Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae

I RAN SOUTH through Air Territory with the long grass trailing around my knees as I carved a path through the overgrown meadow towards the Fire Arena where I was due to meet Darius once he’d finished up detention with Orion.

I’d reached the last section of my playlist and the beat had urged me into a sprint, my long hair blowing out behind me in the wind as I raced downhill, the end in sight.

I was close to a new P.B., I just had to keep up this pace and I’d smash my ten km record.

I wondered if Darius was really going to show. He’d seemed pretty damn set on me and Darcy attending his fancy party but he’d also lied about meeting me enough times that I didn’t trust his word for shit.

I crossed into Fire Territory and the ground evened out, getting harder beneath my sneakers. I upped my pace a final time as I sprinted for the Fire Arena and skidded to a halt on the gravel outside it with seventeen seconds to spare.

I whooped in triumph, smiling to myself at my win then took a moment to use my water magic to clean the sweat and dirt from my body as my heart rate slowed.

A blur of motion shot towards me and I gasped as Caleb Altair appeared beside me, running his hand through his golden curls and grinning at me like I was his best buddy.

“You still couldn’t beat me though, could you?” Caleb asked casually, jamming his hands into his jeans pockets.

“I could if you didn’t use your bloodsucker powers,” I replied, panting a little as I caught my breath.

“But why wouldn’t I use my superpowers if I have them at my disposal?” he teased.

I cracked a smile despite myself. Caleb had a charm about him that was difficult to resist even if he was a parasitic jackass.

“Let me guess, you’ve come to bite me?” I’d enjoyed the few days of freedom from his teeth but I’d known it wouldn’t last. He might have felt a little guilty over what had happened to me in the pool the night of the party but he wasn’t going to let me off the hook forever.

“Nope. I’ve been taking advantage of the other Heirs in payment for my participation in your misery the other night so I’m still pretty full on Seth’s power at the minute,” he said and I couldn’t quite hide my surprise at that.

“If you want punishment then shouldn’t I be the one to dole it out?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. No need to mention the fact that it just so happened we’d already started on our plans for him.

Caleb smiled darkly. “Depends what you have in mind, sweetheart. Maybe I’d like your brand of punishment.”

I stepped a little closer, breathing in the sweet scent of him as I tilted my mouth close to his and lowered my voice. “But if you like it, it’s not going to teach you a lesson, is it?”

I stepped around him and started heading towards the Arena.

Red flowers blossomed to life all around me as I walked and I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling at his display of magic.

“I’m not really a flowers kind of girl,” I said, without looking back at him, though I couldn’t resist the urge to taunt him a little too. “Perhaps a Pegasus would like them better?”

“I don’t want a fucking Pegasus,” he said with enough grit in his voice to let me know how much that had pissed him off.

I laughed and kept walking.

“Tell me what you do like then,” he called after me.

“Oil and engine fumes,” I replied.

I glanced back just before I headed into the Arena and found him grinning at me like I was a challenge he wanted to rise to.

“You still need to pay though,” I warned.

“Whatever you desire, sweetheart.” He flashed me a dazzling smile complete with dimples before shooting away from me with the speed of his Order.

I rolled my eyes as I headed inside the Arena for my meeting with the Fire Heir. I got the feeling that this interaction would be a lot less amusing than that one had been.

I strolled straight through the locker rooms without getting changed and made my way out onto the wide, sandy arena.

To my surprise, Darius was already there, a herd of fiery horses galloping around him in a circle as he wielded his magic in a display which had drawn a group of fans clamouring around him.

I wandered closer, eyeing the five horses with interest and noticing the differences between each of them. I knew how much more difficult it was to maintain individual details when shaping magic like that and I couldn’t help but be impressed: I couldn’t even form two different basic shapes at once. Though I was hoping that would be different with him to help me take control of my power. If I could figure it out then Pyro wanted to me to pass on what I learned to Darcy too so it was doubly important I got the most out of this lesson.

Darius spotted me approaching and he flicked a hand in my direction, sending the horses galloping towards me.

I flinched as they didn’t slow, throwing a crude shield of water in front of me to protect myself at the last moment.

The horses smashed against the shield, sizzling out of existence as Darius released his hold on them and let the magic disperse. The crowd of students watching him applauded excitedly.

“Aren’t you going to get changed?” he asked as he strolled towards me, eyeing my leggings and sports bra combo.

I shook my head. “That suit makes my fire magic go all haywire. I have better control over it like this,” I said, refusing to back down on this point.

Darius shrugged. “You’re the one risking your skin if you lose control,” he warned. He was wearing the skintight grey outfit provided for the class and I tried not to look at the way it clung to his muscular frame.

“My magic won’t hurt me,” I countered.

“Whatever you say. Don’t expect me to heal you if it does.”

“Oh no, I’d fully expect you to let me burn to death,” I assured him, my tone flat.

Darius frowned like he didn’t much like that assessment of him but said nothing to challenge my assumption. “Are you ready to start?”

I nodded, though I didn’t really have any idea what this would entail.

He cast a look at the gathered students who were still watching him like he was the most interesting thing in the world.

“Come on.” Darius beckoned me to follow him and I fell into step with him as he crossed to the far side of the arena where there wasn’t anyone else practicing. The other students seemed to get the hint and dispersed, though I noticed a small group of girls slowly trailing behind us.

“Must be nice being Mr Popular,” I commented.

Darius grunted in a way that didn’t really give me any insight into his feelings on it. “You and your sister get your own share of attention.”

“Well we’re the shiny new toys on campus,” I reasoned. “No doubt everyone will get bored of us soon enough. My general persona is pretty off putting to most people.”

“I’d noticed,” Darius replied but his tone was more teasing than outright hostile so I let it slide. “How are your magic reserves?” he asked, coming to a halt. “Am I going to have my hands full with you or are you running low?”

“Oh I’m always a handful,” I said challengingly and his gaze swept over me like he wasn’t sure what to say in response to that.

“Let’s find out if that’s true, shall we?” Darius held his hand out to me and I eyed it suspiciously for a moment. Professor Pyro had explained to me that we had to maintain physical contact if we wanted to combine our power but I had more than a few reservations about it.

I slowly reached out to take his hand, my palm fitting right inside his before he curled his fingers around my hand, encasing it completely.

I bit my lip against the sensation of his skin against mine as I waited for him to tell me what to do next.

“Just concentrate on the well of your power,” he murmured. “Imagine it’s a pool inside your chest and I’m going to push my magic to join with it. When you feel it, squeeze my hand.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“It helps if you close your eyes,” he added.

I shot him a suspicious look but he’d followed his own advice and had shut his eyes so he didn’t see it. For a moment I couldn’t resist the urge to study his face while unobserved and I only realised I was staring when I felt a strange tingling in my chest which had nothing to do with my own magic.

I snapped my eyes shut and squeezed his fingers as I focused on the new sensation. I could feel his magic brushing up against mine and it set something burning with satisfaction deep within my core.

“Try to let me in,” he said. “I can force it if you can’t but we’ll work better together if our magic is in harmony.”

“How do I do that?” I asked. I could feel his magic as a separate entity to my own, our powers were dancing around each other but they weren’t merging.

“You have to trust me,” he said softly.

I cleared my throat, not bothering to justify that with a response. I’d sooner trust a fox in a chicken coop.

We stood like that for a few more moments and I tried to find a way to let his magic join with mine but it was no good.

“You’ll have to force it then,” I said eventually. “Because I can’t even pretend to trust you.”

“Try not to fight back at least,” he muttered, seeming annoyed by the fact that I couldn’t do it.

But what did he expect? I was hardly going to just greet his magic with open arms after everything he’d done to me.

The touch of his magic grew more powerful alongside mine until it was cloying, overwhelming, working to smother my own. In response, my own power grew stronger, burning brighter within me as it fought against the confines he was trying to place on it. I realised that this was the way Professor Pyro had guided my power: with brute force. Which meant that Darius had tried to do it differently on purpose, like he cared about making it more pleasant. But the idea of that was so ridiculous that I quickly pushed it aside. No doubt he just wanted to gain full control over my magic so that he could use it to humiliate me or something.

“Stop fighting me,” he ordered, his grip tightening on my hand.

“This feels like going against my nature,” I muttered.

“Power sharing is the most natural thing in the world when you trust someone,” he countered. “But it’s an intimate thing to do, it always feels strange with someone new. Especially if you don’t particularly care for them.”

I snorted at that statement. Yeah, I didn’t particularly care for Darius Acrux, that’s exactly how I’d put it.

“Are you going to stop fighting or am I going to kick the doors down?” he asked as the strength of his power increased again.

“I…” I frowned in concentration as I tried to soften the shields around my magic. It was harder than I would have thought, my power clearly not wanting to open itself up but I finally managed it.

Darius’s power slid inside my own and I gasped as his raw energy filled me. My muscles tensed and my back arched involuntarily. When Pyro had pressed her power against mine I’d barely even noticed the brush of it in comparison to my own magic. But Darius’s power was like a living beast crawling beneath my skin and nuzzling against my own inner creature. There was no chance of me being unaware of its presence within me.

My breathing grew heavier as I adjusted to it, energy racing down my spine and my grip on Darius’s hand tightening.

My eyes fluttered open and I couldn’t help but look up at him. The point of contact between us felt like it was too much and not enough at the same time. He shifted his thumb across the back of my hand and electricity darted up my arm in response.

“Is it supposed to feel like that?” I breathed.

Darius’s lips parted and his eyes roamed over me for a moment before he spoke. “We’re both incredibly powerful,” he hedged. “Power craves power.”

I wanted to say something in response to that but the magic inside me flared with the desperate need for an outlet and I gasped as it pushed against the confines of my skin.

Darius’s gaze darkened as he looked at me, his eyes dropping to my mouth for a moment before he cleared his throat.

“Try and conjure a ball of fire,” he said.

I did so instantly, the relief of using some of this magic making my arm tremble for a moment before I managed to get control of it.

Darius’s magic swam with mine and I could feel his will lending me strength as I urged the flames into the shape of a perfect sphere.

I glanced at Darius, expecting some praise but I instantly realised that was a stupid expectation to have with him.

“Bigger,” he commanded, not looking at me.

I obeyed, growing the sphere to the size of a small car.

“Smaller.”

I did as I was told again.

“Square. Triangle. Rectangle. Smaller. Bigger-” Every time he made a command I focused on it and the fire did as I wanted.

I bit my lip to stop myself from grinning as I completed more and more challenges and our combined magic bled from me in a trail of flaming ecstasy. It was the most intense rush I’d ever gotten from wielding my power and I knew it was because it was combined with his.

When I’d created countless shapes in varying sizes, he got me to create more than one at once. Then to change their shapes, make them move, merge them together and peel them back apart. My head was spinning with the orders he barked my way but I managed to keep up through pure force of will.

My limbs were practically trembling with the energy I was channeling and he suddenly called a halt, releasing my hand.

My skin felt oddly cold without his and I folded my arms just to give my hand something else to do.

Darius looked me over without making any comment on my performance. “Do you feel drained?” he asked. “Do you need to stop?”

I reached out to the well of power in me but I couldn’t sense any difference in it than before. “Nope. I’m good,” I said with a shrug.

Darius narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t need to lie if you’re running low,” he said. “I’m not going to take advantage of the fact that your power is depleted if you admit it.”

I rolled my eyes at him and cast a huge fireball into existence a few meters away from us. The flames warmed my skin and I smiled at them.

“Still good,” I assured him.

“Fine. I need a top up though,” he muttered irritably, before turning and stalking away from me.

“Did I burn you out?” I teased as I followed him despite the fact that he hadn’t invited me to.

“No but I can feel my power waning. It’s harder to lend magic than wielding it anyway,” he said dismissively.

“Ohhh that explains it then,” I said, my tone holding just enough falseness to it to make sure he caught on to my mockery.

Darius reached a sports bag that was waiting at the edge of the arena and sat down beside it. He scooped handfuls of gold coins into his lap and leaned back against the wall as he took a long drink from a bottle of water.

I took a seat beside him and he looked at me from the corner of his eye without saying anything else.

“So you managed to save your pirate gold from the fire?” I asked innocently as he ran a few coins through his fingers.

“Unfortunately not. I had to go home for more,” he muttered.

“Oh. Handy that you have piles to spare then,” I said, reaching out to snag a coin from his lap.

His hand snapped out and snatched my wrist, a deep growl emanating from within his chest. A sliver of fear raced through me but I refused to acknowledge it as I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Did you just growl at me?”

“Why do you insist on baiting me?” he asked, his voice low, his grip on me unrelenting.

“Why do you make it so easy?” I flicked the coin back into his lap and he released me.

His posture relaxed a little as I returned it and a small smile tugged at my lips as I realised something.

“That treasure means a lot to you, huh? Must have really sucked to have lost so much of it.”

“Accidents happen.” He shrugged, refusing to rise to the bait this time.

“How exactly? Did you leave your scented candles burning too close to your silk pyjamas?” I asked.

I knew I was treading the line of stupidity by asking him about the fire but I really wanted to hear just how much the whole thing had gotten to him first hand. And with the right amount of prodding, I might have been able to get him to open up about it.

“It was actually my curling iron too close to my bondage gear. The oil makes those suckers flammable as hell.”

I wasn’t fast enough to stop myself from laughing at that and his mouth twitched in amusement too.

I schooled my expression quickly, returning to my point.

“Well at least all of your poncy asshole clothes burned up, this is a good chance for you to purchase a new wardrobe that makes you look like less of a douchebag.”

“Every cloud,” he said calmly. This line of taunting clearly wasn’t going to get a rise from him so I decided to drop it.

Infuriatingly it sounded like he really was putting the fire down to an accident and if that was the case then it was all too easy for him to move on from it. My mind whirled with ways that I could make him suffer more over this. Maybe I could use the treasure against him somehow? He was clearly possessive over it. If he realised that some of it had been stolen I was sure it would drive him insane. A plan was beginning to form in the depths of my mind but I kept it there to work on later so that he didn’t see any guilt written across my face.

“Ready to go again?” Darius asked as he swept the gold back into the sports bag.

“It wasn’t me we were waiting on,” I reminded him as he got to his feet.

He offered me his hand and for half a second I thought he was being polite as he pulled me to my feet but he didn’t release me and I felt the brush of his magic flooding inside me a moment later.

A gasp of surprise escaped my lips as he didn’t even offer me a warning and his eyes flashed excitedly for a moment in response. If it wasn’t an absolutely insane idea, I almost would have thought he was enjoying this. And I had to admit it was kind of a rush.

“You’ve got a handle on basic shapes and control. So now I want you to make something more complicated,” he instructed and I got the feeling he liked bossing me around.

“Like what?”

“Something you’re familiar with. An animal or object you know as well as your own face. Something you’d recognise in the dark,” he suggested.

“Okay,” I said hesitantly, trying to picture something like that in my mind’s eye. At first I scrambled for what to create but when the idea struck me it was the obvious choice. “I’m ready,” I confirmed.

I held my free hand out before me and tried to conjure what I needed to create my illusion. Pieces of it started to come together but they fell apart as I tried to merge them.

“Again,” Darius commanded.

I did as I was told but after three more attempts I was ready to give up. I just couldn’t manipulate the magic in the way I needed to.

Darius suddenly released his grip on my hand and moved behind me, catching my waist between his palms. The feeling of his skin against mine sent a jolt of energy racing through me and I tensed, trying to tug out of his grip.

“What are you doing?” I hissed, shifting forward again but he didn’t let go, the pressure of his fingers increasing on my waist.

“You need to use both hands to perform the magic properly,” he said, his tone suggesting he was amused though I couldn’t see his face to read his expression. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

My heart pounded faster as he shifted his hands on my skin, his fingers pressing against my hip bones and skimming the waistband of my leggings. For a moment my brain completely scrambled and the only thing I could think about was the way he was touching me.

I threw every inch of my focus into the magic and tried with all my might to ignore the feeling of his hands on my body.

Damn super-hot asshole. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

I released a long breath and conjured the flames to life in my hands again. I focused on their form, imagining the way I wanted them to look. Darius’s magic danced alongside my own as I channelled it and with his help, I managed to mould the fire into what I wanted. The ball became a wheel which split in two to create a second then a chassis, saddle and handlebars all sprung to life until a sleek super bike sat in my palms.

I stared at it for a moment, a breath of laughter escaping me as I took in exactly what I’d managed to do.

“Can you ride one of those?” Darius asked curiously as he looked over my shoulder at my work.

I snorted a laugh. “That’s an understatement. If you really want to get rid of me then just give me a bike and an open road and I’ll be gone.”

“That’s… interesting.”

He didn’t add any further comment and I reminded myself that I didn’t care what he thought anyway. With a nudge of my power, I sent the bike flying out of my hands and racing through the air in front of me.

Darius’s grip on my waist tightened a little as I drew more power from him but I didn’t try to hold back. Our magic was burning through me, aching for this release and I was smiling like a damn idiot as it did what it was told for once.

As I turned the bike in a sharp circle over our heads, Darius shifted forward, his hands sliding across my stomach and down a few inches so that the tips of his fingers pushed beneath my waistband.

I inhaled sharply as a spike of energy ripped right through my core and my concentration was shattered, tearing the bike apart so that little flames tumbled out of the sky all around us.

“You need to work on your focus, Roxy,” Darius teased, maintaining the new position of his hands.

I almost jerked out of his grip but I knew that that was what he wanted. He was winding me up, trying to get a rise out of me by abusing this situation.

But if he thought he could throw off my magic with his touch then two could play at that game.

“Maybe I should try something bigger?” I suggested, not giving him the satisfaction of mentioning the way he was touching me or the fact that he kept moving his fingers instead of just staying still. His touch danced across the delicate skin beneath my waistband sending a flood of heat to my core and making a sultry, amorous part of me ache for him to shift lower still and I had to bite my tongue to distract myself from it. I refused to give any recognition to the fact that my skin was coming alive in response, desire unfurling in me like he’d woken a sleeping beast.

“If you think you can manage it,” he said in a tone that suggested I couldn’t.

“I’m pretty sure I can handle more than you think,” I replied dismissively.

I conjured a much bigger ball of fire this time, shaping it into the beginnings of a huge bird while drawing at least four times as much energy through the bond that connected us as I had the last time.

Darius tried to cover up his sharp intake of breath as I tugged on his magic and I took a step backward so that I was pressed against him, his arms tightening around me.

The movement of his hands stilled as my body pushed back against his, the lines of his muscular build moulding to my curves, my ass pushing into his crotch. I refused to let the game I was playing with him distract me as I spun the ball of fire into a huge falcon. It took more effort than the bike because I wasn’t as familiar with the shape and it was so much bigger. In turn I had to use Darius more to control it and as I yanked on his magic, I shifted my hips so that my ass ground against him.

Two can play at this game.

A deep growl resounded in his chest and I smirked in satisfaction as I made the falcon soar overhead. From the corner of my eye I could see members of his little fan club staring at us and hear them whispering but I ignored them; Darius was the one who’d started this game and I wasn’t going to let him beat me.

Darius recovered from his surprise fairly quickly, holding me firmly as his fingers pushed down a little further, brushing against the top of my underwear.

Heat pooled in my core and my heart thundered like a jackhammer in my ears but I worked to hide the reactions of my body to his.

I conjured a second falcon and sent it up to fly with the first, frowning at the effort it took to maintain the two creations. I could only make them fly in circles, their movements mirroring each other but it was so much more than I’d ever managed before that it made me want to jump up and down with excitement.

With a wicked grin, I did just that, bouncing on the balls of my feet and clapping excitedly as my ass rubbed up and down against Darius’s crotch.

“Fuck,” he muttered and I felt the evidence of his arousal pressing against me as his grip on my waist tightened. His concentration broke and the falcons shattered above us.

My skin flared with heat and energy raced through my body, aching for him to move his hands again. I wanted to turn and claim his mouth with mine. I wanted him to keep up the torment he’d started on my flesh and give my body over to his mercy.

I gave myself half a second to indulge in the fantasy of making use of Darius Acrux’s perfect body and I turned my head to the left so that I could look up at him.

His endlessly dark eyes found mine and for a moment no words passed between us, just heat and need and aching desire.

“Darius?” I breathed, biting down on my bottom lip.

His eyes dropped to my mouth and he pulled me against him even more firmly. I could feel every inch of his desire for me pressing against my ass and I couldn’t deny the fact that certain parts of my body wanted to do more than just indulge in this fantasy. But the fact that he was disgustingly attractive didn’t change any of the things about him that made him utterly repulsive.

“Mmm?” He leaned closer to me, our breath mingling as nothing more than a few millimetres separated our lips.

I hung in that moment with him, reaching up to brush my fingertips across the dark stubble which lined his jaw. A dark thrill ran through me as I toyed with this beast, the danger in him calling to me in a way it really shouldn’t have if I had better sense.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” I pushed out of his hold and walked away from him across the Fire Arena.

I didn’t look back but I could feel his eyes on me the whole time I went, urging me to. I wondered if he’d had much experience of rejection before now and somehow I really doubted it. The idea of that made me want to do a happy dance all the way to the dinner table.

“I’ll come and get you and your sister from your room at six on Saturday before the party with my Father and the other Councillors,” he called. “Your dresses will arrive that morning.”

“Whatever you say,” I replied without looking back.

I walked straight outside and started heading for The Orb where I was meeting Darcy and the others for a late dinner. I wasn’t really sure what I’d say to them about how my training session with Darius had gone but the shit-eating grin on my face probably said it all.