Zodiac Academy: The Awakening As Told By The Boys
The Awakening As Told By The Boys: Chapter 4

I took my place before the entrance to Ignis House with the rest of my inner circle drawing close around me as the terrified looking freshmen all waited to replace out how this was gonna go down.

The challenges were laid out pretty simply, but I’d made certain to put a few additional extras and more difficult challenges in place for when the new Vega tried her luck. In fact, I wasn’t planning on letting her make it through the gauntlet at all. The tasks I had designed for her would be difficult for a Fae with several months of training, especially for some practically mortal girl with no idea how to control any of her Elements, let alone the volatile power of fire. If she wanted a bed tonight, then she’d have to beg me to let her in despite her failure.

Although as I considered giving her a bed, I couldn’t help but think about offering her a spot in mine. Father had told me to make sure she and her sister dropped out of the academy so that they forfeited their right to challenge for the throne – he’d never said anything about me not being allowed to enjoy her company before she left.

The students fell silent as all eyes turned to me without me having to do so much as lift a finger and I reined in the smug smirk which was biting at my lips as they all fell under my power just as simply as that. I stepped forward so that I was blocking the hulking entrance into the glass monstrosity which was Ignis House, and I twisted my fingers subtly as I took control of the flames which filled the fire above my head, moulding them to follow my command.

A Dragon emerged from the belly of the flames; its body was deep red with glimmering gold outlining each of its scales. I filled its mouth with flaming teeth then unfurled its huge wings until they spread out wide on either side of it.

The freshmen gasped in awe as they watched the Dragon prepare to take flight, its jaws opening wide as I built a roar in its chest from the crackling rumble of burning embers.

My gaze fixed on Roxy Vega like an arrow on a target as she stood there, her eyes wide with awe at the beast I’d created and that sense of satisfaction growing in me as I breathed in her reaction to my power. With a flick of my wrist, the Dragon blasted fire over the heads of the freshmen, low enough to make them scream and leap out of the way. All of them but her.

Roxanya tipped her head back to watch the fire as it tore past her, the light warming her cheeks as she drank in the display without so much as a flicker of fear and my interest in her only heightened. Who the hell was this girl who’d just been plucked right out of the Mortal Realm and yet could stand in the face of powerful magic without flinching? She was a mystery I needed to unlock, a question I ached to answer and a problem who I was starting to think may just be a whole lot harder to deal with than we’d first expected.

“Fire is the most potent Element of all,” I called, drawing the attention of the freshmen back to me as the fire Dragon burned out and I released my hold on the magic that had constructed it. “It brings light to the dark, warmth in the cold and can destroy everything placed in its way. Only those born with veins filled with the heat of the sun and hearts blazing with the true power of the flames can enter our House and claim their place amongst us.”

My gaze was fixed on Roxy Vega, but she seemed more interested in muttering to some little blonde chick who stood beside her. My jaw ticked as I realised I wasn’t holding her attention the way she’d captured mine and I went on with my speech.

“So who wants to be the first to try and gain access to the greatest House in Zodiac Academy?” I challenged, holding my arms wide as I waited to see if any of them would be brave enough to volunteer to go first.

They glanced between me and each other warily and I wasn’t all that surprised to replace them hesitant to step up. There weren’t many Fae like me and the other Heirs who always rose to a challenge no matter how difficult it may have seemed. Though all Fae were born and bred with the desire to claim their own power, the sad fact was that there just wasn’t all that much room at the top of the pecking order and most of them weren’t born with what it took to rule.

Even the lost Vega princess hadn’t stepped out of the crowd, though as my gaze moved to her again, she looked my way, seeming to be a little confused about what was expected of her here. Her eyes met mine and it was as if none of the rest of the people surrounding us were even present anymore. It was just me and her and I was calling her out. Come on, baby girl, why don’t you come show me what you’re made of?

As if she’d heard me, she suddenly stepped forward, an unimpressed look falling over her features as the crowd moved aside for her without her even having to tell them to get out of her way. They could feel it – that well of power inside her which demanded their respect and warned them to back off. She was exuding the same kind of power that I did and she wasn’t even trying.

My spine straightened as she kept on walking, making her way towards me while looking decidedly unimpressed and not the least bit afraid. Fuck I wanted to know what made her tick. I wanted to pull her apart and replace out what went on beneath her skin. Because if her blood ran as cold as the aura she was giving off then I was going to have trouble with this little ice queen. But that description just didn’t seem right to me, because more than once I’d seen a flash of heat in her, the kind of fire that I just couldn’t resist getting closer to, needing to replace out what it felt like to burn in it.

“First one in always gets the toughest run of it,” I warned her, hunting for some flicker in that ice cold facade, some evidence that she was rattled, some crack in her armour. But there was nothing. “Feel free to back down if your mortal upbringing has left you unprepared to face the gauntlet.”

“We’re all going in one way or another. I’d sooner get this over with quickly,” she replied dismissively, seeming to be looking for cracks in my mask too. The problem was, I wasn’t wearing a mask, I really was an uncaring asshole and she’d do well to figure that out fast.

Irritation prickled through me as she failed to show the slightest signs of fear and I couldn’t help but take a step closer to her as the Dragon in me bristled beneath my skin. I just wanted to breathe in her air, figure out her angle, understand who she really was and why she seemed so determined to stand against me.

“Maybe you should have picked an easier House to join,” I warned in a low tone, pushing her a little more. “I don’t get the feeling you’re cut out for the trials of this one.”

“Well you made it in,” she said with a shrug, her gaze flicking over me dismissively and making my blood heat. “So it can’t be that hard.”

A growl rumbled in the back of my throat, but she didn’t even wait long enough to allow me to finish our conversation and I watched in a mixture of shock and anger as she turned her fucking back on me again, striding into the gauntlet without so much as a backwards glance my way. What the fuck was that about?

I watched her walk away from me, my gaze staying glued to her ass which was hugged oh so perfectly by those skintight jeans she wore, and I pushed my tongue into my cheek as I just stared after her. Was that it? No backwards glance, no hesitation, no sign at all that she was even a little afraid?

One of the seniors used his earth magic to seal the way closed behind her and I had to grit my teeth against the desire to tell him to stop so I could keep watching her walk away. Damn this girl. Damn this fucking girl. She was clawing her way under my skin and I was almost certain she wasn’t even trying to do it.

‘I’ll see the rest of you on the inside – if you can make it through the gauntlet,’ I said loudly, flicking my fingers so that an explosion of fire magic tore over the heads of the freshmen and made them all shriek with a mixture of fear and excitement before I turned and headed inside.

The earth magic shifted before I had to ask and I was given access to the stairs which led up to the common room.

‘Don’t go easy on her,’ I said as a few of my closest friends within the House banded around me. ‘In fact, I think it might be a good idea if we make her challenges difficult for even a senior to pass. A Savage Princess should be able to cope with more than the rest of the masses after all, don’t you think?’

The excited guffaws of the group surrounded me as a few of them darted off to do just that, one of them excitedly calling out that she was going to shift into her Nemean Lion form and scare the shit out of the Vega while she was trying to figure out how to cross the burning coals.

I left them to figure out how else to make the gauntlet more challenging then smirked to myself as I considered what I’d make pretty little Roxy Vega do to earn her way into my House when she failed.

Maybe I’d keep it simple and just make her beg in front of everyone. That would be a pretty powerful visual after all, the Vega Princess on her knees at my feet begging me to do her a favour.

I licked my bottom lip as the mental picture of her on her knees for me gave me all kinds of other, even better ideas for what she might like to do while she was down there and I was so lost to that fantasy that I almost flinched as Marguerite suddenly appeared in front of me.

‘Hey sweetie,’ she purred, sucking on her bright red bottom lip as she looked me up and down like a feast she was hoping to devour and I paused on the threshold to the common room, trying to give her the attention she was looking for.

‘Hey,’ I muttered.

‘You looked so hot out there, scaring all the freshmen and making them quake in their boots,’ she went on, taking my arm as I moved into the huge common room where fires roared in every hearth and most of the existing students had already gathered to welcome the freshmen into our ranks.

The space was decorated with dark wood and deep red walls, the coloured glass of the orange and yellow windows breaking up the space and allowing some moonlight to shine through them.

My crew were already huddled around my favourite spot in the room, all of them full of excited energy over the games taking place tonight and they cheered as they saw me approaching.

The keys to the rooms for the new freshmen were laid out on the table between them and I scooped one up, the metal warming in my palm as I turned it over between my fingers and wondered whether she’d be earning this the hard way or if she’d just give up once she realised how hard I could make her life here.

I dropped into my favourite chair, turning it so that I had a better view of the stairs where the freshmen who completed the gauntlet would appear if they made it through. Where she would appear.

As I leaned back in the wingback and spread my legs wide, I couldn’t deny the little thrill I was feeling at this game. I’d been waiting for the Vegas to arrive. Hell, it had been months since we’d first learned of their existence and been expecting Lance to bring them back here, but up until now it had never really been on me to deal with them. At least not initially. I knew my father had been hoping to have a few months or even weeks to ‘welcome them home’ and get his claws well and truly lodged into their spines before they ever set foot in this academy. But fate hadn’t guided them to him. He’d landed them with me. One of them specifically. And I couldn’t help but feel like that was no accident on the part of the stars. Roxy Vega had been brought here, gifted to me so that I could be the one to bring her to heel. And the thought of doing just that was a thrill too tempting to resist.

Marguerite dropped down on the arm of my chair, folding her legs in my direction and flashing me the expanse of long legs in a clear attempt to tempt me in. She made it so fucking easy. And there in lay the problem. Firstly, in that it wasn’t exactly exciting to fuck her because there was no effort required on my part, but secondly in that I hadn’t gotten rid of her yet either. I mean, she was hot and eager enough, but she wasn’t exactly a whole lot of thrilling in the sack. Though as Seth had put it, a willing body was better than jerking off and at least she wasn’t a stuttering fan girl like half the Fae I met. She could offer me full sentences even if the contents of them tended to bore me to tears. It probably made me an asshole but I hadn’t promised her shit and she knew I was engaged anyway, so it wasn’t like she was under any delusions about the point of our time together.

‘Those Vega chicks are seriously hot though, you have to give them that,’ Milton crowed and a bunch of the other guys all agreed vehemently, commenting on the twins’ looks and making jokes about fucking the two of them at once. He was one of those loudmouth types who always loved to shout every errant thought that crossed his mind, but as a lot of it was pretty amusing I didn’t mind it so much. His dark hair fell into his eyes, resting on his monobrow and I couldn’t help but stare at it a little as he high fived a couple of the other guys.

‘They didn’t seem like anything special to me.’ Marguerite sneered and the girls closest agreed in the way that jealous bitches always banded together.

I snorted in amusement at the clear threat they all felt and Marguerite turned her gaze on me.

‘I thought they looked totally plain,’ she drawled, her hand moving to my chest and slipping down. ‘Don’t you think so, sweety?’

‘I think you should look again,’ I said, knocking her hand aside and jerking my chin at a chair across from me. ‘Gimme some space, I need to concentrate on the initiation.’

Marguerite looked caught between arguing back and ignoring me, but as I arched an eyebrow at her and let the Dragon show in my eyes for a moment, she quickly hopped up and scrambled away from me.

A prickle tracked down my spine and I glanced up at the archway which led into the common room, my entire body falling still as I spotted a bare footed, soot stained Vega Princess striding towards it with victory flaring in her eyes.

My heart leapt in surprise and I glanced at the time, frowning as I took it in. That was fast. As in faster than any of the freshmen should have been able to make it through the gauntlet even without my followers making it more difficult for them. Fuck.

Who the hell was this girl?

Some of the others looked up too, spotting her and gasping, muttering about her time and gasping in awe over how quickly she’d made it through my fucking challenges.

That wouldn’t do. Not at all.

I could practically hear my father’s sneering voice now, feel the smack of his fist against my flesh as he took out his fury over my failure at this one simple task on my body.

I shoved to my feet in a fluid motion, conjuring fire to fill the doorway before she could step through and bringing the entire room into a hush of total silence as they all stared at me in surprise. But no, I wasn’t going to let her do this. I was going to set an impossible challenge and even if she dared complete it, I’d make sure she didn’t manage to come out on top of this.

“Final challenge,” I called, loudly enough for her and everyone else in the vicinity to hear me clearly. “If you really want to be one of us, you’re going to have to leave everything from your time with the mortals behind.”

I moved my fingers at my side, bringing the flames under my command, urging them to follow my instructions and burn just for me. This would take a lot of concentration, but if she was brave enough to try and complete the task I was setting her then I’d make sure her victory was coloured with enough embarrassment to douse any admiration she might have gained from it. Once I was certain I held the flames beneath my will and was confident they’d do no more than singe her flesh if she touched them, I went on.

“You can step through the flames once you’re ready to leave your mortal trappings behind. The fire will burn them all away, but your flesh will remain unscathed,” I said with a grin, wondering if she’d really do this or not. It took balls to step straight through a wall of fire even if it was your Element, but she’d already more than proved that she had balls bigger than most Fae I knew. If she completed this challenge then she wasn’t going to like the consequences much because I may not have been going to let the flames burn her flesh, but the rest of her possessions were fair game. And she had been warned after all.

I expected the seconds to drag, to tick by while she considered the challenge and turned my words over in her mind. But that didn’t happen. Yet again the girl with the burning eyes surprised me with her gall and with her chin high and steps sure, she strode right on through the fire.

My jaw clenched as I concentrated on keeping the flames from hurting her, but I could feel every flick of flame and tendril of fire as it worked its way through her clothes like water washing away a line of sand.

The scent of burning fabric filled the air and Roxy’s eyes widened in alarm as she clutched her long, ebony hair, but that wasn’t the price I’d claimed from her.

My heart thrashed and my throat bobbed as the last of her clothes were burned from her flesh and I found the result of my hasty plan coming together right before me as the Vega princess I’d sought to humiliate stood there utterly naked.

The cocky remark I’d been meaning to toss her way lodged in my throat and the flames at her back fell away as I just drank in the sight of her, stealing a look at her body even though I knew I wasn’t owed it.

I was an asshole. A total fucking asshole. And yet I couldn’t not look. She was all firm muscle and perfect curves, her tits full and heavy with peaked nipples that made the Dragon in me growl with the desire to step closer to her. Her skin was tanned and satin smooth, making my fingers twitch with the urge to touch her and see if she felt as soft as I was guessing she did. And shit, my dick really liked the idea of that.

Laughter broke out all around me and I smirked along with them as I just stared at her, unable to move a single inch, utterly captivated by the beauty of her even as I watched the realisation dawning in her eyes and the utter fury filling their green depths.

Fuck, she was even hotter when she was furious. I seriously wouldn’t have minded her taking that anger out on my body all night long. I’d be more than happy to angry fuck her until her body bent and bowed and finally gave in to the power play between us. I’d force her beneath me physically as well as with my power and maybe she’d replace she liked it there just fine.

Or maybe she’d stab me to death and cut my cock off for good measure because the look she was aiming my way said that was a whole lot more likely than me getting to spend the night ruining her. But it was a damn nice fantasy to indulge in for a few moments.

I waited for her to crumple, to throw her hands around her body and maybe even to start crying. My gut twisted at the thought, but I steeled myself against that moment of weakness and held my head high. Because this was better. Better she fell apart now and realised where her place was here in this academy and in Solaria as a whole. She needed to fall at my feet and beg me to stop. To make it clear to everyone here and in the entire kingdom that she couldn’t stand against me. And once she’d done that, I wouldn’t have to be her villain anymore. I’d get this done now and that would be it. My father would be sated and I would be able to focus on my plans to overthrow him once more.

But she didn’t do any of that.

“Motherfucker!” Roxy snarled, starting towards me with her hand curled into a fist like she wanted to strike me. She jerked to a halt again just as fast, though not because she was afraid. She glanced down at her naked body and seemed to be using that as the reason to restrain herself. “I had nearly three grand in my pocket! Do you know how hard my sister and I worked for that money?”

I almost laughed at her outburst. She was standing there naked in front of the entire House and her anger at me was more to do with some money? What was she, a fucking pauper?

My grin widened as I took in her words. Was she serious? She cared about a few grand more than the embarrassment of her nudity? Although I guessed it wasn’t all that strange for Fae not to care much about revealing their bodies as most of us had to strip in order to shift unless we were happy destroying our clothes all the time. But I had thought she might be a little more aggravated over it given the audience and her lack of choice in the matter.

But as the laughter continued to titter out around the room, I guessed I’d achieved what I’d meant to and I couldn’t even say I was entirely disappointed with her continued fire. It awoke something in me. Something I hadn’t even realised I’d been missing but damn, she was making me think about it now because I’d just realised how fucking bored I’d been recently.

I was so stuck in this endless rotation of classes and training to be a Councillor one day, mixed in with the constant threat of my father’s shadow looming over me and my brother that the only times I ever felt truly awake these days were when Lance and I went hunting Nymphs. And we hadn’t even been able to do that for months while he’d been hunting Vegas in the Mortal Realm instead.

I loved the other Heirs and I found relief in their company and a challenge in training with them as we were so easily matched, but I hadn’t felt this in a long damn time. I hadn’t had another Fae look me in the eye and let me know outright that they didn’t give a fuck about who I was or what I was in…ever. Shit. If I didn’t watch out, I had a feeling I might just get addicted to that fire in this girl’s eyes. The honesty of her dislike of me and the refreshing taste of her open hostility on the air.

“Your room is on the third floor, end of the corridor,” I said, unable to come up with another challenge for her that wouldn’t just make it look like I was floundering. I wanted her brought to heel but I’d take this much for tonight, twist the hurt of this embarrassment a little and see if she’d crack. “If you wanna go and replace something to wear?”

She gave me a look of utter contempt and it made my cock throb as her nearness just compounded the desire I was already feeling for her and made me get all kinds of insane ideas about what I’d like to do with this little princess if I got her to myself for long enough.

She made no attempt to cover herself, no sign of shame in her frosty features as she stalked forward to claim her key, a sneer touching those edible lips of hers.

Her jaw was tight with rage which she was doing nothing to hide and as she reached out to snatch the key from my hand, I couldn’t help but ache to bring her closer, draw her nearer, see just how far she’d go in this denial of my power over her.

Her fingers curled around the brass key, but I didn’t release it, instead using my hold on it to tug her a step closer so that only a breath of space divided our bodies. I looked down at her from my imposing height, dominating her space with the bulk of my body and making sure she took in every last inch of height I had over her.

“Of course, if you’d rather just come on up to my room, I can give you a real welcome to the House of Fire,” I suggested my gaze dropping down to her body, the noticeable bulge in my pants making it clear enough how much I meant that offer. I probably shouldn’t have been making it at all, but the beast in me couldn’t help myself. Dragons saw something they wanted and they took it. And I hadn’t seen something I wanted as much as this girl in as long as I could remember.

Our gazes collided and the heat there was almost strong enough to burn, the tension between us crackling so loudly I was surprised the whole room couldn’t hear it. But then her gaze shuttered and her lips pursed, her eyes dropping down to take me in, my skin buzzing everywhere they landed as I could feel the want in her while she assessed me.

But as those deep green eyes met mine again and I gave her a knowing smirk, I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I didn’t know if she was going to bow to this heat between us or just stoke the flames, and the fact that I didn’t know had my heart thumping in anticipation deep in my chest.

She shifted an inch closer to me, tilting her mouth towards my ear and making my flesh spark with the need to take her, own her, destroy her in all the best ways. But just as my cock began to get overexcited at the prospect of all the ways I could make her scream for me given enough time, she spoke and it wasn’t in the sultry purr I’d been expecting, her voice coming out loud enough for everyone to hear instead.

“I wouldn’t come near you even if someone held a knife to my heart and told me that the world would end if I didn’t,” she snarled, snatching the key out of my hand as my surprise at her words made me forget to keep my grip tight enough to keep it. “So why don’t you take a long, hard look while you can. Because I can promise you, you won’t be seeing this again.”

The laughter died out around the room as everyone in attendance seemed to take a collective breath, each of them waiting for my retaliation.

But I wasn’t entirely sure what that should be. I was taken aback by her behaviour, her brazen disregard and unbridled distaste for me so clear that my lips parted on a reply which failed to come. I had her here, standing naked amongst a group of her peers and shamed in front of all of them, yet she’d somehow just flipped the table on me. Rejected me, loudly and clearly in front of the entire room. I wasn’t sure I’d ever had a woman reject me at all, let alone so blatantly.

Before I could come up with the best response to her barb, she slammed her shoulder against my arm and stalked away from me like I was no one and nothing at all.

I turned to watch her go, my traitorous gaze falling to the perfect curve of her tanned ass as she fucking strutted out of the room towards the stairs that led up to the dorms like she didn’t have a care in the fucking world.

Whispers broke out around the common room, but she just kept walking like she couldn’t even hear them. My skin prickled as I heard a few sniggers aimed my way and my muscles bunched with frustration as I realised she was going to walk out of here with the last word.

“You should be more careful about the kinds of enemies you make around here, Roxy,” I called after her, needing to end this interaction on my terms even if she had taken me by surprise yet again.

She didn’t so much as glance back at me, just continuing on at her unhurried pace up the stairs and out of sight.

I forced a laugh which was quickly echoed by the sycophants surrounding me and dropped back into my chair, falling silent as I let them all joke and laugh about the Vega princess. But there was more than mocking jeers filling the room. There were enough of the guys discussing how hot she was to set my temper boiling and more than a few awed murmurs about the way she’d handled me too.

My gaze narrowed on the fire as the rest of the freshmen began to appear after their trial, but I had no interest in any of them.

I was caught up on the princess who had just gone to bat with me and damn near come out on top. Maybe I’d been hasty in assuming I could squash her easily. She was the Savage King’s daughter after all.

I was going to have to rethink my tactics because it seemed clear to me now that this girl wouldn’t be forced to bow as easily as we’d all hoped, and I was guessing that meant her sister wouldn’t either.

But while I sat there, feigning interest in the freshmen being initiated into Ignis House, my mind wasn’t occupied with thoughts of how I could get rid of the Vegas. It was stuck on one of them in particular. And I wasn’t even fantasising about how I would enjoy taking command of her body with mine. No. I was caught on that look in her eyes. The fire, the challenge, the hatred. And no matter how much I tried to convince myself that I hated that look, I knew in my gut that I was lying.

I stuck it out for another hour, pretending to give a damn about the freshmen coming in after surviving their trials while Milton and some of the others made a leader board for the Fae who had completed it in the shortest time.

Roxy Vega’s name sat at the top unmoving no matter how many of them came through. No matter the fact that all of their tasks were easier than hers had been. I ran my tongue over my teeth as I waited to see if any of them might challenge her, but none came close.

Marguerite dropped into my lap after a while, her mouth moving up my neck while she pushed her fingers beneath my belt, tugging a little like she intended to start caressing my cock right there in the middle of the room.

‘Shall we sneak off for a bit, sweety?’ she breathed, her lips skimming my ear and doing nothing at all for me. ‘You can have me any way you want me.’

I sighed because I didn’t want her any fucking way I wanted tonight. I didn’t need her laying there beneath me, gasping and moaning while I fucked her and doing nothing at all to make it more interesting.

She didn’t burn for me like Roxy Vega did. She didn’t offer up any kind of challenge. And all of a sudden that was a whole lot more boring than it had seemed before.

‘I’ve got somewhere to be tonight,’ I said abruptly, pushing to my feet and damn near dropping her on her ass.

She scrambled to right herself, calling out to tell me to send her a text if I wanted her to come up to my room later and I didn’t bother to reply as I stalked away towards the dorms. I never invited her to my room and she knew it. If I wanted her, I went to her dorm and I had her there. It was sex, not a relationship and I didn’t want her in my private space any more than I wanted to hang around for a sleepover after we were done. She knew that, but she kept pushing for more recently which probably meant it was time I moved on because I wasn’t the kind of man who could offer her more. I was never going to be that kind of man for anyone. My father had seen to that with my arranged marriage even if my own personality didn’t make it clear enough regardless.

I headed up the stairs, ignoring the calls from various people for me to stay and party with them because I just wasn’t in the mood anymore.

I pulled my Atlas from my pocket and sent a quick message to the other Heirs, asking them to meet me at the Hollow and the responses came back fast enough as they agreed.

I jogged up the stairs within Ignis House, the mixture of black and red decoration making the place feel warm even without the added burning sconces everywhere which lit the open space.

As I reached the third floor, I paused, my gaze tracking to the room where I knew Roxy Vega now resided, wondering what she was doing in there, feeling the strangest urge to just walk over and knock on her door.

But I had no other plans for how to deal with her tonight and it was blindingly obvious that I wouldn’t be a welcome visitor at her door, so I decided to just leave her be. For now.

I made it up to my room and rolled my shoulders back as I strode inside, tossing the door closed behind me and tugging my shirt off as I prepared to shift. The Dragon in me was restless tonight, like it had caught the scent of a prey it wanted to hunt but had found itself shackled instead.

A growl slipped through my lips as I thought of the defiant curve of Roxy’s mouth as she’d shot me down. The urge to head back downstairs and continue this game of cat and mouse with her tugged at me.

I ignored the impulse, kicking off my shoes and unbuckling my belt as I continued to strip off.

I rotated my shoulders again, my back itching at the point where my wings would burst free when I gave in to the call of my Dragon. The new ink I’d gotten there this summer flexed across my shoulder blades and I looked at it over my shoulder to the full length mirror beside my closet.

I’d woken up on the eleventh of June with the image seared right into the backs of my eyelids and the urge to mark my skin with it itching at me so insistently that I’d headed out that day to get it done. The Dragon and the Phoenix curved around each other like they were playing out a scene from legends long since dead but something about the way the two of them almost seemed to actually move across my skin always set me at peace when I looked at them.

I moved to the full length window at the side of my room and pushed it open, feeling the breeze of the night air against my face as I looked down at the terrifying drop below me.

I opened my arms wide as I looked down then I slowly began to pitch forward until the push of the wind wrapped its fingers all around me and suddenly I was falling.

I counted as I fell, adrenaline spiking through my veins as I waited and waited, the ground rushing nearer with every passing second, my death hurtling towards me inevitably until the very last moment when I released the beast which lived inside my soul.

The enormous golden Dragon sprung free of my limbs, wings spreading wide and catching the breeze a moment before I could hit the ground.

My claws tore into the soft grass as I beat my wings hard then I was speeding up towards the stars, a roar echoing from my lips and making the glass structure of Ignis House shudder.

I flew fast, aiming for the heavens and powering up higher and higher until the air cooled all around me and nothing but silence could replace me.

I closed my eyes as the starlight gilded my scales, bathing in the feeling of the celestial beings watching over me for a long moment before snapping my wings shut and diving back down towards the ground once more.

I shot down like a speeding bullet, my gaze zeroed in on a dense patch of trees at the centre of The Wailing Wood where King’s Hollow lay waiting for my arrival.

I opened my wings again, banking hard and falling into a smooth glide as I closed in on my destination and by the time I landed I was practically gentle, my bulk only making the treehouse groan for a few seconds before the violent swaying ceased.

I shifted back into my Fae form and moved to open the hatch in the roof before dropping down inside the cosy space.

Caleb was already there, lounging in a chair beside the fire and flicking through something on his Atlas, his hand coming up in greeting while his gaze stayed fixed on the screen.

I crossed the space and tugged out some sweatpants, pulling them on before moving to join him, snagging the two of us some beers on the way.

‘So?’ Caleb asked, tossing his Atlas down and grinning at me as he opened his beer.

I considered playing dumb, but I couldn’t see what purpose that would serve so I just shrugged, taking a swig of my drink and holding his eye as I spoke.

‘She’s impressive,’ I said honestly. ‘For a girl who grew up in the Mortal Realm and had no idea about magic or Fae or anything important before tonight, I’m surprised how fast she managed to adapt.’

‘Not to mention how fucking hot she is,’ Caleb replied, his dark blue eyes twinkling with a challenge that the beast in me instantly rose to.

‘Obviously,’ I muttered in agreement.

‘So I take it from that assessment that you didn’t manage to break her yet?’ he went on.

I shrugged. ‘I pissed her off pretty good, but no, I wouldn’t say this is over that easily.’

‘Does it make me an ass if I admit I’m kind of pleased about that?’ he asked with a grin. ‘I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want the two of them to bow just as much as anyone else does. But we’ve been waiting for them to arrive all summer. It would be pretty dull if they just went down without a fight after so much suspense.’

I thought of the furious gleam in Roxy’s eyes as she refused to back down to me and I couldn’t help but agree on some level.

‘They still have to bow,’ I pointed out. ‘It would be better if they did it sooner rather than later.’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’ Cal asked with a shrug. ‘I’m personally more than happy to keep biting them and riling them up as often as possible. Angry blood is always so much hotter on the way down.’

‘Is that so?’ I eyed him with irritation in my gaze and the smirk he offered said he fucking knew it.

‘You still trying to lay a claim on her?’ he taunted and I cursed myself for uttering such a claim in the first place, but the challenge in his eyes said it was far too late for that now.

‘It’s already done, brother. She’s in Ignis now. That means she’s mine,’ I said plainly though I was sure he would be able to detect the undercurrent of a command in my tone.

‘We’ll see.’

The sound of the door banging open halted our conversation and we looked around as Max and Seth moved into the room. Max strode away to grab some more beers and Seth came bounding right over to us like an excitable puppy.

‘She fucking jumped, you guys! For a moment I was like woah, did I just kill a Vega? But then it was like pow, she fucking flew! I mean, she didn’t fly, she just kinda hung there in the air a bit above the ground instead of going splat and then she fell on her face. But everyone was going crazy for it. It was seriously cool…you know aside from the fact that she should have come out of this whole thing looking bad and ended up looking kinda good…I was mad at first but then my pack gave me multiple orgasms and now I’m thinking this challenge is just what I’ve been missing. We can have so much fun with smashing them!’

I groaned at his summary of how the other twin had faired in her initiation and swiped a hand down my face. Seth nuzzled against my side before dropping down on Caleb’s lap and swiping a tongue up his cheek in greeting.

‘Get off, mutt,’ Cal grumbled, shoving Seth so that he fell on his ass.

He bounded upright just as fast, jumping back into the spot beside me on the couch before flopping down on his back and dropping his head in my lap.

‘Stroke my hair,’ he begged, giving me the big eyes. ‘I have a tension headache.’

‘Yeah? Well I have a case of blue balls, so unless you wanna help me out with that, I’m not gonna be stroking your fucking hair,’ I joked, shoving his face aside though not hard enough to actually knock him off of me.

‘I mean…is that a serious suggestion or…’

‘Not serious,’ Max replied for me, his Siren gifts brushing against me as he took his seat opposite Cal. ‘But you had a little shot of lust over the idea, Seth.’

‘Oh I’m sorry, am I not allowed to appreciate the hotness of my friends? You know I’d always consider some camaraderie BJs to help ease our stress, though I feel like Darius might choke me with his Dragon dick so I might have to take it slow if I-‘

Caleb swatted Seth’s forehead with a vine he conjured for the job and Seth cursed as he forgot about the likelihood of me ever agreeing to best friend blowjobs in favour of whimpering over the minor head wound.

‘So what does this mean for them?’ Max asked, shifting the topic back to the Vegas and pressing a serious mood into the room with his gifts in an attempt to get Seth to focus.

‘The Councillors made it clear what we need to do,’ Caleb replied with a shrug. ‘And you know how our parents can get over anything that might tarnish our reputations. If word gets out about them passing their initiations with impressive results, they’ll only demand we work faster to put the twins in their places beneath us.

‘Well I don’t care how impressive they were at some pointless school initiation,’ Max said. ‘They’re still just a couple of untrained girls. We can take them out fast enough.’

I nodded my agreement as Seth started barking out ideas for how to break down the girls’ resolve like he was more than excited to get started. Some of his plans were dumb, others funny and a few might just have been brilliant.

I wondered how far we were really going to need to go with all of this though. It seemed to me like a pair of untrained girls were never really going to be able to pose a threat to us anyway. We had years of training over them as well as lifetimes of being groomed to take the power we’d been born to. I didn’t care what power ran in their veins because when it came down to it, I just couldn’t believe they’d be a match for us.

So as I sank a few more beers and Seth finally convinced me to half heartedly play with his damn hair for him by giving me the puppy dog eyes for ten minutes straight, I began to relax.

Roxanya Vega might have been more than I was bargaining for, but that didn’t matter in the long run. Because she may have been the daughter of the Savage King, but I’d been reared in the image of a monster just as brutal and I didn’t know the meaning of losing. So if we had to up our game plans against the two of them then so be it. I wasn’t going to let a pretty face and fiery soul stand in the way of my rise to power and the demolition of my own personal demon. So the best thing she could do would be to get the hell out of my way.