Heartless Sky (Zodiac Academy, #7)

by Caroline Peckham

I was a girl who had grown up in the foster system in the mortal world. Fighting tyrants and riding Dragons had been the kinds of dreams I never would have even dared to try and wish into reality. Yet here we were.

Tory squeezed my hand as I clung to her, and I gave her a smile threaded with tears of relief as I let myself bathe in the fact that she was finally free of her bond to that monster.

“You took Lionel’s hand, Tor,” I said, in awe of my badass sister. She glanced back at me over her shoulder, her dark hair whipping around her, and I found tears brimming in her eyes, some of relief, some of fear, but the wind stole them away from her as it drove against us. “He took a lot from me in return,” she replied darkly, a flicker of some untold horror in her eyes which she blinked away hard as she glanced at the others who still surrounded us.

She was his mate, Star Crossed or otherwise. If anyone knew the truth of Darius’s fate, it was her.

Orion flicked a finger that sent a snowball slamming into the guy’s mouth to shut him up, making him stumble over his own feet and land on his ass and Tory barked a laugh without even bothering to try and hide it. Honestly, the two of them were bad influences on each other, but I couldn’t help but like their little friendship all the same. “He’s an ally,” Orion barked, glaring at anyone giving Xavier a fearful look.

Tory moved forward to hug her too and they exchanged some words quietly as Catalina took in the lack of rings in her eyes, surprise and hope crossing her features. For a moment, I envied the way Catalina looked at my sister, caressing her cheek and checking she was alright. It was almost motherly, something I had never experienced in all my life. But then I remembered everything both of them had been through and buried the feeling deep. Tory deserved that more than I ever would.

She held out her hand to me and I took it, my Phoenix rising to meet hers like they were two halves of the same soul, and maybe they were. That was the way it had always felt between us, like we were made of the very same thing, detached but never quite whole without the other.

After burning the shadows out of Orion, I could feel how to do it, it was like connecting to the best and brightest emotions within me and guiding them forward. It was love and hope and all the things we’d never let Lionel take from us.

“Thank you,” he breathed, hugging us both tight, and suddenly Catalina wrapped her arms around us too and I looked up to find tears rolling down her face. “You’re a gift sent from the stars,” she whispered, and a blush filled my cheeks as I shook my head in denial of those words.

“Are we seriously going to join the C.O.C.Ks?” Tory hissed to me, and a laugh erupted from my throat.

“Make me one of the Circle too,” Orion insisted, and Hamish’s eyes darted toward him before bouncing away again in dismissal and Seth snorted a laugh. “Don’t ignore him,” I snarled, my hackles rising in an instant and Hamish looked to me in alarm, cupping his mouth with his hand. “But my lady, he is Power Shamed,” he whispered those two words in horror, barely able to speak them. “Not to me he isn’t,” I growled. “I-I-I-” Hamish stammered, trying to grapple with that. “This’ll make him look at me,” Orion muttered then split his thumb open on his fang, turning his arm over and smearing blood across the inside of his forearm. The mark of the Zodiac Guild appeared like it was a living tattoo beneath his flesh, the silver sword etched with constellations and looking so ethereal it almost glowed.

When the Heirs arrived, they stood before us and I felt the weight of the words they’d just spoken sitting there in the dark, waiting for one of us to acknowledge them.

“I guess that proves it once and for all then,” Caleb said with a lopsided grin, breaking the tension. “That we’re best friends?” Seth asked, bobbing on his toes as he looked between us excitedly. “I never thought this would happen,” Max said, scoring a hand over his short hair and smirking at us.

“Waiting for me, Blue?” Orion asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. “You look a little lonely over there in the shadows,” I pointed out.

“I’ve always enjoyed the company of the shadows,” he countered. “Besides, I’m a Vampire. I don’t get lonely. Alone is what I do best.” “Well, I guess I’ll just walk by myself then,” I said lightly, and he shot to my side so fast it made my head spin, a smirk twisting up the corners of his mouth as he took hold of my arm. “Turns out, I enjoy the company of your shadow more than any other,” he said in a low voice that set my pulse racing. “So go ahead and walk away from me, Blue, but I’ll be right behind you.”

“Are you okay?” I whispered, thinking of Clara. “Your sister…” Emotion burned the back of my throat at the idea of saying goodbye to Tory. How was Orion even still standing?

“You’re fucking extraordinary,” he growled,

He still loved me and I loved him so fiercely it hurt.

I could feel my temper fraying as Orion just looked down at his feet like he was just willing to accept this bullshit.

“I’ll see you later, Blue. You can have this room to yourself.” His throat bobbed as his gaze moved to my mouth, his eyes full of the same burning hunger that rippled beneath my own skin. He went to move away, and I fisted my hand in his shirt, knocking the door wider behind me and pulling him inside. “Are you really planning on staying somewhere else?” I asked, tugging him closer and making him smirk. “I’ll be wherever you want me to be, beautiful.”

The door suddenly opened, and I cursed as Orion yanked me to my feet and shoved me behind him while I tugged my freaking pants up. “Woah, sorry. Didn’t realise things were getting Fifty Shades of Blue in here,” Seth laughed obnoxiously. “I mean, I did ‘cause I heard you, but don’t mind me.

I glanced out from behind Orion who immediately grabbed my top from the floor with his Vampire speed and yanked it over my head to cover me up, leaving my arms pinned to my sides by the material. I pouted at him as I pushed my arms through the holes and narrowed my eyes on Seth.

Orion immediately picked him up and threw him at the door like he weighed no more than a pitball, but Seth casually caught himself on a gust of air before he could collide with it. “Get. Out,” Orion commanded, but Seth ignored him, U-turning to the space beside the door and raising his hands as he wielded the earth to make himself a single bed out of stone and coating it in a thick layer of moss.

So, when I heard you in here, I thought ‘hey, my friend Darcy will take me in, she wouldn’t turn me away.’”

Seth turned his eyes on him too, a smirk lifting his lips. “Want me to keep making him jealous?” “What do you mean keep making him jealous?” I asked in confusion then he barked a laugh and dropped the silencing bubble. Orion bristled, taking a step between us and looking to me. “What were you talking about?” he demanded, a note of concern in his voice that made me frown.

Me and Darcy will be fine here together. Alone. Just like we were all those months you were in prison.”

“You think I’m gonna share breathing space with the guy who’s been cosying up to my girl while I was gone?” “Firstly, I wasn’t your girl while you were gone. Because you were gone, duh.” I prodded Orion in the side. “And secondly, if you suggest one more time that I hooked up with Seth, I’ll unleash Tory’s fist on your dick again.” Orion grunted, looking to Seth with narrowed eyes then back to me. “I wanna hear it from him.” I turned to Seth, gesturing for him to go right ahead while he spread himself out on the single bed and cupped his head in his hands. “Well…that’s not a straightforward answer, Lancey. Am I the sort of guy to fuck ‘your girl’-” He air quoted the words “-given the chance? Of course I am.”

LMAO

Orion lunged forward a step and I dove in front of him to stop him from killing Seth, though I was half tempted to do it myself after that comment. “Have I had visions in the past of her pinned beneath me, screaming my name? Definitely.”

“But did I fuck her in her bed, in every position I could think up including the Hungry Vampire, proving I could make her scream louder than you did? Well, that’s debatable.” “There’s no debate. We didn’t have sex and we never would,” I growled.

Orion’s fist suddenly broke through the shield and he dove at Seth like a man possessed, his fangs exposed as he landed on top of him. He started punching him, his fists cracking against a tighter air shield around Seth who simply grinned widely.

caught my hand, tugging me against him with a protective growl and I gripped his chin, tilting his head down to make him look at me. His heart was thrashing and there was such a desperation about him at the mere thought of me being with someone else that it melted my anger with him.

“Shut up,” I barked as Orion stiffened, but I kept hold of his chin to keep him looking at me.

“Let it go,” I begged, and a decision darkened his eyes before he picked me up and shot into the bed, spooning the hell out of me as he clutched me against him, my face firmly aiming to the opposite side of the room from Seth as he yanked the covers over us. I shifted the tiniest amount and he growled, his arms tightening around me and drawing me flush back against his body. “Hey, Mr Psycho, I can’t breathe.” I prodded his arm, and he slackened his grip a little.

“Goodnight, Lance,” I said breathlessly, and he pressed his lips to the soft place behind my ear as his fingers ran over the bite to heal it. “Goodnight, Blue.” “Goodnight, roomies,” Seth whispered.

I’d been a prisoner for too damn long. My mind hadn’t been fully my own, clear of shadows and bonds and the will of the fucking stars for so long that I’d almost forgotten what true silence sounded like.

He might have been getting off on my pain, but I’d refused to relinquish control of my heart to him.

But I wasn’t. I was Roxanya Vega, daughter of the Savage King, sister of the most powerful and beautiful woman I’d ever known, child of the greatest Seer of all time. I wasn’t born to bow to him. I was born to rise.

Nothing at all to ever draw me back into his company, aside from the promise I had made to see him dead at my feet with my sister at my side.

“But I think I’ve always been waiting for you, so maybe you’re right.”

“Fire makes me think of you,” I said. “And that’s…bad?” His voice was rough, and his dark eyes seemed to look right into my soul as he demanded that answer from me and I was unable to deny him it. “Only because I know I can’t have you. Or couldn’t have you, I guess…”

“I’m yours, Roxy,” he growled against my lips. “For every single second I have in this world, I’m all yours. And after that I’ll still be yours, wherever I end up after I’m gone, I’ll belong right here with you.”

wound my arms tight around him and the Phoenix in me rose up to the surface, driving against his body in a demand which I followed without thought as the creature in me took control and dove beneath his skin, burning a path inside of him as it sought out the shadows and forced them out of him in a trail of blazing power which left us both panting in each other’s arms. “Holy shit, Roxy,” Darius growled against my lips. “How-” “I’m done letting Lionel or his shadow bitch or anyone else control us. They can keep their fucking shadows – we won’t be tied to them by their damn power anymore.” Darius gazed down at me like he was seeing something in me for the first time and I raised my chin as he pushed his fingers into my hair and studied my face with a hungry, aching look.

“Oh. And just in case it wasn’t clear, baby, I’m not going to be anyone’s but yours. So maybe you and me should get hitched and I can show you what a real wedding night looks like?”

think about marriage in like twenty years or something?” I expected him to laugh but his gaze darkened as he let me pull him inside the barn and for a moment, I could have sworn I saw pain registering on his features.

“You’re more than I deserve, Roxy, but I’m not selfless enough to give you up,” he said in a dark tone. “So, I’m going to take my time with you tonight. I’m going to mark each and every inch of your flesh with my touch so that you can’t even wash the feeling of me from your body.”

“Even if it had been a real wedding, you know that I will only ever belong to you, right?”

“Mine,” I said roughly, possessively, meaning it with every ounce of my being.

“I’m going to rip him apart piece by piece,” he snarled ferociously, his fingers moving over the scar where my tattoo for him had been, and the warm flood of healing magic fell from his palm to better mend the damage. “He showed me a recording of what he did to you. I can’t stop replaying it in my head, over and over again, the endless sounds of your screams ringing in my skull, knowing he did that because of how much he knew I wanted you... I’ll fucking destroy him for this, but I can’t undo it and that kills me.”

“Well, I love the sound of you coming on my dick, Roxy. I love feeling you squeeze me tight with that slick pussy of yours and cry out with a pleasure so raw I wanna fucking bottle it. I love it so much that I’m gonna get you to make that sound for me a hundred times before the sun rises today to make up for all the orgasms I didn’t get to give you while we were cursed.”

“Show me how you touched yourself when you were wishing I could do it,” he growled, no doubt in his mind that I’d done just that, and I moaned instead of complaining as he continued to fuck me hard from below, refusing to let me dominate him despite my position on top of him.