Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

Good Morning Gemini.

The stars have spoken about your day!

In the wake of chaos comes calm and it may be tempting to bathe in that bliss, but be warned: when feeling safest, the dark is most likely to rise. Uranus is moving into your chart so be aware that sudden shocks and changes could be coming your way. Now is not the time to start feeling comfortable in your surroundings. Though sometimes the cosmic surprises brought on by this planet can be hard to adapt to, you will have to think fast if you want to avoid making the wrong decisions. Now is the time to be impulsive – but don’t forget, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

In the words of Geraldine: fuck me sideways with a Dragon dildo. I don’t need anymore chaos in my life.

I sighed as I read over the message from the stars again. Those shiny asshats definitely had it in for me. What had I ever done to piss them off so bad?

I grumbled at my Atlas as Darius approached with my coffee, but instead of just leaving it on the table, he sat. He’d messaged me about missing our run yesterday because he had to visit Orion with Darcy and I obviously had no complaints about that, but it had kinda sucked not to start my day with him. And as classes didn’t resume until today, I hadn’t actually seen him until this morning when he’d been waiting to run with me outside Ignis House. We’d gone on our silent run like usual and I’d found myself smiling for a ridiculous amount of it as I pushed myself as hard as I could and forced him to work to keep up. I didn’t know why running with him meant so much to me, but I had to admit that it did. There was something about knowing he’d show up every day that just made me feel…important. And as much as I didn’t want to admit that he had that kind of hold on me, I couldn’t really deny it anymore. I was starting to care about the things he did and said and…gah, how was I supposed to actually talk to him face to face?

Blood rushed to my cheeks and for some reason, it took me way too long to lift my gaze from my Atlas to look at him.

This was weird. I knew it, he knew it, hell, the goddamn coffee knew it, and yet here we were.

The Orb was half full for the breakfast rush already so the stars were okay with this unexpected breakfast date. Not date. Obviously I didn’t think of it as a date. It was just a Phoenix and a Dragon who had chosen never to be together sitting in a room filled with other people while food and drinks were consumed. Shit. If I had verbal diarrhoea in my head then how the fuck was I going to get a straight sentence out of my mouth without sounding like a goddamn douche canoe?

“Hi,” he said, a knowing smile playing around his lips which was damn distracting.

Hate and sex I could do as easy as breathing. Saying hi to a guy who showed up every day to run with me and fetched my coffee was impossible though. Great.

Why hadn’t I thought this through? Why hadn’t it occurred to me that while I was pouring all of my childhood memories and secrets out via text that there was an honest to the stars demigod reading them? And why did a few weeks away from him and countless messages between us make me feel even more awkward in his presence? Surely getting to know each other better should have made it less weird? Instead, the weird had met Mrs Weird and had a bunch of weird babies who were currently having a party in my stomach which made the idea of consuming my coffee utterly unbearable.

“I was wondering if you’d been to see the bike you won from me yet?” he asked with a cocky little look on his face that said he knew full well that I hadn’t. In fact, I’d shoved that key deep down into the recesses of my pantie drawer and refused to think about it at all. Aside from whenever I had to get panties out and spotted it of course. And sometimes when I was bored and fantasied about going for a ride…

“Umm, I’ve been a bit busy,” I hedged, reaching out and snagging my coffee from the table so that I had something to do with my hands. I lifted it to my lips as he spoke again.

“And there was me thinking it had something to do with you not wanting anything from a jumped up lizard asshole who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow and is only good for hate sex?”

I half gasped, half laughed and one hundred percent started choking on my mouthful of burning hot coffee. Like, I legit started hacking my lungs up and damn near spilled the entire mug in my lap as I struggled to set it down on the table. I leaned forward with my hand to my chest as I struggled to get control over my water magic and tempt the little drips of coffee back up out of my lungs before I managed to make an utter dipshit of myself. But as I sat up again and swiped my hand over my mouth for good measure, it was clear I was too late for that.

Darius was smirking at me in that way that used to get my blood boiling with rage but now, to my utter devastation, was making a motherfucking blush crawl over my cheeks.

“Asshat,” I muttered without any venom.

“At least I’m consistent,” he teased, his eyes lighting as he took in my shame and those little weirdos in my belly started up some kind of backflip routine.

“Well, I already knew you were a douchebag. I’m just trying to get my head around all of the other things I know about you now, too,” I admitted.

“Like how good I am in the sack?” he asked, leaning forward and dipping his voice so that it wouldn’t carry, but all that really achieved was to make the gravel in his tone more apparent and my toes curl inside my sneakers.

“I could have guessed that the first time I laid eyes on you,” I quipped before realising I’d just admitted that I’d wanted him for that long.

The cocky ass smile on his face told me he didn’t mind that one bit and I swear I could actually feel my blush growing. Tory Vega didn’t blush. This was not like me. And those weirdos in my stomach were at it again and – holy mother of shit, the weirdos are butterflies. Motherfucking butterflies! What the hell is happening to me??

“Come on then, Roxy,” he urged. “Tell me why you haven’t been for a ride yet?”

My lips parted and I wasn’t even sure what to say. That I hadn’t figured out how to feel about the bike yet, let alone whether or not I was actually going to accept it and by just leaving it parked up without looking at it, I could just pretend it didn’t exist at all and get away with not figuring any of those things out.

“I don’t know how to deal with you when you’re not being an asshole,” I admitted.

“Don’t worry about that, Roxy. I’m still an asshole,” he assured me.

I bit my lip as I looked at him, casually dominating the chair opposite me, devilishly dishevelled after our run with his black hair a mess and the loose tank he wore revealing so much of his sweaty chest that I couldn’t stop looking at it. He hadn’t bothered to clean himself off with water magic yet and as much as I hated to admit it, Darius Acrux looked fucking lickable after a workout.

“Prove it,” I dared before I could stop myself. Because I was really starting to enjoy getting to know all of his finer points, but I couldn’t lie to myself about how much the darkness in him lit me up.

The corner of his mouth twitched like he could look right into my mind and see all of the depravity hiding in there.

I watched him as he lifted his gaze and looked around the room to the tables where some of the Professors had started to gather for breakfast together. Professor Highspell was perched on the edge of the table where Gabriel was sitting talking to Professor Rockford. Highspell seemed to be trying to draw his attention to the blood red pencil skirt she’d paired with a flouncy blouse which had half of the buttons open. Gabriel didn’t seem to have noticed she was there, but she kept tossing her hair and laughing along to everything he was saying as she tried to catch his eye.

“Have you started on illusion spells yet, Roxy?” Darius asked me, his eyes twinkling with malice.

“A little,” I admitted. “More concealment than actual illusions.”

“I’ll give you a demonstration then,” he said and I watched as he casually twisted his fingers in a complicated pattern.

At first I didn’t think anything had happened, but then something scuttled around the side of my coffee cup and my eyes widened as I took in the spindly spider which was bigger than my hand.

“The Baruvian Hellnet Spider doesn’t generally live in this part of Solaria,” Darius murmured as my eyes stayed glued to the creepy thing. I knew it wasn’t real, but somehow it was hard to make my brain accept that. “It can move faster than a Manticore with a fire up its ass and has a particularly nasty bite. The pain of it is said to be so blinding that most Fae who feel it scream loud enough to tear their vocal chords. Not to mention pissing themselves.”

“What are you going to do with it?” I breathed as I watched it scuttle across the coffee table before me.

With a casual flick of Darius’s fingers, the spider leapt from the table and landed on my thigh.

I flinched, barely suppressing a scream as the very real feeling of eight little legs scrambling over my skin made my heart pound in panic.

“Am I making your heart race, Roxy?” he teased and I couldn’t deny that it was true.

Darius stood and pulled his chair around the table so that he was sitting beside me with a clear view of the teachers while I stared at the insect on my lap and tried to convince my slightly terrified brain that it wasn’t real.

The spider leapt off of my leg and began to scurry away from us beneath the tables. I glanced around at Darius as I felt him watching me instead of his creation.

“Impressive,” I admitted. As much as it might have driven me insane that the Heirs were so much further along in their education than us, I could appreciate the fact that they worked damn hard to get so far ahead too.

“That’s not the only way illusions can work,” he murmured as he looked at me and I suddenly felt a hand touching my cheek.

Not just any hand. His hand. I recognised the roughness of his callouses and the heat of the fire that burned beneath his flesh despite the fact that his actual hands were clearly nowhere near me.

“That’s incredible,” I breathed. If I closed my eyes, I could have believed he was really touching me.

“You want incredible?” he teased and the feeling of his hand slid from my cheek down my neck, brushing my collar bone before finally caressing my breast. My nipple hardened and I practically started panting at the feeling of his hand on my body.

“Darius,” I warned, but it didn’t come out like a warning. My voice was all rough and pleading and the way his eyes darkened told me he liked that a lot.

A shriek of fear interrupted us and the sensation of his hand on me disappeared as he switched his attention to the commotion across the room.

Professor Highspell had leapt to her feet and I spotted the Baruvian Hellnet Spider scuttling up her skirt as she whirled around and tried to bat it off. She cast a shot of water at it and Darius smirked as it did nothing at all to the spider and only served to soak half of her skirt.

Everyone in the room was looking her way in shock and I was pleased to see Tyler filming as the spider ran up her chest and she screamed again. With a sudden lurch of movement, it dove towards her neck and sank its poisonous fangs in.

Highspell screamed so loud that it echoed off of the domed roof and a fucked up little smile tugged at my lips.

She fell to the floor and started thrashing about as the other professors tried to get close enough to help her.

Darius disbanded the magic with a twist of his wrist and as I turned to look into his eyes, the demon I used to fear was looking back at me. And that really should have been terrifying, but there was something about the monster I knew which had goosebumps rising all over my body.

Highspell’s screams fell silent as the illusion disappeared and with the water she’d cast at herself I couldn’t tell if she’d pissed herself, but I kinda hoped she had.

Darius pushed himself upright and placed his hands on the arms of my chair as he leaned down to speak to me, caging me in and making my heart pound.

“Nobody fucks with my girl and gets away with it,” he growled, his lips brushing my ear for a moment and making me shiver.

He pushed away from me before I could reply and strode from the room. My gaze slid back to Highspell as she got her feet, panting and snarling as she looked around like she was hunting for something. Her eyes fell on me and the rage in them was enough to make me flinch. She clearly thought I was the reason for her humiliation and I guessed in a roundabout way, I was.

No doubt she was plotting her revenge for my next lesson with her already.

Perfect.

I’d have to remember to thank Darius for getting me even deeper onto her shit list. Though I didn’t entirely mind seeing her humiliated in front of everyone so I guessed I’d let him off.

I pushed out of my seat and decided to grab breakfast to go, snatching a couple of pastries from the buffet table before slipping out of the door and heading back to Ignis House.

I needed to get changed into my uniform and head to the Uranus Infirmary for our first lesson on healing and I was more than ready to learn about that. Supposedly it was one of the hardest types of magic to master which was why they left it so late in the year to start us on it, but I was determined to perfect it. We managed to end up in way too many dangerous situations and with Lionel, Clara and the Nymphs out for our blood, we needed every advantage we could get.

I ended up being one of the first to arrive for our lesson and I grinned at Darcy as she approached me where I was waiting outside the teaching amphitheatre. It was on the third floor of the east wing in the huge building which looked like an old gothic manor house and a clean smell of mint and sage hung in the air.

“Ah! The princesses have arrived!”

I tried not to cringe as I turned to look at the middle aged professor as she pulled open the door to the classroom and ushered us in. She was wearing a pale blue robe with a white sash over the top of it and had an A.S.S. badge pinned to her lapel. She looked vaguely familiar and it took me a moment to remember that she was the healer who’d let us come and visit Geraldine after she’d been attacked by a Nymph.

“Just Tory and Darcy, please,” I muttered as she smiled warmly.

“Of course,” she agreed with a dramatic wink. “No preferential treatment here! I’m Mother Dickins and I’ll be your healing guide, come, come.”

She led us into the room as the rest of the class appeared and we found ourselves at the top of a small amphitheatre set up with seats circling a hospital bed and a table filled with medical instruments at the centre of the space.

Mother Dickens guided us down to a pair of seats in the front row and smiled at us fondly as she moved to the centre of the room to await the rest of the class’s arrival.

“Sometimes I can’t decide if I prefer the fans or the haters,” I muttered to Darcy and she snorted a laugh.

“On first impression, I’d take her over Highspell,” she shot back and I had to agree with her there.

My Atlas pinged and I pulled it from my pocket as we waited for the rest of the class to find their seats. My brows rose as I saw who had sent it and I opened it up with a hint of trepidation and a dollop of intrigue.

Seth:

Darius just told me he only sent you the apology video from our play date with your ex. I told him you’d enjoy the action footage even more but he didn’t agree so I’m calling his bluff. Tell me this doesn’t get you all hot under the collar…

A video came through next and I tapped on it with interest as I chewed on my bottom lip. It was an aerial view of Zane’s front yard as Darius and the other Heirs strode into a gang stronghold and proceeded to beat the shit out of all of them with their bare hands.

I held my breath as the footage played out, my gaze glued to Darius as he fought like a man possessed, taking down the gangsters one after another before turning his rage on Zane himself. As the row of bikes outside the house exploded in a fireball, I flinched, looking up to find that the class was ready to begin and everyone was looking at me.

Darcy caught my eye, raising a brow and I hurriedly locked my Atlas as I shot an apologetic smile at Mother Dickins. She didn’t seem to mind and I had to fight to contain my grin over what I’d just watched.

There might have been something a little wrong with me, but watching Darius go all Dragon on some assholes who actually deserved it had given me fucking tingles. Dammit.

“Professor!” Kylie called from the back corner of the room where she was sitting alone with a ring of empty chairs around her. Even Jillian had abandoned her since she’d been outcast and knowing she was entirely isolated like that gave me a smug sense of satisfaction which just wouldn’t quit. “Aren’t you going to punish Tory for using her Atlas in class?”

“Did someone just fart?” Tyler asked, looking around like he was hunting for the source of the noise as laughter spilled out around the room.

“Is everyone ready to begin?” Mother Dickens asked mildly, looking around with a smile, her gaze skipping over Kylie like she wasn’t even there.

Darcy’s eyes flashed triumphantly as Kylie dipped her head and I snorted a laugh.

“Yeah, I definitely like her more than Highspell,” Darcy whispered to me and I definitely agreed.

“Can anyone tell me how many different spells there are for the healing of a physical wound such as a graze, cut, burn, broken bone, internal bleeding, etcetera?” Mother Dickens called and several hands rose around the circular room.

She pointed to Sofia who beamed before answering. “One.”

“Ten points to Ignis,” Mother Dickens replied, giving Sofia a short round of applause. Everyone seemed unsure whether or not they should be joining in, so a few people clapped while others looked awkward and before anyone had really done anything, Mother Dickens had moved on. “That’s it. One spell. And unless you choose to take Advanced Healing in your junior year, that single spell is the only one you will spend time learning in this class. Anyone care to tell me why?”

“Because once you know how to make a bendy bone hard again, you don’t need to know anything else?” Tyler called out and several students laughed.

Mother Dickens flicked a finger his way and his laughter fell silent as he was trapped within a silencing bubble before she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

“Because healing is unlike any other form of magic. And almost all Fae agree it is the hardest magic of all. It comes from inside you, from the very fabric of your power. Most magic involves creating something from nothing. Your own power is given form by your intent and your ability. However, with healing magic, you need to learn how to tap into the very purest form of that magic where it lives and encourage it to blossom in harmony with the body of the Fae you are treating. Who knows why that is?”

No one seemed to have the answer to that and Mother Dickens smiled kindly before stepping back to the centre of the room where a small trolley stood beside the bed. It held various pieces of medical equipment like scalpels and tweezers and she grabbed a glass beaker from it.

“Why can a Vampire draw magic from blood that is bottled?” she asked, lifting her wrist to her lips as a pair of fangs snapped out.

“Woah,” Darcy muttered and I raised a brow too. I was getting damn good at Order spotting and I totally would have pegged her for a cutesy Order like a Pegasus or a Cantrovian Rabbit. Not a damn bloodsucker.

We watched as she bit into her own wrist and decanted a glass of blood before healing the wound over again.

“Is it because our magic lives in our blood?” Diego offered.

“Yes! Ten points to Aer. Our magic is imbued in the very fabric of our DNA. The reason why we feel that hollow sensation in our chests when we’re out of power is because our magic lives in our hearts. And our hearts move it around our bodies in our blood. Therefore, even decanted blood holds magic. Which is why Vampires drink it. And why the Nymphs attack the heart with their probes when stealing our power. The probe of a Nymph is, in fact, hollow. If you imagine a giant needle being used to suck the power directly from the heart of the Fae they attack then that gives you some concept of how they steal our magic.”

“Could any Fae drink blood to gain magic then?” Diego asked. “Not just Vampires.”

“Why not give it a try?” Mother Dickins offered, moving towards him with the glass of her blood held out.

Diego’s lip curled back in horror and I had to fight really hard not to laugh as he tried to stammer excuses and she pushed the glass into his hand.

Mother Dickens eyed him sternly and with a hopeless look in our direction, he lifted it to his lips and took a sip.

I swear I threw up in my mouth a bit. I didn’t know why it was okay when Vampires did it. In fact, it was freaking hot when Vampires did it half the time. But something about him raising that glass full of her warm blood to his lips had my breakfast swirling in my gut something chronic.

I watched his throat bob as he swallowed and Mother Dickens reached out with a single finger, pressing it to the bottom of the glass to make sure he kept drinking. His throat bobbed again and again as he eyed me wildly like he was asking for help, his skin turning a little green and I decided there was zero chance of me eating my lunch today.

“Ohmagod,” Darcy muttered beneath her breath.

“Do you feel powerful?” Mother Dickens asked with a chuckle as she took the decanter back.

Diego shook his head and clapped a hand over his mouth and I shuddered. No fucking way would I have drunk that.

“Vampires seem like the Fae who change the least physically when in their Order form, but that is in fact entirely untrue. There are a lot of arguments that state that a Vampire actually changes their physiology the most of all Fae when in our shifted forms. From the outside, it may seem that only our fangs shift.” She snapped hers out again to demonstrate, grinning in a way that looked utterly ridiculous on a Vampire before she retracted them once more. “However, internally, a Vampire’s entire digestive system changes when we ingest Fae blood. Our stomachs have a separate chamber to collect the blood away from normal food and water. Then there is an entire network of organs something similar to the intestines, and veins which filter the blood and extract the magic from it. We have chambers in our hearts which can transform the shape of the magic we consume into the shape of the magic we can create with our Element. Meaning we can ingest the blood of a fire Elemental for example and then our bodies can transform that into the magic we use to create water. Other parasitic Orders have their own methods of doing this…but I digress.”

The entire class was deathly silent as we listened to her in fascination and I was fast realising that there was still a whole hell of a lot about Fae that I had no fucking idea about.

“So, back to the point of this lesson – and all future lessons you will be having with me this year and next until you master it – standard healing. I’ll need a volunteer.”

I raised my hand instantly and more than a few people looked at me in surprise. Me and Darcy might have been topping all of our classes (aside from Cardinal Magic now due to Professor Twat Cougar) but I basically never offered up answers or volunteered for shit. But this was different. I needed to learn how to heal. It was vital. And there was no way in hell I was going to waste time in this class by holding back.

Mother Dickens smiled brightly as she beckoned me forward and hopped up onto the bed in the centre of the room as she waited for me.

I strode towards her, working to ignore all the eyes I could feel on me as I came to stand over her on the bed.

“Okay, Tory, I’m going to cut my hand open and I would like you to heal it for me. Place your palm over the wound, close your eyes and bring your magic to the surface of your skin in an utterly formless and pure stream of power.”

I nodded as she reached for the scalpel on the tray of surgical instruments and she gently nicked the back of her hand so that a bead of blood ran to the surface of her skin.

I released a slow breath and placed my hand over the tiny wound with my eyes closed as I tried to summon my magic in the way she’d instructed. It took a few minutes but eventually, I felt my power nudging against hers. It wasn’t like power sharing, it was more like dipping my toes into the top of a wave as it rolled away from me and wondering whether or not I should follow as it retreated.

“Good. Now, you need to meet the flow of my power seamlessly. My blood is here to heal this wound on its own. All I need you to do is add your power to the site of the wound and slowly add more and more of it until you give enough to allow the wound to heal. The reason it’s so difficult is because your own magic must remain formless so that it can follow the path of mine. My body wants to heal, it’s natural, and all you’re doing is helping it to do so faster. Some Fae find that they can manage this magic on themselves because they don’t need to find balance with another to achieve it, but they never learn to heal someone else.”

I nodded, trying to take in everything she’d said while fighting against the urge to tell my magic what to do.

I stood there for a long time, trying to push my magic into hers and slamming against a solid wall time and again. Mother Dickens and the entire class just remained silent as they watched and I tried not to let the pressure of the situation get to me.

I pulled my attention away from the task, exhaling as I let my mind wander over the lyrics of a lullaby instead of trying to force it and all of a sudden, my power connected with hers and slid inside.

My palm warmed and I cracked my eyes open to see a glow of green light emanating beneath it as excitement trickled through me.

The magic came with a rush which made me heady, euphoric even as my power coaxed her body into action faster and faster before the magic suddenly finished its job and burned out.

I pulled my hand back and gasped as I spotted the perfect patch of skin where the cut had been.

“Bravo, Miss Vega!” Mother Dickens cheered and this time the class joined in when she clapped. “Now let’s start building up your control until we can be confident you could heal a severed leg!”

***

Healing magic became our latest addiction and Darcy and I spent every evening that week cutting ourselves and letting the other heal it. Mother Dickens hadn’t been lying when she’d said it was hard. Even a paper cut proved really damn difficult to fix most of the time. The magic was so different to anything else we’d learned that it felt like having to unlearn all of it again before we could even begin. Like trying to write in perfect cursive with your left hand when you normally wrote with your right. But we were going to master it. Determined to be able to heal ourselves or anyone we cared about whenever we needed to.

So after spending most of Saturday night awake studying before crashing in Darcy’s room somewhere around four am, my alarm woke me and I glanced at the time with a gasp of shock.

I snatched my Atlas from the nightstand as Darcy yanked a pillow over her head and stared at it in horror as I realised it wasn’t the alarm. It was the fucking snooze function. And I was already ten minutes late for my run with Darius.

“Fuck,” I cursed, half falling out of bed and throwing open Darcy’s closet as I stripped out of my clothes.

I grabbed a pair of red yoga pants and a pink sports bra, tugging them on and cursing as I realised they clashed horribly. But I didn’t have time to change them. I needed to get the hell out of Aer Tower and back over to Ignis House before he left without me or gave up on me.

I took exactly thirty seconds to pee and brush my teeth in Darcy’s en-suite and that was it.

I didn’t have time to waste on anything else so I kicked my feet into a pair of her sneakers, threw her window open and dove out into the chilly morning breeze.

“Tory!” Darcy shouted irritably as my wings snapped open and the cold air whooshed into the room where she was still trying to sleep.

“Sorry!” I called back. “No time to close it, I’m late!”

I shot across campus as fast as my wings would take me, sped over The Wailing Wood, crossed into Fire Territory and sighed in relief as I spotted him leaning against the glass wall of Ignis House.

I landed a bit too fast and stumbled in my unlaced sneakers before slamming face first into Darius’s chest as he lurched forward to catch me.

“Sorry,” I laughed as I looked up at him with a grin and he fell still as he helped me steady myself. “What?” I asked, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes.

“You’ve never smiled at me like that before,” he said in a rough voice, reaching out to brush some tangled strands of black hair out of my face.

“Shut up, I smile at you all the time,” I replied as heat touched my cheeks and I tried to run my fingers through my knotty hair.

Really should have taken a minute to brush it dumbass. Let’s hope he assumes it’s from flying.

“Not like that you don’t,” Darius countered, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth too as his gaze ran over me. “You look…cute.”

“I don’t know what you mean. And I don’t do cute.”

Darius snorted at me. “You look like you got dressed in the dark…”

“Gee thanks, any more observations, Sherlock?” I asked, rolling my eyes at him but I was still grinning so there wasn’t much bite with my snark.

“Well… You’re not wearing any makeup.”

“I…woke up late, so-”

“I like it,” he said, his smile growing as he looked me over. “You look all sleepy and innocent. I could almost imagine you just woke up in my bed.”

I was definitely goddamn blushing now and thanks to my lack of bronzer he was clearly well aware of it. The sky was darkening overhead already as we lingered, but I fought the stars for just another moment.

“If I’d spent the night in your bed, there wouldn’t have been anything innocent about it,” I taunted to get him back onto safer, less mortifying topics of conversation. Like sex.

“As much as I ache for the feeling of your body against mine – and I really fucking do – I think if I was allowed a single cheat against this curse that keeps us apart, I’d just want to be able to hold you in my arms,” he replied. “Just to wake up with you there, knowing you were safe.”

My heart pounded at his words, but a crash of thunder from the heavens stopped me from replying. I offered him a frustrated smile and turned away from him as I began my run.

Darius followed behind me, far enough back to allow the clouds to scatter again and I tried not to dwell on the disappointment that lingered in me as I upped my pace.

Did I just shoot over here at the speed of light without brushing my hair or putting any makeup on rather than risk missing out on our run?

I shook my head at myself as I tried to figure out what was going on here. I’d been purposefully ignoring this question up until now, but I seriously needed to consider what I was doing. Running with him every morning, messaging him every night. Exchanging little looks whenever we ended up in the same place and thinking about him way too often.

This felt a hell of a lot like the start of something instead of the end of it, but that wasn’t possible.

Even if he wanted it. Even if I wanted it. We couldn’t have it. The damn stars wouldn’t allow it.

My mind twisted around and around as we ran on and I cursed the stars out with everything I had.

But why was I doing that? Hadn’t I made my mind up about this? Hadn’t I already made the only decision I could?

Darius might have been showing me more of himself now, he might have stopped hurting me and be trying to change but had he done enough to make up for all the pain he’d caused me? When I really thought about it, I still wasn’t sure. But I was sure that he made me smile when he messaged me, that I looked for him whenever I arrived in a room, that he seemed to be trying to do everything he could to set things right. And that I fantasised about him more than I had about any man in all my life. Even Tom Hardy. Even. Tom. Hardy.

Fuck it.

We ran around Aqua Lake, circling the shore and heading on into The Wailing Wood. Darius kept pace behind me in silence like always, but I decided to drop back.

He glanced at me as I started running at his side and I cast furtive looks at him beneath my lashes from time to time as I continued along our route.

Students walked the paths, ensuring we were never actually alone for more than a moment or two but we weren’t really with anyone else either. So far, the stars didn’t seem to mind.

We kept running all the way through The Wailing Wood to Aer Tower and beyond until we reached the crossroads where the path we usually took headed back towards The Orb and a narrow track led up to the fields which ran along the cliffs above Aer Cove.

I hesitated at the crossroads, glancing at Darius for a moment as the damn butterflies made a return to my stomach before taking the narrow path up onto the cliff top. The path was empty with no one up on the cliff as far as I could see. If we ran up there, we really would be alone.

I glanced back over my shoulder as Darius paused, wondering if he’d dare to follow me. How far was he willing to push the stars on this?

He only hesitated a moment before jogging after me as I ran for the cliff top and a smile tugged at my lips as I put on a spurt of speed. If he wanted to run with me then he’d have to keep up.

My feet pounded up the track and I panted as my muscles burned in protest at the incline.

The sky grew dark overhead as we ran on and I glanced up to see thick storm clouds sweeping overhead despite the fact that there had been nothing but pale blue to see only minutes ago.

Fuck you, stars.

I gritted my teeth and kept going, ignoring a thin track which led back to the centre of campus and ploughing on.

Thunder rumbled overhead, but I pretended I couldn’t hear it and kept running.

The clifftop loomed ahead of me and I fixed my gaze on it as the sound of Darius’s feet hitting the trail chased me on.

Rain spilled from the clouds, peppering my cheeks and I didn’t even bother to shield myself from it.

I kept running until I made it to the very top of the cliff then stopped.

I turned to face Darius as he came to a halt too.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” he asked slowly, looking up at the sky as the shower grew heavier and the rain washed over us. He wasn’t shielding himself from it either and his tank was plastered to his skin as the rain pounded down.

“Why should we have to listen to the stars?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the rain.

“Because they govern everything,” Darius said sadly like there was nothing to be done for it.

“They don’t govern me,” I growled.

Darius frowned slightly as I took a step closer and thunder crashed so violently that the ground trembled.

I waited to see what he was going to do and his jaw set as he moved towards me too. The rain slammed down over us so hard that I could hardly see through it. My hair was plastered to my back and a shiver ran through me, but I banished it with a flare of fire magic beneath my skin.

Darius stopped inches from me and I looked up at him as water gathered in my lashes and slid over my cheeks. He reached out to cup my jaw in his large hand and the thunder crashed again, lightning forking through the clouds above us as the stars fought to make us part.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked me.

“Fuck fate,” I snarled because it was time I owned what was going on between us. “No one gets to pick my future for me. I choose what I want and I want you.”

The smile he gave me was bright and fierce and full of an emotion I was afraid to put a name to, but the way he was looking at me lit me up from the inside out.

“Fuck fate,” Darius agreed darkly.

His grip tightened and he closed the distance between us, his mouth catching mine in a kiss that made my aching heart throb with the most painful kind of hope. I gripped his shirt in my fists and dragged him closer as I kissed him like the sky might cave in if I didn’t, even though it was more likely that it would if I did.

Thunder crashed like an explosion overhead, freezing cold rain pelted down on us and lightning slammed into the ground behind us. But I didn’t care. I would gladly take the rage of the heavens in payment for this moment in his arms.

Darius pulled me closer, growling hungrily as his tongue pushed into my mouth and he kissed me savagely, filthily, desperately.

I pushed up onto my tiptoes, my body pressing flush to his as I wound my arms round his neck and my heart pounded to a brutal beat like it wanted to force its way out of my chest and meet with his.

Lightning struck the ground so close that a crackle of electricity danced up my spine. I flinched, but my grip on Darius only tightened.

I dropped the barriers on my magic and Darius’s power flooded through me on a tide of ecstasy as we merged our essences together. We were meant to be together like this, it was painted beneath my skin and through my veins, even my magic ached for him and yearned for the caress of his power.

Thunder boomed and I growled in defiance, lifting my hand to cast a shield of solid air magic around us, cutting off the storm completely. Darius’s magic flowed alongside mine into the shield, the strength of our will blocking out the will of the stars.

The earth rocked savagely beneath our feet and we fell. Darius kept ahold of me as he hit the ground on his back and I tumbled aside for a moment, but I wasn’t going to let them drive us apart. I shoved myself to my knees, crawling over his legs as he pushed up on his elbows and kissed me again.

His fingers slid through my wet hair and his stubble grazed my skin as he kissed me so hard it was bruising, punishing, branding and yet it wasn’t enough.

My heart was aching, tears pricking the backs of my eyes as I fought to keep hold of him while the storm hammered against our magic, determined to tear us apart again.

I poured magic from my body to hold the shield as rain slammed against it so hard that the air rattled around us.

Darius dragged me against him and I could feel how much he wanted me in every hard line and ridge of his body.

We were both drenched, covered in mud and utterly incapable of giving one shit about it.

Lightning slammed into the shield and I gasped as it almost buckled, breaking our kiss as I looked up at the black sky above us. More lightning split the clouds apart, striking the ground all around us again and again, making the earth rock even more violently. As a second bolt hit our shield, I almost lost control of it and I could feel my power waning as I threw everything I had into maintaining it.

We only had seconds before it was going to collapse and I reached out to catch Darius’s jaw in my grip, looking into his dark eyes with a pang of longing.

“I’m sorry I did this to us,” I breathed. I might not have been sure everything between us was fixed yet, but I was beginning to believe it could be and I was starting to think I’d made the wrong choice when I’d been offered it.

“It wasn’t you,” he replied, pain flickering though his gaze.

“It was both of us,” I disagreed, tears mixing with the rain on my cheeks.

Before he could say anything else, another bolt of lightning slammed into our shield and shattered it. The force of its power sent us flying and I crashed down on my back in the mud five meters from Darius as he scrambled to his knees.

I pushed myself upright and we looked across the distance separating us as the rain pelted us again and a huge crash of thunder sounded in warning.

If we didn’t stop this, we were going to get ourselves killed. And as much as I wanted to defy the heavens and refuse to bow to their commands, I couldn’t just abandon Darcy like that.

Agony of a far too familiar nature splintered through my heart as I called on my Order form and flaming wings burst from my skin.

Darius watched me as the rain pelted down on him, his whole posture written with defeat as he waited for me to leave him behind again.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed and he nodded just a little to let me know he understood.

I turned and ran from him before he could see me shatter, diving over the edge of the cliff as my wings snapped out and I beat them hard as I flew toward the storm clouds which had come to curse us.

I kept flying hard and fast, diving into the clouds and relishing the satisfying hiss that sounded as my wings turned the rain to steam all around me.

I let the Phoenix fire have me, coating my skin in it and relishing the full power of my Order as I flew into the darkness within the clouds, burning a path right through the centre of them.

I finally burst free, emerging above the storm and looking up at the sky as the last stars lingered in a sea of navy blue on the horizon.

I raised my hands and bared my teeth at them as I unleashed the might of my Order on the heavens themselves, hoping I could curse them just as they had cursed me.

Red and blue flames poured from me in a torrent so hot that the air shimmered all around me.

“You don’t get to choose for me!” I screamed.

Thunder rumbled as the storm dissipated beneath me and for a moment I could have sworn the sky was mocking me.

Tears sprung from my eyes and I turned away from the sky and the stars and all the fucking secrets they held as I raced back down to the ground. They may have forced us apart, but my lips still tingled with the memory of Darius’s mouth on mine. And if we’d managed to steal that much then I was going to figure out how to claim a whole lot more. I’d been a thief for a long time and if I had to take my destiny from the clutches of the stars while they slept, then I’d figure out a way to do it. I’d never set my mind on something and failed before. And this wouldn’t be the first time.