Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

Four months was a hell of a long time to live on a heathy diet of things we could grow. Particularly mangoes. Fucking mangoes. If I never saw a mango again after this, then I would be one happy Fae.

Of course, the limited menu was somewhat tempered by the fact that we’d been working our asses off to learn the ways of our ancestors and we were now beyond proficient in swordplay, archery, brawling and could even wield a bunch of weird weapons with reasonable skill like a flail, mace or spear.

It was pretty badass and I had no complaints about learning these things, but I was growing restless stuck in this palace. Sure, it was beautiful and we had spent the first weeks exploring it during any free moments we got from our training, and I’d even grown used to wearing the tunics and long dresses which we’d found stored in a chest that had been spelled to keep them fresh and clean so long ago that time had forgotten them. But it didn’t feel like home. The jungle courtyards and oppressive heat were just too alien to me and though I enjoyed them to a point, I was aching for some change in the weather, some variation in the temperature and most of all, I was desperate to see Darius and the rest of our friends.

Days of worrying about how they were doing and what was happening in the war had turned to weeks and months with no answers for us and no way to leave this place and find out. The golden gates were firmly sealed and Queen Avalon had made it clear that the moment we left, the spell holding her ghost or spirit or whatever the fuck she was in this place would shatter and she would be gone. That meant this was our one and only opportunity to learn from her and so far she wasn’t convinced we’d learned enough.

On top of the training we’d been doing, we’d spent hours working together to try and drive our Phoenix flames through Darcy’s body and burn the curse from her and we were certain it was working.

She didn’t tire or weaken nearly as often as she had before we’d come here, and her magic was holding up well to the vigorous routine that Queen Avalon had us abiding by.

Every morning when we woke, we met her in a grand hallway where the walls were lined with carvings representing the zodiac and long windows looked out into the jungle where we practiced casting our Phoenix magic in ways I’d never even imagined we could before.

We had learned to create weapons the way Darcy had already figured out, honing that skill and imbuing them with our fire magic in more subtle ways too so that we knew how to provide our army with the means to stand against the Nymphs and win. Rather than focusing on one mighty weapon the way Darcy had for the Heirs, Orion and Geraldine, we had learned how to gift a smaller amount of our flames to a larger amount of weapons at once, enough to arm the rebels when the time came for them to use them against the Nymphs. It was the kind of advantage we desperately needed to be able to face Lionel’s army on a battlefield and it was so reassuring to know that we were learning things that really would change the way this fight went.

Queen Avalon had also taught us more about the magic of the Phoenix Kiss, though she warned us not to offer it out unless we had no other choice as it stole an ember of our own flames which could never be returned to us. We’d figured that out too, but the way she spoke about it was like she was afraid of that, hating the idea of giving some of her fire to another Fae and could see no reason why we ever would.

She taught us to create Chalices too, some of which could burn away the effects of most poisons if someone ever tried to slip something into our drink, though neither of us wanted to carry around some fancy ass chalice all the time to drink from even though Avalon encouraged it. As well as that, she guided us in the ways of casting flames we could track, placing them in jars and hiding them away from us all across the palace until we’d felt out our connection to every one of them.

Queen Avalon had clearly been a cold leader who ruled with an iron fist and a heart as unmovable as I’d been warned my father’s was, and as time had passed, the two of us had begun to question some of her lessons. She had been unforgiving and swift to execute anyone who stood in her way or who didn’t fall in with her laws, and she urged us to do the same.

There was also an ongoing undercurrent of competition from her too, and the way she assessed our skills made my skin prickle as she continued to insinuate that one day the two of us would end up fighting to claim the throne alone.

But that day would never come, no matter if all the stars in the sky predicted it. I would sooner end my own life than turn on my sister and the fact that she couldn’t understand that bond between us only made me think of her as weak. In the way that a lot of Fae were weak because they were selfish. Their thirst for power gave them the excuse to do terrible things and I for one felt that needed to change.

Kindness wasn’t weakness which my sister had shown me more often than I could count. And neither was knowing when to concede that you were wrong. Arrogance was one of the founding problems of the Fae society and the two of us made a vow late one night that if we took the throne, we would never just blindly follow our own desires when making decisions for the people of our kingdom.

Once we had exhausted our Phoenix fire, we were gifted a short break to eat – which was all too often including mangoes – before we started our physical fighting training. Queen Avalon insisted that that order of things was correct because in battle, we would only resort to the use of a weapon once our Order gifts were exhausted beyond use and we needed to build up our physical strength and learn to endure the exhaustion brought on by wearing out our Phoenixes.

It had seemed near impossible at first, my limbs feeling weighted with lead once my Phoenix ran out of power, but the more I pushed through the feeling, the more I’d been able to achieve, the longer I’d been able to keep fighting. Queen Avalon fought us herself, her skills profound and seeming impossible to match and her weapons somehow colliding with our own while sailing through our flesh without harming us if they made contact with our skin.

I was in a state of constant exhaustion, but I also felt more connected to my Phoenix than ever before and I was revelling in the feeling of getting to know just how powerful I was.

The clash of metal rang through the air as the ache in my arms intensified and I bellowed my defiance as Queen Avalon started to force me back, making me retreat several steps as she swung her sword at my head.

I ducked low, swinging my blade high to meet the blow she swung next and twisting away from her before running at her with a roar of determination.

Queen Avalon met the strike of my sword but as I got in under her defence, I grabbed the dagger at my hip and drove it home in her chest with a furious snarl.

I felt the strike connecting with her body for the briefest of moments before she shimmered and lost her corporal form, making me stumble forward a couple of steps as I panted and grinned my victory across the room at Darcy who had leapt up to applaud me.

“Good,” Queen Avalon said as she reappeared, the small praise always a hard earned thing and my smile widened as I pushed some loose strands of dark hair out of my eyes and sheathed my weapons once more. “You have both impressed me with your dedication and the way you handle yourselves. Poise, strength, and unwavering will are what is needed to claim the crown and you both have it in spades. So let us see if you are ready to head back to your war and claim it.”

She turned and swept from the room, her fighting leathers shimmering and shifting until she was wearing a golden gown instead which clung to her lithe figure and trailed out behind her with beautifully embroidered detailing.

The straps of the dress had been designed to allow her wings to remain out at all times and she encouraged us to do the same, leaving our wings in place as often as possible to help us get to know them better. And she’d been right, having them out so much meant I had gotten used to the weight of them, gotten better at moving them, strengthening them through the hours we’d spent flying and perfecting all kinds of acrobatic skills. I’d even fallen asleep with them still out more than once, enjoying the silken feeling of my bronze feathers as they caressed my skin.

We’d spent hours flying with her through a huge obstacle course which had been created for our kind too, breaking through barriers with our fire, getting to know the span of our wings as we dove through gaps and learning how best to glide, freefall and manoeuvre to make ourselves almost impossible to target during a battle.

And once we were utterly exhausted and couldn’t so much as lift an arm to fight, we sat and studied Phoenix lore. There were all kinds of legends about our Order, some of which had even slipped through into stories in the mortal realm, but it soon became very clear to us that a lot of them were nothing but a fantasy. We weren’t immortal – which I for one was damn pleased about. Why would I want to live forever and watch everyone surrounding us die anyway? That sounded like its own kind of hell to me. I wanted life not stagnation, and I was more than a little relieved to find out that there was absolutely no truth to the story. We couldn’t revive the dead either which was a little more disappointing especially while we were caught up in this war with a monster who wanted us all dead. But it was absolutely undisputable, we weren’t necromancers, we were fire born.

Our tears were in fact useful in other ways though, able to be used in the creation of elixirs which cured several deadly Fae diseases. That was where the healing rumours had stemmed from, but in fact it was the magic of our fire that aided in the destruction of those diseases as it burned through the affliction much the way we had been working to burn through Darcy’s curse.

One of the things we’d known nothing about before coming here was the power of our song. When used correctly, our fire could create a bird which released a song capable of rallying armies and destroying despair, it could help block out the sensation of pain and instil courage in the hearts of Fae. There were even tales of particularly gifted Fae of our Order who had been able to create a Phoenix song so pure that it could create power of its own.

I glanced at Darcy as she walked at my side, thinking about the way she’d won her bout with Queen Avalon too by managing to get behind her and drive her sword straight through her back. We’d been a force to be reckoned with before coming here, but now? Now I felt like we could take on the entire world and win if we set our minds to it.

Queen Avalon led us to her throne room, and I felt the power of this place wrapping around me like a warm hug, the sconces blazing with fire and working to recharge our magic the way they did in every part of the palace. I could hardly even remember what it felt like for my magic to run low. 

“There is one final test which you need to pass in order to prove that you have full command of your Phoenixes,” she said as she dropped down to sit on her throne, her gaze assessing as it roamed over the two of us. “One of you must claim the crown.”

She waved a hand and there was a grinding of stone as one of the flagstones by her feet dropped down several inches before shifting aside to allow a podium wrapped in flames to rise up from within the hidden space, a glimmering platinum crown adorned with blood red and deep blue stones resting on top of it, a mirror to the one she appeared to be wearing.

“Solaria’s crown is still locked away inside The Palace of Souls,” I said, looking to the beautiful crown for a moment before raising my eyes to meet hers once more. “This won’t make either of us a queen.”

“No,” Queen Avalon agreed on a sigh. “The seat of power once rested here, but with the end of our race, my descendants emerged in other Orders and they abandoned the home of our kind, fearing this place held a curse which had been the cause of the demise of the Phoenix race. They built a new palace to the north where your parents resided and continued to rule from there, forging a new crown, a new throne and a new world in the wake of ours. But that which is forgotten is only ever lost until it is discovered once more. But for one of you to ascend, you need to rise above all others. Including one another.”

Silence fell as neither I nor Darcy made any move to fight or to claim the prize she was offering. 

“Keep the broken promise,” the whispered hiss of the Imperial Star insisted urgently, its voice making my skin prickle as it sounded within my own head, the queen still seeming utterly oblivious to the fact. It had been urging us to do that ever since we’d first arrived here, but we had no idea what that meant, only that there was yet another piece of this puzzle which we had yet to uncover.

“And if we won’t take it?” Darcy asked, ignoring the star in favour of the challenge the queen was setting us.

“Then you will remain here,” Queen Avalon replied. “And I will continue to train you day after day, year after year until one of you finds the resolve of a true Fae and steps forward to fight for what is rightfully yours. Only one may ascend.”

Her words were like lashes against my spine and I straightened angrily as I took in that crown and the fact that it was our only way out of this place. We had done what was asked of us here, learned what we needed to and now it was time for us to return to the war. We’d wasted enough time. And we weren’t going to linger here any longer.

“Fine,” I said, fixing the queen in my dark gaze. “We’ll fight for what is rightfully ours.”

Darcy straightened beside me, surprise flickering over her features for a moment as I turned to look at her with a challenge in my eyes and as she met my gaze, understanding registered in her, causing her lips to tilt up in a savage smile.

“Alright,” she agreed. “You asked for it.”

The queen smiled triumphantly as she waited to see which of us would emerge from this victorious, but I wasn’t going to wet my blade with the blood of my other half. She said only one could claim the crown? Fine. Because we had always been two halves of one whole and if she thought that her challenge would be all it took to divide us then she had judged us poorly.

I turned my gaze onto the queen, sidestepping towards my sister and holding out my hand for her to grasp.

Our power merged instantly and the queen sat up taller on her throne, her lips parting on a complaint that we didn’t allow her to utter as the power of our Phoenixes blended and a roaring inferno built between us.

Higher and higher the flames burned within my soul until I couldn’t hold them back anymore and they tore from my body with a force that almost knocked me from my feet, red and blue flames erupting form the very core of my being and colliding with the same power as it exploded from my twin too.

As the flames met, they merged, wings erupting from them far broader than any I’d ever conjured alone before and then the rest of the fire kept building until an entire Phoenix bird was born of the flames.

It looked almost like an eagle, though its face was still humanoid and resembled the two of us, and as it raced towards the queen she screamed in fright as though it could truly harm her.

It flew forward, wings beating so powerfully that my hair was blown back by the force of it as it soared towards the high roof of the throne room. My whole body buzzed with the strength of the power we were summoning, and my grip on Darcy’s hand tightened to the point of pain as we clung to each other and urged our flames on. 

The Phoenix released a musical cry of victory as it dove from the sky like a hawk closing in on its prey, and the queen raised her sword as it dove on her.

An explosion rocked the foundation of the palace as they collided, the queen, the throne and the crown all consumed by the blast as Darcy and I were flung from our feet and sent crashing to the ground with the last of our power ebbing.

My gaze darkened as I hit the floor, consciousness dancing in and out so that the only thing I was certain of was the feel of my sister’s hand still locked in mine.

I wasn’t sure if I actually passed out or not, but as I peeled my eyes open and found Darcy’s uncertain gaze meeting mine where we lay on the cold stone floor, a smile lifted my lips. Because no matter what that outburst from us had caused, I knew that we still had each other and nothing could tear us apart, especially not some fucking crown.

Darcy returned my smile and I pushed myself up beside her, looking over to the now empty and blackened throne just as a metallic clang rang out from somewhere in the distance, the creak of hinges following it and making my skin prickle with awareness.

Darcy stood first, heaving me up with her and we strode forward, the silence in the wake of so much power pressing in on us as our footsteps echoed across the flagstones.

The queen was gone. I could feel it in my heart, I had no doubt that it was true and as we made it to the throne, I spotted the crown sitting in her place, the circle cut exactly in two and the stones set within it seeming to burn with the flames which had tried to destroy it.

I reached out tentatively, picking up the left side of the crown as Darcy took the right, the metal oddly cold despite the heat it had just survived.

“Many will fall for one to ascend.”

The words of the prophecy echoed through the air surrounding us and I laughed in the face of the stars.

“I already defied you once,” I called out to them, tightening my hold on my half of the crown. “So fuck your idea of fate.”

“We’ll make our own destiny,” Darcy agreed and we exchanged a dark smile before turning and heading out of the throne room, striding through the palace towards the golden gates which I knew in my heart would be standing open to let us leave.

But as we stepped out into the wide hall which led to that courtyard, I paused in surprise, finding it transformed, a cascading waterfall of golden liquid rushing through the centre of it forming a hole in the roof and pooling across the stone floor.

The sound of whispering carried through the air as if the room was filled with a thousand voices, despite the fact that it was clearly empty, but I got the feeling that it was the stars who were watching us now, waiting to see our next move, trying to decide our fates once more.

A stone tablet lay before the tumbling golden liquid and we moved towards it, finding words scratched into it with what looked like charcoal.

A true Fae takes fear captive and refuses its call.

Well, I had to say I liked the sound of that. I glanced at Darcy and she shrugged, striding into the golden water and making me jog to catch her just in time for us to step beneath the waterfall together.

A moan escaped my lips as it rushed over my body, washing far more from my skin than dirt and sweat, stripping away doubts and fears and leaving me feeling rejuvenated as I stepped back out on the other side of it.

Everything we’d been wearing had somehow been washed away too and we emerged beyond the falls naked with only the pieces of the crown left intact as the loose tunics we’d been wearing for our training and the weapons we’d been carrying disappeared as if they’d never been there at all. 

I raised a hand to my throat, relieved to find the ruby necklace Darius had gifted me still hanging there just as the Imperial Star remained around Darcy’s neck and we exchanged a bemused look as we used air magic to dry our skin.

Hanging by the arching doorway which led outside were two stunning floor length gowns, one an icy silver inlaid with deep blue crystals and the other a pale gold decorated with blood red rubies, each in the style of Queen Avalon with thin straps and a long train which left space for our wings to remain on show at our backs.

We moved forward and I claimed the red and gold dress as Darcy claimed the silver and blue. We dressed ourselves in them, calling our wings back into existence as we finished and turning to look at each other as we did so.

“Wow, we actually look like princesses at last,” I said on a laugh and Darcy grinned, holding up her half of the crown.

“We’d look the part even more if we had tiaras,” she said, conjuring a tiny vine covered in little white flowers to hold the half of the crown on her head and I followed suit, making my flowers red instead to match my dress.

“Let’s go,” I said, holding my hand out to her and we walked out into the sun of the courtyard and straight through the golden gates without looking back.

The time had come for us to return to the war and now that we had full control of our Order forms, I was more than ready to end it for good.

***

It took us the rest of the day and all of the night to fly back to The Burrows, using the location spell to keep us on course and warming our skin with fire magic as we powered on hour after hour.

By the time we crested the final ridge and the mountainous landscape which hid The Burrows from view was revealed, I let out a whoop of celebration.

Darcy laughed at my side and we dropped from the sky, passing right through the magical barrier and landing before the farmhouse where a group of rebel guards damn near crapped their pants as we took them by surprise.

“The true queens!” one of them gasped and in the blink of an eye all five of them had prostrated themselves on the ground at our feet, murmuring thanks to the stars for our safe return and begging us to bless them with our divine touch.

Darcy gave in and brushed her hands over them, but I wasn’t really up for touching random strangers in the false belief that I might somehow bless them so I just complimented them on the great guarding job they were doing and moved on.

I stepped past them and opened the door, denying their requests to make an official announcement of our arrival and heading through to the grandfather clock with Darcy close behind me.

I pulled it open and stepped into the enormous, stone tunnel, wondering if the others would be having breakfast or if they’d still be in bed and hoping for the former.

“I can’t wait to eat something overly processed and covered in sugar,” I groaned hungrily and Darcy nodded eagerly.

“Doughnuts, or pancakes, or just a big fat bar of chocolate,” she agreed dreamily.

“Yes. All of it. I wanna eat until I pop and then I’m gonna find Darius and lock myself in a room with him for a week.”

“Seth is not staying in my room this week either,” Darcy agreed decisively. “If him and Caleb haven’t sorted their shit out yet then he can just go sleep on the floor in Max and Xavier’s room. I need Lance all to myself.”

Somehow, we didn’t end up passing a single Fae on our journey through the tunnels and we stepped into the dining hall where a few people were already eating and I spotted Geraldine across the room, carrying a tray of buttery bagels.

I called out to greet her and her head snapped around so fast I was surprised she didn’t give herself whiplash. She released a full pterodactyl screech which made several other Fae slap their hands over their ears in alarm.

I started laughing but then she clapped the back of her hand to her forehead and honest to shit fainted, a cascade of buttery bagels tumbling over her where she fell and burying her alive.

“Geraldine!” Darcy cried out, taking off towards her, but before she could get more than a few steps, a blur of motion appeared and Orion swept her off of her feet, kissing her so hard that it must have hurt.

“You’re back,” he gushed as he drew away again to study her, his eyes roaming over her dress, the half crown and the defiance in her eyes before flicking to me and taking in those changes in me too.

“Hey,” I said with a wave, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach as I looked beyond him for any sign of my big, bad, tattooed asshole of a boyfriend and feeling like some dumb lovestruck girl as my heart began to thunder like a galloping stallion at the thought of reuniting with him.

Seth howled loudly as he ran into the room followed by Max, Caleb, Xavier, Sofia, Tyler and a whole bunch of other Fae who all clamoured to get close to us.

We were hugged, screamed at, hugged again and basically handed around like a pass the parcel as everyone lost their shit over our return, and I was relieved when Geraldine appeared to crush me in her hold and sob all over my dress about how the world had been a dull and vacant place without us in it.

But despite how thrilled I was to be reunited with everyone, there was really only one person I wanted to see, and he still hadn’t appeared.

Gabriel grabbed me next, his entire family dog piling me and telling my how much they’d missed me while Leon whispered into my ear that he was proud to be best friends with the true queens.

“Where’s Darius?” I begged of my brother, unable to hold my tongue on the damn question anymore as I squeezed my nephew tightly in my arms and placed kisses on his cheeks while he giggled.

“We caught the murderer not long after you all left, and I suggested that he take a shift on guard duty last night.”

“Why?” I asked as Darcy made it close enough to us to listen while Orion held onto her possessively, “Who was it?”

“Justin Masters,” Gabriel said with a frown and Geraldine burst into tears beside us which were punctuated with words that I could just about make out.

“I have brought such shame on you, my ladies,” she wailed. “My own betrothed was a snake in your lawn, a tiger in your pie, a worm in your oatmeal!”

“Seriously?” I asked in surprise. “Justin? But he’s such a wet blanket.”

“We caught him covered in blood and there hasn’t been a death since he was apprehended. The plan is to execute him once the Cyclopses get some proof out of his head, but there was a debate over who had the authority to order that seeing as the true queens weren’t here which means he’s become a low priority,” Orion explained and I wrinkled my nose at the thought of having to order an execution. 

“But why did you tell Darius to guard him last night? Didn’t you see us returning?” I asked Gabriel as he plucked his son from my arms and tickled him.

“Because I wanted everyone else to get the chance to say hi to you before he steals you away,” he said with a knowing grin.

“You knew they were coming back?” Orion demanded angrily and Gabriel just shrugged.

“Maybe.”

“Then why didn’t you-”

Orion was cut off by the sound of a Dragon’s roar which echoed throughout the entire dining hall and made dust tumble down from the vaulted stone roof.

“Move,” Darius barked, his voice so thick with Coercion that almost all of the rebels fell under the sway of it and got the hell out of his way despite their mental shields. Although maybe they were just terrified of standing before him come to think of it.

My flesh heated as I caught sight of him carving his way through the crowd, a whole head taller than almost everyone and twice as broad too. The muttered goodbyes from my friends barely even registered as my whole world seemed to narrow down to just him and me.

“Leave,” Darius commanded, the Coercion slamming into everyone in the entire room as he threw a hand out and hit them all with a repulsion spell to keep them away too.

Orion laughed as he swept Darcy into his arms and shot out of the room and everyone else took off without another word as Darius strode towards with me with such dark intention in his gaze that I couldn’t even draw breath.

He didn’t pause a single beat as he came for me and he collided with me in a fit of passion that had his hand fisting in my hair and yanking my head back for his kiss before I’d even fully registered the feeling of his arm banding around me.

I moaned into his mouth as the fire in my flesh burned out to meet his, and he drove me backwards, crushing my wings against the wall as he hoisted me up and sank his tongue between my lips with a feral and possessive growl that had my core soaked and my pulse rioting with a need for him that went beyond all comprehension.

He lifted me up, kissing me harder as he ripped his belt open and dropped his fly, his solid cock driving against my panties with a demand that I was desperate to meet. Darius ripped the material aside and slammed into me with a growl that rocked the foundations of my fucking soul and I cried out, my pussy clamping tight around him and my whole body trembling with the power of this beast of mine.

Darius remained there, his cock deep inside me as he used his hold on my hair to break our kiss and force me to meet the raging vortex in his eyes which had shifted to reptilian slits, the taste of smoke coating my tongue as I wetted my bruised lips.

“You don’t run off on me like that again,” he growled, the demand making my spine arch as I balked against the idea of him trying to own me like that.

“I-”

He silenced my protest with a hard thrust of his hips and I gasped as he fucked me into the wall, forcing me to look at him with that hold on my hair while my fingernails bit into his chest hard enough to draw blood through the white shirt he wore.

“Swear it,” he snarled, thrusting his hips so hard that it was punishing and my mind spun with the delicious almost pain of it as he stole my fucking breath with every deep drive of his huge dick inside me.

I wanted to argue, to tell him he didn’t control me and to call him some kind of asshole based insult, but as that rage in his eyes gave way to a desperate kind of fear which he’d been masking with fury, I gave in.

“I swear,” I gasped, fisting my hands in his shirt and tugging him closer. “I’m yours. I’m here. I won’t leave you behind again.”

Darius growled, his eyes flashing in triumph as he stamped his lips to mine and released my hair so that he could grasp my other hip in his hand too.

He fucked me so hard that it was all I could do to cling onto him, to taste his lips and bathe in this pleasure as it built and built in my body with alarming speed.

I came with a cry which he swallowed with his kisses and he drove himself into me one final time as my pussy clamped tight around him, releasing a roar as he came too, filling me with his seed and making me feel like the only woman in the entire world as he clung to me like I might disappear again at any moment.

We stayed like that, panting heavily and inhaling each other’s air as he pressed his forehead to mine and kept me in his strong arms.

“Then again, if all of our reunions are like that…” I teased, but he just growled.

“No. I’m not losing a single second more with you, Roxanya. You just earned yourself a Dragon sized stalker and I won’t be going anywhere until death rips me from your arms. Even then I’ll try to stay, I’ll be the air on your cheeks and the light on your skin, never leaving you no matter where you go.”

“Don’t talk like that,” I protested, winding my arms around his neck and drawing him into my arms as I breathed in that cedar and smoke scent of his skin and something in my heart just slotted right back into place.

“We should go,” he muttered, though he didn’t seem inclined to release me, but seeing as we’d just commandeered the entire dining hall to fuck in, it seemed like a good idea for us to leave before anyone got hungry and tried to come back.

“Where are we going?” I asked and he pulled back to look at me again, his eyes deepest brown once more.

“Out,” he said decisively. “I’m taking you on a date.”

“Really?” I asked, my brows rising. “Isn’t there war stuff which I should be getting involved in and-”

“No,” he snapped, raising his hand to straighten my tiara before lowering me to the ground and buckling his pants again. We were still fully fucking dressed and I couldn’t help but blush as I glanced around at the empty room, knowing every fucker who had been in here when I arrived would know exactly what we’d been doing. “You’ve been gone for months so they can cope without you for another day,” he said firmly. “And it’s long past time you got to ride that fucking bike I bought you.”

My eyes widened with excitement at that idea and I honest to shit squealed like Geraldine at a bagel buffet.

“Really?” I asked, feeling kinda like a naughty kid about to skip class.

“Really,” he said firmly, taking my hand and leading me towards our room. “You’re gonna have to take that crown off though, princess, because where we’re going, you’ll require a helmet.”

“And where’s that?” I asked, grinning at the thought of it even though I knew the others might be kinda pissed at us for sneaking off. But it had been so long since I’d spent any time with my Dragon and we were overdue this date, so I wasn’t going to argue against the idea.

“The mortal realm,” he said firmly. “I’m gonna take you out for fast food and a day of racing that beautiful beast of yours to your heart’s content. Then I’m going to pay for us to spend the night in the fanciest fucking hotel in New York City and spend the entire night bending your body to my will and making up for all the time we’ve missed out on during the last four months.”

“Okay,” I agreed, licking my lips because that sounded like fucking heaven. “Can we start off by getting pancakes?”

“Baby, if you want pancakes then I’ll happily buy you a whole damn pancake house. I’m spending the day in the company of that smile on your face and the night bathing in the sound of your screams. Your every desire is my command and I’m making sure they’re all fulfilled today.” Darius tugged on my hand to make me move faster and I bit my lip at the mere thought of that.

“Well in that case, I’m all yours.”