Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

My grip tightened around my father’s throat and I snarled down at him as the strength in his muscles began to fall slack beneath me. His eyes were wide with horror as he looked up into the eyes of the monster he’d created and realised he’d built me in his image too thoroughly.

He’d spent his life chasing after power with an insatiable thirst and had trained me in the art of doing the same. But in his arrogance, he’d forgotten one vital thing. The Fae standing between me and my power, was him.

His boots scrambled against the floorboards and even the heat beneath his palms began to fade as death closed in on him and I was filled with lightness at the thought of it. Life without his shadow casting darkness over everything good I’d ever had. Xavier could be free. Mother too. Roxy and her sister would be safe. I’d have the power to get Lance out of prison. I’d have the power to do any fucking thing I pleased.

And I was more than willing to buy that power with his blood.

I growled as I squeezed the life from him. For Xavier. Lance. Mother. Roxy. And me.

“Daddy!” Clara’s horrified shriek came a moment before she collided with me, using the full strength of her Order to knock me off of my father before I could finish the job.

“No!” I roared as Roxy screamed for me to watch out.

I leapt to my feet, casting a blade of ice into my palm as I ran towards him to finish what I’d started. Before I could move more than one step, Clara sped into my path, raising a hand as she smirked at me and I jolted to a halt as the shadows inside me spread beneath my flesh and took control of my limbs.

“Uh, uh, uh, naughty boy,” Clara said, waggling a finger at me like I was a child as I fought against her hold on the shadows inside me with everything I owned. The blade of ice fell from my hand where it began to melt into a puddle of nothing on the floor along with all of my hopes and dreams.

Father rolled over with a snarl of rage, pushing himself to his knees as he raised a hand to his throat to heal the damage I’d done to him.

“What happened to fighting like Fae, you fucking coward!” I bellowed as I struggled against Clara’s magic.

I’d been so close, so fucking close to ending him, destroying his legacy of terror and claiming my life back from him.

“You should know by now, Darius,” Father hissed as he continued to heal himself. “That winning is about using whatever advantages you have. And my Guardian is an advantage you just can’t match.”

“Poor Daddy,” Clara cooed as she dropped down before him where he knelt, tears watering in her eyes as she cupped his cheeks in her hands. “I wasn’t here when you needed me. I’m a bad, bad, girl…”

Father ignored her as she shifted closer to him and started licking the blood from his cheek.

“I offered you the world, boy,” he snarled at me. “And what did you choose? A girl who threatens everything you’ve ever known. Whose father was a savage who nearly destroyed our kingdom. Who broke your heart as easily as breathing.”

“The world means nothing to me without her,” I spat at him, my gaze slipping to Roxy where she watched me from the table, her wide eyes flashing with fear for me.

“Is that so?” Father stood so suddenly that he knocked Clara onto her ass and she huffed as she scrambled up behind him.

“What are we going to do, my king?” she whispered excitedly as they crossed the room towards Roxy and my heart thundered with panic.

“Don’t,” I breathed, unable to hide the terror in my voice as my father reached out to touch her cheek where he’d burned an X into her skin.

I could hardly bear to look at what he’d done to her. The guilt I felt over a member of my family being responsible for so much of her pain and suffering ate me alive from the inside out.

Roxy only gritted her jaw and waited, refusing to let so much as a single word pass her lips in protest for whatever he was planning.

“What would it take for you to kill this girl, Darius?” Father asked me in a dangerous voice.

“Nothing,” I replied instantly. “I’d die first.”

Triumph flashed in Father’s eyes at my words and my pulse thundered in panic as I tried to figure out why. What possible reason could he have for being pleased over my feelings for a girl who could ruin everything for him?

He shifted his hand over Roxy’s cheek and she fought a flinch as he traced the bloody cuts on her face with his forefinger. My eyes widened in confusion as green light lit beneath his palm and slowly, every cut and burn on her body healed over until she was left whole again, panting on the table while tugging at the flaming ropes which bound her.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to thank you,” she hissed, jerking her face away from him as he looked down at her like she was something he wanted to devour.

“Just let her go,” I begged. I’d never begged that man for anything in my life, but for her I’d do it. I didn’t care. No price was too high, no sacrifice too great. “I’ll do whatever you want, be whoever you want. I’ll marry Mildred, follow your commands, work every day to be the Heir you wanted. Just leave her alone.”

“That you will,” Father growled.

He stepped around the table, reaching out to grasp Roxy’s hand in his own, smiling in a way that made panic tumble through me.

Roxy’s gaze met mine and she bit into her bottom lip as fear flickered in her gaze.

“Roxanya Vega,” Father growled, looking down at her as a dark smile pulled at his lips. “You will guard my life at the detriment of your own life. Nothing will ever be more important to you than that-”

“No,” I gasped as the words from my past echoed over me. The words he’d spoken when he forced Lance to abandon the life he’d worked so hard for and stolen everything from him. “Please. Don’t do this to her!” I fought against Clara’s hold on me with everything I had, panic blinding me as Roxy looked between me and my father fearfully.

“Adiuro te usque in sempiternum,” he continued, his eyes blazing with power as he cast the ancient magic and Clara clapped excitedly as a chain of power bound Roxy’s hand to his. “Adiuro custodiet te milhi in filium.”

Roxy gasped as the power of his magic drove into her body, invading her, changing her, binding her to the man who was forcing it upon her.

A roar burst from my lips as I fought the shadows with all I had, but their hold on me was complete and Clara’s wild smile only grew as I tried to break their control.

“Adiuro te usque ad mortem!” Father cried and the strength of his magic made the walls tremble as it echoed around the room.

Roxy screamed as the magic burned into her and Father fell forward, bracing himself over her as he struggled against the burn of the bond as it was instated too.

My heart shattered for her as I watched the spell run its course, my limbs trembling as I was forced to bear witness to this travesty.

Roxy’s grip on my father’s hand tightened as her back arched against the table. I swear I could feel my soul breaking apart and withering inside me as I watched him steal her life from her.

The wave of magic faded between them and Father released her hand, smiling darkly as he looked down at the new Gemini brand on the crook of his arm beside the Cancer symbol he already held for Clara.

I could hardly bear to look at the Aries mark on Roxy’s skin, but she was staring at it with a look of such horrified disgust on her face that it was clear she’d already realised what he’d done.

My Father stepped away from her, his eyes flashing with triumph as he looked directly at me.

“You will never beat me, Darius,” he said in a low voice. “But every time you try, I’ll make her pay the price.”

Clara suddenly released me from the shadows and I roared as I launched myself at my father, a storm of fire building between my hands before I fired it at him with every drop of magic I had left to me.

My magic crashed against an air shield like a wave breaking against a cliff.

I dove through the smoke, but before I could get my hands on him, a soft body slammed into me instead.

I gasped as Roxy used her air magic to knock my legs out from under me, catching her waist and bringing her down with me as I fell back.

Her eyes filled with tears as she straddled me, pressing a dagger made of ice to my throat, the blade pressing down firmly enough to draw a bead of blood from my skin.

“I can’t let you hurt him, Darius,” she breathed and the horror she felt at the idea of that was clear as her gaze flared with rage and despair, and every plan I’d ever had for my father’s demise came crashing down around us. “I’m his Guardian now. You’d have to kill me first.”