Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae

MY THOUGHTS WERE in turmoil as I raced up the stairs, leaving Darcy alone and knowing that the next time I saw her things would be back to normal. And by normal I meant I’d be smothering the fiery pit of longing that raged inside me every time I was around her and she’d be back to thinking I was the asshole teacher who treated her just like everyone else: a piece of shit.

I rounded onto the landing, focusing on what I’d heard and trying to force the girl with blue hair from my head. It’s not blue anymore, idiot. Wake up and smell the goddamn roses. This was never meant to happen.

I slowed to a halt, entirely silent as I approached Lionel’s rooms. No one was allowed in there. Not unless they were getting beaten or fucked. Luckily for the male gender, Lionel’s tastes were firmly female.

The voices that carried to my superior hearing made my gut writhe. It wasn’t news to me that they were screwing each other, but it still made my skin crawl.

The seductive purr of my mother’s voice made me want to twist knives into my ears just so I wouldn’t have to hear it, but I remained there because of what I’d heard Lionel say when I’d stood with Darcy on the stairs. “It’s only a week until the eclipse.”

My heart thumped an unsteady rhythm and I knew what it would cost me if Lionel found me here. But the one thing he hadn’t banked on when he’d bound me to his son, was that I had to protect him from everything. Including his sadistic bastard of a father. So if standing here listening to Uncle Lionel nail my mother could help me protect him, then that was exactly what I had to do.

“We chose poorly last time,” Lionel’s harsh voice followed a grunt of pleasure that made me shut my eyes to try and wipe that noise from my memory. His words awoke a raging creature in my chest who wanted him dead and bloody at my feet. And mark my words, I’ll see that day come, Lionel.

“We should have used Lance,” Stella said bitterly. I’d stopped calling her Mom a long, long time ago. Mothers looked after their children, and she’d proved herself worthless in that department. The dismissiveness in her voice told of how little she cared for me these days. Back before I’d enrolled at Zodiac I was once her rising sun, now I was just a dog she kicked occasionally. Not that I had any regret over why she didn’t like me anymore. If she wanted me dead, then I’d stay alive to spite her. Amongst other reasons.

“You don’t really mean that,” Lionel growled. “He’s got some use and at least he’s fulfilling his purpose without complaint these days. My son fights me at every turn.”

They both fell silent and the tell-tale thump thump thump of a headboard drilled into my head.

Stella giggled excitedly. “You’re such a bad man. You know how to put a Fae in their place, don’t you Lion?”

Arghhhhh.

More heavy breathing and wall-banging followed and I wondered if it was actually worth me eavesdropping on my mother’s sexcapades for information or if I was just torturing myself for no good reason.

Were they really planning what I suspected on the lunar eclipse, or were they just discussing old times? I had to know. Because if they were going to do it again, we were in deep shit.

“I won’t make the same mistakes again, this time we’ll pick the right Fae,” Lionel growled. They fell into a crescendo of bangs and moans and I stormed away from the room, figuring I’d heard enough. My heart thumped painfully hard as I sped through the halls of the Acrux manor back toward the ballroom.

With the approaching lunar eclipse, I’d feared this would happen. But now it was confirmed, that fear spread like a disease, gnawing into my bones.

This can’t be happening again.

Clara’s face came to mind, the sprinkle of freckles across her nose, her slanted smile, the way her shoulders had trembled just before she’d died…

Bile rose in my throat as I reached the doorway to the ballroom. I drew to a halt, resting a hand against the wall and trying to fight off the rage, the tearing panic, the seizing grief of losing her. Of that awful fucking night. I wanted to claw my way back through time and stop it all from happening. I’d make better decisions. I’d tear off Lionel’s head before he could place this bind on me which forced me to guard his son. I’d save Clara from her suffering and the shadows which had consumed her.

My brain rattled against the inside of my skull and my fangs sharpened to deadly points, begging me to kill the ones responsible for this.

I took an even breath then shoved my way through the door, hunting the ballroom for Darius. I found Darcy first and my gaze wouldn’t shift from her for several seconds. She was speaking with Grus and his pompous royalist friends and my spine prickled with unease.

You kissed The Savage King’s daughter you moron.

A vein pulsed in my temple as I clenched my jaw too tightly. I’d given in to temptation and though I vowed never to lay a hand on her again, I still couldn’t undo what I’d already done. My Libra instincts were screaming at me like a disappointed parent, telling me I’d acted unfairly by offering her a ray of hope then stamping on it just as quickly. The scales of my inner compass were well and truly tipped and the only way to right them again was by ending this before it started. But something cut into me, forcing me to acknowledge it like a blade spinning in my gut. Alright so maybe I can’t forget about her right away. But I’ll damn well force her out eventually.

I finally dragged my eyes elsewhere and found Darius across the room. His expression was distant as he stood with the other Heirs, a war contained within his eyes. As if he sensed me, his gaze flitted my way and I jerked my head to beckon him.

He didn’t say a word to his friends before he strode away to join me and we moved in tense silence back out of the ballroom and further down the corridor. I soon guided him into an empty lounge and sank into an armchair.

He remained on his feet, his mouth flat. “What’s going on?”

“It’s happening again,” I growled. “I just overheard your father and my mother discussing the lunar eclipse.” I left out the part about them screwing each other. Darius knew full well his father wasn’t a loyal man to his wife, but I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Darius had had a rough enough night as it was.

His jaw ticked with rage and he shut his eyes for a long moment. “Who have they chosen?” he asked eventually and I shook my head.

“It didn’t sound like they’d picked yet.”

Darius started pacing, his hands flexing as he drew fire into writhing balls in his palms. “This night is just getting better and better,” he muttered. “Do you think there’s any chance of them actually succeeding this time?”

I considered that. “It’s impossible to say. After what happened last time, I would have thought they’d never want to attempt it again.” A tense pause passed where breathing became a bit harder. Fuck, Clara why did you have to get wrapped up in their world?

Darius went to say something as he noticed my expression but I barrelled over him, not wanting his sympathy. “If they succeed this time who knows what hell they could unleash.”

Darius sighed heavily. “I’ll have to come home more often, see if I can get Father to tell me anything or trust me some more.”

I gave him a look of disbelief. “Do you really think he’d open up to you? He hasn’t shown any inclination to trust you with his plans so far and now that he’s gotten it into his head that you’re chasing after Tory Vega-“

“I’m not chasing after her,” he snarled. “I saved her from herself. She insulted him right to his face, if I hadn’t stood between them fuck knows what he would have done to her.”

Anger pulled at my insides and I didn’t know if I was angry at him for softening towards a Vega or if I was angry at myself for the exact same thing. I stood up, too furious to remain in place. “Well maybe you should have let him, now he only has more reason to mistrust you.” I started pacing, my shoulders tight as I let those words settle over the room. The worst thing was, I knew I didn’t mean them. And that was a serious problem.

“I know,” Darius said wearily, his eyes following me as I paced. “I don’t know what the hell came over me. That girl just knows how to push my buttons. The sooner her and her sister are gone, the better.”

My throat tightened and I stopped walking, facing a bookcase at the end of the room. “Agreed,” I said quietly. I glanced over my shoulder and Darius shifted, turning away and my brows lifted. Shit are we in the exact same boat here? “Maybe you were thinking with your dick and not your head.”

Darius kicked at the floor, looking away from me. “That’s not the point. We still need them gone.”

I nodded firmly. No girl had ever turned my head enough to make me an idiot. I’d already made it clear that that kiss was a one time thing with Darcy. It should have been a never time thing but here we are.

Tonight was just one long series of mistakes that the stars were definitely laughing about. My horoscope had told me I’d be ruled by Venus today. And that was the horniest fucking planet in the solar system. I should have been prepared to deal with it. I was a Professor at Zodiac Academy, dammit, and I couldn’t even ward off Venus when it shoved me in front of The Savage King’s daughter. 

Mercury was moving into retrograde soon too, maybe that was why my decisions were all over the place. But this was the worst possible time for me to lose focus. There was too much at stake.

I released a low growl, my fangs sharpening as my anger rose. I had to get this dilemma under control. Now. “We will get rid of them. But I’m concerned about where they’ll go with the Nymph situation becoming more volatile every day.”

Darius nodded, his brow creasing. “We’ll have to make sure they go back to the mortal world. The Nymphs have no way to travel there so they’d be about as safe as we could hope.”

“Not as safe as if they stayed where we could keep an eye on them,” I muttered and I hoped that that wasn’t a Venus-fuelled comment.

Darius folded his arms, setting his jaw with some decision. “The longer they stay, the more control they’ll get over their magic and the more threat they pose to me and my brothers. If we don’t watch out, we could end up with two naive savage princesses on the throne and give the Nymphs exactly the kind of unbalance they need to tip the scales of this fight in their favour.”

I sniggered at that. “So you think they could overthrow you if they stay then?” I baited him.

Darius’s eyes flashed gold with rage. “That’s not what I said. But I felt Roxy’s power and I almost lost myself in it. She didn’t tire in over two hours of wielding a constant stream of powerful fire magic. We’ve got four years of experience over them but if it came to brute force they could pose a challenge. It seems like a stupid risk to take if we can just get rid of them now instead.”

I rolled my neck, vaguely looking around the room in hopes of finding something to drink. It was a habit I’d formed after Clara’s death. A drink a day made that familiar ache stop. Sometimes it needed three, or four. But I drowned it eventually. This night felt like a solid six.

“I don’t want to argue with you,” I said, marching across the room as I spotted a likely place for Lionel’s stash. I yanked open the cabinet, busting the lock – shame about that – and found a bottle of port inside. Not really my drink of choice but when in Rome. I snatched it out with a couple of glasses and Darius gave me that look that said you drink to much. Except he’d stopped actually saying that a long time ago. And tonight he stepped forward and took a glass himself.

“Tomorrow we can deal with this,” I said firmly, knocking the nectar down my throat and willing it to take away this stress. “Tonight I have some forgetting to do.”