Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae

“WHAT THE FUCK is going on out there?!” I roared, pure fury dripping through my body like melted plastic. 

It was half time and the team were sitting on a bench before me in the locker room, looking defeated already. Caleb hid his face in his hands while the other three Heirs tried to comfort him after the chants of ‘Did you get a BJ from a horsey? Did you get a horn stuck up your ass?’ had chased him out of the stadium.

Max was patting his lumpy, purple skin and Seth kept scratching his head and frankly, they were falling the shitting hell apart.

No one answered me. Real surprising.

“Starlight Academy are a second rate team. You are elite. Your parents don’t pour their not-so-hard-earned money into this place for no reason!”

Silence.

“ANSWER ME!” I bellowed.

Geraldine Grus trembled as she stared up at me. “Suffering sausages, Coach. We’ll do better, I’m sure we can if we all-”

“Quiet,” I commanded and she nodded obediently. I pointed at her. “You are the only player out there working your ass off. And you’re supposed to be playing defence not scoring Pits.” I glared at the other team members. “Grus is picking up all of your slack out there. If you don’t win this match, you’ll be starting the season at the bottom of the league and the matches only get harder from here. You were lucky to draw Starlight so early, this match should be child’s play!”

I looked to the Heirs again, my jaw tightening as Max groaned, pawing at his body and Caleb still didn’t look up as Seth rested a hand on his shoulder. Darius was glaring at the far wall like it had taken a shit on his dinner plate.

“You four. Up. Now,” I ordered.

They moved toward me, dragging their heels and I shook my head at their morose display.

I jabbed Caleb under his chin, forcing him to look at me. “Altair, fuck what the crowd thinks. I don’t care if you’re into bondage with leprechauns, leave that shit off the pitch, you got it?”

He took a heavy breath then nodded. “Got it,” he said with a little more enthusiasm.

“Rigel.” I snapped my fingers at Max and he stepped closer, lifting up his shirt to show me the raised purple rash now covering almost all of his body.

“Hell, it’s getting worse.” I released a low whistle.

“Healing it doesn’t work,” he moaned. “I need to go to Uranus Infirmary-”

The rest of the team started laughing and I shot them a glare to silence them as Max hung his head.

“Well it’s your call. I can sub you for someone else,” I said, cupping the back of his neck to make him look me in the eye. “But so help me Rigel, if you choose to stay and you play like the turd on strings I’ve just witnessed for the first half, I will make sure this rash lasts the rest of the damn term, understand?”

“Yes, sir. I want to play on,” he muttered and I released him, snatching Seth by the collar and yanking him closer. I was maybe one percent rougher with him than the others. But he had cut off Blue’s hair and I just couldn’t fucking forgive it. End of story.

I fisted my hand around his man bun, pressing my forehead to his. “Do we have a problem, Capella?”

“No,” he gritted out.

“Then why are you scratching every corner, every nook, every damn orifice of your body in front of four thousand people?” A vein was popping somewhere in my temple and my heart was slamming itself against my ribcage with such vigour it was a genuine concern. Maybe I needed this win more than they did. Maybe they weren’t driven with all the desperate passion of a guy who’d lost his chance to play for the Solarian Pitball League. But so help me, in all the years I’d either played for or coached the Zodiac Academy Pitball Team, we had never come last in a tournament. So we weren’t going to start this year.

“I’ve got fleas!” Seth lamented and I shoved him away from me on instinct. He sank down to his knees and clung onto my legs, seemingly in the midst of a nervous breakdown. “My pack won’t sleep with me or run with me or spend any time with me and I’m not meant to be alone. And it itches so much, Professor!” He stared up at me in desperation and I scowled down at him, shaking him off of my legs. This is pitiful.

“Get up. Try and bring your dignity with you. Every Werewolf in the Academy is getting flea dipped next week. So until then, suck it up. I’ll give you the same choice I gave Rigel. Are you in or are you out?”

He glanced at his friends, seeming to draw strength from them. “I’m in,” he sighed. “I’ll do better.”

“Good.” I smacked him overly hard on the shoulder so he stumbled forward and I tried not to acknowledge the fact that that had anything to do with Darcy. Because it didn’t, dammit.

“Darius.” I beckoned him and he moved toward me, splattered with mud as dark as the scowl on his face.

“What’s gotten into your head?” I asked, softer than I was with the others.

He shrugged his huge shoulders and I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to drop the act.

“It’s fucking Milton Hubert,” he snapped. “He was the one who broke into my room, stole my shit and burned my goddamn room down. He was supposed to be my friend.”

By the stars, could all of these issues have occurred at a worse time?

I sighed heavily. “Are you sure?” It hit me suddenly that if Hubert had done that, he might have the draining dagger we’d been looking for. But I’d searched all of the students rooms…where would he have hidden it? – shit I can’t think about this right now.

“Yeah,” Darius snarled. “I’m sure. The guy had the gall to wear one of the gold rings in front of me.”

“That seems moronic,” I commented.

“He’s not exactly the brightest spark.” Darius shrugged though his teeth were still clenched hard.

“Alright.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “I need you to put this aside for the last half. Then if you want to, you can go full Dragon asshole on him later. I’ll even bring a flame thrower and help you do it to make sure we get back every item he stole. But your friends need you on point right now. Look at them.” I gestured to Seth who was sticking wet toilet tissue to Max’s rash as if that would be any help at all and Caleb who was wiping at the glitter which was still stuck to his crotch no matter what magic he used to try and remove it. It was pathetic.

“They need you, man.” I shook Darius a little and he nodded, seeming to see that at last. He moved to join his friends and they looked up hopefully as he arrived.

“Right team.” I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Go out there and destroy Starlight Academy like you were made to do. You were trained by the best, so be the best.” I gazed across the lot of them as they lined up. The Heirs pulled ranks, clapping each other on the shoulders but some of them still looked miserable.

A familiar chant carried from the crowd back in the stadium and hope burned through my chest. Perfect timing!

“You can’t scare the Heirs, the Heirs don’t care. You can’t scare the Heirs, the Heirs don’t care!”

The rest of the team took up the chant, grouping together and locking their arms over their shoulders in a circle, though I noticed Ashanti Larue kept her distance from Seth. The Heirs soon joined in, jumping up and down and pumping their fists.

I folded my arms, grinning as I watched. The funny thing was, that chant was the biggest lie I’d ever heard. Because I’d never, in all the years I’d known them, seen the Celestial Heirs look so rattled.