Cursed Fates (Zodiac Academy, #5)

by Caroline Peckham

Tory was there already and I dropped down beside her with another yawn as she raised an eyebrow at me. I offered her a twin look which gave her the answer and she snorted a laugh as I swiped a bagel off of the mountain Geraldine had laid out for us, hiding a grin.

But they didn’t acknowledge her, two of them grabbed hold of Orion’s arms and yanked him out of his seat. What the fuck?? “Professor Lance Orion, you are hereby detained by the Court of Solaria for fraternising with a student who is none other than a Princess of Solaria.”

WHAAATTFTTT

“A video file was sent to the bureau just one hour ago showing you being overtly intimate with a student,” one of the male agents explained before grabbing Orion’s arm again.

There had to be a way out. There had to be a chance for us yet. This couldn’t be it. We were meant for each other. I felt it down to my soul. I knew it to be true.

I rose from my seat, trembling all over as I opened the door and stepped into the corridor. Tory’s arms surrounded me and I fell apart. Every piece of strength inside me dissolved into nothing and I tumbled into the deepest pit of despair I’d ever known.

“What would you know about fighting for something like that?” she snapped at me and I flinched at the acid in her tone. “I don’t under-” “The stars picked a perfect mate for you and all either of you ever did was fight and goad each other and force each other away.”

“Because I couldn’t just forgive all of his shit,” I snarled, my own temper fraying as she called me out. “He never apologised to me, never gave me any real inclination that he cared at all-” “Bullshit!” Darcy shouted and I flinched. “He might be a fucking bastard and a ruthless asshole, he might have done all of those horrible things to you and maybe he even deserved a life spent pining for you. But you can’t say he never tried to show you how he felt. You just refused to hear it. And you refused to see it. Because you’re too fucking stubborn for your own good. Even when you wanted him you refused to admit it to yourself, you just hid behind hate and sex and came up with every excuse under the sun to deny your own heart.”

“That’s what I have with Lance,” she snarled. “It’s messy and terrifying and to anyone else it wouldn’t even come close to perfect. But it is perfect, Tor, he’s everything to me. And now he’s been torn away from me and there’s nothing I can do about it. Everything has been against us from the beginning. But there was never anything stopping you and Darius from being together apart from the two of you. If either of you had just pulled your heads out of your own asses and been honest with each other then none of this would have happened to you! And that kills me. Because I would give anything to have that freedom with Lance.” A choked sob escaped her and I shifted forward, reaching for her to pull her into my arms again.

I tossed a silencing bubble over us and offered Sofia a tight smile as I spotted her in her pink Pegasus form. She glanced between me and Darius and nodded her horsey head before stomping her foot on the ground to signal the rest of the herd to stay around us too. I need to tell that girl I love her more often.

“I shouldn’t have said it meant nothing to me after we were together in the Shimmering Springs,” I breathed, my voice so low I wasn’t sure he’d catch it, but the way his eyes flared with heat said he had. We stared at each other for the longest moment. All of the hurt and pain and the echoes of every horrible thing that had ever passed between us sitting there in that space. “I should have realised that you were meant for me sooner,” Darius said in a rough voice that betrayed just how much this distance between us hurt him.

“I deserved it,” he said in a low voice, my heart leaping in surprise at those words on his lips. “I deserved it, Roxy. And I’m sorry. Really, truly sorry for all of it. I know that doesn’t matter now and I know there’s nothing I can do to change this, but I need you to know it. I need you to feel it.” His hand landed over my heart and my flesh burned and ached for him even as my broken heart pounded beneath his palm.

His magic shifted to the surface of his skin and the deep heat of it called to my own power like they were one and the same, destined to be together always. My walls fell away and his magic tumbled beneath my flesh, filling me up and burning in the best possible way.

My gaze was still hooked on his eyes. Our foreheads still pressed together and his lips so close to mine that I could almost feel the movement of them as he spoke. “I love you, Roxy,” he said in a rough, dark voice which held no room for lies or falsehood, no space for tricks of cruelty. Only the truth. I could feel it just as keenly as I could feel the rush of his magic beneath my skin.

UUUGGGGGHHHHHH

“And I know it doesn’t change anything. That it can’t change anything,” he growled. “But I’m going to prove it to you. I’m going to do everything I can to make it up to you, for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes. I’ll never forgive myself for bringing this curse on us. And I’m never going to stop loving you either.”

His lips brushed against mine and another moan escaped me as I tilted my chin to meet him. It was the faintest touch of his mouth to mine and yet it felt like an earthquake was taking place in my soul to rival the one rocking the ground at our feet. My lips parted and he leaned in, his body pressing against mine and his presence overwhelming me until he was all I could see, smell, feel, taste and it was just too good to pull away. A crash of thunder sounded overhead as my arms slid around his neck and I moaned as he drove me back against the tree, his lips moving with mine as a desperate kind of hunger passed between us.

Tears slid down my cheeks as I kissed him harder, my whole body tangling with his as I threw an air shield up over our heads, pouring my magic into it as I fought to buy us just a few more seconds. He kissed me like he’d die if he didn’t, like the only reason his heart was beating at all was so that it could be mine, and I kissed him like the world could cave in around us and I wouldn’t even care so long as I was still in his arms when it ended.

“Why did you do it?!” I demanded, battling to get my hands free as I hunted his eyes for a crack in his façade. This bullshit lie he was feeding me. And why? What difference did it make now? “I didn’t do it,” he snarled, coming nose to nose with me, not blinking even once so all I could see was the depths of his earthy brown eyes. “I kept your secret. I never told anyone. I never even planned to.”

“I yield,” he huffed and my friends went crazy, diving on me and pulling me into their arms. But I couldn’t stop staring down at Seth as I melted the ice from his body and he rose to his feet. It felt good to beat him. But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t bring Orion back. It didn’t fix anything.

I grabbed Tory’s hand, pulling her out of the crowd and giving her a look that begged her to come with me. She nodded immediately, stripping off her shirt so she was left in her crop top and we took off into the sky without a backwards glance.

She pulled me into her arms and I held onto her, clinging to the other half of me. My twin, the night to my day. She was in pain too, and somehow in her arms it felt a little lighter. Like she was carrying some of mine and I was carrying some of hers.

my babies

As the youngest of the Heirs, the others had been teasing me about my birthday mattering the least

Osmond still didn’t raise his head in my presence to this day and now when I looked back on that lesson, I knew that the worst part of it all was the value I’d put on his life. A single aura. It was somehow worse than if I’d offered him nothing.

Because I was Darius Acrux, the most important man in the fucking room.

“Lord Acrux, I-” “Lord Acrux isn’t here and I assure you, I’m a lot less amenable to bullshit than he is,” I growled, my eyes shifting to Dragon slits as I stalked towards him and used every inch of my height and bulk to intimidate him. He might have been big, but no fucker could rival an Acrux Dragon for muscle mass. “You will go and get Lance Orion now, or you’re going to find yourself with one hell of a problem on your hands.”

Kipling was hiding the edge of a smile as he followed me from the room and all of the agents beyond the door were trying their damn hardest not to point and stare as their boss hurried around me to lead the way on like a whipped little bitch. No doubt they’d all suffer his rage once I was gone but for now, I had his balls firmly cupped in my palm.

“If any one of you aims a weapon at me, I’ll gladly cook your ass in Dragon fire for treason and piss on your smouldering bones for good measure.”

“Three square meals a day, a clean cell, a shower and fresh clothing are mandatory requirements for Fae incarcerated in a holding cell while awaiting prosecution. This isn’t Darkmore Penitentiary, Agent Hoskins, Mr Orion has Fae rights which must be adhered to. Innocent until proven guilty.” “I’ll get him a proper meal and a change of clothes for his return to his cell,” Hoskins grunted reluctantly. “He will require a suitable, clean mattress, warm blankets, constant access to toilet facilities and water at all times. I’ll be checking in to make sure he has all of those things,” Kipling said in a flat tone as he turned to place his briefcase on the table. “Consider it done,” Hoskins grunted. “Oh, I do,” Kipling agreed.

“Agent Hoskins, you have been served on behalf of the FIB for failing to provide due care and comfort to a suspect under your charge and for attempting to spy on legally protected conversations between myself and my client. I’ll see you in court.”

“How’s Blue?” he asked in return. “Fucking furious,” I replied. “She beat the shit out of Seth in front of the whole school. He’s been howling all fucking night and day since.” A merciless laugh escaped him. “That’s my girl.”

“In the meantime, my brothers and I spent the entirety of the last seventeen hours watching the video evidence. It was a six hour tape, so it took a while but during that time we managed to individually catalogue each law break and how we will fight against their use in this case.” “You watched hours of my girl and me having sex?” Lance snarled protectively and he looked damn close to leaping out of the chair and throttling Kipling just for having seen it. “If it appeases you, you may wish to know that my brothers and I have very specific tastes sexually and neither you nor Miss Vega fulfil them, so I can assure you the work was in no way gratifying. I prefer men in their fifties or older with considerably more body hair than you. My middle brother only enjoys sex with inanimate objects and my youngest brother likes Medusa women in shifted form.”

“Aside from when your middle brother starts humping a grapefruit or something and you’re linked in for the show, I guess,” I joked to lighten the tension in the room and Kipling just shrugged. “He’s been more interested in sponge cakes recently, but we are getting off topic,” Kipling deadpanned.

So it doesn’t matter that you bit her breasts, inner thigh and buttocks. That will be dismissed.”

“You’re not playing that tape in court!” Lance yelled suddenly, leaping to his feet, slamming his fists down on the table and shoving away from it in a rage. “I won’t have countless assholes ogle her like that. I’d sooner just plead guilty and take my punishment!”

“Don’t even think about it,” I snarled. “You’re not going to prison.” “Darius,” Lance said suddenly, looking up at me with real fear in his eyes. “You have to swear to me that you’ll look after Blue. Promise me you’ll keep helping her with the shadows. Swear to me that she will not fall prey to your father or his hateful quest for power!”

“Yeah,” Roxy agreed and I snorted smoke in her face again. Her other hand swung out as she coughed against the smoke and she lightly slapped me on the snout to tell me off. “Did you just slap a fucking Dragon?” Caleb asked, his eyes sparkling as he looked at her with a little too much appreciation for my liking.

I drew in a sharp breath as I spotted the Gemini, Leo and Taurus constellations lit up brightly above us despite the fact that the sun hadn’t even set. “Shit,” Cal muttered. “They figured it out.”

and the sex was fucking-” I growled at him and he smirked as he shrugged. “You’ve been there, man, you know exactly what the sex is like with her.” “This conversation is likely to end in your death,”

“Because that’s what love is,” I said in a low voice, running my finger over a bare patch of skin on my right forearm thoughtfully. “It’s giving everything without expecting anything in return. It’s sacrificing your heart and happiness for someone else and it’s owning all of your mistakes and trying to make them right. Not because you expect to get something in return for it. But because the person you love needs to know how you feel.”

“Doesn’t she deserve to have love then?” he asked. “Doesn’t she deserve to wake up every day in the arms of someone who loves her? To have laughter and happiness and a hundred fucking Dragon babies if that’s what she wants?” “She does, but-” “But nothing,” he snapped. “That’s why all of us are working so damn hard to figure out a way around this for you. Because we believe you both deserve that. So stop selling yourself short. Stop selling her short. And decide right here and now that you’re going to fight for your girl. Really fight for her. Not just achieve this bullshit mission to right all your wrongs against her. Prove to her that you deserve her and then climb up into the fucking sky and tear the stars right out of it for her if they still don’t agree.”

Did I want to fight with every goddamn fibre of my being for Roxy Vega to be mine? “Yes, it is.”

I hadn’t been allowed to bring Tory. And it felt like an impossible task to face this day without her. I had to rely on Darius to be at my side through this.

“You’ve been a good friend,” I said. “He couldn’t ask for a better one.” Darius’s eyebrows knitted together. “I hope it’s enough.”

“Your honour, I’d like to call my next witness to the stand,” Whitclaw announced and Darkice inclined his head. “Miss Kylie Major.”

But if he could just avoid prison, I knew Darius could find a way to get me to him. There had to be a way. We could make it work. We just had to climb this momentous hurdle and seek the light on the other side. Because no one would ever compare to him. No one would ever own my heart but that man. It was a truth cast in iron, impossible to undo. And if I had to wait months or years or an eternity for him, I would.

“It’s with regret that I laid a hand on a princess of Solaria,” he spoke evenly and his words brought a sharp frown to my face. “And it’s with even more regret that I admit that I used her for my own gain. I groomed her, manipulated her and ultimately, I used Dark Coercion on her to force her to be mine.”

“She has no idea, of course. That’s why she told lies here today. I convinced her that she loved me, I made her forget that I forced her hand, I made her want me and desire me. Everything she believes about our relationship is a farce that I concocted.” I shook my head, tears rolling down my cheeks as Darius’s grip tightened on my hand. “And why would you do that?” Whitclaw asked sweetly. “Because I wanted her. I got off on the power and I knew I could use her to rise in society,” Orion said with a shrug that was callous and cold.

“I change my plea,” Orion said before Darkice could answer him. “I plead guilty.” “He’s lying!” I rose from my seat again, refusing to let this stand. “Have him put through Cyclops interrogation,” Darius demanded, pointing directly at the judge like he could threaten him into doing so. “Then you’ll see the truth.”

His betrayal sliced deeper than a knife. He hadn’t fought for us. He’d dived head first into the pits of hell without me. And for what? I felt a cracking in my soul that spoke of the promise we’d made on the stars together. To always fight to be together. He’d broken it. And he’d broken me in the process.

And when she finally cried herself to sleep and I didn’t have to be strong for her anymore, I slipped out of my bed, lay on the floor and let the shadows have me.

“Wow. I’ve never seen you throw a tantrum before,” I teased as he shoved his hands through his hair and started pacing.