Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess
Shadow Princess: Chapter 39

“It’s so nice to reclaim the old palace traditions,” Melinda Altair’s voice reached me and I glanced down the table to the Councillors. It hadn’t escaped my attention that no one had taken a seat at the head of the table and I got the feeling that that was the place reserved for the King. Or maybe the Queens. Either way, no seat had been placed there and no one was mentioning it.

“Yes. It’s a nice gesture to welcome the lost Princesses back and let them be a part of things,” Lionel replied, lifting a fork full of some fancy food to his mouth.

“Let us?” I asked with a laugh, raising my voice to make sure there was no chance of them missing my words. “Just whose palace are you in again?”

Lionel paused with his fork half way to his lips, his gaze boring in to me as I casually sipped on my champagne.

Darius cleared his throat in warning beside me, but I ignored him. I wasn’t going to let these assholes steamroll my Christmas and then make out like they were doing me some kind of favour by being here. If anything, they should appreciate the fact that we hadn’t kicked them out.

Lionel smiled but it didn’t touch his eyes. “Well that’s an interesting question,” he replied. “Because there are some who say that the Palace of Souls should belong to the most powerful Fae in the Kingdom, not just be blindly handed down within a bloodline.”

I nodded like he’d made a fair point and he pushed his appetiser into his mouth.

“Of course, we are the most powerful Fae in the Kingdom,” I mused. “So I guess it would be ours whichever way you looked at it.”

Darcy caught my eye across the table and she seemed to be stuck between laughter and horror at me baiting our enemy like that. I shrugged one shoulder minutely and took another long sip of my drink.

“So if you weren’t sitting here having dinner with all of us, what exactly would you be doing with your day, sweetheart?” Caleb asked me, drawing my attention away from the Councillors.

Everyone seemed happy enough to let the subject drop there before it could fall into any kind of disagreement and I turned away from Lionel’s acidic gaze.

I shifted my eyes to Caleb and speared some food onto my fork. The wrong fork. Because I didn’t give two shits about the ridiculous royal eating traditions and if the uninvited guests at this table thought I was a savage for using the wrong cutlery I couldn’t care less. “I dunno. We’ve already had our snowball fight and that’s pretty much our only tradition. So maybe just watching TV or looking around the palace.”

“What kind of tradition is a snowball fight?” Darius asked on my right, drawing my attention around to him.

“The only kind you can have when you’ve got no money and never spend a Christmas in the same place twice,” I replied in a sweet as pie voice while scowling at him.

He nodded his head but he was frowning at the same time. “So you never had more than one Christmas in the same place?”

“We had two with the Felbrooks,” Darcy put in from across the table.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But they made us eat in the kitchen while they had their family over in the dining room, so…”

“You were sent away from them?” Darius asked in a low growl.

“Actually, you could call that our Christmas tradition,” I said lightly. “It’s tradition for us to feel unwanted on Christmas Day. And thanks to you guys, we get to feel like that this year too. Even though it’s the first time we’ve actually got our own house to celebrate in, you all still made the effort to make sure we didn’t miss out on the feeling of being an unwelcome addition to the festivities. So thanks for that.”

“Tor…” Darcy said in a low voice and I glanced at her for a moment, offering her an apologetic smile before dropping my gaze to my food.

For some unknown reason, tears were burning the backs of my eyes and I wasn’t going to let these assholes see that so I just concentrated on my meal as an awkward silence descended on our part of the table.

Seth cleared his throat uncomfortably and waved over a waiter with more champagne as a soft whimper left his throat.

Great, now I’m the one ruining Christmas.

“You’re not unwelcome,” Darius murmured so low that I wasn’t sure anyone else could hear him. “And I’m sorry we’re ruining your day.”

I looked at him in surprise, my lips parting as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to say to that. I hadn’t even known that word was in his vocabulary, let alone that he was capable of aiming it at me.

“You’re not ruining it,” I replied slowly, trying to shrug off the feeling that something had been stolen from us by this ambush of a meal. “It’s not like we had some other amazing plans…”

He caught my eye and for a moment I felt like he really understood something about me. His gaze trailed to his father then back to me before he spoke again.

“It’s funny, you spent every Christmas wishing you could spend it with a family who wanted you there and I spent every Christmas looking forward to these formal meals so that I didn’t have to spend too much of it in the company of mine.”

His hand shifted on the table and his little finger grazed mine. My stomach fluttered at the unexpected contact and I bit my lip as I found myself hooked in his gaze with his dark eyes boring into my soul as if he could really see me.

“Well maybe Christmas just sucks whatever way you do it,” I whispered conspiratorially. “And it’s only ever perfect in the movies.”

“This year isn’t shaping up too badly so far,” he countered, his gaze sliding over my face and pausing on my lips which I sharply remembered pressing to his flesh not so long ago.

My skin prickled and I looked around as I felt the touch of Siren magic brushing against my skin. The heat faded from my veins and I found Max watching the two of us with a slight frown. My Phoenix Fire quickly burned through his magic and I rolled my eyes at him for trying to steal my lust as I returned my attention to my food.

“Why don’t you girls pick something for us to do later if you want to make a new tradition?” Max suggested casually. “You could bring Grus too…” I followed his gaze down the table to where Geraldine was talking excitedly with some of Seth’s sisters. I caught the words getting down with the candy cane of shame and snorted a laugh to myself.

“I can ask her,” I said slowly. “But I’m pretty sure she’s hooking up with someone later…”

“Who?” Max demanded and Darcy caught my eye in confusion. I twitched my lips in amusement and she caught on, quickly adding to my lie with one of her own.

“Oh yeah, she’s been seeing one of the servants,” Darcy said enthusiastically. “She said she’s never had someone rock her coconuts like he can…”

Max’s mouth fell open as he stared around at the wait staff who were coming and going in outrage. “Bullshit,” he snarled. “Some fucking waiter is not better in the sack than me.”

I snorted a laugh and Darcy smirked into her carrots.

“Is it that guy over there?” Max demanded and I followed his arm to a huge waiter who was carrying four trays at once and making it look easy.

“No, but he’s hot,” I agreed, checking him out. “Maybe I should ask him to come and fluff my pillows later…”

“I can do that for you if you need help with it,” Caleb piped up and Darius set his glass down hard enough to rattle the cutlery.

I glanced at him in surprise but he wasn’t looking at me, he was scowling at the hot waiter who seemed to notice and promptly left the room.

“Is it that guy?” Max demanded, pointing out another stacked waiter.

Is that some kind of requirement for working here or something? ‘Wait staff needed, previous experience preferred, thick thighs appreciated and stacked abs a plus…’

“No. It’s him,” Darcy said and I smirked as she pointed out one of the smallest guys in the room who just so happened to be about twenty years older than us too.

“Fuck off,” Max said in denial. “There’s no way she’d trade me in for him!”

“She said he’s got hidden talents,” I added with a wink.

“Yeah,” Darcy agreed. “And a huge-”

Max pushed himself to his feet with his gaze locked on the poor waiter and me and Darcy both burst into laughter.

“You’re joking?” Seth asked in amusement as Max lowered himself back into his chair with a frown and Caleb barked a laugh.

“That wasn’t funny,” he groaned.

“Yeah it was,” Caleb disagreed.

“Cut him a break,” Darius said, leaning back in his chair as his eyes glimmered with mirth. “It’s hard when the girl you like won’t give you the time of day. One minute he thought they were all on then the next she’s back to ignoring him and hating him and…” He trailed off as we all looked at him and his gaze slid over me. “And he doesn’t need us laughing at him too,” he finished slowly.

“Thanks, brother,” Max grumbled as he set to work attacking his potatoes.

“Why don’t you just try being honest with Geraldine if you like her?” I suggested. “Just tell her what it is you like about her and maybe she’d be more open to-”

“I’m not making a fool of myself for anyone,” he muttered in response and I dropped it.

“So what have you two been doing here for the last few days?” Caleb asked us, changing the subject.

“Mostly just exploring our palace a bit,” Darcy said and I quirked a smile at her.

“Yeah, sorry dude, but I’m decidedly less impressed by your fancy house than I used to be,” I said with a smirk at Darius and he actually grinned.

“Right. Now you’ve got a palace so you think you’re so much better than us mere Heirs,” he joked.

“Well…we are Princesses so…”

Darius laughed and for a moment I just stared at him with my lips parted. Where were the douchebags who tormented us all around campus? Was this some kind of Christmas miracle or something? Had a little elf come and crawled up all of their asses to fill them with Christmas spirit this morning? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to question it.

“Of course, if you officially abdicate the throne, you won’t be able to toss the term Princess about quite so casually,” Lionel said loudly, drawing my attention back to him further down the table.

“If we do what?” Darcy asked with a frown.

“We don’t need to discuss this at Christmas,” Antonia put in as she drained her wine. A waiter instantly refilled it and the rosy tint to her cheeks made me wonder how many she’d put away already.

“Well it’s not like we have much chance to speak with the girls while they’re obtaining their education,” Lionel contradicted. “So it seems like as good a time as any to float the idea.”

“The idea of us renouncing our claim on the throne?” I clarified, my spine straightening at the suggestion of us turning our backs on our birth right. I’d never said I wanted to rule over Solaria. But this place, the things we’d already discovered just from being here for a few days, it was in our blood. I didn’t want to turn my back on the first link I’d ever really had to our parents without even having the chance to explore it fully.

“Well, you have made it clear on several occasions that you have no desire to rule. If you renounced your claim publicly, gave up your holding on the Palace of Souls and the throne, then-”

“No,” I said simply.

Darcy shot me a concerned look across the table for biting at him but fuck it. That asshole was already out for our blood and I wasn’t going to pander to the idea of him taking our palace from us too.

“Come now,” Lionel said on a laugh that seemed like he’d had to force it into existence from the pit of his ass and was anything but friendly. “I know it must be nice to indulge in the fantasy of this place, but we aren’t talking about taking your inheritance from you. The gold in your parents’ accounts and the other properties they owned would still pass to you once you graduate. And didn’t you say before, that you held no desire to claim the throne?”

I pursed my lips, my gaze falling on Darcy because we had said that on multiple occasions. But that was before. Before the Heirs had tortured and tormented us for months. Before we’d really understood what it was to be Fae. Before Lionel Acrux had stolen us away from the Academy and risked our lives to take possession of the shadows. And after suffering through all of that and coming out fighting on the other side, I was a lot less inclined to release our claim on the throne our parents had left for us. Especially to someone like him.

“Let the pudding party commence!” Hamish Grus called loudly and I was saved from answering by a tide of waiters who descended on the tables and started clearing our plates to make room for dessert.

I leaned back in my chair as the serving staff worked to gather everything from dinner and a warm hand landed on my thigh beneath the table.

Darius’s grip tightened as he leaned close to speak to me and I felt a silencing bubble slide over the two of us.

“I thought you knew better than to bait my father,” he growled in my ear, his stubble grazing my jaw as he leaned in close enough to make a prickle of heat run down my spine. “Do you have a death wish or something, Roxy?”

“Why?” I breathed, turning just enough to catch his gaze in mine. The space between our mouths barely existed at all as I kept my eyes locked on his. “Are you going to punish me for being bad?”

Darius’s pupils dilated at that suggestion and I turned away from him dismissively as he dropped the silencing bubble before anyone could notice it. He didn’t take his hand off of my leg though.

My gaze trailed over the amazing desserts that were being loaded onto the table. There were mounds of profiteroles, cheesecakes which glittered with magic, every kind of pie and tart and cake imaginable plus ice cream, sorbets and syrups in every flavour. My mouth watered at the mere sight of them and I wasn’t entirely sure where to begin.

Darius still hadn’t withdrawn his hand from my thigh and I looked at him from beneath my lashes, wondering what he was thinking.

He didn’t return my gaze, but his hand shifted on my leg as he found the slit in my dress and pushed his fingers beneath the material.

My breath caught in the back of my throat at the feeling of his warm skin against mine, a thousand sin filled memories of the two of us in the Shimmering Springs crashing over me and rendering me speechless.

“So what traditions do you usually follow when you’re not coming to the palace for Christmas?” Darcy asked the Heirs as she started loading a selection of desserts onto her plate.

“Well we always have it together,” Seth replied. “We usually rotate whose house we go to and this year it would have been at mine.”

“But that was before we found our lost little Vegas,” Max added, his voice coloured with amusement.

“We usually eat together with everyone like this and then after the press photographs-”

“That what?” I asked in disgust. Were we going to be expected to give up part of our day to the press??

Darius laughed darkly, leaning forward to pile dessert onto his plate with his right hand while shifting his left further beneath my skirt.

My heart leapt as I tried to remember what I’d been saying and Darius shifted his fingertips across my inner thigh.

“Yeah, sorry sweetheart but that’s part and parcel of being one of us. Photo ops are kinda mandatory at all times,” Caleb laughed before taking a mouthful of his chocolate cake and placing his hand on my left knee.

I froze. My plate was still empty and the guys either side of me were both touching me in a way I absolutely shouldn’t have been allowing. Yet here I was, still sitting there, not pushing them off of me.

I bit my lip and reached forward to pile some profiteroles onto my plate and speared one on my fork as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do. The obvious solution was to push them off of me. But as Darius shifted his hand a little higher, I found myself tipping my leg towards him, inviting him closer instead.

Caleb caught my eye and smirked at me as he slid his hand up my leg too.

For some reason, until that moment I hadn’t really considered the fact that I’d been playing with fire by hooking up with two of the Heirs. I’d never really considered Darius to be an option because of the hatred that flared between us until we’d let that spill over into lust. And with Caleb it had always been clear there was no future in it, so I hadn’t really seen the harm in what had happened between me and either of them. But as Caleb shifted his hand an inch higher again, I got the feeling I was about to replace out what it was like to be slap bang in the middle of a love triangle. Minus the love part. I guessed that would be a lust triangle then. Which actually didn’t sound all bad aside from the fact that two sides of the triangle were unaware of each other’s participation in this particular interaction.

Although that was clearly going to change in about thirty seconds because Darius’s hand had just paused in its ascent beneath my skirt as his fingers brushed against the line of my panties.

My breath caught as my heart beat harder and my core filled with a molten heat which definitely wasn’t going to be sated by his hand just laying on my flesh.

My eyes slid to meet Darius’s and there was a question in his gaze which had a blush rising to my cheeks. My gaze fell on his mouth and I couldn’t help but think about the passion of his kisses on my lips.

Caleb shifted his hand higher and my heart leapt as his knuckles knocked against Darius’s.

I dropped my fork with a clatter and practically leapt out of my seat as a low, possessive growl left the back of Darius’s throat. Caleb’s lips fell open in surprise like he didn’t know what the hell to think and I absolutely wasn’t going to have that conversation.

“Bathroom break,” I announced loudly as people all along the table turned to look at me in surprise. I spun around and swept away as fast as I could without actually running.

I glanced back at the table and found Caleb and Darius scowling at each other like they both couldn’t make sense of what had just happened and I wholeheartedly agreed with them. Because when I’d woken up this morning, I’d had zero Heirs on my radar and now two of them seemed inclined to seek out my attention again.

My heels clicked loudly as I strode straight down a long corridor outside the dining hall, vaguely hunting for a restroom but mostly just trying to get the hell away from that awkward as fuck interaction. And hot. It had been awkward and hot. I could admit that to myself as my pulse continued to pound and heat danced along my spine.

I opened a door at random but instead of replaceing a restroom, I found myself in a huge chamber with portraits lining the walls and a large stone chair at the centre of it. This chair wasn’t like the throne in the throne room. It was made of glass and covered in glimmering silver gemstones which mapped out the constellations.

I walked towards it slowly, my curiosity piqued as I looked around at the portraits which hung from the walls. They depicted men and women of various ages, some with crowns on their heads though plenty without. As I drew closer to the chair, I spotted a portrait of our mother amongst them. She was looking up at a midnight sky, her gaze serene and a silver tiara perched in her hair.

“Do you have the gift of The Sight?” a dark voice sounded behind me and I spun around to stare at Lionel Acrux as he drew closer to me.

“Not really,” I hedged, my heart leaping as I realised I was alone with him.

Shadows stirred beneath my skin but I forced them back, willing them away so that he wouldn’t notice. I called on my Phoenix instead, relaxing a little as the warmth of my Order licked against my skin from the inside out.

“Pity. This is the Royal Seer’s Chamber, though none currently hold that position. Your mother was the last great Seer of our generation. There are plenty of others with the gift of sight of course, but none who could See so clearly as her… however, even that wasn’t enough to save her in the end.” Lionel drew even closer to me and I stilled, refusing to show him my fear as he came to a halt at my side, looking up at the portrait and seeming lost in memory for a moment. “She was a truly beautiful woman,” he said slowly, his gaze sliding from the picture to me. “That’s one thing you and your sister have inherited.”

He reached towards me and tucked a lock of my dark hair behind my ear, his cold fingers sliding along my jaw and down my throat.

I narrowed my gaze on him as he withdrew his hand and a shudder ran down my spine.

“Were you looking for something?” I asked coldly. I wasn’t going to pretend to feel anything towards this man aside from contempt.

“I just wondered how you were settling into the palace?” Lionel asked casually.

“It feels like home,” I said, surprising myself with the ring of truth those words held.

“Well don’t go getting too comfortable.”

“Same to you,” I replied darkly while a small voice in the back of my head screamed at me to shut the hell up.

Lionel lunged at me so quickly that I couldn’t even try and fight him off before his hand locked around my throat.

“Don’t test me, girl,” he hissed as he drove me back until my ass hit the glass chair in the centre of the room and he was leaning over me.

I gasped, my fingers curling around his as I tried to dislodge his grip on me.

“If for one moment it seems to you as though I’m not in full control of your destiny, then check again. You and your sister only draw breath because I desire it to be so. You only study at your academy and screw your way through half the men you meet because I allow it. You only sit there and challenge me and speak out the way you do because I have chosen for it to be the case. And if at any moment you push me too far, then it would be oh so simple for another tragedy to occur in the Vega household.” Lionel’s grip on me tightened bruisingly and Phoenix fire flared hot beneath my skin, only staying contained in my flesh through pure force of will.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I hissed through the tightness in my throat as he continued to squeeze.

“Your mother was the greatest Seer in generations,” Lionel breathed. “And yet she couldn’t escape her own death. Seers can’t see Nymphs because they hide in the shadows. But then whoever could have predicted that they’d get into the palace?”

I stared at him as I tried to figure out if that was supposed to be some kind of threat.

“I tried to save them, you know. Your father was my friend…”

“I didn’t know The Savage King had friends,” I said, curious despite myself. If he’d been there the night my parents were killed, then maybe he would know who that boy was that Astrum had saved.

“Perhaps he didn’t by the end.”

I stared at Lionel, willing him to share more of what he knew with me, but it seemed he was done with this conversation. He shoved me away from him so that my back collided with the glass chair behind me and the air was driven from my lungs.

“Forget this conversation,” Lionel growled, his voice thick with Dark Coercion as shadows danced before his eyes and spilled between his fingers. “And start showing me a bit more respect among company.”

Phoenix fire ran hot beneath my skin as it burned through the pull of his commands and I scowled at him as he walked away from me with a swagger to his step like he thought he was the king of the fucking world.

Just as Lionel reached the door, he turned back to look at me with a cruel smile twisting his handsome face.

“Oh, and feel free to break my son’s heart the next time he comes looking to crawl between your thighs,” he added, shadows coating his words again as he tried to compel me to fall to his will. “I was going to command him to stop chasing you, but I think this might just be better. When you cut him open and make his wretched heart bleed for you, his hatred will only grow stronger. And when it comes time for us to destroy you and your sister once and for all, he’ll be only too willing to play his part.”

The door clicked shut behind him and I remained in place with my heart hammering and my mind whirling. He hadn’t been careful in choosing his words because he’d thought he could make me forget them, but I still wasn’t sure if he’d actually told me anything or not.

Whatever way, it had only solidified one thing in my mind: Lionel Acrux was our enemy and he was working against us just as surely as we needed to work against him.

***

The afternoon had been filled with a photo shoot which dragged on for a few hours as photographers took shot after shot of us with and without the Heirs and Councillors. We sat around a fake dinner table and exchanged fake gifts. My cheeks hurt from fake smiling and I was just about done with this whole Christmas sham by the end of it.

All I’d wanted was a day with my sister, not this freak show of falsehood. But apparently we didn’t get a say in these things. At least not while the Councillors were able to press their decisions on us.

By the time the evening rolled around and we’d changed into new gowns for the Christmas ball, I was just about ready to quit and head for bed.

“It’s Christmas, Tor, no need to look so sad,” Darcy teased and I turned to smirk at her. Her new dress was silver and shone like starlight as she moved.

I’d opted for a black halter dress which fell to my feet and was tied down my back in an intricate series of laces. My blood red stilettos showed beneath it as I walked and raised me up a good few inches so the Heirs couldn’t tower over me so much.

The music drew us closer to the ballroom and I forced a little smile onto my lips as we walked.

“I’m not sad,” I said. “I’d just been looking forward to a few Heir free days and now we’ve been lumbered with the Councillors too. And I get the feeling that this is going to be our lives now. Always having to do things we don’t want to. We’ve got responsibilities when all I want is freedom.”

Darcy laughed like I was joking and maybe I was in part. We definitely had a lot more here than we used to have in the mortal realm and I wasn’t ungrateful for that. It just seemed like a lot of what we had now came with strings attached.

We descended the grand staircase and entered the ballroom to a round of applause.

I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of it and cut through the dancing bodies in search of the bar.

Before I could make it, strong arms caught me and I was whirled in a tight circle as the room spun and I suddenly found myself in the middle of the dance floor in Caleb’s arms.

“Happy Christmas, sweetheart,” he said, dragging my body flush with his as we started dancing.

“Merry Christmas, asshole,” I joked, letting him keep me as we moved in a slow circle to Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Bing Crosby.

“So do you wanna explain what happened at dinner earlier?” he asked me. “Because Darius doesn’t have much to say on the subject.”

“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I’m a sex addict.”

Caleb snorted a laugh. “I haven’t seen much evidence of that myself, recently.”

“Never say never,” I teased. “But I don’t belong to you Caleb so if I choose to get my kicks elsewhere then that’s up to me.”

“Mmmm.”

That wasn’t much of an answer, but he didn’t seem pissed at least.

“Just how many guys am I currently competing with?” he asked casually.

“You tell me, Caleb. You’re the one who set me up to look like I’m screwing every guy I meet. So maybe now I am.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said, turning me in a circle beneath his arm.

I snorted a laugh and I made it back into his grip as he pulled me close again. “Good. But honestly, would it make any difference if I was?”

He hesitated for a moment then shook his head with a chuckle. “No. I think I’d want you even if I was one of ten.”

I rolled my eyes at him and stepped back as the song ended. “Just not long term. Right?”

His jaw ticked. “No. Not long term,” he admitted.

Just what every girl wants to hear on Christmas. You’ll do for now, sweetheart, you’re just not the girl I want to end up with. Be still my beating heart.

“You know what, Caleb, I’m kinda beat. I think I’m just gonna go to bed,” I said, stepping back as another song started up.

“Do you mean alone?” he asked.

“For tonight, yeah.”

“And what about tomorrow night?” he asked with a smirk.

“Why don’t you text me in the New Year and I’ll think about it,” I teased.

“You can count on it,” he assured me and I shook my head as I walked away from him.

I spotted Darcy dancing with Orion and gave her a quick wave to let her know I was leaving. Geraldine was dancing with Max and I decided to leave her to her own Heir drama as I turned and slipped out of a side door in hopes that no one would see me escape.

I started humming The Pogues Fairytale of New York beneath my breath as I tried to figure out my way back to the entrance hall using the unfamiliar corridors.

It was quiet beyond the ballroom and cool too, the hairs rising along my bare arms as I walked.

I frowned in confusion as I came to a heavy wooden door with a crown etched into the wood at the end of the corridor, wondering if I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Curiosity won through and I stepped forward and opened the door.

My eyebrows rose as I realised I’d made my way into the huge throne room somehow. I found myself looking at the back of the enormous chair carved with fifty Hydra heads where it sat on a raised platform so that the King could be above the people at all times.

The room was dark but a single, pale blue light spilled down on the throne.

I almost turned back but curiosity tugged at me. I wondered what it would be like to sit upon the throne that the Heirs were so desperate to claim as their own. What was so important that they kept treating us the way they did just to keep it for themselves?

I took slow steps towards the throne, my heart beating faster as I approached it and adrenaline tingled through my limbs. This felt naughty, forbidden, like I was doing something that might get me into trouble and yet… I lived for this feeling. For the freedom of choosing to do things I shouldn’t. Making bad choices and owning them. And I just couldn’t resist the temptation the throne presented me with.

I rounded the huge chair and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of the man I found sitting there.

Darius leaned back in the throne, his legs wide and one arm slung carelessly over the armrest as the other cupped the back of his head. He’d run his fingers through his hair, breaking it free of the product he’d used to style it so that dark strands fell loose over his forehead. His suit jacket was abandoned on the floor before the throne and he’d untied his bow tie, leaving it hanging loose around his neck with several buttons of his white shirt open.

My lips parted as his gaze fell on me and for a moment I was lost for words. This was the man who’d tortured and tormented me, made my misery his goal and watched me fall into the shadows at his father’s orders. I hated him. I wanted to hate him so badly it hurt. But in moments like this I felt like I was just lying to myself.

“What are you doing here?” I breathed, my quiet voice echoing in the stone room.

“I couldn’t watch you dancing with Caleb,” he said, holding my eye and just owning how he felt for once.

“Why?” I asked, still not moving despite the fact that a smarter girl would have run by now.

He shifted in his position on the throne and I looked up at him as he moved to lean his elbows on his knees as he gazed down at me.

“Because you’re in my head all the time. You pulse through my blood with each beat of my heart. I live for every scrap of attention you offer me and suffer through every moment you spend ignoring me,” he said darkly, holding my eye the entire time.

“I thought you hated me?” I asked.

“I do,” he agreed. “Because you represent everything I want and everything I can’t have.”

“You want me?” I asked slowly, taking a step towards him despite the dark energy which coiled around him.

“You know I do,” he replied simply as if anything about us was simple.

“No I don’t. I know you like to hurt me and tear me down,” I said. “I know you want to control me and take from me and make me bow at your feet.”

“I do,” he agreed, not even trying to deny any of it. “And I think a fucked up part of you likes it when I do those things.”

“Fuck you,” I hissed, but I still hadn’t left.

“I think you like it when I hurt you because on some level you believe you deserve it.”

“Why would I feel something that fucked up?” I snarled.

“Because we’re the same. Every time my father hits me or hurts me or chains me, a little piece of me relishes the pain. Because I know I deserve it. For not getting Xavier away from him. For not stopping him from claiming the shadows. For letting him hurt you and your sister.” Darius frowned like he didn’t like thinking those things about himself, but I could feel the honesty in his words too. And for some strange reason, I did understand what he meant.

“I was the reason no one ever kept us,” I said in a low voice, like admitting this out loud might make it even more true. “I was the loud one. The rude one. The one that no one liked, let alone loved. I actually overheard one of our foster carers asking social services to replace me a new placement while they offered to adopt Darcy alone. I could have told our social worker that I’d agree to that. I could have let her be happy instead of dragging her down with me. But that’s what I do. I’m the one who stopped her from having Christmas traditions or friends who lasted more than a semester. I’m the one no one has ever wanted long term…”

Darius was looking at me in a way that made my heart beat faster and I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I didn’t know why I’d just told him that. I’d never even shared those feelings with Darcy much. She always just disagreed if I tried to point it out and I loved that she cared about me enough to ignore my flaws. But it didn’t make it any less true.

“That’s why you push me even when you don’t have to,” he said. “You want me to punish you and you want to hurt me in return,” he pressed, not caring that my scowl was deepening and my hands were curling into fists at my sides. “And I think you get off on seeing me in pain.”

“How have I ever hurt you?” I snapped.

“You hurt me every time you ignore me. You hurt me every time you spend time with Milton or that douchebag with the hat or Cal or any other fucker who catches your eye.”

I pursed my lips at him. “Maybe you’ve been believing your own bullshit. I’m not the one who told the world I was a sex addict.”

“You did actually,” he pointed out, clearly meaning that interview I’d done for The Daily Solaria.

“Only because you gave me no choice.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “I had that model fired.”

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“The one in that photo shoot with you. The one it looked like you really did screw.”

“Wow. You’re insane,” I said harshly. “That poor guy probably really needed that job.”

“He didn’t need to take his work so fucking seriously,” Darius growled.

“What the hell is this, Darius?” I asked him angrily. “What is it you want from me? Because you’re acting a hell of a lot like some scorned lover, but we never even made it off the starting line so I don’t understand why-”

“Neither do I,” he growled. “But when I see you, all I want is to lay claim to you. I want you to be mine and I know you never will be and it’s making me even more fucked up than I was to begin with. That’s why I hate you. Not because I’m supposed to or because my father wants me to, but because you represent every freedom I’ve never been given. It’s like you were designed entirely to taunt me and toy with me and crack me open and I won’t let it stand.”

“So what do you want from me?” I demanded. “Do you want to sit up on that throne with me on my knees before you. Would that end this feud between us?”

“I don’t know.”

I stared at him for a long moment with heat building in my skin and an ache of longing warring through my body. I might still hate him, but I wanted him too. When my nights weren’t possessed by the shadows they were haunted by dreams of him. Of the taste of his lips and the touch of his flesh. He watched me like he didn’t know what to expect from me and I placed my foot on the first step of the raised platform which held the throne. There were three in all. To make sure that whoever sat up there would look down on anyone who stood before them. And if that was what he needed from me so badly then he could have it.

I would never bow to him, but he could have me on my knees.

As I made it to the second step, Darius sat up, looking at me like he was hoping I had some answer for him when in reality I was more fucked up then he even knew.

I could see that ache in him, that need, that hunger which drove him to do all the things he did to me. And I wanted to claim it and cover it up with something else. I’d take his pain and burn it down with lust and maybe both of us would feel better. Just for a little while.

I held Darius’s gaze as I slowly lowered myself to my knees in front of him.

“I’ll never bow to you,” I breathed as the cold stone at the foot of the throne bit into my skin. “But if you like me on my knees then there are better things that I can do down here than kiss your feet.”

Darius sat up straighter as I placed my hands on his knees and slowly pushed them up the insides of his thighs.

His gaze was fixed on my movements and my heart started pounding as I watched the reaction I was causing in his flesh.

This man who sat before me on a throne with a will of iron and the temper of his Dragon was fast falling prey to my movements. I may have been the one on my knees, but he was the one who was submitting. I was in control of this, of him, of the lust in his gaze and the need in his flesh. I could offer up pleasure or pain to him or a mixture of both in whatever quantities I desired. And knowing I had him at my mercy set every inch of my flesh alive with a need of its own.

I slid my hand up over his crotch, smiling darkly as I felt the rock hard ridge of his arousal waiting for me.

“Is this what you want from me?” I taunted him as I slid his fly down and pushed my fingers into his boxers.

“I want everything from you,” he replied fiercely and in that moment I was willing to let him have it.

I released him from the confines of his pants and a breathy moan escaped me as I took in the full, hard length of him. I’d hardly even touched him yet and the desire in his gaze was enough to set my whole body alight.

I pushed up further onto my knees and slowly took the length of him into my mouth.

Darius groaned as I drove my lips down his shaft, my tongue circling as I slowly withdrew again.

“Fuck, Roxy,” he hissed through his teeth as I took him in again, my own body humming with need as I felt him growing even harder, swelling with desire as I took control of him.

His hand fisted in my hair and I moaned as he pulled me down harder, driving himself into me possessively as I moaned in excitement at the knowledge of how much he was enjoying this.

I took him in and out of my mouth again and again, savouring the taste of his desire and the way his body was falling prey to mine. Every time a moan of excitement left me, his grip on me tightened like he wanted to own me with this action, but I was the one who was owning him. My fingers bit into his thighs as I upped my pace, working him towards a climax that I could feel building in the tightness of him in my mouth.

“Stand up,” Darius commanded suddenly, pulling me back off of him by my hair and tipping my chin back so he could look at me.

He reached for me, catching my arm with his free hand and dragging me up into his lap so that I was straddling him with my dress hitched up over my thighs. His mouth found mine and he kissed me so hard I forgot whose air I was breathing, his tongue pushing into my mouth and his lips bruising as I wound my arms around his neck. I rocked my hips over him so that I could feel every hard inch of him straining between my thighs and pulled him closer like I was trying to devour him.

Darius yanked me back by my hair so that he could look me in the eye and he swiped a thumb across my mouth where my red lipstick had been smudged.

“I don’t want you on your knees. I want you fighting me and hating me and fucking me like you mean it. You’re Roxanya Vega and you weren’t built to bow to anyone,” he growled passionately.

“You want me to hate you?” I asked in surprise.

“I want you to feel for me. And I’ll take hate if that’s all you’re offering.”

He kissed me again and this time I didn’t hesitate as I kissed him back, my hands replaceing his shirt buttons as I began to yank them open.

Darius caught the hem of my dress and started tugging it up. The back of it was laced with six different ties and it had taken Darcy about ten minutes get me into it. It snagged on my waist, cinching tight and wouldn’t go any higher.

He grunted as he yanked harder and I broke our kiss with a curse as the material cut into me.

“Ow,” I snapped.

“Why are you wearing something that’s so hard to take off?” he demanded.

“Because I don’t actually plan on hooking up with assholes all the time, it’s just something that keeps happening to me,” I growled.

Darius looked at me for a long moment and the corner of his mouth hooked up just as I felt the heat of his magic building in his skin.

“Wait,” I warned. “This dress belonged to-”

Fire magic flared in his palms and I yelped as his flames burst to life across my back and he tore what was left of the dress off of me. Fire might not have been able to hurt me, but it did a number on my poor dress.

“What the fuck?” I snapped as he looked over my blood red underwear with a heated gaze.

“Did that piss you off?” he asked.

“Yes,” I snarled.

“Then show me how much,” Darius dared.

I shoved him back against the throne so that his shoulders hit the back of it and a dull thud echoed around the stone room. I’d already unbuttoned half of his shirt, but I wrapped the material in my fists and ripped the rest off of him with a snarl of anger that sent buttons flying.

Darius laughed and I bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

I pushed his torn shirt off of him and broke our kiss to press my mouth to those tattoos that I’d dreamed about way too many times.

Darius moved his hand between us, pushing his fingers down into my panties and groaning as he found me just as ready for him as he clearly was for me.

I was already panting with need as he circled his fingers around my opening, teasing me, taunting me and refusing to give me what I wanted.

I gripped my legs around him more tightly, the heels of my stilettos digging into his thighs and drawing a grunt of pain from him.

His fingers circled within my panties again and I was pretty sure he wanted me to beg, but that wasn’t going to happen.

I pushed away from him, leaning back as my hands moved behind my back and I unclasped my bra, drawing it off of me. Darius groaned as he pulled his hand back out of my panties and pushed me back so that he could gain access to my breasts.

He sucked at my nipple, dragging it between his teeth in a way that hurt so good I cried out. My voice echoed off of the stone walls of the throne room and I wondered what would happen if anyone found us here like this. A Vega and an Heir screwing on the throne we fought over so desperately.

I gripped his hair in my fist and kissed him again as he shoved his pants down, revealing every inch of his body beneath me.

He was like something drawn straight in the image of a god, every curve of his body drew me in, from the broad slope of his shoulders to the perfect cut of his abs and the flawless lines of his face. I was drunk on the sight of him and the feeling of his body against mine.

He was like a drug and I felt like an addict going back for another hit. I knew that he was poison, but I just couldn’t stop myself from taking a bite.

Darius lifted me up and my nails bit into his biceps hard enough to draw blood as I held myself off of him and he dragged my panties down.

He kissed me again, his stubble raking across my jaw in the most delicious way.

I drew back, my gaze locking with his dark eyes as I lowered myself down onto him.

My breath caught in my chest as every inch of him slid inside me, filling me up in the most perfect way.

He watched me as I took him in, his eyes burning with a fierce hunger as his hands gripped my ass and he pressed me down so hard that I moaned in pleasure.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Roxy,” he breathed and the sound of that name on his lips sent a flicker of anger through me.

That’s not my fucking name.

I rocked my hips, riding him hard as my knees bit into the cold stone of the throne we sat on and my stilettos bit into his legs. He could have ripped the shoes off of me, but I got the feeling he was savouring the pain just as much as the pleasure. His hands were everywhere as he met each of my thrusts with a sharp jolt of his own hips, drawing cries from my lips which echoed so loudly I was surprised everyone in the palace hadn’t heard us.

My hands fisted in his hair, my nails cutting his skin as I punished him and punished myself and tried to take out every inch of frustration in my flesh on this beast beneath me.

His kisses were bruising, his grip unwavering. He pulled my hair and bit my breasts and for each slice of pain he dealt me, I was rewarded with a jolt of pleasure.

Darius drew water magic into his hands, coating his fingertips in ice as he ran his hand down my stomach.

I gasped as the bite of the cold sizzled against my skin which was burning with the power of my Phoenix.

Goosebumps rose everywhere he touched me and I groaned as he moved his fingers straight down onto the perfect spot at the apex of my thighs.

I swore at the slice of cold against that sensitive area and Darius devoured my curses as he kissed me again.

His frozen fingers started moving at a heady rhythm in time with each powerful thrust inside me and every muscle in my body tightened with expectant energy.

The mixture of the cold of his fingers and the heat of him inside me was making my head spin and I ached for him to release me from the torment of my flesh. We were both panting with need and exertion and as he growled with desire, I felt the sound of it vibrating through every inch of my flesh.

With one final, punishing thrust of his hips and stroke of his thumb, he sent me toppling over the edge and I clung to him as his name fell from my lips and my whole body writhed with the most intense pleasure I’d ever felt.

He followed me into oblivion, his grip in my hair tightening to the point of ripping some out as he held me against him and spilled himself inside me with a growl of pleasure.

I sagged against him, our heavy breathing filling the space as I pressed my forehead to his and tried to recover from the earthquake that had just taken place in my body.

Just as I was starting to catch my breath, Darius dropped the shields on his magic and I automatically lowered mine in response.

The sensation of his power flooding through my flesh sent every sensitive nerve ending buzzing with pleasure again and I cursed as my body fell prey to his once more.

His arms wrapped around me and he drew me into a kiss unlike the others we’d shared. His tongue pushed into my mouth almost slowly and his hands slid up my spine as I gave in and it didn’t just feel like lust anymore. It felt like the sky was falling in and the earth was splitting apart and the only two things left in the world were the two of us.

My fingers trailed up his chest until I was cupping his jaw between my hands and I felt like this kiss might just consume me entirely.

We finally broke apart, pulling our magic back into ourselves as we tried to catch our breath.

“You’re going to be the ruin of me,” Darius growled in my ear and I pushed myself back just enough to look down at him.

“Not if you destroy me first,” I breathed in response as I painted the lines of his jaw with my fingertips.

He pushed my hair away from my face and inched me back so that he could look deep into my eyes. “Is that what you think I’m trying to do?”

I gazed back at him for a long moment, half wanting to hurt him, half wanting to kiss him again. There was still so much fucked up shit laying dormant between us. So many things we’d said and done that I found it hard to see him as anything, but a predator even now.

“I don’t know,”I replied honestly.

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” he muttered.

He leaned forward like he might kiss me again but I drew back, gripping one of the Hydra heads as I climbed off of his lap and moved to retrieve my clothes.

I pulled my underwear back on then took his shirt from the floor and put it on over the top of it as he’d destroyed my dress.

He pulled his pants back on and I watched as he refastened his fly.

We looked at each other for a moment like there might be something else we should say, but what was there really?

We hated each other and that frustration had overflowed into sex. Again.

No big deal. And I planned on reminding my thundering heart of that as many times as it took until it returned to a normal pace.

I blew out a breath as his gaze hooked on my exposed thighs and I snatched my ruined dress from the floor.

There really wasn’t anything else for us to say so I just turned and walked out of the room, heading up the staircase before hurrying back through the empty corridors of the palace towards the Queen’s wing.

I was going to have to admit my latest indiscretion to Darcy as soon as I saw her and she was going to have a fucking field day over it.