Zodiac Academy: The Awakening As Told By The Boys
The Awakening As Told By The Boys: Chapter 18

‘My source told me they’re up in a house on the hills just outside of town,’ Francesca told me as we ran together down side streets and back alleys and my pulse raced with the thrill of the fight.

We made it to the edge of the town and paused in the shadow of a tall building there, looking out towards the rolling hills beyond.

‘Just a sec, I’ll replace the coordinates,’ Francesca muttered, tapping away on her Atlas.

I let my head fall back against the brick wall behind me, trying to take long breaths of the cool air to still the spinning in my skull. Fighting Nymphs while half cut wasn’t the best idea I’d had in my life and even though I’d been healing myself of the effects of the alcohol I’d consumed on and off ever since I’d left the bar, it still wasn’t entirely gone from my system yet. I really should have known better than to consume so many magical drinks for this very reason but when Seth bought a round of shots it was damn near impossible to refuse him.

I unbuttoned the front of my shirt, letting the air caress my heated skin and concentrating on that sensation as I forced my thoughts into line.

Francesca cleared her throat and I cracked an eye open to look at her as she held out her Atlas for me to see. Her cheeks pinked as she glanced down at my bare chest for a moment but I ignored the attention, focusing on the marker she’d placed on a farmhouse out there in the dark.

‘The mountain rise is just beyond there,’ I said, easily picking out the location from all the time I’d spent studying maps and arial photographs of the kingdom. Part of my training to become one of the next leaders of Solaria included me knowing each and every part of the land we were destined to rule over. It was just one in the list of thousands of pieces of knowledge which the Vegas could never hope to learn the way we had, and yet another reason why they’d never be capable of ruling.

‘Yeah and the trails through the pass head north towards the land where we’ve long suspected the Nymphs have their bigger nests,” she agreed. “It’s a pretty good place for them to set themselves up.”

“It’s a good few miles to get up there, we can take my bike,” I said as I considered it. It was tempting to shift and fly but if we wanted to remain inconspicuous then it was better if I stayed in my Fae form this close to the town.

“I parked it outside the club-”

“I’ll go grab it for you,” Francesca offered. “No one will question me, but they were rounding up the students and bussing them back to the academy last I heard from Lance so it’s probably best you don’t go in case they try to make you head back too.’

I suppressed a sigh as I took the key from my pocket, holding it out for her. I didn’t really want anyone else driving my bike, but her argument made sense and with a bit of luck she might even be able to pick up Lance along the way.

Francesca darted away back down the alley in the direction we’d come and I quickly shot Lance a message.

Darius:

Everything good your end?

Lance:

Yeah. Grus should be fine. She’s being healed then she’ll be taken to the Uranus Infirmary. Nova has specifically requested to speak with me once I’m done with the FIB though, so I’ll have to just see you tomorrow. Are you heading back to your dorm now?

I read over his words, knowing that would be the sensible thing to do, but as I looked out into the darkness beyond the town, the fire in my veins seemed to light with the desire to head out there and track down the monsters who were encroaching on my people.

Lance wouldn’t like it but he was my Guardian, not my keeper. Besides, I’d be done with this and back in my bed before he’d ever replace out a thing about it.

Darius:

I will soon. See you tomorrow.

I flicked my Atlas onto silent, knowing he’d probably read between the lines of my words and be all kinds of pissed at me for heading out without him. But he didn’t know where we were going and he was stuck between Nova and the FIB anyway, so he wouldn’t be able to stop me anyway.

The roar of my bike’s engine caught my ear as I pushed the Atlas back into my pocket and I pressed my fingers to my temple again, using some more healing magic to banish the dizziness from my skull.

Francesca pulled up beside me and I less than subtly pushed her to the back of the bike before climbing on to drive myself. I cast a silencing bubble around us to hide the sound of the engine as Francesca shifted behind me like she was trying to figure out how she was supposed to stay on the back of the bike without falling off.

She muttered a low apology as I revved the engine before hesitantly winding her arms around my waist and the moment she was holding on, I took off.

The bike tore out into the night and I left the headlights off while using my Dragon eyesight to pick out more details in the terrain than I could with my Fae eyes.

The wind whipped around us and helped banish the clinging effects of the booze from my flesh as it woke me up and my adrenaline began to rise at the prospect of the coming fight.

It took us a little under half an hour to make it out to the farmhouse Francesca had pointed out and I parked in the cover of some trees before cutting the engine and climbing off of the bike.

‘Nice ride,’ Francesca commented, looking at my bike as she took the helmet from her head and hung it from the handlebars. ‘I might have to get myself one of those.’

‘It’s a limited edition,’ I muttered. ‘They only made thirty of them.’

‘Oh…’

I walked away before she could waste any more of my time with small talk, raising my hands and drawing the shadows to me as I worked to conceal myself in the darkness. Luckily the moon was hidden beyond the clouds tonight and it was easy enough to hide myself from any prying eyes as I approached the dark farmhouse.

Francesca hurried to my side, my instincts prickling to tell me she was there, though as I looked her way I could see nothing but shadow either.

I wished I had my hatchet with me, but I was more than capable of matching these monsters with magic and my Order form anyway.

My heart beat harder as we made it to the farmhouse and I led the way to the front door, reaching out with my power to try and sense any traps or magical locks in place, but there was none.

I stepped over the threshold and paused in the dark, cold room, casting an enhancement spell to draw any sounds to me from close by. There was a repetitive drip coming from one of the rooms upstairs and the faint scurrying of little claws against wood made me think there were rats living in the walls, but that was it. The place seemed abandoned.

‘I’ll check it out to make sure,’ Francesca’s voice came from beside me and I muttered my agreement.

‘I’ll circle the house and look for any signs of where they might have gone,’ I replied before stomping back out into the crisp night air.

I made a quick circuit of the building while using magic to hunt for anything I could along the way, but there was no taste of power on the air. Chances were if there had been Nymphs here then they didn’t have any magic anyway. And even if they had managed to murder some innocent Fae to steal some, they wouldn’t have the training required to create anything as subtle as a trap for me.

I huffed in frustration as I failed to replace anything outside, stopping beneath the shadow of the closest mountain which rose up beyond the rear of the house. There were more like it to the north, a whole belt of monstrous mountains which I had flown across more than once in my Dragon form. It was a beautiful, merciless part of Solaria and it was utterly uninhabited due to the ferocious snowstorms which plagued it. Uninhabited by Fae anyway.

‘There was nothing inside,’ Francesca’s voice almost made me flinch and I turned towards the source of it, replaceing her standing there, her concealment spells abandoned. I guessed she’d used her psychic abilities from her Cyclops form to figure out where I was, and I dropped the concealment spells around me so that we could talk.

‘Can you sense anything out here? Any trace of where they might have gone?’

Francesca hummed in concentration and a moment later she shifted, her two eyes merging into one big eye which dominated the centre of her forehead.

I cursed as the force of her gifts struck against my mental shields, a wave of nausea passing over me before I managed to lock my mind up as tight as a fortress to keep the effects of her psychic abilities fully out of my head.

It took her a few minutes but she suddenly raised a hand, pointing towards the mountains as she strode away from me and I followed close behind.

We made it to a dirt path at the foot of the mountain which headed towards the pass and she dropped into a crouch, brushing her fingers against the mud before straightening again.

‘Something with a complex mind passed through here several hours ago,’ she announced. ‘Several of them…I’d say six if I were pressed. It could have been animals but the only things with a brain big enough to leave these kinds of psychic echoes don’t live around here. Maybe Heylic Wolves or Tangarian Moose but it’s pretty far south for either of those. Ghost Hounds don’t travel in groups this large, so I’d place money on it either being a group of Fae or-‘

‘Nymphs,’ I finished for her in a growl. ‘If it’s been a few hours then we aren’t going to be able to catch up to them on foot and my bike won’t be able to cope with that path.’

Francesca eyed the rocky dirt track like she wanted to protest that claim, but it was clear from the sharp flints and thick mud that a super bike wasn’t going to make it far up the mountain pass.

‘We’re far enough from the town now,’ I pointed out, glancing over my shoulder at the glimmering lights of Tucana in the distance. ‘I can shift.’

‘Okay…so how am I going to keep up, could you carry me? Or maybe I could ride on-‘

‘Dragons are not pack mules,’ I snarled in an angry bark which my father would have been damn proud of. His laws on Dragons not allowing other Fae to ride them were more than clear enough and Lance was the only one I’d ever break that law for, and even then I’d never be letting anyone know about it.

Francesca stumbled back in the face of my anger and she almost fell on her ass as she tripped over her own feet. ‘Sorry,’ she gasped. ‘I know that. I didn’t mean…It’s probably best if we just leave hunting them until-‘

‘You wanna do something useful?’ I asked her as I shrugged out of my unbuttoned shirt and unbuckled my belt.

Francesca’s eyes fell to the movements of my hands for a moment before she snapped her gaze back up to meet mine. ‘What?’ she breathed.

‘Take my clothes and put them by my bike. I assume you can get yourself out of here without it?’

Her lips popped open like a goldfish, and I could tell she didn’t much like me telling her what to do, but as I dropped my jeans and kicked off my shoes, she seemed to be distracted by my cock and didn’t protest fast enough to stop me from tossing my shit into her arms.

‘I’ll get Lance to let you know how I got on when it’s done,” I added.

Francesca’s eyes widened indignantly but I turned away from her and shifted before I had to endure any attempts to change my mind.

My enormous golden Dragon burst from my flesh and I leapt into the sky while the shift was still taking place, my wings beating hard as I raced up towards the clouds.

I flew above the mountain pass, my wings carving through the frigid air as I ate up the distance and I relished the feeling of my Dragon fire flooding my body.

Further and further the pass crept up into the mountains and I had to bank hard between sheer rock faces and narrow crevices to make sure I could keep my gaze fixed on the trail below.

Hours passed me by but still I flew on, determination burning through me as hot as my Dragon fire.

Finally, as I was soaring between two behemoth mountains and beginning to give up hope of replaceing anything out here in this dark wasteland, movement caught my eye from below.

Fire burned a trail up my throat as I spotted the Nymphs racing across the ground beneath me. Six of them, just like Francesca had thought. And better than that, one of them was limping.

A roar bellowed from my lips as I let them know their death had come for them and they cried out in furious shrieks and rattling death calls which sent an ache through my bones as they fought to disable me.

But with my Dragon blazing with power and my inner beast on full display, I was easily able to shake off the pull of their debilitating power and as I roared again, a torrent of Dragon fire burst from my jaw.

The Nymphs shrieked and screamed as I circled around them, fire raining down from the heavens to consume them without mercy. But I was no heavenly creature sent forth to do good work for some supreme lord, I was a beast built of wrath and hatred, moulded into the image of a man I despised and full of so much anger that it was enough to set the whole world on fire.

Smoke and shadows billowed up to me from below as the Nymphs were destroyed and I roared my triumph to the stars whose knowing gaze was always watching.

A metallic glint caught my eye as I wheeled around above the area where the Nymphs had been and I tucked my wings tight to my body as I dove toward the ground to check it out.

My claws dug deep into the mud as I landed in the ring of charred earth where my fire had destroyed the Nymphs and I huffed out a lungful of smoke as I looked down and found the necklace we’d seen that limping fucker wearing before.

I could taste dark magic and shadows writhing around it and I hated to think what foul purpose these creatures had for coveting such things.

I drew in a deep breath then bellowed a roar filled with the fury of Dragon fire directly down on the necklace, blasting it with all I had and hearing the echoes of screams raking through my ears as it was destroyed.

When the flames finally burned out, nothing remained on the ground and the shadows were slipping away like ants scurrying from a flooded nest.

I made certain that nothing of it remained then took off once more, carrying on up the mountain trail, bloodlust fuelling my actions as I flew on and took up the hunt. Because those Nymphs hadn’t been aimlessly running into the mountains – they’d had a destination in mind. And that could only mean one thing. Out here somewhere were more and more of them. Perhaps even the mother nest we’d feared was out here for so long. And I was on the scent.

I beat my wings hard and roared with all the fury I possessed as I let them know I was coming for them and hoped they were trembling in fear at the prospect.

***

Dawn began to crest the horizon by the time I gave up my hunt and headed back to the farmhouse where I’d abandoned Francesca.

I was dog tired, my wings flapping like they were weighted with lead as I took every opportunity I could to glide rather than beat them.

I hadn’t found anything else in the mountains. One trail splitting into another and another until there were far too many for me to track and I was flying through snowstorms and losing all visibility anyway.

I was irritated by my failure but pleased to have destroyed the six Nymphs who had been trying to flee at least. I could only hope that now they might think twice about coming close to Tucana again too.

I landed heavily in the clearing beside the trees where I’d abandoned my bike and shifted back into my Fae form with a sigh of relief escaping me and thoughts of my bed drawing me on.

I found my clothes neatly folded on top of my bike and dragged them back on, lacing my shoes just as my Atlas began to ring.

I answered it without looking at the ID, knowing Lance would be all kinds of pissed at me right about now for pulling a disappearing act and going after the Nymphs alone.

‘I’m fine, stop worrying,’ I said distractedly, rubbing at my eyes in an attempt to make myself wake up a little more.

‘I’m not certain why you think I would be concerned for your welfare, but I assume it is because you are already aware that it is in jeopardy,’ my Father’s voice bit against my ears like the crack of a whip and I cursed myself for not checking the damn caller ID as I swallowed the words which came to mind and forced myself to consider them better.

‘Sorry, Father, I thought Lance was calling me. You know how he can be because of the bond.’

‘Hmm.’

That was it. All he offered me, and my skin prickled at the implications of that one simple sound.

‘Is there something you needed from me?’ I asked.

‘You will come home now. You and I need to have a conversation.’

Dread pooled within me and my grip tightened on my Atlas, but that was all he offered me before the line went dead.

Fuck.

I pulled up Lance’s number, wanting to check in with him and see if there was any light he could shed on why Lionel Acrux wanted to see me so damn desperately. But before I could even hit call, my fucking Atlas flashed with a battery warning and the damn thing died on me.

I swore as I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes and tried to figure out why the fuck my father wanted to see me and what the hell I’d done to piss him off now. But my mind was just coming up blank, offering me nothing and I knew I couldn’t keep him waiting any longer or I’d only make it worse on myself.

I kicked my leg over my bike and sat down on it heavily before pulling a pouch of stardust from my pocket and tossing it over me, bringing the bike with me as I was wrenched through the sky to Acrux Manor.

I started the bike up as the men on the gates saw me and swung them open to let me in and I tore up the gravel drive at full speed with my mind still racing as to what this was about.

I parked up and strode to the door, wrenching it open before Jenkins could manage and cutting a dry look at the butler as he scowled at me.

‘Lord Acrux awaits your attendance in his office,’ he said, his eyes lighting with the kind of glee I’d come to associate with my father’s fists landing against my flesh.

I didn’t bother to reply, taking off up the stairs and trying not to cringe at the fact that I was showing up here in last night’s dirty clothes with bags beneath my eyes from my sleepless night and fatigue hanging heavily over me.

I knocked on the door as I reached it and my father’s clipped voice came in reply.

‘Enter.’

I pushed the door open and stepped inside, keeping my chin high as I crossed the threshold and closed it behind me once more.

Father sat behind his desk, his suit crisp and blonde hair perfectly styled despite the fact that the clock said it wasn’t even six yet.

His gaze roamed over my dishevelled shirt and unkempt appearance with distaste before he slowly reached for his Atlas and began to read from it.

‘Is there love in the Heir for our returned Princesses?’

My heart plummeted as I realised what this was and he continued to read aloud from the article on his Atlas without a flicker of emotion on his cold face.

‘Darius Acrux seemed more than enamoured with the beautiful daughter of the Savage King last night as he wrapped his arms around her and danced provocatively with her for the entire world to see. Members of the public who witnessed the scene of seductive dancing and unbridled lust said he seemed entranced by the girl in his arms and made his intentions to claim her fully clear by growling like a beast at anyone who drew close to them.’

The television behind his desk flicked to life and I fought a cringe at the sight of countless images and videos of me dancing with Roxy, our bodies pressed together, eyes fixed on one another, hands roaming, lust burning right out of the screen. My blood heated just from looking at them and I couldn’t help but think of how fucking good she’d felt pressed against me like that even as I fought to stamp down any reaction I had to seeing those images.

Father placed the Atlas down with a sharp click and I caught sight of one of the most provocative images of the two of us enlarged on the screen of the device.

‘The article goes on to detail how Seth Capella was equally keen to get to know her sister better. Then there are photographs of Caleb Altair with his hands all over this one after you apparently ‘left in a hurry.’ It seems Roxanya was happy enough to trade your attentions for his the moment you were gone.’

A growl fought to rumble its way out of my chest as I was gifted a look at images of Caleb dancing with my girl after I’d left and rage flooded through my skin. Though as I looked at them it was clear things hadn’t gotten as heated between the two of them as they’d been with me and her.

Father switched the images to a series of Seth and Gwen as he looked about five seconds from fucking her right there on the dance floor and I was at least a little relieved to see that I wasn’t the only one caught up in this damn scandal.

What the hell had we been thinking doing that in public where anyone could photograph us and sell it to the highest bidder? I should have known that this would happen and been prepared for this confrontation with my father at the very least.

‘Though I suppose your behaviour is preferable to the things Max Rigel got up to,’ Father added with a slight curl of his upper lip.

The images changed again and I really had to fight my surprise as I caught sight of Max standing on the bar with his shirt off and the navy scales of his Siren Order coating his dark skin. He had his pants unbuckled and his cock in his hand as he used his water magic to make it rain over himself like he was taking part in a porn shoot.

I wasn’t sure if I’d left before that or if I’d just been so fixed on Roxy Vega that I’d failed to notice it, but I cleared my throat uncomfortably as I forced my gaze back onto my father.

‘We all had rather a lot to drink,’ I said in explanation but I knew it was a pathetic excuse that wouldn’t fly with him for one moment. We weren’t idiots. We knew what it was to be constantly scrutinised in the public eye and we’d had more than enough training on our behaviour in public to know better than to get wasted and let our behaviour get out of hand like that.

Silence rang between us for so long that it was all I could do not to fidget.

‘Did you fuck her?’ my father asked, his finger skimming over the photograph of me and Roxy, brushing against the curves of her body in a considered caress that made my hackles raise. ‘Did you at least let her feel the full power of a Dragon between her thighs and the dominance of our kind bending her to submit to your will? Did you take her body and use it like the beast you were born to be and force her to understand what it is to be owned by the king of all Orders?’

‘We were just dancing,’ I ground out, hating the way he was talking about her and the lust filled look in his eyes which went with his words.

‘So you’re telling me you had that girl panting for you like that and you didn’t even make use of her willing body? You didn’t take the opportunity to use her like the disposable creature she is and show her exactly what position she is good for in this kingdom?’

‘And what position is that?’ I snarled, the Dragon in me raising its head with a rage I wasn’t even sure I fully understood. But the longer he kept speaking about her like that, the more urgently I felt the need to rip his head from his shoulders rippling through my body.

‘Well if she’s lucky then she might make a good whore for the Fire Heir to fuck. You know it wasn’t so long ago that the rulers of this kingdom used to keep such pets – pretty, useless little Fae who were only good for one thing kept close to their more powerful counterparts so that they could provide pleasures of the flesh whenever it was wanted. Perhaps when you finish breaking the Vega twins you and the other Heirs could make use of them like that. Show the kingdom time and again that the only thing the daughters of the Savage King are good for is servicing their betters.’

Bile stuck to the back of my throat at the gross reality of his words. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard him wax lyrical about the ways the kings and queens of old had run Solaria and I knew if he had his way we would return to many of those outdated and fucked up practices.

He’d be in favour of keeping power slaves, stopping inter-Order relationships and of course he’d be all for having a harem of pretty, vapid girls to service his cock alongside his wife. He’d been cheating on my mother for years even if he had managed to keep most of his sordid affairs out of the press. She cheated on him too, though it was only ever with men who he wanted some kind of political alliance with and as much as I didn’t like to give much thought to that, Lance and I had long since concluded that she likely did it under Father’s encouragement.

But Roxanya Vega and her sister were not and never would be the kinds of girls who could be forced into that kind of position even if he really did want them to be. They were forged in fire and ice with the determination of a hurricane and the strength of the earth beneath our feet. Making them bow was never going to be as easy as he kept making out it would be. And even the idea of me using Roxanya for my own personal whore was laughable.

‘I didn’t fuck her,’ I snapped, not wanting to hear any more of his lecherous words about her.

‘So where were you all night then?’ he demanded. ‘Because the scandal of the Grus girl’s attack has also broken and if Lance was on the scene then I have to assume you were close by too.’

‘He told me to leave before anyone saw me,’ I admitted. ‘Seeing as the FIB already tried to arrest me once, it seemed like the better option for me to leave before they arrived at the scene of another attack and found me there too.’

‘Well I suppose you aren’t entirely useless then,’ Father mused, leaning back in his chair and stacking his hands over his chest as he fell into silent thought.

I resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably before him, remaining still and unwavering as I waited him out.

‘So what you are telling me is that not only are the Vega twins still very much enrolled at Zodiac Academy, but that rather than working to get rid of them as I tasked you to do, you spent the night dry humping one of them in front of an entire room of witnesses for...fun?’

I cringed at the word but what could I say? I hadn’t done a single thing to Roxy since the last time I’d been here at his mercy. I couldn’t even really say why not. I just hadn’t wanted to bow to his will over yet another thing. I’d wanted to figure this out and fix it in my own way without having to just blindly bow to his rule. And yeah, if I was honest last night had been about more than just me keeping her close in case there were any Nymphs lurking nearby. I’d wanted to be close to her for my own reasons. I’d felt my skin burn in her presence and had felt more awake, more alive than I had in a long damn time while I held her in my arms.

I hadn’t wanted to fuck her because of the twisted reasons my father had hoped I might have done. I’d just wanted her. Plain and simple. But that was beyond foolish of me and I knew now that I was going to pay the price for giving in to my selfish desires. I didn’t just get to replace a girl I wanted and have her. Not in any real way. I had a fiancé who I would be forced to marry and even if there was some miraculous way around that for me, it would only come in me happening to replace an elusive purebred Dragon girl. And as far as I knew, there wasn’t one of those anywhere in Solaria or in any of the other kingdoms – I’d checked. Even if there was some skewed version of my reality where I could have picked a girl I wanted for myself, there was one girl it could never be no matter the circumstances and that was a Vega.

It didn’t matter if I watched her and hungered for her and lived for the moments when I captured her attention and she brought me to life with her sharp tongue and total lack of tolerance for my bullshit. Because she was a princess, the Heir to the Savage King and no matter what I wanted with her, I couldn’t have it. Even if she turned out to be a Dragon, I still couldn’t have it.

‘I see.’ Father turned off the screen behind him but left the one of me and Roxy dancing together alight on his Atlas. He reached over to the other side of his desk and pressed a button there which I knew would call Jenkins and I had to fight against the urge to ask why he was calling on the old butler right now.

Silence stretched between us and though my throat burned with a hundred excuses or apologies, the look in his eye said none of them would help with this at all so I forced myself to remain still and silent where I was.

When the door finally opened again, my heart sank like a stone in my chest and I couldn’t help but lurch forward as Jenkins showed Xavier into the room with us. He was in a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt and he looked like he’d been dragged straight from his bed to attend this meeting, his eyes blurring with sleep and dark hair dishevelled.

The door clicked shut as the old bastard of a butler slipped back out again with amusement touching his lips and a snarl echoed through the room as I moved to stand between my brother and my father.

‘Why is Xavier here?’ I demanded, ignoring the way my brother caught my elbow and tried to tug me back again.

I wasn’t going to be moving a damn inch. I’d take five times my father’s fury over letting him suffer a moment of it.

Father watched the two of us without saying a word, his finger tapping on the solid wood of the desk before him like he was thinking about what best way he could punish us.

‘Xavier has nothing to do with this,’ I ground out, unable to hold my tongue. ‘I get it. I fucked up. Punish me – do whatever you have to. But leave him out of it. It’s not his fault that I did this.’

Father pushed to his feet slowly, lifting the Atlas with him as he did so and looking down at the photograph.

‘I haven’t heard any reports on your efforts to rid us of the Vega problem since the last time we spoke,’ he said slowly, placing the Atlas down and leaning it against the lamp on his desk so that the photograph was aimed our way. ‘And now I see this, I have to assume I know why.’

‘It’s nothing,’ I protested, grasping at straws as I tried to cover for why I’d been denying him. ‘Like you said, I just wanted to fuck her. Let her see what it was like to be owned by a Dragon and then toss her away so she knew how little she meant to me. It was a dumb idea. I’ll just-‘

Father flicked his fingers at me and I flinched as fire magic flared through my skin, but it wasn’t any use against the subtle spell he cast to block off my airway.

I gritted my teeth as my lungs tightened with the feeling of the oxygen being stolen from them and he leaned back against his desk, folding his arms as he watched me impassively.

The desire to strike at him with my own magic was like a roaring monster inside my own mind, but my fear for my brother and my understanding of my father’s power held me in check.

If I struck at him, then all bets would be off. Whatever he was planning right now would be a thousand times worse if he felt the true need to crush any ideas of rebellion from me.

My fists bunched at my sides as my lungs began to burn and black spots sprang to life before my eyes.

I stayed on my feet for as long as I could before my vision darkened to the point of me almost blacking out and I crashed to my knees with my lungs constricting painfully.

Xavier gasped as he lurched towards me, half catching me as I pitched over onto my side, his terrified gaze meeting mine for the briefest of moments before he was yanked away from me forcefully with my father’s magic.

I fought against the uselessness of my body as I tried to fight through the lack of air in my lungs and push myself up to help him again, but my limbs felt weighted by shackles of iron and I could hardly even raise my arm in his direction.

Darkness enveloped me and stole me away from the moment as my heart thundered with the terrified pace of a thousand stampeding horses.

I hung in the darkness for what felt like an eternity, but it must have only been a few seconds before I sucked down a lungful of air and my eyes snapped open again.

Xavier’s screams tore through my ears and I scrambled to my hands and knees, my muscles shaky as I continued to suck down as much oxygen as I could while trying to make sense of what was happening.

‘You are strong, Darius,’ Father sneered as he still stood before his desk, his eyes fixed on me while a ring of fire surrounded his youngest son and his screams of agony filled the room and tore me apart from the inside out. ‘So strong that I think my punishments have become little more than a nuisance to you recently.’

‘They’re not,’ I gasped, managing to get to my feet and lurching towards my brother before slamming into a solid barrier of air magic. ‘Please, stop, please just-‘

‘So it occurred to me that you don’t care enough for your own hide to do all it takes to keep it safe anymore. But the weakling…’ He cast a sneering look at Xavier who I could barely even see beyond the ring of blazing red fire as he screamed and screamed. ‘For some reason, you seem inclined to try and defend him. It isn’t very Fae of either of you, but I suppose it serves a purpose.’

‘Tell me what you want,’ I gasped as the pitch of Xavier’s screams sent agony of my own spiking through the marrow of my bones and pierced me through to my core. ‘Anything. I’ll do anything.’

‘You will strike at the Vegas harder than you have been,’ Father said in a dark tone. ‘No more tricks or games or trying to hurt their precious little feelings. I want them tested, pushed beyond the limits. I want you to strike at them hard enough to either force them from the academy or make it clear beyond the point of doubt that they are Fae enough to stand against you. Either way we need to know. And either way you will do what it takes to achieve that goal. Do you understand me?’

‘Yes,’ I gasped, though my heart twisted with the words and I felt like the stars themselves were kicking me in the gut over choosing to obey this monster yet again. But it wasn’t a choice. Not with Xavier on the line. He was the only pure thing I had, the only piece of real goodness I knew. I’d sacrifice all I had and all I wished to be for him and Father had clearly figured that out too.

‘Good.’

The magic fell away and I stumbled forward as the barrier I’d been hammering with my fists disappeared, swiftly followed by the ring of fire which had been burning Xavier alive.

A choked sob caught in my throat as I took in the sight of my brother’s burned and blistered flesh, the scent in the room enough to make me gag as I scrambled towards him on my hands and knees.

Xavier cried out again as my hand landed on the charred flesh of his shoulder and I clenched my teeth so hard that I was surprised they didn’t crack as I sent waves of healing magic into his body.

I closed my eyes to concentrate on what I was doing, focusing on throwing as much magic as I could into the spell so that I could fix him as quickly as possible.

Xavier continued to scream at first but that fell away into sobs and gasping breaths before a hand finally landed on my arm and I peeled my eyes open to replace him gazing up at me with so much gratitude in his watering eyes that I had to look away.

He shouldn’t have been grateful to me. He should have been furious. Because this was my fault. I’d brought this upon him with my selfish actions and my childish attempt at defiance. I was just as bad as the creature who had done this to him and the guilt clawing its way through my soul felt powerful enough to consume me.

‘Get out, Xavier,’ Father said dismissively and my brother flinched at his words, looking to me with concern in his gaze.

‘I want to stay with-‘

‘Go,’ I barked at him, hating that he flinched then too, knowing he could see that monster in me as well in that moment. Knowing he could see how much of me was just as rotten and vile as the man who had created us. But I had to be. Because it was the only way that I could even hope to protect him from this ever happening again.

A tear slipped down Xavier’s cheek as he looked at me, but luckily Father didn’t notice it before he turned and fled from the room. It cut into me though. That tear. That pain and fear in his eyes which had been all for me.

I didn’t even bother to try and defend myself as Father’s fist collided with my jaw and when he knocked me to my back and started kicking me, I did nothing other than take it. I deserved every bite of agony, every moment of pain. Because I’d failed my brother tonight and I was never going to be able to undo what had just happened to him.

‘Tell me what you are planning for the Vegas,’ Father growled as he finally finished his assault on me.

‘Whatever it takes,’ I breathed, hanging my head in defeat and trying not to think about those big green eyes which seemed to look right through me. Trying not to feel the twist in my chest as I accepted what I had to do and feel the burn of reluctance over what I knew it would make me into.

But if I had to become my father so that I could save my brother from him then I would do it. I would do whatever it took and become whatever I had to. And there was no turning back now.

Father was clearly satisfied by my reply because he nodded firmly then strode to the door. ‘Clean yourself up and get back to the academy. Those girls must be tested. If they manage to prove themselves strong enough to remain at Zodiac after the four of you have done your worst then we will have to reassess our plans for them. I have no more time to spare for your failures.’

The door clicked shut behind him and I drew in a deep breath which made every bruise and cut he’d placed on my body ache, but I didn’t heal them. I was fairly certain I had some cracked ribs too, but the agony of my flesh was nothing compared to the hurt I felt over causing Xavier to suffer for me. It was the least I deserved.

I stood, glancing down at my shirt and replaceing my father’s spotless shoes hadn’t left so much as a footprint on it despite how many times he’d slammed his foot down on me and only the traces of blood seeping through the fabric gave away what he’d done to me.

I glanced at the Atlas he’d left propped up on his desk, the image of me dancing with Roxanya Vega seeming so far from reality that I could hardly believe it had only been last night.

I forced myself to look at her and feel the pain of my injuries, to recall my brother’s screams and breathe in the air which was still laced with the scent of his burning flesh. I focused on what that moment of pretending in her arms had cost me and cost my brother. Then I turned away and headed for the door.

I should have gone to see Xavier. To apologise, explain…something. But I was too ashamed, too fucking cowardly for that, so I headed for the door instead.

I used my water magic to remove the blood from my clothes, but I didn’t heal my wounds because I didn’t deserve to just rid myself of that pain after what I’d caused.

The moment I made it beyond the gates, I tossed a handful of stardust over my head to take me back to the academy. But just as the stars ripped me into their grasp, I thought of her. The girl with the fire in her soul and the power to destroy all I was.

When the stars spat me back out of their embrace, I didn’t replace myself in my own room. I found myself in hers.

I sucked in a sharp breath of surprise as I stood there, looking down at her sleeping form, the covers kicked aside and her bronze legs drawing my attention beneath a black silk teddy which had my inner animal screaming mine so loud it deafened me.

She was so beautiful, so serene in sleep and so innocent looking for such a destructive force of chaos.

I wondered how different our lives might have been if the Savage King had never been killed. If she’d been brought up right alongside me and I knew her as intimately as I did the Heirs. I would have been raised to serve her instead of raised to rule in her place. And maybe to someone else it would have seemed like we should be preparing to serve them again instead of planning to do all we could to stop them, but it wasn’t that simple.

Firstly, there wasn’t a sensible Fae in the kingdom who would want rulers like the Savage King to return to the throne, to have to fear the brutality of his reign and the atrocities he’d committed being repeated by his offspring. But even if we didn’t have to fear that, there was something so much more dangerous about these twins who could have been my queens in another lifetime.

They were ignorant. And an ignorant leader would always be the worst kind of leader. They understood nothing about this kingdom, our people, the ways to rule or the threats we would have to face to keep Solaria prosperous and its people safe and happy. And there was no cure for their kind of ignorance, no way they could ever learn all the things we had spent our lifetimes learning. Without that knowledge, the kingdoms surrounding us could easily take advantage, the Nymphs could close in or at the very least, our own people would suffer for their badly informed decisions. It was unthinkable even without my father driving me to fight against it.

I wasn’t determined to keep the throne from them for his sake or even for my own. I knew first hand what it was to suffer beneath the rule of a powerful tyrant and I refused to let our people suffer that too. I’d sworn an oath with the other Heirs a long time ago to become the best rulers our kingdom could wish for, and we had worked tirelessly our entire lives to make sure we became that. No matter their intentions, even if they were as pure as a virgin beneath a blood moon, they’d never be able to rule the kingdom the way it deserved to be ruled. And I would never rescind my promise to give Solaria the best leaders it could get.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, watching her sleep and letting myself feel all the lust and longing and desire I held for her. I didn’t understand why she drew me in the way she did, but I had to mark this as the end of it. I wasn’t going to let myself look at her like this again. I wasn’t going to be thinking about her with anything other than the coldness I required to do what I had to.

She had been a pretty dream for a foolish moment, but now I was waking up to my reality and the bruises staining my flesh were a stark reminder of what that was.

The Vegas had to go.

And I had to make that happen.

I turned and let myself out of her room, the soft sound of the door clicking closed behind me sounding like a thunderclap in my ears as the urge to turn around and open it again swam through me like liquid gold trying to gild me from the inside out.

The hunger I felt for her was like an ache in my soul and I could have sworn I felt the world tipping, leaning so that gravity was trying to tug me back through that door into that room. I wanted to wake her up with the kiss I should have given her last night and forget everything the two of us were while I lost myself in the feeling of her body giving in to mine.

But as Xavier’s screams echoed inside my skull, I let that daydream burn away and ignored the feeling of wrongness which resounded through my body with every step I took away from her door.

I made it to my room and stripped out of the clothes I’d worn to the bar last night, pausing to take in the blue and green mottled bruises which were raising angrily all over my torso. I let all of my thoughts focus on them and I left them marking my flesh to be certain that with every bite of pain, I wouldn’t forget.

I had a job to do. And I’d let my heart burn in payment for my brother’s soul if that was what it took.