Shadow Princess (Zodiac Academy, #4)

by Caroline Peckham

I raised a brow. “But not a queen you’d kneel for,” I said airily. “You’d only get on your knees for a king or four.” “In my defence, I only gave Darius a blowjob one time while I was drunk so it really doesn’t count,” he joked.

My eyes fell on the petals on the floor and the answer was clear. He wanted my life to fall apart just like that flower had. And he wanted to be the one who did it. A pretty thing crushed in his fist. But I wasn’t fragile, I was a weapon forged in fire. And it looked like he’d realised that at long last.

“No, Tory!” Darcy moved between us and her own fire flickered along her arms as she faced me down. “Just listen would you? Instead of making assumptions! If you could ever just control your temper you wouldn’t have half the problems you do!”

even if I went to Darkmore Penitentiary and had to live out the rest of my days behind bars, I’d never regret a moment of it. Because my life was empty before I loved her. And parting us won’t change the way I feel for her.”

“You assault me, blame me for wearing a hat then tell me you’re in love with my sister and the most pressing issue you have is my treatment of some old books?” I snorted a laugh. “You assaulted me,” he protested. “What did she do?” Darcy asked in confusion. “He was trying to shove his tongue down my throat so I kicked him in the balls,” I said with a smirk.

“You didn’t just kick me in the balls, I think you fucking broke them,” Orion snarled and Darcy laughed. “It’s not funny.” “It is pretty funny,” I contradicted.

“You get one shot to do right by her,” I warned, pointing at him. “And if you fuck it up, if you hurt her or break her heart, then I won’t just kick you in the balls. I’ll castrate you.”

Orion shifted his hands before his junk protectively, clearing his throat as he glanced at Darcy. “Fucking hell, I think she actually would,” he muttered, like I was insane. Darcy offered me the brightest smile in the world as she answered him. “Yeah, she totally would.”

So maybe it was time we stopped denying our birth right. Because the Vegas had been born to rule. And I was sick of being forced to bow.

Max and Geraldine were next and she flipped her hair like she didn’t give a damn as they moved under the arch. She immediately planted her lips on his while he was still rolling his shoulders and puffing out his chest in preparation. Then she was gone just like that and he stood staring after her like a fish out of water.

“You’re not unwelcome,” Darius murmured so low that I wasn’t sure anyone else could hear him. “And I’m sorry we’re ruining your day.” I looked at him in surprise, my lips parting as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to say to that. I hadn’t even known that word was in his vocabulary, let alone that he was capable of aiming it at me. “You’re not ruining it,” I replied slowly, trying to shrug off the feeling that something had been stolen from us by this ambush of a meal. “It’s not like we had some other amazing plans...”

Darius laughed and for a moment I just stared at him with my lips parted. Where were the douchebags who tormented us all around campus? Was this some kind of Christmas miracle or something? Had a little elf come and crawled up all of their asses to fill them with Christmas spirit this morning? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to question it.

“Because you’re in my head all the time. You pulse through my blood with each beat of my heart. I live for every scrap of attention you offer me and suffer through every moment you spend ignoring me,” he said darkly, holding my eye the entire time.

“Neither do I,” he growled. “But when I see you, all I want is to lay claim to you. I want you to be mine and I know you never will be and it’s making me even more fucked up than I was to begin with. That’s why I hate you. Not because I’m supposed to or because my father wants me to, but because you represent every freedom I’ve never been given. It’s like you were designed entirely to taunt me and toy with me and crack me open and I won’t let it stand.”

I held Darius’s gaze as I slowly lowered myself to my knees in front of him. “I’ll never bow to you,” I breathed as the cold stone at the foot of the throne bit into my skin. “But if you like me on my knees then there are better things that I can do down here than kiss your feet.”

“I don’t want you on your knees. I want you fighting me and hating me and fucking me like you mean it. You’re Roxanya Vega and you weren’t built to bow to anyone,” he growled passionately. “You want me to hate you?” I asked in surprise.

“I want you to feel for me. And I’ll take hate if that’s all you’re offering.”

I wondered what would happen if anyone found us here like this. A Vega and an Heir screwing on the throne we fought over so desperately.

He was like a drug and I felt like an addict going back for another hit. I knew that he was poison, but I just couldn’t stop myself from taking a bite.

“That’s true. And anyway, Tory, it wasn’t like Darius told me about the size of your dick or anything,” Orion mocked and her eyes flared with a challenge.

“Not the point,” she hissed. “And you can tell Darius if he describes a single freckle on my body, I’ll cut his balls off.”

“What is it with you and cutting people’s balls off?” Orion’s brows pulled together. “Just go for the jugular, you savage.” Tory cracked a smile and the two of them beamed at each other like good friends. It felt freaking amazing to see them looking at each other like that.

“Yeah plus we passed this bookshelf and Orion saw some Numerology book on it and basically had to stop and have an orgasm over it,” I said with a shrug. “Ha, that’s so you,” Darius laughed. “Bet it was a real smooth hardback.” “Yeah, and the spine was so curvy,” Orion played along and I bit my lip on a grin. “I could have fingered those pages all day.” “Alright enough with whatever the fuck is happening right now, let’s head to the woods.”

“What’s he gonna find? That you’re expanding your bird sanctuary to take in misguided toads?” Darius grinned at me in a way that was totally without bullshit. He was sharing an in joke with me. A freaking in joke.

Darius appeared behind Tory with a huge snow ball held above her head, but as he saw what my sister was doing, he lowered it and looked at Caleb frozen at the centre of the space. “A snowman,” he said brightly, walking forward, lifting his huge snowball up again. “Darius,” Caleb warned. “Don’t you d-” Darius planted the huge ball of snow over his head and I fell apart with laughter, dropping down to the ground as I clutched my side.

“You can deny it as much as you like, Roxy, but you and me are going to happen over and over,” he promised, the scent of him wrapping around me and the heat of his flesh blazing so fiercely I could feel it despite the inch of space dividing us. “So no matter how much you hate me or despise me or wish you didn’t want me in any way at all, there’s no stopping it. You don’t feel fire like that and just let it burn out.”

This was a Divine Moment. The stars had guided me here and they’d be bringing someone else to join me. Someone who was perfect for me in every way. Who

pushed me and challenged me. Who made my heart beat harder and my flesh prickle with desire unlike anyone I’d ever known. She was my mate.

The one the stars had selected for me. My one true love. And after tonight there wouldn’t be a force in the universe th...

Elysian mates. Unbreakable. True love.

I’d never taken anything for myself like this before. Never had something purely because it was the deepest desire of my heart. But that was what she was.

Roxy Vega was the piece of me that was missing. She was everything I should have realised I needed sooner. If we hadn’t gotten so caught up in hating each other, we could have already had something to build the foundation of this on. But none of that mattered. Because from this day on, I’d be hers and she’d be mine. And I’d ...

It was time for us to choose our fate. And I didn’t think I’d ever had such an easy decision to make in my entire life. I’d wanted her to be mine for so long that I couldn’t remember a time when the idea of it hadn’t consumed me. And it had been for this. All of it. Everything we’d faced together, every fight and disagreement, every single moment leading us here. We’d faced more tests and challenges than I could count to get us here, but we’d made it. Now all we had to do was grab this moment with both hands and claim it for our own. It wasn’t a decision, it was fate. And for the first time in my life, it felt like destiny was on my side.

“I mean, like the way I lie awake at night, remembering what it felt like to hold you in my arms. How still the world felt, how pure that moment was between us. How I imagine I can still smell your perfume as my eyes fall closed and how I reach across my bed in the night wishing you were really there. Or like the way my heart beats harder when you walk into a room and my throat thickens when I try to think of the right things to say to you. How I fight to get your attention in any way I can because I can’t bear it when you ignore me.”

“No,” he growled. “I don’t call you Roxy because I’m trying to hurt you. I use that name so that I don’t forget who you are or what you are. You’re a Vega Princess. You could shatter everything I’ve worked for my whole life. And if I didn’t force myself to remember that fact, then I knew it would be too easy for me to forget about. Forget about challenging you and knocking you down and just…let myself imagine you could be something else. Something that I’ve

wished you could be in the darkest corners of my heart for so long that I can’t deny it anymore. I want you. And I don’t care if you’re a Vega or not. I don’t care if your name is Roxy or Tory or anything else. I just want you.”

Panic bled into his eyes at my words and pain seared across my heart. “Please. Think about what you’re saying. If I’m right then this is the moment that our stars have aligned. This is the moment when our souls are due to meet and connect with each other. I know you feel the same pull to me that I feel to you. You’re all I think about. All I dream about. You’re under my skin and in every thought and I know that I’ve done a thousand unforgivable things, but I swear I’ll never hurt you again. You’re meant for me. I’ll protect you with my life-”

Kiss me again with the stars overhead and let our story begin anew here.”

He moved closer. The stars glimmered in the sky overhead, expectant energy coiling about us. His breath danced with mine, the scent of him overwhelming me and drawing the darkest desires from my heart. I’d never wanted anyone like I wanted Darius Acrux, but I’d never hated anyone like I hated him either.

You’re the one who put us on this path. I never wanted a war with you. But you didn’t give me a choice in that. And now I’m not giving you a choice in this.”

“If fate is so cruel as to only offer me true love with a man who could hurt me as much as you have, then I’ll go without love,” I swore. “You want my heart? I’d sooner cut it out than give it to you.”

He’d offered me his heart and I’d turned my back on it despite the agony I’d seen it cause him. I’d left my broken heart there with his too. And there was no power in the world that could ever fix what I’d done. Darius Acrux had set out to break me from the first moment he’d ever laid eyes on me. And he’d finally gotten his wish.