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Darius shifted, turning away and my brows lifted. Shit are we in the exact same boat here? “Maybe you were thinking with your dick and not your head.”
No girl had ever turned my head enough to make me an idiot. I'd already made it clear that that kiss was a one-time thing with Darcy. It should have been a never time thing but here we are.
My horoscope had told me I'd be ruled by Venus today. And that was the horniest fucking planet in the solar system. I should have been prepared to deal with it. I was a professor at Zodiac Academy, dammit, and I couldn't even ward off Venus when it shoved me in front of The Savage King's daughter.
If we don’t watch out, we could end up with two naive savage princesses on the throne and give the Nymphs exactly the kind of unbalance they need to tip the scales of this fight in their favour.”
“So you think they could overthrow you if they stay then?”
But I felt Roxy’s power and I almost lost myself in it. She didn’t tire in over two hours of wielding a constant stream of powerful fire magic. We’ve got four years of experience over them but if it came to brute force, they could pose a challenge.
I rolled my neck, vaguely looking around the room in hopes of finding something to drink. It was a habit I'd formed after Clara's death. A drink a day made that familiar ache stop. Sometimes it needed three, or four. But I drowned it eventually. This night felt like a solid six.
They had titles like Beating the Acursed, Advanced Predictive Charting and Binding a Strong Will.
I placed my palms on his chest and pushed him back, propelling him around so that he was pressed against the shelf instead of me and a dark laugh left him. “Do you wanna be in charge, sweetheart?” “Well, I am more powerful than you,” I teased.
“I heard you like it when they shove their horn up your-”
Caleb sighed and turned back to look at me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Darius. He looked my way, meeting my eyes and I almost flinched from the anger I found there.
Darius’s gaze stayed fixed on us the entire time and I couldn’t help but look back at him. His eyes were like two burning pits of rage, and I wondered briefly if Caleb was breaking some rule of theirs by being less than awful to me.
“With who?” she demanded, her eyes widening. I glanced at Orion awkwardly and he rolled his eyes before stalking away from us further down the drive.
I sighed in defeat, ready to admit to yet another Tory’s bad choice in men moment. “Caleb.” Orion turned to look back at me with a raised eyebrow and I cursed his damn Vampire ears. I should have realised he’d still be listening in. Nosey asshole.
Then her eyes sparkled with mischief as she dropped her voice. “So how was it?” Orion cleared his throat and I scowled at him. “I’ll tell you later when there are less nosey Vampires using their bat ears around us,” I said. Darcy grinned, looking over at Orion who didn’t even bother to pretend he hadn’t been listening to us.
“What was it you called him again?” he asked. “Ummm, I don’t really recall...” “I think you said something about an oversized iguana,” he prompted, and I snorted a laugh. Darius tried to resist laughing too but he couldn’t really hide his smile.
He stared at me for a long moment as if he was trying to figure me out and I dropped my eyes before he could. I didn’t want Darius Acrux in my head.
“Careful,” I teased. “Someone might think we don’t even hate each other if you don’t release me soon.”
“I never said I hated you,” he murmured, his voice deep as he tugged me around to face him. I looked up at his striking face, the moonlight highlighting his strong jaw and pulling my attention to his mouth for a moment.
I turned away from him, looking for Orion and the stardust which would take us back to the academy but his fingers curled around my wrist before I could escape. “Do you hate me, then?” he asked quietly and for some strange reason it sounded like the idea of that didn’t sit well with him.
“No,” I said, and a glimmer of relief spilled through his eyes, almost halting me there but I wasn’t quite so blinded by him as to give him a free pass for all his bullshit. “To hate you, I’d have to care about you. And I don’t give one shit about you,” I said coldly.
He didn’t follow me, and I was glad. Because I had the horrible feeling that that might just have been a lie.
After the party last night, my head was pounding, and I'd had many dreams about Lance. Professor Orion, I correctly sharply in my head. I had to forget about that kiss, but holy shit it felt like it was permanently branded on my lips.
“Moved on to your next conquest already? That sex addiction of yours must be quite difficult to maintain,” he teased, clearly hoping to get a rise out of me. I leaned closer to him, the scent of cedar and smoke overwhelming me for a moment. “Well, the real challenge is finding someone who can keep up with me,” I said. “I’ll pass your complaints on to Caleb,” Darius replied, though his jaw tightened as he said it, making me believe my hook up with Caleb pissed him off far more than trying to taunt me with it would.
“Whereas you prefer your coffee with a bucket of sugar added because you’re just so damn sweet?” he asked sarcastically as he watched me. “No. I like my sugar with a dash of coffee added because I’m bitter.”
Every now and then I’d feel eyes on me and glance up from my social media perusal to find Darius looking my way. I didn’t like it. What did he want with me? It couldn’t be anything good.
Her performance made me smirk into my coffee, especially when Darius looked my way again and stared long enough for her to jump to her feet in outrage. “Enjoy it while it lasts, whore,” she snarled at me before stalking away.
I could feel Darius looking at me again but if he was waiting for a thank you then it’d be a hell of a long time coming. I dropped my gaze to my FaeBook feed and pointedly ignored him while I continued to wait.
He was showing it off, hoping the mystery girl would see it. Little did he know his mystery girl was a six-and-a-half-foot Dragon asshole with the shortest fuse I’d ever come across and a temper to rival a hurricane.
The room was growing hotter the longer this interrogation went on and it took me a moment to realise that it was heat pouring from Darius as his rage grew.
A huge crash sounded upstairs, and a few people screamed. The next sound to come was the echoing roar of a Dragon intent on burning down the whole world. I looked out of the window and spotted Darius wheeling through the sky breathing a gigantic fireball into existence.
The pitch itself was nothing like any I'd ever seen. It was the shape of a football field but that was where the similarities ended. In each corner was a large bronze pyramid around five feet in height with a football-sized hole at its peak. In the four corners of the pitch, the turf was painted in the colours of the Elements; blue, green, red and white. At the very middle of it was a huge, circular bronze plate and dead centre of that was a large pit almost ten feet in width.
What surprised me a little less was Lionel's butler standing two feet away with a tray of ice water and glasses. His expression was formal, but his eyes kept whipping to the pitch and I wondered if he cared more about Darius's game than his parents did.
My stomach clenched as Orion appeared in the underground passage and led our team out, wearing the same black uniform as the other coach. His brow was taut, but his expression was full of anticipation, his mouth set in a way that told me how much he adored being on that pitch.
I can't believe I kissed a teacher. I can't believe I can't tell anyone. I can't believe I'll never get to do it again.
“There's ten players on a team, the two Pit Keepers guard the Pit from the opposing team to stop them getting any balls in. The easiest way to remember the other players is that there are two of each Element, one plays defence to keep the other team away from the ball, the other plays offence to get the ball into the pit. For example, there are two earth players on every team. Our Earthbacker, Geraldine, is defence and Caleb is the offensive earth player called an Earthraider.”
“What's Darius?”
“He's defence for fire which is called a Fireshield. The fire offence is called a Fireside.”
“We have an arrangement which works mainly via email. You should try it with Orion, see if he'll let you out of them,” she said airily. My mouth dried out at her words. “Oh well...he'd never let me.” And I don't want to stop them.
Maybe I should try and get out of them though. How awkward is it gonna be when we're next alone in a room together? And how will I stop myself from thinking about that earth-shattering kiss?
Before I could ask Sofia for more information, Prestos's whistle screeched, and Darius swung a fist right into the Starlight Captain's face.
“Oh my god,” I gasped as Darius lunged to pick up the ball, only to receive a knee right to his chin. Darius was ready, lurching back and throwing a kick while the entire stadium bellowed in encouragement.
“But there was terror and fire and death!” Washer insisted, his voice trembling on the last word. “It isn’t safe here. This place has been marked-”
Before the crowd could swallow him, he mouthed one, single word to us, sending a shiver tracking down my spine. Run.
“Altair, fuck what the crowd thinks. I don't care if you're into bondage with leprechauns, leave that shit off the pitch, you got it?”
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.
Maybe I needed this win more than they did. Maybe they weren't driven with all the desperate passion of a guy who'd lost his chance to play for the Solarian Pitball League. But so help me, in all the years I'd either played for or coached the Zodiac Academy Pitball team, we had never come last in a tournament. So we weren't going to start this year.
“My pack won't sleep with me or run with me or spend any time with me and I'm not meant to be alone. And it itches so much, Professor!” He stared up at me in desperation and I scowled down at him, shaking him off of my legs. This is pitiful.
“Good.” I smacked him overly hard on the shoulder so he stumbled and I tried not to acknowledge the fact that that had anything to do with Darcy. Because it didn't, dammit.
“I need you to put this aside for the last half. Then if you want to, you can go full Dragon asshole on him later. I'll even bring a flame thrower and help you do it to make sure we get back every item he stole. But your friends need you on point right now. Look at them.”
