Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

Two weeks was a long time in some ways and a short time in others. Apparently it was long enough for most people to stop actively staring at my eyes and their fancy new black rings. Most people, not all. But it was a start. It was also long enough for Geraldine to be able to talk to me without spontaneously bursting into tears every five minutes. We had it down to about fifteen now.

It was long enough for people to stop whispering and start just rudely asking for details instead.

It was long enough for me to stop crying myself to sleep, though I still woke up with tears on my cheeks.

And apparently it was long enough for Darius to schedule an interview and photoshoot with the press too.

I sat in The Orb eating my breakfast on my own thanks to my run taking longer than usual and me missing the Ass Club gathering. My gaze slid over the two glossy photographs which started off the piece titled, Darius Acrux on duty, sacrifice and his one true love. One was a close up shot of Darius smouldering at the camera, shirt off, tattoos on show and two dark, black rings circling his deep brown irises. He looked hot as fuck which was its own special kind of torture.

The second photograph was of him wearing a spotless suit, standing behind a huge chair which was basically a throne, his arm tossed over the back of it as he looked down at the girl who sat in it. Mildred Canopus, his fiancé, wearing a flowing white gown, her left hand raised coyly to cover her mouth with a massive motherfucker of an engagement ring sparkling on her ring finger. Her mean little eyes looked bigger and brighter than when I’d seen her in the flesh, her moustache hidden beneath her hand, her skin flawless with makeup and maybe some editing and her frizzy brown hair perfectly styled around her.

My heart pounded as I scrolled down to read the article, knowing that I should just shut my Atlas off and pretend I’d never even seen it. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t make myself turn back now even though I knew this was going to hurt. It was like I’d been forged in punishment and pain and I just couldn’t get enough of it no matter how much it damaged me.

Celestial Heir Darius Acrux gives his first interview since choosing Solaria over fate and telling Roxanya Vega that he would never be hers.

In this candid interview, we talk heartache and love with the Heir who gave up his Elysian Mate because he knew it was the best thing for our kingdom and he explains how he’s managed to defy the stars and find love with his fiancé Mildred Canopus, despite what the heavens had planned. Their wedding has been moved forward to just two days after their graduation and all of Solaria can’t wait for the wondrous day.

“Of course I felt a pull towards Roxanya, but I knew in my heart that she’d never make a suitable wife for a Celestial Councillor. She’s brash and uneducated, selfish and not suited to ruling at my side any more than she would be to claiming the throne. And I couldn’t take the heartache of watching her with so many other men all the time either. I’m a one woman man and I want to give my entire heart, body and soul to one woman alone. And that woman is Mildred.”

Of course, it has been well documented that Roxanya Vega’s sex addiction had already led her to sleep her way through every single male in her freshman class through seduction and blackmail and it is rumoured she’s begun on the women-

A hand slammed down over my Atlas and I flinched as I looked up to find Darius himself standing over me.

“I didn’t say a single one of those words,” he growled, his eyes burning with a raw kind of anger. “I’ve already sent my legal team after that reporter and I’m having that article taken down and a retraction printed.”

My throat thickened as I looked up at him, feeling eyes on us from all around The Orb.

“Did you really bring your wedding forward?” I asked, hating how softly my words came out and hating even more that I’d really asked that question.

Darius’s jaw ticked and his gaze burned with an intensity that seared the flesh from my bones and left me weak and aching for him.

“Father brought the date forward,” he admitted and that shouldn’t have hurt, but it did.

I tugged my Atlas back out of his grip and stood up suddenly, forcing him to straighten before me and standing so close to him that my chest brushed against his.

The stars didn’t seem to mind that with so many people around to witness us, but in that moment I wished they’d tear us away from each other.

“But you’re still going ahead with it?” I asked in a low voice that only he could hear. “You’ll turn up and walk down the aisle and-”

“Are you seeing Caleb again?” he growled and that froze me in my tracks.

The bell rang to signal the start of the first class of the day and the other students all began to file out of the huge space within the golden dome as I just stood staring up at him.

“No,” I breathed eventually. “That night, I was stupid and selfish and heartbroken. I-”

“We don’t get a say in whether or not we get to be together anymore,” Darius said darkly and the tension in his posture made me ache. I wanted to reach for him, comfort him, do something to ease the weight I could see laying on his shoulders, but I didn’t know what I could do. And another part of me didn’t want to comfort him anyway; the vengeful, spiteful part of me revelled in his pain and screamed that he deserved it, but in the wake of my own heartache, sometimes it was hard to cling to that idea.

“I know,” I said and I knew I shouldn’t have asked him about Mildred, but she was just such a fucking asshole. The idea of him with her, Lord and Lady Acrux in their fancy fucking house with their hoard of Dragon babies each with their own fluffy little moustaches just like hers just made me want to… gah.

“So, if Caleb makes you happy…” He didn’t finish that sentence and it looked like it cost him physical pain to let it pass his lips. He locked his jaw and his fingers curled into a fist.

“Why are you saying that to me?” I demanded.

“Because…” Darius blew out a breath and took me captive in his gaze. “Maybe I don’t want to live with the fact that you’ll never be happy now because of this.”

“You want me to be happy?”

A faint hissing noise started up and I looked around in surprise as a wet drip fell onto my cheek. The icicles decorating the ceiling of The Orb started rattling as more drips fell from them and a faint tremor rumbled through the ground at my feet.

The rest of the students had left and the stars were already working against us even as I waited for that single answer from him.

Before I could get it, Darius turned and strode away from me, leaving me to stare at the way his blazer strained over his broad shoulders as he left the room and the icicles stopped rattling.

I frowned as I considered what he’d just suggested. Did I want to try and claim something with Caleb now? In all honesty, the idea hadn’t really occurred to me. Ever since the night we’d spent together after I’d been Star Crossed, I’d barely even seen him, much less thought about him. And it wasn’t like we’d ever been more than a casual thing anyway. Yeah I liked him and he made me laugh, but everything with him just seemed kind of vacant when I compared it to the things I’d felt with Darius. If I spent time pining for anyone, it was all aimed at him. Which was the point of this fucking curse, wasn’t it?

I glanced down at my Atlas in my hands and frowned at the picture of him and Mildred before switching it off.

I was better off not thinking about him marrying her anyway.

***

Elemental Combat lessons didn’t fit in our regular timetable so they’d decided to give us the lessons three times a week in the evenings after dinner instead of during the day, and I found that I didn’t mind that at all. The lessons were so physically and magically demanding that once they were over I was pretty exhausted, so after I spent another hour or two studying I crashed out and actually slept. Which was pretty hard for me at the moment.

Sometimes when I lay in bed at night and the shadows twisted between my fingers, I liked to imagine what my teachers at my old high schools would think of me now. I’d never really applied myself to my studies the way me and Darcy had been this term, and the thought of me staying up past midnight studying night after night would have been unthinkable to me back then. But I’d grown this appetite for knowledge and learning which could rival Darcy’s in the last few weeks. Okay, so I wasn’t all that interested in history or other academic subjects, but my thirst for magical knowledge was unquenchable. We’d been having additional lessons and assignments with almost all of our teachers and Orion and Gabriel had gone out of their way to spend hours with us to improve our skills. And we really were improving. We were topping all of our classes and were starting to learn magic which was more advanced than a lot of our classmates.

But it still wasn’t enough. Because I was done with playing catch up to the Heirs. And I refused to slow down until we not only matched their skill, but surpassed it.

I walked beside Darcy as we headed up to The Howling Meadow where the lessons were held. We were wearing leggings and sports bras, our hair tied back and looking very twinny in our matching outfits. I kinda loved it.

“I heard a rumour today that Marguerite has manticrabs,” Darcy said to me in a low voice as we spotted the girl in question up ahead. She was laughing and tossing her red hair, trying to catch the attention of the Heirs who were holding court in the middle of the meadow, lazing on the group of boulders that sat there and showing off with flashy magic like always. Darius wasn’t really joining in, but he was standing with them and my gaze automatically hooked on his exposed biceps and the ink that covered them for a moment before I forced myself to look away.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” I replied. “Considering she’s the one who calls me a whore all the time, I’ve heard that she’s currently sleeping with half the Pitball sub team.”

“So is Kylie apparently in a bid to make Seth jealous. Let’s hope they both catch manticrabs from the same guy then have a big fight right before your cheer off with their cheerleading squad,” Darcy joked.

“Don’t remind me,” I groaned.

My squad and I had actually been making some pretty good progress on our routine and I couldn’t even really claim to hate it anymore. But since Washer had started attending our practice sessions, a whole new level of horror had been added to them. Did we need a teeny weeny bit of help with our stretches? No, no we did not, blegh.

As if my mind had conjured the very man I’d been thinking about, Washer stepped out of the crowd and came to a halt before us.

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite twins,” he purred.

As this class wasn’t held near water, he thankfully didn’t have any excuse to be wearing a speedo so instead we were gifted a look at his clothes. But as these lessons were after hours, he always dressed down for them. Today he was wearing the tightest pair of leather pants I’d ever seen accompanied by a tiger print button down which seemed to have a lot of Lycra in it judging by the way it stretched around his torso, though of course he’d left half the buttons undone to reveal plenty of sun baked chest.

I exchanged a glance with Darcy as we were forced to fall still and see what he had to say and as expected, his gaze zeroed in on me.

“How are you feeling today, my little Star Crossed lamb?”

“Fine,” I ground out, but the pouty look he gave me said he smelled bullshit.

I threw more magic into my mental shields, but ever since I’d made the decision not to be bound to Darius, the maelstrom of emotions warring inside me had become increasingly hard to fully shield from nosy Sirens. I could burn out their invasion with my Phoenix fire, but I couldn’t keep that up all the time.

“I’ve been speaking to Principal Nova about giving you some one on one sessions in private to help you work through this little speed bump,” he pressed, inching closer with his hand raised like he thought he might touch me.

I stepped back to make sure there was no chance of that and levelled a glare at him. “No thanks. I don’t need anyone poking around in my head.”

“Well, sweet cheeks, that’s not necessarily up to you. If someone as powerful as yourself is having trouble coping with their emotions it might lead to magical or even Order outbursts, and if we have reason to believe you’re unstable then it’s the school’s duty to insist you have counselling sessions with a qualified member of staff. We just want to help.” He opened his arms wide like he thought he might tempt me in for a hug and I didn’t make any effort to conceal the disgust I was feeling.

“My sister is not unstable,” Darcy snarled, shifting forward like she intended to shield me from him.

“If you think for one second that I’ll be having cosy little sessions with Professor Perv, in some little locked room somewhere then you seriously need to drag your head out of your ass and-”

“Tory is having one on one sessions with me already,” Gabriel’s voice came from behind me and I whipped around to find him standing there, shirt off, tattoos on show and glorious black wings slowly tucking in against his back as if he’d just landed. “I had a vision about this very meeting and arranged it with Nova myself this morning.”

“Oh,” Washer said, placing his hands on his hips like he’d just had his favourite toy stolen from him. Or maybe I was more of a snack than a toy. I was willing to bet that all of this emotional angst was really tasty for a Siren and I was probably looking pretty irresistible right about now. “Are you sure you’re the right man for the job, though, Gabe?”

“Don’t call me Gabe,” Gabriel snapped.

“It’s just that I am a little better suited to dealing with affairs of the heart. As a Siren, I can get right down deep inside of Miss Vega and really wriggle around beneath her skin as we hunt down every little one of her issues. I’m not afraid to thrust right into the dark nooks and crannies inside of her and really work hard at wringing all of this stress from her lithe young body. We can work through all the naughty things that big bad Dragon has done to her and go over every little detail, until-”

“Phoenix fire burns right through Siren bullshit,” I said, slapping a sweet as pie smile on my face as if I wasn’t insulting him. “So you won’t be getting anywhere near my nooks and crannies.”

A shiver ran down my spine at the grossness of that statement and Gabriel snorted a laugh as Washer sighed in defeat.

“Well, if you ever need someone qualified to root around inside of you then you know where I am. Even if you don’t want to offer up your emotions, I can always just pleasure you instead,” Washer offered with a look on his face like a kicked puppy.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demanded and in answer, Washer pushed a wave of happy emotions over us which washed against my mental defences and slid back off of them again.

“See? I can make you feel happy,” he said with an innocent shrug.

“Ew,” Darcy remarked, not even trying to hide her revulsion.

Washer sighed in defeat and headed off through the crowd with his leather pants creaking.

“How the hell does he get away with that shit?” Darcy growled as we watched him go.

“He’s fucking Principal Nova and as gross as it is, Sirens really are good in bed – they can enhance lust and pleasure so much with their gifts that Fae get addicted to screwing them,” Gabriel explained with a faint look of horror on his face.

“Gross, dude,” I commented. “You’re gonna make me hurl my dinner up right here and now.”

Gabriel snorted a laugh before heading away into the crowd as he called out for attention.

The entire student body was attending these classes and after the first few lessons, the teachers running it had decided to divide us up based on skill and power levels. We’d been placed in the second highest level group with a bunch of Seniors, Geraldine and a few other high powered students from the other years. The Heirs of course had an entire group of their own.

“Today we are changing up the groups!” Orion’s voice boomed over the crowd and I turned to spot him standing on the far side of the crowd.

Darcy’s eyes glimmered in that way they did whenever she saw him and I bit down on a smirk as I looked at her. She really was hopelessly lovestruck.

“We’ve assessed everyone’s skills and reassigned all of the groups, some of you have impressed us and are moving up, some of you are making us question whether or not you’re even Fae enough to be at Zodiac Academy at all and will be moving down. A golden number just appeared above your head, so go and join the group you belong to now!”

A sea of glimmering numbers magically appeared floating above everyone in the crowd and I looked up at Darcy’s just as she looked at mine.

“Yes!” Darcy squealed, slapping me a high five as we spotted the glimmering number ones. “I can’t wait to kick some Heir ass.”

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed with a grin that felt kinda fake on my face, but I couldn’t help it.

Did I want to go over there and learn how to smash the Heirs’ faces into the mud in a fight? Hell yes! Did I want to spend even more lessons stuck in a small group with Darius Acrux? The most disturbing thing about the answer to that question was that it wasn’t just a straight no. Because this stupid curse made me yearn for him and pine for him and despite the pain it caused me to spend time around him, that twisted little piece of me hungered for that sweet kiss of agony too.

“Holy guacamole, my ladies! We have all progressed as one!” Geraldine cried excitedly as she shoved through the crowd like a bulldozer, a glimmering number one above her head too.

She swept us into a celebratory hug and I laughed as she crushed me in her strong embrace.

The three of us made our way through the crowd towards the Heirs who were still lounging around the huge boulder in the centre of the meadow.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Vegas and their personal bodyguard,” Seth purred as he looked down at us from his position sitting on top of the rock. “Do you think you’re really ready to try and play with the big boys?”

“Big boys?” Geraldine asked in surprise. “I didn’t know any big boys were joining our group! Do point them out, Master Wolf, and I’ll be sure to give them a jolly good welcome.”

I bit my lip on a smile as my gaze shifted over Caleb who was perched on a slightly lower rock, a sad kind of tension in his posture as he met my eye. Max’s entire focus had fallen on Geraldine and he moved to stand upright as he looked at her. I honestly had to wonder what exactly she’d done to him in the sack to have won the kind of obsession he was aiming her way because despite the fact that she constantly ignored his attention, he still seemed determined to win it. Maybe her Lady Petunia was a magic vag, designed to lure Siren dick in and then never release it from her spell.

“I think you know what a big boy I am, Grus,” Max purred, kicking off of the boulder as he approached her. “And I’m always happy to remind you, if you like?”

Geraldine tossed her chestnut hair and laughed heartily. “I’d sooner tangle my garden with a new weed if it’s all the same to you, honey badger.”

“Honey badger?” Max asked with a frown. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh you know,” Geraldine said, flicking her fingers at him dismissively as he stood over her with his muscles flexing beneath his wifebeater and his eyes flashing. “You’re sweet like honey with the way you chase around after me and you taste great at first. But no one wants to drown in honey – it’s far too sticky and a jolly old bastard of a beast to wash off.”

“And the badger part?” Seth asked eagerly before Max could reply.

“Because he’s a bothersome badger of course,” Geraldine said, rolling her eyes like that was obvious and I suddenly found myself laughing along with the Heirs about something.

Well, Seth howled anyway and Caleb sniggered while Max ground his jaw with irritation and Darius…I hadn’t looked at Darius yet, but my treacherous eyes were swivelling his way all the same.

He was leaning against the side of the boulder, shirt off now for some frustratingly distracting reason, arms folded, a dark and brooding look on his way too perfect face. I resisted looking at him properly for as long as I could then finally let my eyes raise to meet his when I couldn’t take it anymore. He was looking at me. Of course he was looking at me. His gaze burned me whenever we were in the same place. I didn’t know if he was a glutton for punishment or if he just couldn’t help it but whatever the reason, if we were within view of each other, I could guarantee his eyes would be on me. And I’d be battling to keep mine off of him.

“How much longer are you going to keep fighting this, Grus?” Max asked irritably.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I mean,” Max stepped closer to her and reached out to brush her hair back over her shoulder. “That I can feel exactly how much you like me whenever you let that shield of yours slip, but I just can’t figure out what it is that’s holding you back.”

Silence fell between all of us and Geraldine raised her chin and set her jaw as she fixed her gaze on Max.

“You may find it hard to believe, but a true lady won’t just roll over and accept a merciless cad for a suitor just because he manages to water her lawn satisfactorily. I am more than attuned to your personal moral standards and I have no desire to lower myself to them. So call it what you will, foolhardiness, stubbornness or just a pure and true desire to tangle my web with a real gentleman but when it comes down to it, Maxy boy, you have been measured and you have been found wanting. Now please refrain from touching me with your slippery flippers and let us return to our lesson.”

Geraldine turned away from him to listen as Orion began directing the class. I exchanged a glance with Darcy as Max pushed his tongue into his cheek before turning away from her too.

“Well,” Caleb said in a low voice. “That was awkward as fuck.”

I snorted a laugh and he caught my eye with a smirk toying around his mouth. I suddenly remembered what Darius had said to me about him and I looked away again quickly, wondering when my life had first headed down this complicated path and if there had ever been a point at which I could have changed it.

As the class all paired off in their respective groups and moved to find some space around the field to conduct their fights, we found ourselves left in the centre of the masses within a huge ring of space.

“How about it, Darcy?” Seth challenged before the rest of us could suggest anything. “You wanna try and kick my ass for making your life hell?”

“Hell yes,” Darcy growled, her gaze narrowing as she looked up at Seth and he laughed as he hopped down from the boulder, using his air magic to slow his descent.

“No Order gifts,” Orion said casually as he wandered past. “We don’t need a deep fried Heir on our hands.”

“No chance of that,” Seth growled irritably, clearly not liking the suggestion that Darcy could overpower him with Phoenix fire that easily.

I glanced between the other Heirs, wondering which of them I was going to have to fight, but Darius spoke before I could challenge anyone. “Why don’t we take turns to fight today while we get a feel for how each other’s skills are progressing? We can watch this round.”

“Okay,” I said simply, turning my attention to watch Seth and Darcy as they faced off in the space before us. I was more than happy to witness his ass kicking anyway.

“If you want me to go easy on you, babe, you just have to ask nicely,” Seth taunted. “Just get down on your knees and say please in your sweetest voice and-”

Darcy shot a blast of water at him so fast that he didn’t even have time to shield before it smacked him in the face and knocked him on his ass.

I smirked as she barked a laugh and vines shot from the ground to entangle Seth as he scrambled to get up. We’d been practicing damn hard in class and out of it, using each other as opponents and getting Geraldine to heal the fatigue from our limbs once we were done so that we could complete the rest of our studies too.

Darcy advanced with a savage grin on her face as her vines tightened around Seth but he managed to rip a hand free, stealing command of the vines and making the ground quake beneath her feet as he snarled with determination.

Darcy threw another blast of water at him but it slammed into an air shield and washed over it, splashing us as we watched. I took a step back to avoid it and flinched as I bumped into someone.

I turned, finding Darius behind me and quickly stepped away again as my skin burned from the contact.

He didn’t say anything but now that I knew he was behind me, my skin prickled with goosebumps and my breaths became shallow.

Seth regained his feet, clenching his teeth in concentration as Darcy slammed water into his shield and he fought to maintain it. But with a flick of his other hand, he sent a huge vine spinning up from the ground at her feet.

Darcy cried out as the vine sent her flying, throwing fire at it as she tried to burn it away from her, but Seth was too fast. More and more vines shot at her from every direction, slamming into her and winding their way around her body tightly before immobilising her hands too.

She fell back to the ground tangled in them with a grunt of frustration and Seth howled his victory to the sky as she panted beneath them.

“Do you yield, babe?” he asked, moving to stand over her and I clenched my teeth in irritation. But that was okay. We knew we couldn’t match the Heirs yet. The point was that we would be able to soon. And with our power we’d be able to crush them for good measure.

“Yeah,” Darcy sighed. “I yield.”

The vines fell away and he offered her a hand as she got to her feet.

“Good,” Orion barked as he passed us again. “Darius against Tory next.”

I glanced at Darius as my gut did a kind of weird flip flopping somersault, but his gaze was locked on Orion.

“No,” he growled. “I’m not fighting her.”

“You are unless you want a week of detention with me,” Orion growled right back, stopping to glare at him.

“I said no,” Darius repeated, his arms folded in a clear refusal.

I looked between them as Orion geared up to go full asshole and I sighed dramatically.

“What’s the matter, Darius? Afraid I’ll kick your ass and make you look like a little bitch in front of everyone?” I taunted, turning to look up into his black-ringed eyes.  

His gaze slid over me slowly and heat followed the path of his eyes over every inch of my flesh that they caressed.

“Hardly.”

“Then what’s the problem?” I demanded.

He hesitated for a long moment then shrugged. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

My lips parted at that declaration and the sincerity of those words echoed deep down into me with a truth I couldn’t deny.

For a long moment we just looked at each other before I remembered we had an audience and I quickly rolled my eyes. “You’re so cocky for an asshole who’s afraid to even face me. Just come and fight me – we both know you want to really.”

His eyes narrowed at that assessment and he still refused to move. “No.”

“Well…I’m going to fight. So if you don’t want me to make a fool of you, you probably want to fight back.”

Orion chuckled darkly behind me and Darius’s muscles flexed as he held his ground.

“Come on, Dragon boy,” I taunted and I suddenly realised that I’d actually missed his usual challenges and teasing comments. I wanted him to bite back at me, needed him to stand up to my shit and call me out on my crap.

“No.”

“Fuck me, are you really going to make me beg?” I pouted as I looked up at him and the barest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

“You can certainly give it a try.”

Not likely. But my lips pulled up as I came up with another plan.

I reached out and caught his hand, tugging it so that he was forced to unfold his arms and he frowned at me in confusion as an electric kind of heat passed between us.

The sky darkened overhead and I was willing to bet the stars wouldn’t put up with us actually touching each other for long even while we had company but that was okay, I wasn’t planning on just holding onto his hand.

The moment his guard dropped, I raised my other hand and slammed my palm into his solid chest. He was seriously strong and I was sure I wouldn’t have moved him a damn inch but for the force of a tornado crashing from my palm.

A laugh tore from my throat as Darius’s eyes widened in surprise and he was thrown back, but I hadn’t accounted for the fact that he was still holding my other hand.

I screamed as his grip tightened on me and the two of us were sent flying by my magic, slamming into the grassy hill in a heap as adrenaline thundered through my limbs.

We rolled across the grass and I ended up on top of him, quickly pressing my advantage as I called on the earth beneath him to hold him down.

The grass bloomed and flourished all around us, wrapping its way around his limbs as I fought to tie him down, but he wielded fire to burn it away as quickly as it grew. 

With all of my focus on trying to force the grass to hold him, he should have been able to throw me off easily and I braced in anticipation of his attack, but it didn’t come.

“Are you still going easy on me, Darius?” I growled as I looked down at him from my position straddling him.

“I told you, I’m not going to hurt you again, Roxy,” he replied as he continued to burn my earth magic away as fast as I could conjure it.

“Don’t pretend you don’t want to,” I pushed. “You must hate me for saying no.”

Darius growled, but he still didn’t attack me. “I don’t hate you.”

“More fool you then.” I tried to push off of him but he caught my thighs, holding me in place with a dangerous snarl as the clouds continued to darken overhead.

I narrowed my eyes at him and switched my attack to water, forming a bubble of it all around him and closing it in over his head so that he was forced to shove me off of him to remove it.

I rolled aside, coating my arms in fire as he directed the water from his face with his own magic and scrambled up too, shaking his head and sending droplets flying from his black hair.

I threw the flames in my arms at him and he quickly used his own magic to gutter them out. I shot more fire at him, then water, air, earth, and he neutralised each and every one of my attacks without once striking back.

The longer it went on, the more infuriated I got, fighting harder and harder to break through his defences with everything I had, but I couldn’t even crack them.

Darius’s eyes lit with a hungry kind of thrill the longer it went on and no matter how sneaky I tried to be with my attacks or even when I threw brute force behind them, I still couldn’t find a way through.

Heat licked down my spine and I found myself wanting to punch his stupid, smug face every single time he burned through my attacks with a blaze of fire or stopped them with a shield of ice. My heart was pounding, my skin tingling and I hated to admit it, but I was getting way too many flashbacks of the way his flesh had felt against mine the few times we’d given in to this heat between us.

“Enough!” Orion called eventually and I dropped my hands to my knees as I panted with exertion. “Fifty points to Ignis for an impenetrable defence, Darius. Minus fifty for not attacking your opponent when you had the opportunity. And you can have one point for determination, Miss Vega.”

I flipped him off and his eyes lit with amusement as he called an end to the class and the rest of the students started to disperse.

A shadow fell over me and I looked up as Darius approached.

“You know, one day, I’ll be able to get past your defences,” I warned him as I stood upright and looked right into his eyes. “And then you’ll have to decide if you want to fight back before I kick your ass or just take your beating like a good little bitch.”

“Maybe I’ll take the beating,” he said in a low growl as he moved so close to me that our chests were almost touching. A cold wind whipped around us savagely, tossing my hair about and I realised that almost everyone else had gone. The stars were about to force us apart if we didn’t separate willingly. “After all, I clearly deserve it.”

“I didn’t think you were capable of admitting when you were in the wrong,” I breathed.

“Neither did I. But if you want to keep punishing me by straddling me in the dirt, I’m not going to complain about it.”

Blood rushed to my cheeks at the heat in his words and I licked my lips before I could stop myself, the pure masculine scent of him wrapping around me like a drug.

“Don’t go getting your hopes up, next time it’ll be my boot grinding you into the dirt,” I warned.

“I look forward to it.”

The wind picked up violently and a scream from somewhere above made me look around just in time to leap aside as a Griffin fell from the sky and crashed into the ground right where we’d just been standing.

My lips popped open in shock as he shifted back into his Fae form and started screaming.

“Help meee! I think I’ve broken my ass bone!” he shrieked and I backed up as Geraldine charged forward to help him.

“I shall assist you, my friend!” she cried. “Allow me to check the area for ruptures.”

The guy screamed again as she grabbed him by the hips and pointed his ass in the air before slapping her hand to it as she worked to heal him.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, caught between laughter and guilt as I backed up again and the wind continued to gust around us. I was pretty sure that me and Darius were responsible for the stars creating this maelstrom and laughing definitely would have meant I was a dick.

But as the guy gave in to Geraldine’s ministrations of his ass and Max started cussing her out for groping him, I couldn’t help it. A laugh tore from my lips and I had to clap my hand over them to try and hide it. I’m definitely a dick.

The wind continued to howl, causing my hair to billow around me and several of the students at the far side of the field shrieked and started running for cover.

I took a few more steps away and flinched as Darius caught my hand, but before I could question what he was doing, he pressed a small, black box into my palm.

“Sorry it’s late,” he said in a rough voice before turning and walking away from me down the hill.

I watched him leave as the wind finally dropped, my gaze lingering on the Phoenix and Dragon tattoos which dominated his back and the strangest ache building in me to call out for him not to go.

The commotion died down as Geraldine finished healing the Griffin and he declared his unfaltering loyalty to the Ass Club before hurrying away from Max’s rage with his junk cupped in his hands and his bare ass wiggling as he ran.

Geraldine called Max a cantankerous crustacean and demanded he leave too before heading over to join me with Darcy at her heels.

I stood looking down at the box, wondering what the hell it could be as they closed in to look at it too and the wind finally fell still.

“Don’t keep me in suspense, my lady! If I have to wait another moment in wondering, I’m going to fall down dead as a doorknob with tension tearing my poor nerves to shreds!” Geraldine gasped.

I scoffed lightly, my grip tightening on the little box as I was caught between the urge to open it and the urge to throw it away. Gah.

“You don’t have to open it if you don’t want to,” Darcy said, using her twin senses to figure out exactly what I was thinking.

But not opening it was worse than opening it. Because then I’d be thinking about the damn thing, wondering about it. And I didn’t need any new reasons to spend my time obsessing over Darius Acrux.

With a huff of frustration, I pulled the lid off of the box, a small tingle of magic rushing over my fingers which I recognised as Darius’s.

“Oh, he spelled it only to open for you,” Geraldine sighed, fanning her eyes.

“I swear, Geraldine, if you start crying again, I’m going to toss this in the trash,” I warned her.

She buttoned her lip and I looked down at the white card which lay on the top of the box, hooking it out and reading the short note in Darius’s curling handwriting.

In this one instance, I may have been full of shit.

We both know you won.

I hope you enjoy your prize

Lot J, top floor, in the parking lot.

Beneath it was a layer of silver tissue paper and my heart pounded to an unfamiliar rhythm as I slowly teased it open, my fingers tingling once more with the touch of Darius’s magic.

I pulled it apart and found a black bike key nestled in the paper, a silver Yamaharpie logo standing out on it and making my breath catch.

“Holy shit,” I breathed. “Is he for real?”

“He bought you a bike?” Darcy gasped.

“I can’t believe he’s actually admitting I beat him at something,” I said slowly. That just seemed so unDarius.

“How romantic!” Geraldine gushed.

“It doesn’t change anything,” I muttered as I ran my thumb over the key. But if I was really being honest with myself, maybe it did. Just a little.