Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I sat on the tiny beach of Draco Island out in the sea, looking back towards the coast where I could just make out the rocky cliffs that made up Air Cove with my mind sifting over and over the same things time and again.

Roxy. Lance covered in blood. Roxy. Clara strengthening my father’s hold on the shadows. Roxy. Father plotting to take down the Celestial Council and binding me in silence with dark magic. Roxy. Mother’s face when her perfect façade shattered for the first time in forever. Roxy. Xavier’s pain locked up in that hell. Roxy. The shadows calling me closer. And Roxy.

I blew out a long breath as I looked up at the rising moon. Over the years, I’d gotten stupidly good at telling the time by the position of the sun and moon in the sky so that I didn’t lose track when I went out flying, and I had about half an hour before I was due to meet the others at Air Cove for our shadow lesson.

But there was something I needed to do before then. I’d been putting it off because I’d basically been avoiding everyone including the other Heirs, but there was an issue that needed sorting.

I pushed myself to my feet and started running along the sand, leaping forward and shifting in the same motion. I transitioned perfectly, my Dragon bursting from my flesh in a flash of golden scales and fire bursting from my jaws as my claws skimmed across the tips of the waves.

I beat my wings hard and took off towards the sky, eyeing the stars with contempt and sending a torrent of fire blazing toward them. Not that they cared. I didn’t know if I’d been born cursed or if they’d just found such amusement in my pain so often that they grew to enjoy the taste of it. Either way, the heavens had offered me more than my share of bad luck.

I turned away from them, not wanting to see their mocking glimmer as I beat a path back towards campus. I flew straight through the detection spells, not giving a shit that Nova would have logged me coming and going from campus. A Dragon needed miles of free sky to fly and circling campus just wasn’t going to cut it for me. Especially not at the moment when I needed the comfort of my Order form more than ever. I’d been flying more than sleeping most nights and I had no intention of restricting that any time soon.

The cliffs soon appeared ahead of me and I raced towards them, circling a few times to slow myself down before landing close to Aer Tower and shifting back into my Fae form. I dissolved the concealment spell I’d placed on my stuff which I’d left in a patch of grass on the clifftop and dragged on my black sweatpants and sneakers before picking up my Atlas and sending Seth a message to come and meet me out here. I threw a silencing bubble up over the area so that I could keep our conversation private when he arrived.

I looked down at the tattoos which snaked over the right side of my chest, the initials of the people I cared for most in this world woven into the pattern of flames which washed over my shoulder from the mouth of the Dragon on my back. My thumb skimmed over the X, L, M and C before finally coming to rest on the S where I pressed down hard enough to feel a flicker of pain.

My blood was running hot with my fire magic and I was dancing a thin line with rage most days anyway, so I didn’t exactly mind having an excuse to vent some of it.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Seth called as he appeared, jogging around the tower as he moved towards me. “We’ve been worried about you…do you wanna come hang out at the Hollow?”

I’d been avoiding the other Heirs outside of classes all week and I hadn’t exactly had much to say when I did see them. I knew they wanted to help me, but between Max cringing every time he got near me like the merest hint of my emotions caused him physical pain, Seth whimpering and trying to nuzzle me all the damn time and Caleb…fucking Caleb with his fucking face and his fucking blonde hair and his fucking fangs which he got way too close to my girl way too often, not to mention what he did with the rest of his fucking body and-

Not my girl.

Never my girl.

My jaw ticked and I strode towards Seth as he gave me a pitying look like he could read my fucking mind.

“We have a problem,” I growled, my hands curling into fists.

“How can I help?” Seth asked, pushing his long hair away from his face. His gaze flicked down to my fists and he straightened his spine as he seemed to realise this was a problem between me and him.

“Have you been fucking with Lance and Gwendalina Vega?” I asked darkly.

Seth licked his bottom lip, his gaze shifting over me like he was wondering how much I knew and how much shit he could feed me.

“It’s just a bit of fun, dude. We all agreed to fuck with the Vegas and-”

I snarled as I lunged at him and Seth tried to duck aside as I swung a fist straight for his face.

My knuckles slammed into an air shield at the last second and he growled at me as thick vines sprung out of the ground at my feet, snaring my legs and anchoring me in place.

Seth pointed right in my face as he stayed just out of reach and I glared at him. “I’ll give you a free pass for that because you got your heart ripped out, but if you try to come at me again we’re going to have a serious-”

Fire flared from my flesh and destroyed the vines in less than a heartbeat and I was on him a second later.

I coated my knuckles in ice and slammed them against the air shield he’d thrown around himself with every ounce of strength I possessed.

The ground shook and quaked beneath me as Seth growled like the Wolf he was. “Why do you care if I torture Darcy Vega?” he snarled. “That was what we all agreed to do when we found out they were coming back here!”

I roared at him as I threw all of my magic into the ice surrounding my fist and his shield shattered as my fist collided with it again.

I slammed into him instantly, catching him around the throat and throwing him back against the stone wall of Aer Tower with a Dragon’s growl that rocked right through my body.

Seth’s fists pounded into my ribs and for a moment I just bathed in the pain he delivered me as I kept my grip on his throat and pinned him in place. It was a twisted kind of relief to feel something other than fucking heartache. I was almost tempted to release him and let him beat the shit out of me just to escape into agony of a different kind for a while. 

“Lance is off limits,” I snarled. “Which means the girl he loves is off limits too.”

“Fuck you. You don’t just get to make the rules!” Seth shouted, punching me so hard that a crack sounded in my ribs.

His palm opened but before he could use his magic to throw me off, I directed my own ice over his hands, binding them to the wall behind him and immobilising his magic in the act.

I bared my teeth at him, squeezing his throat even tighter for a second just so that he knew I held his life in my fist. Just so he could see exactly which one of us had come out on top here.

His eyes flashed dangerously, but not in fear. More like betrayal.

“You’d pick a fucking Vega over your own brother?” he hissed, not even bothering to struggle against me anymore as he shot me a poisonous look. “Who the fuck are you right now, Darius?”

I sucked in a breath and loosened my hold.

“I’m not picking anyone over anyone,” I said in a low voice as the shadows flickered beneath my skin, whispering bloodlust in my ears and stoking the pit of rage in me. “But did you ever stop to consider the curse my father put on Lance when he bound his life to mine?”

Seth’s gaze dipped to my forearm where the Libra brand stood out red amongst the tattoos I’d gotten of all the other star signs.

“Seems like there are worse things than being bound to one of the most powerful men in Solaria,” Seth hissed dismissively.

I growled again, heat flaring beneath my skin and making him wince as I burned him before getting it back under control.

“He had a life before this. He had things he wanted, things he’d earned. He should be living his fucking dreams out playing in the Solarian Pitball League right now. Not stuck here teaching. His mother is a fucking psychopath, his sister disappeared years ago and he hasn’t been able to make a single decision for his own happiness since the moment my father linked him to me. But somehow, in amongst all of that shit, he found a girl to love. But you, selfish motherfucker that you are, want to rip that away from him too?” I was shouting in his face and I didn’t even give a shit. I was sick of my father treating my life like it was nothing more than something he could toy with and I wasn’t going to let Seth do that to Lance.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It was one of those phrases people tossed around, but didn’t give much thought to. But there was real truth in that. Power was the root of all my problems. Every fucking one of them. And I wasn’t going to watch the people around me abusing theirs anymore.

“Fine,” Seth growled, sagging back against the wall as the fight went out of him. “I was never going to tell anyone about them anyway. I just liked fucking with them, that’s all.”

I looked into his brown eyes for a long moment, seeing nothing but honesty in his gaze and I huffed in frustration before withdrawing my grip from his throat and taking a step back. I let the ice melt away from his hands too but he remained where he was, watching me like he didn’t know what the fuck I’d do next. And I didn’t even know the answer to that so I couldn’t help him.

“Why?” I asked. “Why do you care so much about him being with her?” Because Seth might have been a ruthless asshole, but fucking with other people’s relationships wasn’t his usual style and something about it wasn’t adding up to me.

“I don’t,” he snapped, but I fixed him in my gaze and waited. Seth never had been good at keeping his feelings locked down from me and the other Heirs, and after a few moments pinned in my gaze he cracked. “Fine. Maybe I do care. Maybe I don’t like seeing her with him, laughing and smiling and batting her eyelashes at him like he’s the best fucking person she’s ever met and his cock is so fucking big that she just can’t get enough of it. And-”

“You sound jealous,” I growled, as I glared at him. “Is that what this is? Have you fallen for her or something?”

“No,” Seth snapped, but it wasn’t the least bit convincing. “Not…not really.” He let out a low breath and knocked his head back against the wall to Aer Tower, touching his fingers to his neck as he healed away the bruises and burns I’d placed on his flesh. “It’s just…you know what it’s like for Werewolves and our mates. The Alpha in me demands I meet an equal. Someone who can match my power and unless I can find that, I’m never gonna be able to find that true bond with anyone. And I’ve met a lot of fucking Wolf girls and guys, even Alphas in their own rights, but none of them are strong enough to contend with me. And sometimes…I just get sick of all the pack orgies and want someone who I can just call mine.”

“Darcy Vega isn’t a Werewolf,” I huffed, folding my arms over my bare chest and feeling the sharp sting of pain from my broken ribs with a surge of twisted satisfaction.

“No, I know. But she’s strong. Besides, it’s not like that for me. Yeah, most Capellas are Werewolves, but we aren’t exactly an endangered species. My mom doesn’t give a shit about me sticking to my Order type when I find my mate. She just wants it to be someone powerful enough to match me so that our children are strong. But that’s just it – no one can match me. The four of us are unrivalled in our power so there’s no fucking chance of me finding anyone that I might be able to form a true mate bond with like that, and the thought of taking a mate who’s less than me is just so fucking depressing. But then the Vegas came along and, well…Darcy liked me, you know? Before I cut her hair off anyway. She kissed me. She wanted me too, at least in that moment.”

“So you just got it in your head that you’d take a Vega for your mate and there wouldn’t be any issues with that?” I asked incredulously. He’d clearly lost his fucking mind. He knew as well as I did that he couldn’t marry a Vega without jeopardising the whole Council. His children would end up stronger than the rest of ours and it would unbalance everything. There was no way his mother or anyone else would allow that shit, and he knew it just as well as I knew it. I’d certainly given the idea enough thought when I’d been obsessing over Roxy. Besides, it didn’t look like he loved Darcy Vega from where I was standing. More like he was throwing a fit because he couldn’t just snap his fingers and claim her like he could with most things in life.

“I don’t fucking know,” he sighed. “All I know, is that if I hadn’t been such a dick to her in the beginning then maybe things would be different now. Maybe the two of us…” he trailed off as he looked into my eyes and my jaw ticked with barely suppressed rage yet again.

“Yeah, I get that. I’ve had one or two thoughts like that myself,” I snarled bitterly. “About the Vega who really was destined to be mine. Until she stepped beneath the stars with me and told me she’d rather suffer alone and in misery for the rest of her life than be bound to me in any way.”

I shoved away from Seth as he whimpered behind me and pushed my hands into my dark hair as I fought against the pull of the shadows as they licked keenly beneath my flesh, aching for a taste of the darkness which had taken root in my hollow soul.

“Sorry, man,” Seth breathed behind me, reaching out to grip my shoulder and pressing healing magic into my body to fix my busted ribs. I wished he hadn’t done it. The pain had been a welcome distraction. “I didn’t mean to compare it to you and Tory. That’s not what I meant…”

“It’s fine,” I growled, looking out over the dark sea. It wasn’t, but nothing was so there was no point in bitching about it.

“Please come and hang out with us at the Hollow tonight. We miss you, we need you. The three of us don’t know how to help you, but-”

“I’ll think about it,” I said dismissively and we both knew I wouldn’t be showing up. “I’ve got somewhere else to be first. Just stay the fuck away from Lance and Gwen.”

“Okay. But come later. Please.”

I strode away from him, causing his hand to fall from my shoulder and I didn’t look back as I kept walking. Was I going to see them in the Hollow tonight? Doubtful. They wanted to fix my problems, but there was no fix for them. Roxy had made her choice and that wasn’t me. Father had forced me to betray them and bound my tongue with dark magic so that I couldn’t even warn them. When I sat amongst my friends I just felt like a traitor and a liar, burning up with all the things I couldn’t say and shouldn’t feel. It wasn’t their fault, but I couldn’t change it either. It just sucked. Like pretty much everything else in my life.

A low howl followed me as I left Seth behind and my heart twisted guiltily. I didn’t want to shut the other Heirs out. But I didn’t know how to let them in either.

I checked the time on my Atlas as I headed down the stairway carved into the side of the cliff which led to the beach below and sighed as I realised I was early. But it wasn’t like I had anything else to do anyway.

My skin prickled as I started walking along the beach towards the cave where we held our shadow lessons. I tried not to think too much about the fact that I was going to be spending a few hours in Roxy’s company for the first time since she’d thoroughly destroyed me. I’d hardly even seen her since that night and we certainly hadn’t spoken. She was clearly avoiding me and I hadn’t made any attempt to get close to her either despite the fact that I lay awake at night wishing I could. The closest I came was heading down to stand outside her door when everyone else was sleeping and checking that she wasn’t falling into the temptation of the shadows. Unfortunately, she clearly had been using them and I’d already had to press my magic out towards her more than once to pull her back. But she never seemed to realise it was me. Never thought to check beyond her door for whatever she’d latched onto to pull herself out of the shadows. And I was glad. Because if she figured out it was me, she might demand I stop doing it. And there was no way I could just abandon her to the lure of the shadows alone.

There were a thousand things I ached to say to her, but what was the point? It was too late.

I was so caught up in my own personal pity party that I didn’t even realise I wasn’t the only one to turn up early until I rounded the corner before the cave and almost walked straight into Roxy where she was sitting crossed legged on the ground.

My heart leapt and my mouth dried out as I stared at her, but she had her eyes closed and didn’t even seem to have noticed me at all.

“Sorry,” I muttered, meaning for disturbing her but kind of meaning for all the rest of the shit between us too.

Her eyes snapped open and for a fleeting moment, her entire pupils were painted black with shadows before she managed to force them away.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, the bite in my tone coming out more forcefully than I’d intended as my heart leapt with fear for her. But fuck it, she shouldn’t be playing around with the fucking shadows on her own and she knew it.

“Practicing,” she said icily, pushing to her feet and glaring at me just like she had before the first time I’d kissed her. That memory cut me open and left me bleeding, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Probably both.

“You shouldn’t be practicing this shit without someone else to watch your back,” I said, taking a step towards her as my gaze scraped over her face but before I could get anywhere near her, I hit a solid air shield and fell still. I hadn’t even seen her cast it which meant she’d gotten a lot faster than she used to be.

“I can watch my own back,” she replied, her eyes guarded as she watched me press my hand against her shield. I didn’t try to break it. I just laid my palm against it, feeling the gentle caress of her magic against my skin and trying not to take offence to the fact that she thought she needed to protect herself from me with it. “I’ll have to get used to that now anyway.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“I’m always going to be alone now, aren’t I? Forever.” Her green eyes circled in black flashed and for the briefest moment I saw the pain that word cost her as it passed her lips before she locked it back down again.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed, my gaze falling from hers as the guilt over what I’d cost us pressed down on me. She was wearing her running gear, a black pair of leggings and a bright blue sports bra which left enough of her flesh on show to make me ache.

The air shield beneath my palm fell away and I found myself standing hardly more than a foot away from her as she looked up at me, the air crackling between us.

Thunder rumbled overhead and I frowned as I glanced up at the sky which had been clear just moments ago and yet was somehow filled with clouds now.

“Darius…” Roxy said, her tone suddenly softer and I dropped my gaze back to her instantly, forgetting the clouds and anything else in favour of hearing her speak. “I need to know if you meant it. What you said to me when the stars called us together. If you really did regret the things-”

Lightning slammed into the sand a few meters away from us and Roxy screamed as she jumped back. I stumbled aside and nearly fell on my ass as my heart leapt in fright but before I could recover, ice cold sleet fell from the heavens in a torrent.

I threw heat up over my body, moving closer to Roxy to shield her too as I burned the sleet away, protecting us from the downpour. I pulled my draining dagger from my pocket, quickly scoring the marks into the rocks which would open the cave for us.

Lightning slammed into the sand again as we stumbled inside and I caught Roxy’s hand as I dragged her away from the storm.

Heat spread along my flesh from the small point of contact and my heart pounded with the force of a hurricane as I looked down at her.

She didn’t snatch her hand away, but the pain in her eyes was sharp enough to cut me open as she looked up at me.

The cave floor suddenly started to tremble beneath our feet and I cursed as I looked around at the space and rocks began to fall from the roof to pelt us.

Roxy threw an air shield over our heads to protect us from them but the tremors only grew more intense, the storm outside howling with fury.

“What the hell is going on?” Roxy gasped, her grip on my fingers tightening as the ground bucked hard enough to make us stumble and she fought to exert her earth magic over it too.

It was like the weather and the fucking ground itself had come together to attack us or something, the intensity of the thunder and the earthquake growing with every passing second.

I looked down at Roxy again and my heart twisted as a horrible thought occurred to me. I released my grip on her hand and backed up a few steps.

The tremors instantly lessened, the thunder losing volume too.

I backed up even more and rocks stopped falling from the cave roof as my gaze stayed locked on her. The black rings in her eyes taunted me like they were created just to hurt me every time I looked at them.

“Oh,” she breathed as she realised what was happening too. “The stars don’t want us close to each other now?”

“Well, at least you don’t have to worry about me hurting you again,” I said bitterly as the reality of that crashed over me. I couldn’t even be near her without the stars punishing us and the thought of having to keep my distance from her forevermore only poured salt onto the wounds of knowing I could never have her. I strode towards the cave exit. “Because I can’t get within ten feet.”

Before I could step out into the dwindling storm, Lance appeared in front of me with Gwen and that weird hat kid.

“Where are you going?” Lance asked me in confusion and I paused as the tremors in the cave fell still and the rain stopped pouring from the sky.

“I was leaving,” I said, glancing back at Roxy who was standing with her arms folded and a pout on her full lips which said she was pissed at me, but that was nothing new. “The stars made that storm to push us apart…” I glanced up at the sky as the clouds slowly cleared, wondering what the fuck that meant. “I guess…they just don’t want us being alone together.”

Lance’s gaze darkened as he looked between me and Roxy, but he held back on anything he might have wanted to say as he cut a glance towards the hat kid.

“We’ll make sure you’re not alone down here again then,” Lance said with a heaviness to his tone which said he kinda hated that. And shit, I kinda hated it too. I’d known the stars would work against us, and Max had already been trying to convince me that Caleb had been pushed towards Roxy when they’d hooked up the other night but this…the world physically pushing us apart if we tried to be alone together. What the fuck was that about?

I closed my eyes for a moment, forcing my attention to fix on the reason for us coming here and expelling a breath before opening them again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked the hat kid. Danny? David? Something like that. All I really knew about him was that he’d been a bit too eager to help Roxy get wasted that night in The Orb and had put his fucking hands on her in front of me at the Halloween party too. Suffice to say, I didn’t like him. Not one fucking bit.

“Polaris here has come to offer us some assistance,” Lance said and the tightness in his jaw said he didn’t like the kid either.

“Is that so?” I asked, levelling him with a dark stare which made Gwen shift closer to him, curling a hand around his bicep like she thought she could protect him from me if I decided to do something.

“He’s got access to the memories of his family members who are working with your family. He can give us inside knowledge which might tip this thing in our favour when the time comes,” Lance explained.

My gaze flipped back to the kid as he tugged on his hat nervously. I knew all about that creepy bit of knitwear and I had zero desire to spend any time with his soul grandma or whoever the fuck was knitted up inside it.

“That doesn’t mean he needs to stay for anything else we’re doing here,” I said, holding his eye until he looked down at his boots.

“Agreed,” Lance said. “I just want him to make a star promise with you and Tory so we can be sure he doesn’t betray us.”

“I swear I just want to help,” Dennis said as he looked at me. It was definitely D something.

“Fine,” I agreed, I wanted him gone as much as anything else. I couldn’t get that image of him dancing with Roxy at Halloween out of my head and to make it worse, I knew that whole thing had only happened because of me anyway. I could have stopped Max from giving her that potion but I hadn’t. I let my desire for power and my father’s wishes infect my actions again and again.

Lance took a Lapis Lazuli crystal from his pocket and proceeded to get both me and Roxy to make the bond with Denzel. I might have crushed his hand in mine when I did it, but it was hard to say for sure as the whole time my gaze was fixed on the girl I couldn’t have.

Once Darren had fucked off, we got on with our shadow lesson and I proceeded to watch every move that Roxy made while she made every effort not to look at me.

But when it came to her turn to dip into the shadows, I wasn’t the only one staring at her. She practically snatched Lance’s draining dagger from him and cut her palm open without a moment of hesitation before letting the shadows pour forth and coat her skin. Within the blink of an eye, she’d covered every inch of her flesh in them and her eyes turned as black as pitch.

“You’ve been practicing,” Lance said in a dark voice as Roxy drew a ball of shadow to sit in her palm. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t do that?”

“I don’t think I would have agreed to that,” Roxy replied, her voice drawing a shiver down my spine as it was laced with the power of the Fifth Element.

“Fine,” Lance growled. “If you’re so determined to push yourself with them then let’s see if you have as much control as you think you do. You can try to face me with them.”

“Is that a good idea?” Gwen asked, her eyes wheeling between her sister and Lance. “What if one of you gets hurt? The last injury you got from doing dark magic wasn’t exactly easy to heal-”

“She has a point,” I said, frowning at my friend and moving to take his place. “You’re still not fully recovered. Let her face me instead.”

Roxy’s gaze fell on me at last with that suggestion, but the shadows swimming in her eyes made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Lance hesitated like he wasn’t sure that was the best idea, but he didn’t stop me as I moved to stand before her.

“I don’t want you to attack him,” Lance said. “Just restrain him. If you’ve got as much control as you think you do then it should be easy enough to do that without causing any pain.”

Roxy didn’t reply but as she fixed her gaze on me, the barest hint of a smile played around her lips and a lump caught in my throat. Of course she’d be happy enough to have the excuse to strike at me. I was the root of that ache in her eyes.

The shadows rose up all around her and I used my own draining dagger to cut into my palm too, so that I could channel the dark energy into defending against her attack more easily.

A rush of ecstasy tumbled beneath my skin and I inhaled deeply as the shadows ran to me.

Everything seemed to pale and fade as I welcomed their power, only the darkest of my emotions remaining sharp enough to feel fully.

My jaw tightened as I looked at Roxy, the anger which I’d been trying not to feel burning a trail beneath my flesh. She’d chosen this path for us. She’d stolen our shot at happiness.

Before I could force those feelings under control, Roxy threw a net of shadows towards me.

Darkness curtained my vision as I fought to steal control of the shadows she’d sent at me, bending them to my will so that instead of trapping me within them, they moved to coat my flesh and add to my own power.

It took more effort than I expected but with a grunt of determination, the shadows fell to my command.

But Roxy wasn’t done there, she sent a second net at me followed by a third and a fourth, the shadows dancing around her wildly so that her long hair billowed around her shoulders with their power.

I took control of the second net but sweat was beading on my brow and as the third hit me, I staggered back a step. Roxy’s shadows coiled around me with a cold determination, pressing me back until I hit the rock wall behind me and binding my limbs together as she immobilised me. I fought to bring them under my control for another few moments, but I refused to fight back against her.

The call of the shadows was too strong, the desires of them too deadly. I wouldn’t unleash dark magic on her no matter what she did to me.

“Enough,” Lance barked as Roxy advanced, her gaze flickering with the darkness of the shadows. She looked deadly, beautiful and entirely consumed by the power she was wielding.

For a moment, I didn’t think she was going to stop coming at me but as Gwen called her name, she fell still.

It took her several more seconds to draw the shadows back, but the flickering darkness around her finally withdrew and the shadows pinning me in place dispersed too.

“Be honest, how hard was it for you to pull them back then?” Lance asked as he fixed her in his gaze, his brow furrowing with concern.

“Harder after I used them to restrain him, but I still managed it,” she said, looking away from me again. I didn’t miss the way she avoided saying my name and I tried not to let that burn.

“Only with Darcy to anchor you,” he replied gruffly. “I think we should call it for tonight. But I’m warning you not to keep playing with the shadows.”

“Aye aye, captain,” Roxy replied sarcastically before turning and walking for the exit.

It felt like the air in the cave contracted as she left and the dull ache in my chest sharpened as I was filled with the urge to chase after her, but I didn’t move an inch.

Darcy exchanged a concerned look with Lance. “I should make sure she’s okay. I’ll talk to her and make sure she’s not pushing it too far with the shadows.”

“They feed on grief and pain,” Lance growled, shooting me an apologetic look for half a second. “She’ll be more susceptible to their call now than ever before.”

“Don’t worry, she’s tough. She’ll be okay.” Gwen glanced at me too and the accusation in her eyes cut into me. She blamed me for her sister’s unhappiness and I couldn’t exactly deny that.

Lance clasped her fingers for a moment and she tiptoed up to press a kiss to his lips, flushing pink as she cut me another look before heading for the exit.

“I dealt with Seth,” I called after her before she stepped outside. “He won’t bother either of you anymore.”

Tension seemed to fall from her body in a wave and she offered me a wide smile which was so full of relief that I could practically taste it on the air. “Thank you, Darius,” she breathed before turning and hurrying out after Roxy.

Lance turned to me, running a hand over his short beard as he scanned my features. “Before the storm tried to force you apart, did you manage to talk to her at all?”

“About what?” I asked, forcing myself to stay and hear him out despite the desire to walk out creeping through my limbs.

“About…fuck, Darius, about everything.”

“No. What’s the point?”

“Seriously? You’re just going to stick with self-pity and moping? I thought you had more fight in you than that,” he growled.

“Fight for what? I can’t change this fate. And I wasn’t going for mopey, I was going for acceptance.” I shrugged, although now that he pointed it out, I was acting kinda like a little bitch.

“I’ve told you I’m not just going to accept this bullshit version of destiny for you,” Lance growled, stepping right up into my personal space and giving me a shove which instantly set the Alpha in me snarling. “So it’s time you stopped acting like you accept it too.”

“What the fuck else am I supposed to do? Even if you managed to find some way around this, which I don’t believe for a second that you can, she still hates me, she still had a whole list of perfectly valid reasons to deny me. So what difference would it make?”

“None,” he snapped. “None at all unless you prove to her that you’re more than just a monster carved in your father’s image.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what I am. It’s not like I can deny doing any of the things she hates me for.”

“So that’s it? You give up? You’re going to just spend your life pining after her, marry Mildred, fall into line with your father’s plans and be a good little Heir?”

“Fuck you.” I shoved past him and walked towards the exit but before I could leave, I slammed into a solid wall of air.

“No, Darius. Fuck you! Fuck all the bullshit you spouted to me over the years about fighting back against your father, about working to change his legacy and being a better man than him. Fuck the lies you told about using your time to rule with the other Heirs to make Solaria a greater kingdom, and fuck you for being too much of a coward to just tell Tory Vega how you felt about her before it was too goddamn late!”

I whirled back around, fire bursting to life around my fists before I threw it at him with a cry of rage. The shadows leapt up beneath my skin, but I ignored them in favour of fire. I didn’t want the numbness of the Fifth Element, I wanted to burn.

The fireball slammed into Lance’s shield and washed over it in a tide of crimson flames before stuttering out and leaving me aching for more.

“Better,” Lance said, a hungry smile lighting his features. “Now put that desire to fight to good use. And use it to fix this shit between you and Tory.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” I demanded. “You’ve seen the way she looks at me. She hates me.”

“Hate dances a fine line with love more often than not. Fix it, Darius. Then if I really can find a way to give you another chance at fate, you’ll both be ready to make a different choice.” He strode towards me, shoving me aside as I reeled from his words.

By the time I turned to shout after him, he was gone. And I was left alone in the dark with nothing but my own demons to keep me company.