed, his hand lingering on my cheek for a moment. My skin tingled at his touch and memories of his flesh against mine surfaced like they’d been lurking there all along. “I’ll be waiting.”

  I frowned, wanting to remind him that I didn’t believe I was his mate or anything of the kind and had no intention of handing out personal information to him but he’d already risen to his feet.

  I looked up at him in surprise and he reached into his bag, holding out a can of orange soda for me.

  “What’s that for?” I asked. No one ever just gave you something for nothing. Especially not someone who spent most of his time perfecting the art of being a dick.

  “Because you shouldn’t want for anything.”

  Gabriel tossed the can into my lap before I could say anything in response to that and was gone a moment later. I was gonna get whiplash from that guy. Why had he suddenly decided to do a one eighty on me? What happened to stay the hell away from me and attacking me for no goddamn reason at every opportunity? I didn’t even know which version of him was more disturbing. And now I shouldn’t want for anything? What the fuck did that mean?

  When I looked around at Laini I found her staring at me with a questioning brow raised. “You sure have a knack for attracting the attention of the Kings of this place, girl,” she said and it didn’t sound like a compliment.

  “I guess I’m just unlucky,” I joked, picking up the can of soda.

  I eyed it for a long moment as if it might just be a bomb about to explode then carefully snapped the ring-pull open. The sudden hiss was followed by an explosion of orange as the soda detonated all over me.

  I shrieked in surprise, lurching backwards as it splattered me and I was left dripping and humiliated in the centre of Devil’s Hill as people all around me stared and started laughing.

  “Fuck you Gabriel!” I yelled as I scrambled to my feet and he reappeared with a cruel smirk on his face, the crowd parting for him. “Why won’t you just leave me the fuck alone like you promised?” I demanded.

  “Because, you don’t seem to be getting the message,” he snarled. “The moment I show a bit of interest in you, you’re back to panting like a bitch in heat and I need to make sure you understand the fact that you need to keep away.”

  “You’re a goddamn psychopath,” I snarled. “I want absolutely nothing to do you with. I can’t be clearer about that so just back the fuck off and I promise you won’t ever have to deal with me because I don’t want to be anywhere near you!” I threw a fistful of air at him but he’d already thrown up a shield expecting it and my magic just skittered aside, hitting Cindy Lou and blowing her skirt up around her waist. She glared at me but I couldn’t spare her any attention as I kept my eyes on Gabriel, wondering if he was done or only just beginning.

  “Good,” he replied darkly, stalking closer to me and looking into my eyes. “Let’s hope you remember to keep on hating me like that.”

  He turned and strode away from me through the crowd, leaving me in the centre of a ring of spectators who had nothing better to do than gawk at me. I glared in the direction Gabriel had taken as I clenched my fists at my sides and orange soda dripped down my face, running over my lips.

  The scent of syrupy goodness made a little tug of déjà vu rise in my chest and I couldn’t help but be reminded of home. Of Mom adding glitter to a thong while shouting out pop quiz questions over the breakfast bar and Gareth lazily getting every single one right while I lay on the couch and watched trash tv with a can of orange soda in my hand.

  Tears prickled the backs of my eyes for everything I’d lost and I quickly gathered my things, saying a brief farewell to Laini and Daniel before dashing away from the students gathered on the hill. I was almost angry at the memories for surfacing now but I couldn’t quite find the energy to turn my mind from them.

  Although it was stirring up things that were painful to me, they were happy too and I just wanted to spend a little bit of time alone with them while I could.

  I dropped my head, letting my hair hang forward to hide my face in case the tears sprung free. I couldn’t afford to be seen falling apart in this place. Everyone would assume it was because of Gabriel and I refused to let anyone think he’d hurt me at all. Humiliated? Yeah, he’d done a bang up job of that. But hurt? I’d have to give a shit about him for that and I’d never offer an inch of my heart to an asshole like him, so that was out of the question. But I couldn’t let anyone see me cry. I had to be strong, I had to be...

  Fuck this pain.

  Bottling up my grief for so long was bound to catch up on me at some point, I just hadn’t expected a can of exploding goddamn orange soda to trigger me losing my shit.

  I shot towards the dorms, needing the sanctuary of my bed. The one small space in this academy that I could call mine.

  I wrenched open the door to the dormitory tower and barrelled inside just as someone moved to step out.

  I slammed into a hard chest, dropping my bag and books spilling everywhere. And the fucking tears broke free like they’d just been waiting for that excuse.

  I kept my gaze on my feet, fighting against the sob which was building in my chest as I scrambled back away from my victim.

  “Shit! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

  A strong hand grasped my chin and forced my head up. I blinked furiously, trying to calm the t
ears which only poured faster in response.

  Ryder frowned down at me and I squirmed back, ripping my chin out of his grip. I dropped to my knees and started shoving books back into my bag as fast as I could.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked, his voice a dangerous growl. “Who hurt you?”

  “What?” I shook my head as I tried to move past him, but he shifted his muscular body right back into my path.

  “Tell me who hurt you, Elise,” Ryder hissed.

  “No one,” I snapped. I wasn’t going to say a word about Gabriel and I wasn’t crying because of him anyway. “Normal people have normal emotions. Sometimes I just feel sad because...” I shook my head again, trying to push past him but he caught my wrist in his grasp, not letting me go.

  “Wrong,” Ryder said. “You’re not feeling sad, you’re feeling pain. I can taste it on you.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath at the casual way he referred to my whole fucking world burning down around me. The hole which had been punched through my chest when my brother had been stolen from me was raw and bleeding. And I didn’t want him poking at it.

  I tried to duck around him again, but Ryder dragged me back inside the building, towing me after him down a long corridor while I tried to tug myself loose.

  “Let me go,” I protested. “I just want to be on my own.”

  He didn’t stop until we headed into a room at the end of the corridor and he’d tossed me inside.

  I blinked in the darkness, the sound of a key turning in a lock the only sound in the world.

  “What are you doing?” I gasped, backing up until my back hit a cold stone wall.

  “Calm down,” Ryder muttered. “You wanted to escape and now you have.”

  A light flicked on and I looked around in surprise. I was in a dorm like mine but everything in here felt cold and dark. A torn school blazer had been hung over the window to block out the sunlight which was trying to get in around the edges of the closed shutters. Jars of various liquids sat on the top bunk to the left of the room. The bottom bunk was perfectly made up but there was dust on the sheets like they were never slept in.