Zodiac Academy: The Awakening As Told By The Boys

I kept up a fierce pace as I tugged Roxy along, the point where I held onto her arm seeming to burn like hot coals against my skin.

The stars were bright tonight and between the constant pounding of our footfalls, I could have sworn I heard the whispers of them watching us. Watching me.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and kept going, not looking at her because if I looked into those big eyes of hers, I knew I’d see myself reflected in them. And I didn’t want to look at the man I had to be tonight. If I found true fear in her gaze as she looked up at me then I knew I really would crack. Because tonight felt important. The kind of important that meant fate was spinning on a dime and whichever way the coin fell could determine everything.

What I was planning to do to her was the kind of monstrous thing my father would praise. The kind of cruel lesson he would have enjoyed teaching me. If I did this then I would only be creeping further into his shadow, moving nearer to the destiny he’d picked out for me which I had never wanted to fulfil.

But maybe I’d been a fool to ever believe I could be anything other than this. To defeat a monstrous man, I would have to be an even greater monster.

She wasn’t struggling, still held under the sway of my Coercion and the thought of me stealing her will away like that stripped pieces from my already tattered soul.

All the things about her which I’d admired most, that fire which blazed within her and drew me closer so easily were dampened by that hold I’d stolen on her actions. I hated it. I knew what it was to be forced beneath the heel of another. To have the right to fight back stolen from you as well as to suffer their cruelty. I was embodying the one man I’d never wanted to become and yet I couldn’t see any other way.

This wasn’t about me or her or the throne. It was about my little brother who needed my protection. And maybe she would have understood that if I explained it, because she loved her sister as fiercely as the sun, so I was sure she would make any sacrifice for her too.

But of course I could explain no such thing to her or anyone else. So in the eyes of the world who watched me, I would simply be the villain. But perhaps for the one person I had left in this world who held some true purity about him, I could be his salvation. So that was what I had to focus on. Xavier needed me to do this. So it would be done.

“Where are you taking me?” Roxy breathed, the fear in her tone making my jaw clench. There wouldn’t be any coming back from this. I knew it. Father knew my weakness now. He knew just how to strike at me. Which meant he owned me more surely than he ever had before. I was his creature, set to do his bidding. Broken the way he’d always wanted to break me so that I was little more than a puppet on a string. His Heir, his right hand, a doppelgänger of the dark creature he’d become a long, long time ago.

“We’re going to see some friends,” I said, my tone clipped. I couldn’t say any more than that. I just had to get through this. Finish it.

I drew her into the building then tugged her along through the silent gym and on into the pool locker rooms beyond it. She couldn’t fight me thanks to the Coercion I’d placed on her, but I could feel her muscles tightening like a coil in a spring.

Why couldn’t she have just bowed out of this game the moment she’d been dragged into it? 

I pulled her through another set of doors to the huge swimming pool and I pursed my lips at the gathered crowd, wishing we could have done this without the witnesses. But that was the whole point, we had to show the world how low the Vegas could be pushed and make sure any murmurings about them rising to power and reclaiming their throne were fully squashed. This wasn’t a Fae on Fae fight against some untrained girls, it was proof that they weren’t Fae enough to overcome their own fears which would show everyone just how weak they really were.

Marguerite and her friends shrieked excitedly and my irritation rose at the sight of the girl I’d once taken to my bed. She had turned out to be the kind of psycho mistake I hadn’t wanted to make, and by the gleeful look in her eyes as she watched me hauling Roxy in here, I got the impression she might have been thinking this meant something so far as me and her were concerned. But that was absolutely not the case.

A group of Seth’s wolves started howling with excitement, pushing and shoving each other by the edge of the pool while they drank bottles of beer. There was no sign of their Alpha yet, so I guessed he was still working on his part of this plan.

My gut knotted as I thought about that so I turned my mind away from it and focused on each step I took as I tugged Roxy along the length of the pool. I eyed the sign warning that the water was six meters deep and wondered how far her fear of water really went. Would this even be enough? Was it more to do with open water, or was it about the prospect of drowning? Though I guessed anyone would be terrified if they were trapped beneath water and unable to escape so I had to assume this was enough.

She tipped her head back to look up at the three diving boards at the far end of the pool and I felt a tremor of fear shiver through her flesh where I held her, but still, I didn’t let go. I only had to think of my brother, terrified and waiting for me to finish this and I knew I wouldn’t falter.

Caleb had clearly used his speed to beat us here and he and Max stood waiting by the diving boards, the two of them looking like polar opposites in their attitudes to this. Max was practically sparking energy, giving himself to the challenge of this and most likely using his gifts to bolster the emotions he wanted to give off while squashing any feelings of doubt or guilt out of existence. Caleb wasn’t giving anything away as he watched us approach, but his eyes lingered on the girl I was pulling along and I knew he didn’t like this even if he was going to go along with it for the sake of unity within our group.

I came to a halt beside them and decided to get this whole thing over with as quickly as possible, spinning Roxy so that she was looking across the pool to the crowd of onlookers before dropping my arm around her shoulders and offering out a cocky smirk for everyone to see.

“A lot of people have been talking about the return of the Vega Heirs like they’re something special,” I called, causing the crowd to fall silent as they listened to me. “But I am yet to see anything impressive about them. This one can’t even fight off basic Coercion.”

I shifted her against my chest, wondering if she might say something against me or try to ask the people watching this to help her. They wouldn’t. But if she begged convincingly enough then maybe we wouldn’t even have to go through with this. So long as she was seen on her knees and at our mercy then wouldn’t that serve the purpose?

“To rise to the top, we fight against our fears and come out triumphant!” Max cried, spouting the same things our parents had drummed into us countless times. I’d faced challenges like this over and over again throughout my childhood, my father seeming to take pleasure in terrifying me in any way he could manage while forcing me to fight through my fears. “So shouldn’t one of the girls who claim to be our queens have to prove that she can do the same?”

Roxy frowned at Max and he stalked closer, leaning in to speak to her with determination and malice rolling from his skin.

“Thanks for sharing your fears with me,” he purred. “It made planning this so much easier.”

I looked between the two of them, wondering if she’d crack, beg, plead. But of course she didn’t because nothing about her was easy, and she wouldn’t even do that much to save herself and us from having to do this.

Max leaned closer, brushing a finger down her arm and smirking as he tasted her emotions and I bristled as he laid his hand on her.

“Come on then,” I said, taking my arm from her shoulders and giving her a little push to get her moving once more.

As we passed Caleb, he threw Roxy a reassuring smile like he was trying to tell her she’d be just fine and I gave him a scathing look, growing more than a little sick of his conscience showing its face and making me feel like even more of a bastard for what we had to do here. He knew full well that I had no fucking choice and even if he was willing to go against his mother’s wishes on this, I didn’t get the luxury of being able to challenge my father on anything.

I walked Roxy past the two lower diving boards and stopped by the ladder which led up to the ten meter board, wanting this done.

“Come on then, Roxy,” I said, leaning in close to speak with her, like that made some difference, like it made this any better. “Up you go.”

She lifted her green eyes to mine, wetting her lips and drawing my attention to her mouth before I peered back into her soul again. It felt like the weight of all the stars in the sky were pressing in on me, whispering and murmuring things which I couldn’t make out, but which sounded like a distant storm in my ears. Something more important than I was able to fully understand was happening here but I didn’t know if that meant I had to push on with this task or turn back from the path I was on.

“I can barely swim,” Roxy breathed and it wasn’t a plea for help or even anything at all like one. Just a statement of fact because she wanted to be certain that I knew that. She wanted me to understand fully what I was going to do to her if I forced her to do this. And I couldn’t deny that it made me pause. I knew what this made me. Who it made me, but it wasn’t like there were any other choices available to me either. Xavier was there with that monster now and I had no idea how far he’d go to punish me if I failed him again now. “I’ll drown if I jump in there.”

Never.

The word echoed through me with a finality which I knew to be true. I might be willing to do this to her, to terrorise her and make her hate me more than any other man she knew, but I wouldn’t let her die here. That wasn’t going to happen. But the fear in her eyes forced me to see all of the worst things in myself and for the briefest of moments my resolve cracked. 

Surely if she bowed and agreed to leave I wouldn’t have to do this? Father would have to be satisfied by that.

“Are you ready to bow to us then?” I asked almost desperately as I shifted so close to her that I could practically feel the racing of her heart inside her chest. “And leave this school behind?”

She looked into my eyes but instead of all the fire and fury she normally offered me, I just saw a girl looking back at me. A girl who had had her life here stolen from her when she was a baby. Who had been thrown away and cast aside and had never belonged anywhere until she found her way back to Solaria.

She wasn’t the cruel creature we’d expected her to be as a daughter the Savage King. In fact, she wasn’t even really a threat to us. At least not yet. She was lost and searching for something which might be the key to filling up all of the empty places in her soul. And I could understand that urge better than most.

My lips parted as my determination began to falter and the whispering of the stars almost seemed like a roar of a storm building in the distance. I didn’t know what I was going to say or do but for some reason, I didn’t want to do this anymore…

“Start climbing! All the way to the top!” Max yelled from behind us, his Coercion so powerful that I almost succumbed to it too as it caught me off guard. 

Roxy jerked away from me while I was still reinforcing my mental shields against his power and before I could do any more than watch her go, she’d kicked off her stilettos and was climbing up the ladder.

I took a step forward as if I might have been going to stop her, but Max caught my arm, a silencing bubble sliding around the two of us as I looked to him.

‘If you change your mind, what will happen with your father?’ he demanded in a low voice, the look in his eyes telling me he’d figured out too much about the reality of my situation despite my efforts to keep these secrets from him.

I looked into his eyes for a long moment then dropped my gaze to my feet again. ‘He’ll punish me,’ I muttered, my skin prickling at the half truth because I knew it wasn’t me who would bear the brunt of that.

‘I’ve felt a fraction of the fear you’ve been living with over this punishment and I know for a fact that I don’t want you to face it. So tell me, Darius, is she worth what it will cost you to turn back now?’ Max asked seriously.

My gaze moved to Roxy as she continued to climb, her long black dress tangling around her legs as she went while the crowd of assholes who had been invited to watch this all chanted, “Jump! Jump! Jump!” as they hungered for her destruction.

My throat thickened with the words I didn’t want to have to speak but as much as I might have hated being the man I was embodying tonight, I knew that I would sacrifice that and more for my brother’s safety. Even her.

As I made that decision, Max seemed to sense it and he nodded firmly as he released me. 

‘I won’t see you suffer for a Vega,’ he said seriously. ‘Which means this is already done.’ He dropped the silencing bubble, saving me from having to reply and I looked up to Roxy again, watching as she made it to the top of the ladder and pushed herself to her feet on the diving board.

Max strode to the edge of the pool, twisting his fingers as he cast his magic into the water and the steam rolling off of it quickly vanished as the temperature of the liquid plummeted. 

The doors banged open at the far end of the room and Seth howled excitedly as he raced inside, cupping his hands around his mouth and calling out to us as he approached. “I was worried I was going to miss the show. I’ve just finished destroying the other one!” 

I nodded, understanding what that meant. This was half way finished already so now we just needed to do our part. Then Xavier would be safe and I could focus on him instead of letting myself be distracted by a girl who could never be mine anyway.

‘Come on,’ Max commanded, jerking his chin to get me walking with him to the edge of the pool.

We raised our hands and took control of the water before us, making it twist and writhe like a storm was cutting through its icy depths.

“Are you ready, little Vega?” Max yelled out and the crowd of students chanted louder, their bloodlust growing. I was grateful to him for taking charge of this though I knew it made me a coward too. But there wasn’t any other way and so long as I focused on Xavier, I knew I could get through it with my brothers at my side.

“Jump!” Max yelled, his Coercion as powerful as a battering ram.

Roxy stepped forward but then she jerked to halt and Max hissed a curse.

‘She shook it off,’ he growled and for some insane reason I felt like fucking laughing over that. Because of course she fucking had. That girl was as stubborn as the moon.

‘On it,’ Seth said with a dark grin and a moment later a howling wind tore through the room, racing up to the rafters and he started directing it at her back. 

But Roxy wasn’t the kind of girl to let herself be pushed, so before he could build up enough force to shove her over the edge, she took a running jump and launched herself off of the end of the diving board.

The seconds it took for her to plummet towards the water seemed to stretch on endlessly as I watched her fall, the black material of her dress whipping around her legs as a scream tore from her lungs which sliced right through me.

She hit the water hard, disappearing beneath the turbulent surface and I swear the seconds counted down in minutes as I stared as the writhing liquid and waited for her to appear again.

Seth was laughing and the crowd were screaming for Vega blood but I just stood there, staring at the water and trying to locate her within it.

I reached out with my power, using the connection I had already formed with the water to search for her in its depths. I released the breath I’d been holding as I felt the kick of her legs against the water and my gaze flicked to a point in the centre of the pool a second before she surfaced with a gasp. She’d taken her dress off to make it easier for her to swim and was only in her underwear as she looked around in a panic.

My relief only lasted a moment as Seth leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear. ‘Do it, Darius. Finish this. Let’s get this fucking over with.’

And despite my limbs feeling weighted with this decision, I knew it was already made so I gritted my jaw and followed his command, yanking the water out of the pool in a spout that rose up beside her and cast her in its shadow.

Roxy tried to swim away from it, but I flicked my hand and sent it crashing down on top of her, knocking her beneath the surface once more and spinning her around in a current of my creation. I refused to let myself feel anything at all aside from the concentration it took to control the magic until I released her from it again as she started swimming for the surface once more.

Max flexed his fingers beside me and the surface of the water began to freeze over, my heart pounding as I watched the liquid solidifying as he locked her in the depths of the pool.

Seconds dragged past then suddenly her hand hit the ice, my gaze locking on the sight of it smacking against the opaque slab as my pulse began to thunder and a roar sounded in my ears.

The stars were screaming inside my skull, mocking, taunting, laughing, cursing me – I wasn’t even sure what, but I knew they were watching, judging, changing fate.

This was so fucked up. The worst thing I’d ever done at my father’s command, and I hated to think what more he might demand from me now.

Roxy’s fist started slamming against the ice and I shifted forward an inch, unsure what I even intended to do before Max caught my arm and gave me a hard look.

‘It’ll be over soon,’ he growled and I nodded, but the sick feeling in my gut wasn’t lessening.

Suddenly the ice began to tremble and cracks spiderwebbed across it as Roxy unleashed the brunt of her power from beneath the surface.

She managed to punch a hole right through it, gulping down a breath of air as Max’s grip on my arm tightened and his power slammed up against the barrier of my own.

‘I need more power to hold it,’ he gritted out, his demand clear and I forced my barriers aside for him, allowing our power to merge as he drew on the well of magic inside me and reinforced the ice so that she was trapped beneath the surface once again.

More and more cracks spread over the ice which coated the top of the pool as Roxy threw her magic against ours in a brutal, potent wave and the cheers of the crowd turned to murmurings of doubt, making this whole thing so much more vital than it had been before.

If she managed to break through that ice then this would backfire spectacularly. She’d prove just how powerful she was by breaking free of us and overcoming her fear after all and I could only imagine my father’s wrath if that were to happen.

I thought of my brother and nothing else as I poured more magic into my connection with Max, helping him reinforce the ice as I moved my own water magic around her from beneath, focusing on the movements of her legs, the pounding of her heart. 

I was ready to pull her from the water the moment she stopped fighting. This wasn’t going to end in her getting hurt in any way beyond terrorising her. And even doing that might have been enough to break something in me. Because I already knew that this line I had crossed wasn’t one I could ever turn back from. I was just like him now. Just like the man I’d always sworn I would never become.

My jaw was locked with determination while my resolve began to shatter inside my chest piece by piece. Just a little bit longer. A few more seconds.

Not for me.

But for Xavier.