Ruthless Fae (Zodiac Academy, #2)

by Caroline Peckham

Marguerite Helebor: Poor baby! You can always come and stay with me. #companyformysnugglyD Tyler Corbin: Pretty sure he publicly dumped you Muffscruff, but way to go on looking desperate. #shameonthisdame #humpedanddumped Marguerite Helebor: We’re on a break, loser, check your facts. #starsdontlie #meanttobe Tyler Corbin: I really hope you have that chat with him in public again so that I can watch you get dumped twice. #bitchesbecrazy

A Pegasus was about as far as you could get to the opposite end of the Order spectrum. They were flying horses who pooped glitter, granted wishes and were... cute. Xavier hadn’t even been lucky enough to have a dark coloured coat, it was lilac. Lilac!

“If this is some trick, I’m going to kick you in your scaly balls,” I warned.

I narrowed my eyes, wondering if maybe he had some sort of personality disorder I wasn't aware of. He'd gone from volcanic hot to glacial cold in the space of five seconds and apparently, he'd forgotten all about it.

A loud knock sounded at my door just as Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off started and I upped my dance moves as I called for Sofia to come in. “You’re just in time,” I said as I grabbed a red bra from the box. “Diego would go nuts over you in this.” I turned to face her and my mouth fell open as I found a brooding Dragon asshole in my doorway instead of my friend. Weirdly, he was smiling at me like I amused him instead of scowling like I’d just pissed on his grandma, but I wasn’t going to trust in this strangely friendly visage. I stopped dancing instantly and tossed the bra back in the box. “Don’t stop dancing on my account,” Darius urged, his eyes dripping over my shorts in a way that made my blood heat.

“It suits you,” he said. “What does?” I asked. “Smiling.”

So he had one line which he wouldn’t cross and that was murder. Great to know.

Seth started singing Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by Burt Bacharach full pelt. His white shirt had turned entirely transparent to reveal his muscular body and water dripped from him in streams. “Shut the fuck up!” Orion shouted. “I'm trying to concentrate here.” “Watching porn again, sir?” Seth shot at him with a smirk. “Yeah, your mom's really improved since the last edition,” he answered without missing a beat and Seth's face dropped into a scowl while a laugh tore from my throat.

“Roxanya Vega was the first to be born at exactly three minutes and eleven seconds past midnight on the eleventh of June.” She darted toward me. “And Gwendalina was the second born, at eleven minutes and three seconds past midnight. Do you have any idea how powerful these numbers are? Three and eleven are the strongest numbers in the universe and you were both born with them etched into your celestial DNA.”

“Now, back to the lesson,” Zenith called, and a few grumbled mutterings reached my ears. Words like 'favouritism' and 'Vega whores' were among them. The second one had definitely come from Kylie.

“Then stop looking at me like that.” Embarrassment poured through me like a tsunami, but I fought it away, elbowing aside my shame. Because how dare he accuse me of being inappropriate? He'd had his hands all over me the other day and he'd shouted at me for that too. I was so done with his bullshit. So I stepped closer too, looking him square in the eye as my hands began to shake with rage. “Then stop looking back, Lance.” I left him with a gobsmacked expression on his face as I turned away, casting air at the symbol above the door. It unlocked with a loud clunk, and I darted inside, slamming it behind me without a single glance back.

I frowned at the super negative predictions. Today sounds like it’s going to be a shitstorm then.

I shrugged innocently and she rolled her eyes at me. Point taken. I won’t get myself mixed up with the pretty asshole tonight... Probably.

“You really don’t like him, do you?” Xavier asked in surprise. “Who?” I asked innocently. “Darius,” he said, his gaze moving over my shoulder. “This is the part where I insult him and he’s right behind me, isn’t it?” Xavier’s eyes sparked with amusement. and he nodded. Far be it from me to disappoint. “In that case, I happen to think he’s a vindictive, pretentious, twat-waffle who really needs to pull the stick out of his ass and let loose more often,” I said. “I thought we were being nice this evening?” Darius murmured behind me, and I stifled a flinch at just how close he was. “You said you’d be nice. I made no such promises,” I pointed out, turning to look up at him as he moved to my side.

Darius Acrux may have been a lot of things, but it seemed he was a man of his word; he’d promised to be nice to me tonight and that was what he was delivering. I’d have to keep an eye on the time though, at midnight his Cinderella spell might come undone, and he’d turn back into an asshole shaped pumpkin.

“Everyone's going to think we're completely insane.” “I'm sorry did you say that to me or to the raven on my shoulder?” Tory asked. I broke a laugh, and she cracked a smile, glancing down at the article and shaking her head.

I released him, snatching Seth by the collar and yanking him closer. I was maybe one percent rougher with him than the others. But he had cut off Blue's hair and I just couldn't fucking forgive it. End of story.

Because I’d never, in all the years I'd known them, seen the Celestial Heirs look so rattled.