Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I ran towards Lance’s childhood home like the demons of hell were chasing me. There was a fissure tearing through my chest, ripping me apart and peeling away all the layers of my flesh until there wasn’t anything left in me but the monster my father had worked so tirelessly for me to become.

But he hadn’t counted on the beast he’d trained turning on him. Hadn’t counted on the wrath I’d rain down on him for touching one of the only good things in my life.

I’d been training to take him down for years and all he’d done was force my hand. This ended tonight.

Roxy’s screams echoed out over the grounds and I felt the agony of them like a dagger to my heart.

I was going to fucking kill him. Enough was enough.

The others had fallen behind, but I couldn’t slow down to find out why. Roxy needed me. Whatever the fuck was happening in that house, it was bad. And the chain which bound my heart to hers couldn’t let her suffer for a single moment longer.

I half ripped the back door off of its hinges as I burst into the house and I tore inside where the scent of smoke from a recently doused fire caught in my throat.

But as I ran on, I realised that wasn’t the only thing I was inhaling. My Dragon slipped from my grasp as it was locked in chains of steel beneath my flesh and I snarled loud enough to make my chest rumble as I realised the place had been filled with Order Suppressant to stop Roxy from using her Phoenix against the madman who’d sired me.

It didn’t matter. I didn’t need to rip him apart with teeth and claws, I’d happily tear him limb from limb with my bare hands.

Roxy screamed again just as I made it into the hallway and light from the dining hall drew my gaze to it as the sound of her agony broke something in me.

I threw the door open and cast water in the same breath, directing it at my father as I found him standing over Roxy where she was pinned to the dining table by cords of twisting air magic.

A roar burst from my lips as he fought to shield himself and I spotted the blood coating her skin, the words burned into her flesh countless times. Acrux. His name. My name. Decorating her perfect skin in red.

Father was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t hear it. I couldn’t grasp anything aside from the girl I loved pinned down on that table like a slab of meat for him to toy with.

He’d done countless things like that to me over the years. He’d beaten my brother into submission too. But not her. I wouldn’t let him touch her ever again.

I charged across the room with my fists coated in ice, slamming into his shield with the force of a charging Minotaur.

Father’s lips drew back in a savage snarl as he fought to maintain his magic, but nothing could match the rage in me as I threw my fists against it again and again.

His shield cracked and he stole the air from my lungs as he tried to stop me. I didn’t even flinch as I threw every last bit of my magic into my next punch.

Father’s shield shattered and my fist collided with his face, breaking his concentration so that air returned to my lungs once more.

I knocked him to the ground beneath me and he growled with the full ferocity of his Dragon as he fought back with fists coated in fire, slamming them into my sides and burning the flesh from my bones.

Roxy was calling my name and the rough edge her voice had gained from screaming was enough to break what little restraint I had left.

Father managed to throw me off of him but I hit back instantly, a wave of pure fire crashing into him before he could get a new shield in place, hot enough to boil him alive.

I ignored the pain of my own wounds as I clenched my fist and daggers of ice shot towards him, slicing into his flesh as he bellowed in fury.

He shoved himself to his feet and ran at me, but I cast ice on the floor before him, throwing my fist into his gut as he slipped and smiling savagely as I felt his ribs snap.

He wrapped his arms around me and took me down with a cry of rage. “Stay down!” he bellowed in my face, his voice laced with Dark Coercion as he slammed a fist into my jaw. “And watch me break the girl who broke your heart.”

I fell still as he pushed himself upright, stalking away from me as the new brand on my arm flared with heat and the Phoenix flame Roxy had gifted me swept through my limbs and hunted down those commands. Her power burned away his dark magic like it was nothing and as he raised the knife above her again, my gaze locked with hers.

She was looking at me like my pain hurt her more than her own and the rage in me grew to new heights at the thought of what he’d done to her.

Father stood with his back to me as he focused on his work, raising the blade to cut into her flesh once more.

I was up in a heartbeat, my muscles bunching with power as magic coiled in my limbs with deadly intent.

“You should really stop underestimating me, Father,” I snarled and he whipped around towards me, eyes wild in confusion as his dark magic failed to hold me.

“How?” he gasped, but I didn’t bother to give him an answer.

I hit him with so much power that he was launched across the room before slamming into the wall in the midst of an inferno.

I stalked after him as I willed the flames to devour him and he fought with all he had to try and put them out.

When he launched himself from the fire and collided with me again, I was ready for it. We hit the floor in a tangle of fists and fury, each of us determined to beat the other into submission and paint the walls red with our victory. But for the first time ever, I could feel the cracks in his defences, I was gaining the upper hand. This beast in me had the scent of his blood now and it wouldn’t relent until its bloodlust was sated.

Today was the last day Lionel Acrux would hurt someone I loved.

I’d been born to rule.

And I was going to claim my place in blood.