Cursed Fates (Zodiac Academy, #5)

by Caroline Peckham

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.

“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.

“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.”

“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.”

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.

It was like I’d been forged in punishment and pain, and I simply couldn’t get enough of it no matter how much it damaged me.

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.”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

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.

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.

“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.”

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

“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.

“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.”

“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 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.

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.

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.

I watched him leave while 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.

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 garage.

“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.

But please don’t take any stupid risks. I can’t lose you, Lance. You have no idea how awful it was seeing you there, bleeding, hurting, dying-” He kissed me, gripping the back of my neck to keep me close and my heart found a steadier rhythm once more. “I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured against my lips. “We made a deal with the stars, remember?”

He spanked my ass, and I gasped in surprise before leaning back to tickle him in retaliation. He laughed and the sound lit me up from the inside as he caught my wrists and pinned them against his chest. “Bad girl.”

“I’m okay with you being my weakness, Blue. Because that means my weakness is a badass, hot as fuck Phoenix with enough fire in her veins to rival the sun. So come at me stars, I’m invincible!” He pointed at the ceiling, and I laughed, tucking myself against his chest again and wondering if I was ever going to get this smile off my face.

“Do you think she loved me?” I whispered, not sure if I was really expecting an answer from him or just wondering the thought aloud to the universe.

Orion trailed his thumb along my jaw, down my neck and across my collar bone, his gaze following the path he took. “How could she not love you?”

“I never felt at home there, I always felt like somewhere else was calling my name. I just didn’t know where to look for it.” “I guess it found you in the end,” he said with a smirk in his voice. “Or to be more precise, I found you.”

“Explain,” I demanded. “Because it sounded like you just answered a phone call to your ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night and now you’re running off to see her at the click of her fingers.”

“This is a Sun Steel blade,” he explained. “Very fucking rare. The FIB use them to fight Nymphs and Francesca hooked me up with one.”

“I’m not telling you to stay because firstly, you’re a fucking force to be reckoned with, beautiful. And secondly…” He stepped closer, taking my hand and firmly kissing the back of it. “We make a fucking excellent team; I’d be doing us a disservice to leave you behind.” “You sure know how to talk your way out of trouble, Professor.” I cocked a brow and he smirked at my expression. “I know how to lick my way out of it too, Miss Vega.”

“So, I can be bad so long as I’m being bad with you?” I teased. “Exactly.”

“Fae can train themselves out of anything,” Darius said firmly, and I wondered if that was true.

“Firstly, I’m almost nineteen, and secondly, I’m well aware it’s not child’s play. I was aware when I battled for my life and the lives of my friends at the palace. I was aware when I fought at Lance’s side when the academy was attacked. I was also aware when I turned a bunch of Nymphs to dust because they can’t stand the power of my Phoenix fire. So just to be clear, I’m aware.”