Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  I whipped my Atlas from my pocket and took a quick photo of the book’s position so that I could be sure to return it to its place then I picked it up.

  I opened the first page and frowned at the strange words there, not making any sense of what I was reading.

  The void.

  “Don’t look back!”

  Mars under the influence of the stars.

  Golden crossroads.

  Three pennies.

  A hand guiding me free.

  Chamber in the walls.

  “I love you - run!”

  Death rattle.

  The eyes of the devil.

  “Even your memories aren’t safe.”

  Dark eyes filled with love and sorrow.

  A baby crying.

  He didn’t help.

  Lies.

  I flicked over the page and saw more and more lines of the same kind of things. Some of them were repeated multiple times. There were crude drawings too, notations and arrows linking one thing to another. As I struggled to understand what I was looking at, one line stood out to me.

  I woke up screaming again. And I still don’t know why.

  The last word was underlined six times, the pen almost breaking through the page like he’d been infuriated when he’d scored the lines. I suddenly realised that I must have been holding Gabriel’s dream diary. It was well known that he had a touch of The Sight and was gifted with visions of the future and perhaps the past as well. It was one of many reasons why what I was doing was a terrible idea. What if he saw what I was trying to do to him in a vision?

  I shuddered at the thought but dismissed it again as I looked down at the ramblings in his diary. He clearly couldn’t make much sense of whatever his dreams were showing him. And if his waking visions were this confusing too then I doubted he’d be able to figure out much from any of them. And I’d keep telling myself that every time I doubted this insane plan until I was safely tucked up in my dorm again.

  I carefully replaced the dream diary and shifted around his bed to search the final spot.

  The back wall of the tent looked completely innocent to me but as I reached towards it with my hand outstretched, a faint pressure pushed back against me, almost like it wanted me to leave.

  I smirked as I detected Gabriel’s magic and pushed my hand forward, ignoring the concealment spell without disarming it. It didn’t contain any kind of warning system that I could sense so I just reached through it until my fingers brushed against a pocket I couldn’t see.

  I dipped my hand inside and a thick cardboard file grazed against my fingers.

  I tugged it out quickly and flipped it open, my pulse rising.

  The top page held a picture of Gabriel beside the name Gabriel Strongarm. Beneath it was a social security number, an address somewhere in the east of Solaria and a birthday which made him a Cancer even though I was sure he was a Scorpio.

  I frowned and flipped the page to find another bio. It was almost exactly the same information again except this time Gabriel was named as Sanchez Vontora and he was a Pisces who lived in north Solaria. A smile pulled at my lips as I realised that this was what I’d been looking for. I started taking pictures, counting off seven identities aside from Gabriel Nox.

  Who the hell is this guy?

  I glanced at the time on my Atlas and my gut lurched as I realised I only had fifteen minutes to finish up and get the hell out of here before I could find myself at the hands of a seriously pissed off Harpy with ten times my power and an attitude to rival the devil on a bad day.

  I stopped reading and started taking pictures faster and faster, making sure I caught a snap of every single page in the folder before hastily stuffing everything back inside.

  I pushed through the illusion and found the pocket again, hiding the folder where I’d found it then scrambling upright and sprinting back across the roof.

  The bell sounded to mark the end of classes for the day and my heart almost leapt out of my mouth as I tore down the fire escape.

  I threw myself inside through my window and slammed it for good measure, slumping down on my bunk as my racing heart finally began to settle.

  I kept my eyes on the sky through the pane and sucked in a breath as I caught a glimpse of Gabriel soaring by.

  I held my breath for longer than I would have thought possible, half expecting to hear him screaming bloody murder at any moment from the rooftop, but nothing happened.

  When I could finally breathe normally again, I dug under my mattress for the burner phone I’d bought on my last trip to town and powered it up. I quickly sent the pictures of Gabriel’s identity to the burner and found the number for Gabriel’s Atlas on the school contacts list.

  My tongue was sticking to the roof of my mouth as I composed the first message I was going to send to him under the code name Faeker and let my thumb hover over the send button for a solid minute.

  Once I started this, there was no backing out. But I’d already done the hard part. So now it was time for the pay-off.

  Faeker:

  Looks like someone’s having a bout of schizophrenia.

  Maybe you should see the nurse about that, Gabriel.

  Now all I had to do was wait to reel him in.

  Hold on little angel, I’m gonna buy you a better life.

  Gabriel:

  I want answers. I’m done waiting.

  A predictably evasive message came in response and I grunted in fury, tempted to slam my damn Atlas into the wall.

  Falling Star:

  When the stars are ready, you’ll get your answers.

  I marched down the dark alley I’d landed in on the outskirts of Alestria. The stench of piss and rotting food hit the back of my throat and I swallowed thickly as I circled out of it to the front of the shitty bar where I was meeting Mr Fortune. Not his fucking real name, obviously.

  I pulled a shirt out of my bag, tugging it on and slinging the pack over my shoulder. The Dirty Wand wasn’t somewhere I wanted to spend any time. It was the sort of place dreams went to die, and every time I stepped through the doors, I felt like I needed a scalding shower to wash off the experience.

  I entered through the bloodstained door and headed past worn red velvet chairs full of half-cut punters. I was tempted to hold my breath as I stalked through a maze of hookers in tight dresses and too much make-up, the smell in this place like a hobo’s wet dream.

  “You here for a good time, big boy?” one of them purred at me and I ignored her, moving deeper into the cesspit.

  I was right in Lunar territory and their half-moon symbol with a serrated edge around the outside was stamped everywhere possible. Behind the bar, on the bar, on some fucking guy’s forehead. My sleeves were rolled up, tats on show and muscles too. No one would question whether I was one of them or not which made me invisible. Besides, this place was full of has-beens and won’t-haves. No one of importance.

  When I’d grabbed a bottle of beer - fuck if I was gonna put my mouth on one of their glasses - I headed to a black leather booth in the far corner, finding Mr Fortune waiting for me. He was a stocky guy with a thick moustache and cold eyes. Bill Fortune was the best damn private investigator in this corner of Solaria. He was a Cyclops which meant he could draw memories right out of people’s heads. And on top of that, he knew this shitty town better than most. Every shadow, every shithole, every hooker nest, and all the people who frequented each of them too.

  “Mr Nox,” he said with something of a smile, his voice gravelly from the fifty-a-day cigarettes he sucked on. “How are you?”

  “I’ll be better when I hear some good news.” I dropped into the booth, casting a silencing bubble around us to ensure no one overheard us. But apart from the drunk hooker leaning on the bar ten feet away, no one else was even close. “So? Have you found out anything about her?”

  Bill took out a cigarette, planting it in the corner of his mouth and lighting it with a flame he cast on the tip of his index finger. He took a long drag and release
d the smoke, the acrid cloud making my eyes burn. “Thing is, kid, it looks like someone worked real hard covering up the connections so-”

  “So what you’re saying is you have fuck all information for me. Again,” I snarled, ice forming around the beer bottle in my grasp.

  “I didn’t say that,” Bill mused, puffing on his smoke and letting me agonise over that while he kept me in suspense. “But I’ve been busy. In fact, I’ve been spending all of my time covering for the bullshit you pulled a few months ago.”

  My heart jerked uncomfortably.

  “You said that was dealt with,” I growled. “What am I paying you for if you can’t manage the jobs I give you?”

  “It is fucking sorted,” Bill snapped. “But some asshole wrote another article about it last week, dragging up the past.” He painted a headline banner with his hands in the air before him and said, “Aurora student who died horrifically on Killblaze said to have been in school cult.”

  I shifted awkwardly in my seat, guilt pinching my heart. “What did you do about it?”

  “I sparked a gang war out in east Alestria. It took up everyone’s attention the next day so that article was forgotten and the class picture on the front page went with it.”

  I blew out a breath of relief. “Good.”

  “You don’t pay me to sit on my ass, kid. I do my job. And I do it better than anyone. Maybe if you’d controlled your temper better that day…” He puffed on his cigarette and anger burned in my chest.

  “I know, alright? I just got so fucking angry. But I didn’t mean for things to go that far.” Hell, I really hadn’t. I regretted it every day. But that night would haunt me forever.

  “Well it did. So here we are,” Bill said, but not judgmentally. I imagined my problems were nothing compared to the shit he dealt with on a regular basis. “Best to just leave it in the past,” he added as he eyed my expression.

  I wish I fucking could, but it eats me alive every day.

  “So what information have you got on her?” I asked, wanting to move the hell on from that particular subject. “Tell me you’ve got something substantial at last.”

  “I wouldn’t say substantial. But I’ve got a lead.”

  A loud thud sounded behind me followed by a gut-wrenching scream then another and another. I twisted around in my seat, my pulse elevating as my eyes swept across the bar. The crowd was suspiciously relaxed and I realised a second too late the sound had been sent to me through The Sight.

  “Fuck, get down!” I caught the back of Bill’s shirt, yanking him under the table just as the door to the bar was kicked open and a flood of Oscura Clan poured in. Three of them were in Werewolf form, the first grey wolf diving on one of the men standing by the bar and ripping his throat out before anyone realised what was happening. The screams from my vision rang in my ears as a full on gang war broke out.

  My heart hit a rapid pace as I tried to figure out what the fuck to do.

  I knelt on the sticky floor, crawling forward. A loud bang sounded above us as a guy was thrown down onto the table and a wail rang out. His legs stopped kicking and blood oozed onto the seats. It dripped to the floor between us as his attacker darted away and I felt the heat of it soaking into my pants.

  Shit shit shit.

  “Here,” Bill hissed, reaching into his bag and taking out a file, his cigarette somehow still lodged in the corner of his mouth. He handed it to me and I stuffed it into the back pocket of my jeans. I was tempted to fight my way out of the bar but we both knew I couldn’t bring focus on myself.

  “Don’t be a hero, kid. Those are fully trained Fae out there, you haven’t even graduated school,” Bill growled, his tone making me think he gave a damn about me for a second. But that wasn’t Bill. He cared about two things. Money and himself.

  “Fine, I won’t show my face, but what’s your excuse asshole?” I shot at him and he gave me a dark look as another scream tore the air apart.

  “I don’t have a death wish, Mr Nox.”

  A hooker slipped in the blood right in front of us, crashing to the floor on her knees. Her eyes locked with mine just before she was hauled backwards with a shriek and my gut spiralled. I lurched out far enough to try and cast vines to help her but a spear of ice was already lodged in her chest by the man standing over her. Bill yanked me out of sight, his cigarette falling from his mouth, hissing as the cherry dropped into the puddle of blood.

  The guy who’d killed her was branded on my retinas. I knew him from the papers, his reputation seriously preceding him. Felix Oscura. Dante’s uncle and one of the most cutthroat Fae in the city. His body was sinewy and his eyes were empty like an abandoned house, the occupants long checked out. Psycho was the only word that sprang to mind when looking at him.

  “There’s a back door,” Bill whispered as Felix marched past our table, stepping behind the bar.

  “We can’t move,” I hissed back, disbanding my silencing bubble in case any of the Clan felt it. If they found us here, they’d assume we were aligned with The Brotherhood and we’d be deader than dead. I might have been a double Elemental, but I wasn’t a fucking idiot. If I went out there, I’d be dripping blood before I could even try to explain I wasn’t part of The Lunar Brotherhood.

  “Free booze, boys!” Felix crowed and the rest of his pack howled in return, sending a bead of anxiety down my spine. “All the better to burn this place to the ground with.” The sound of smashing bottles rang in my ears and a shard of glass skittered beneath the table, the scent of whiskey and blood rising under my nose.

  Bill jabbed me in the leg and I glanced at him. “Run for it,” he mouthed.

  I gritted my teeth as alcohol splashed across the floor a few paces away, screams still calling out from The Brotherhood as they died in the hands of their enemies. These were old guys and a few whores, they hadn’t stood a chance against the Clan.

  “Fire,” I whispered to Bill and he nodded in understanding.

  He threw out a hand and sparks exploded from his skin, igniting the alcohol in a blaze near the bar. Felix shouted out and that was our moment to run.

  I ducked my head and darted out from under the table. Bill was hot on my heels, casting a wall of fire behind us as we ran for the back door, shouts of fury sounding as the Oscuras gave chase. The clamour of pursuit followed as we broke out into the alleyway behind the bar. We threw the door shut and I cast vines across it, sealing it as tightly as I could just before a heavy weight collided with it from the other side.

  “See you next week,” Bill croaked, tipping his head to me before he raced off toward the road.

  I shed my shirt, clutching it in my hand as I released my wings from the barrier of my skin. The door flew open behind me but I was already in the sky, climbing and climbing as I raced for the cover of the clouds. They’d cost me my conversation with Bill. But I had the file. So as soon as I got back to the Academy, I was going to find out what information he’d dug up. And hopefully, my wait would be over.

  The sounds of sirens filled the air, but I knew they’d circle the block before they stopped here. Even the cops in this town didn’t get between the gangs. If they did, they ended up in pieces too.

  Pain burst through my wings as shards of ice punctured my body and I cried out.

  “Chicken is on the menu tonight, boys!” Felix cried as I cast a shield behind me, an idiot for not doing it sooner. The second it was in place, a torrent of ice collided with it, enough to have killed me.

  Adrenaline poured through me in a heated wave and magic flooded my limbs as I tore away from the blazing bar, my wings shredded and blood oozing from multiple wounds as agony tore through my skin. But I wasn’t dead, and when it came to Felix Oscura, that was nothing short of a miracle. It seemed the stars were on my side tonight, I just prayed it stayed that way because it was a long way back to the academy on broken wings.

  “So.” Professor Titan leaned back in his chair, rocking from side to side a little as it rotated. He surveyed me with a smile playin
g around his lips. Which seemed to be his permanent expression. Fuck knew what he had to be so happy about teaching a bunch of assholes like us but there it was. Maybe he was a glutton for punishment. Or maybe he really just liked educating people, even if that did mean he was caught in the middle of a gang war every other day and had to put up with little dipshits mouthing off left, right and centre.

  “So?” I asked, reclining in my own chair.

  Titan’s almost smile became a full smile and I tried not to feel the little surge of warmth towards him. The guy was a bit of a sucker but he actually seemed to give a shit about me and I couldn’t even say I hated my Liaison sessions with him. It was kinda nice to let the mask drop for a bit. I didn’t have to pretend with him. I mean, I was hardly going to start talking to him about my brother or my home life or anything of any real relevance, but I never caught any judgment from him. He didn’t need me to put up a front or fight to maintain my position. He was happy for me to just be. And this office might have been the only place in this school where I could claim that. Sharing dorms with two of my potential suspects meant I couldn’t even relax fully while I slept and there was certainly no chance of it once I was wandering the corridors of the academy.

  “A little birdie tells me there are bets being placed on you,” Titan said, seeming a little amused, a little concerned.

  “What?” I asked with a frown.

  “The Kiplings are running odds on which gang you’ll choose,” he explained.

  I sighed dramatically. “Neither. Obviously.” We’d discussed the school gangs enough times that I was fairly sure he knew my stance on the idea of joining up.

  “I didn’t think so. There are damn good odds on you not choosing either side. Maybe I should place a bet. Do you think it would be immoral of me to use my inside information like that?”

  I laughed, leaning further back in my chair. “Go for it. Do the Kiplings usually take bets from the faculty though?”