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No one had dared give me so much as a verbal warning since we’d arrived at this school, yet he’d just seen fit to give us two weeks in detention. Who the hell did he think he was? Didn’t he consider the fact that we would be his kings soon? Was he really so angry with us that he’d risk incurring our wrath?
He’ll realise exactly who he’s crossed once I’ve graduated this place. I’m more than an Heir to him; I’m the most powerful Vampire in Solaria and his superior in every way once I leave this academy behind.
I didn’t want to remember the way her heart had been beating too slowly when I’d strained my ears to listen for it. I didn’t want to think about the way she’d kept her eyes to the floor instead of glaring right back at us. We’d needed to break them. It had to be done.
Darius wasn’t quick to anger but when he did lose his temper he was always drawn to the release of transformation. His Dragon form was the perfect outlet for rage and as a Leo, his temper was fierce when it was unleashed.
The ancient oak which housed King’s Hollow towered above me as I made it to the entrance at its roots. Long ago, someone had wielded powerful Earth magic on this tree to create the place we called our haven. The four of us were always under so much pressure to portray the perfect image, to exude power and strength and command the attention of every Fae in the room, so this one spot was the only place we had that we could call our own and truly be ourselves.
If you can love the other Heirs like brothers then your life will be all the easier for it, but either way, you are stuck together. Through the good and the bad you are united. Your individual feelings do not matter when it comes to the actions of the group. You are one. And you must never show even the slightest form of weakness to the outside world. The actions of each of you are the actions of all of you. You stand together. If you falter, the whole of Solaria will fall.
It was like their birthright ran in their blood with all the ferocity of The Savage King himself, despite the fact that they’d never known they’d be expected to claim their power.
He always fought against the image that Sirens were sympathetic by nature and he never wanted to admit that the fear and misery of others upset him when he fed on it. But I knew it did. He couldn’t hide his true self from me or the other Heirs no matter how hard he tried.
“So you’d have been pleased with yourself if you’d killed her, would you?” I asked, my voice low with warning.
Before I could consider it, I shot out of my chair and threw him against the wall.
I snarled at him, the beast beneath my skin rising to the surface as I lost my temper, and my fangs grew.
“I needed to fly,” he said with a shrug. “Or I was going to bite Orion’s head off. Literally.”
Everyone knew that if a Dragon Shifter really lost their temper with you, they were likely to transform and eat you whole. Not that I’d seen Darius lose his cool like that very often. He’d learned the hard way how to keep his temper in check growing up with his father.
Seth asked Darius casually, dropping down beside me and petting my arm. I knew he could tell that I was still riled up and he was looking to comfort me like I was one of his pack-mates, but I wasn’t a damn Wolf and the only thing I wanted right now was space.
Seth said as he shifted even closer to me, pulling my hand into his like that would soothe me.
I shoved him off of me and he whimpered before nuzzling against my neck. “Piss off, Seth,” I snapped,
“I don’t like it when you’re sad,”
“Well if this is what it takes to keep our positions then maybe I don’t like being a part of it,” I countered. As soon as the words left my lips, I wished they hadn’t. The three of them were staring at me like I’d just grown a second head.
“Do you think I enjoyed doing that?” he demanded. “Do you think I want to be terrorising people and preying on their worst fears? You think I don’t realise what that makes me? Who that makes me?”
“How many times have we sat around this room and discussed all the things we don’t like about the way our parents rule?” I hissed. “And yet at the first real test of our claim, we bow to their way of doing things.”
The fire that should have killed us when we were babies hadn't; it forged us into something stronger, cast our bones in steel and gave us strength in each other’s company.
There was something about it that spoke to me, awakening a weird urge in my soul which said it should be mine.
“Well, that's one way to wake a guy up, huh?”
“Do you have any idea how much stardust costs? Dragon Fire is the only way to make it. They literally have to melt down meteors for this stuff, so unless you want to go and pay Darius Acrux for a bag, you're out of luck,”
Orion reached out and his hand wrapped around mine where it contained the stardust. The warmth of his palm sent heat skittering through my body, and I didn't know what to do as his hand remained there. Like he was going to take the stardust. But he still hadn't. He shifted closer and my body physically reacted, my muscles coiling and my heart galloping into a desperate rhythm.
His eyes scoured my face then shifted to my neck and I took in a slow breath.
“I thought you and your sister were made of tougher stuff.”
He reached out again, and I stilled entirely as his fingertips skimmed up my arm and charted a path to my neck. “Say it then,” he murmured, and I frowned, my senses focused entirely on the line of fire his touch had painted across my skin.
“That you give up your place at Zodiac Academy. That you weren't strong enough to stay. That you are not Fae.”
He was so close, almost nose to nose. His scent skipped across me and the intoxicating aura he emitted seemed to slide through the walls of my skin, paralysing me. “Fae fight for their place in the world, Blue. They don't ever bow out of a fight. If the Heirs have beaten you, then you're not one of us. And you never were.”
I clenched my jaw, a deep well spilling over in my chest full of nothing but power. It pushed into every inch of my blood and swirled inside me like a hurricane. “I am Fae,” I snarled, and Orion’s brows arched as I pointed at him, a furious pit opening up inside me.
How could I explain that Orion had made me see things so much clearer? That leaving didn’t just feel like losing, it went entirely against who I was at my very core. And it must have gone against my sister’s nature too. We were one and the same. Twins who shared each other’s blood. Changelings, sisters, Fae.
“What's gotten into you?” Heat rolled up my spine and I almost said Orion's gotten right under my skin and he knows how to pull my strings to get crazy reactions
Magic coiled in my veins and drew right to edges of my skin as if it wanted to unite with the blade.
Lance: Location: Venus Library Row: Epsilon Text: Earth: The Power of Growth.
Lance: I think you know me better as the 'bourbon drinking professor with a permanent scowl stamped on his face and a general air of failed dreams about him.' Check out the book, Blue. You'll find it educational. P.S Delete these messages immediately.
I noticed a dark red symbol raised on his forearm which I recognised as the sign for Libra and wondered for a moment why he had someone else’s star sign on his skin.
Caleb met the hatred in my gaze with a flicker of a smile. “Well, I’m glad they didn’t crush your spirit after all, sweetheart.”
“Well, no, but she isn’t my Source. I have a duty to protect you from harm and I’ve sworn an oath which means I can’t torture or torment you,”
You know you broke through the ice while it was just Max controlling it? It took Darius’s power combined with his to trap you beneath it.”
My attention zeroed in on the word fleas and I flipped to that section, wondering if maybe…
A smile played around Orion's mouth, and he met my gaze for half a second, making me grin even wider.
Hydra. Kraken. Phoenix. Arian Dolphin. Empusa. Ophiotaurus. “Can anyone tell me what links these Orders?” Orion asked, gazing around the room as if he expected crickets. “They're extinct, sir,” Sofia said, her voice a little high. Orion nodded firmly. “Five points to Ignis. And can anyone tell me why?” He turned back to the board, circling the Hydra Order in red. “Because of impure blood lines?” a raven-haired girl called from the back. “Precisely, Miss Abdul, five points to Aqua,” Orion said. “The Hydra Order is the most recent to become extinct after King Vega died seventeen years ago.”
“King Vega married outside of his Order, meaning his bloodline was mixed with that of a Harpy and whatever other genetics the Queen carried. As his daughters-” he gave us a pointed look “-haven't yet emerged in their Order forms, there is a possibility that the Hydra Order could arise once more. However...that will be down to various factors. Genetics, the stars they are linked to...”
“The more genetics that are introduced to a bloodline, the less chance there is of a parent birthing offspring of the same Order. That is why some rarer Orders now try to keep their lines pure by only breeding with those of their kind. Can anyone give me an example?” “The Dragons, sir?”
“As anyone who has grown up in Solaria knows, Nymphs are creatures born without magical gifts, but they can acquire them from Fae. They are our sworn enemies. Their nature is one of destruction and death.
Orion tapped the screen and a creepy image appeared of a tall figure with long, sharpened fingers. It looked almost tree-like, its body sinewy and brown. Its face was a demonic thing with red eyes and curling horns seemingly made from bark which twisted above its head. “This is a Nymph in its true form,”
“They vary in size depending on age and gender, but that is the least of your concerns. Nymphs are gifted with an energy that is capable of disabling a Fae's magic. A Nymph can overwhelm Fae within less than thirty seconds at close range. The process has been described as a draining, sucking feeling that pulls at the well of magic inside you and immobilises it. This is accompanied by a rattling noise.”
“Does anyone know where the Nymphs originate from?”
“The Shadow Realm,”
