Heartless Sky (Zodiac Academy, #7)

by Caroline Peckham

“Nothing is going to tear us apart again now,” I breathed into the silence, vowing it on the stars who had cursed us. Darius hesitated before he replied and I turned my head to look up at him, feeling tension in his arms as they tightened around me. “This is the only place I ever want to be,” he said as he reached out to brush a lock of dark hair from my eyes. “Right here with you.”

“Only one way to find out, baby. So why don’t you just lay back and let me feast on you until you’re coming all over my face? Because once I’m done devouring you, I plan on living out every damn fantasy I’ve had about you since the moment we met. And believe me, there’s a fucking lot of them to get through before dawn.” “Dawn?” I gasped as he pushed my thighs apart and lowered his mouth to my core, looking up at me with those dark eyes while he hovered just above my pussy, making

If there was a single Fae in this wretched kingdom who I held any kind of fondness for then it was him.

Uhhh why

I nuzzled into the hair brushing against my cheek, but frowned at the masculine scent carrying from it, wondering if it was those washalilies that lingered on her, and wanting to brand her with my own scent instead. My arms tightened on her and as I crawled deeper out of the haze of sleep, I realised she didn’t feel right at all. She was too muscular, too large, and as my eyes snapped open and a growl rippled along my throat, I knew I’d be starting this day with a gruesome murder. “Capella!” I barked, launching him away from me across the room and he slammed into the wall with a yelp, hitting the floor butt fucking naked as he scrambled to regain his senses. “You broke my thucking nothe.”

LMFAOOO

“What the fuck were you doing in our bed?!” I snapped. “And where the hell is Blue?” I jerked around, hunting for her, but it was just me and the mutt. Which meant there’d be no witnesses when I ripped his spinal cord out and stuffed it up his ass. “It was cold over there.” Seth pointed at his own bed. “And there was a chilly breeze blowing in under the door.” “You’re an air Elemental,” I spat, stalking back and forth in front of his shield as I heaved breaths in and out, hungry for a fight. “Yeah, and I’m a Werewolf!” He got to his feet, wiping away the blood from his now healed nose on the back of his hand. “I need snuggles. Without snuggles, I get cold and lonely. And Darcy went to get breakfast, so your bear arms were going to waste, and I snuck in for a little hug time. I don’t see what the big deal is.” He grabbed some sweatpants from the floor, yanking them on. “I don’t snuggle,” I snapped. “Liar,” he scoffed. “You snuggle with Darcy and Darius all the time. But where’s my snuggles, Lance? Where’s. My. Snuggles?”

PISSIBG MYSEL

“Where is he?” I asked. “What happened?” “He’s been with Tory all night,” he said. “All night?” I barked, stepping back. “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” “Trust me, you did not want to go and interrupt them. I had to keep myself busy all night just so I wasn’t plagued by visions of my sister being railed by a fucking Acrux.” “By the moon, why would the stars show you that?” I grimaced.

LMFQO

I momentarily forgot all about my ruined reputation when Darius said my name behind me. I turned, finding him standing there with his arm slung around Tory’s shoulders, his eyes as gleamingly brown as they had been before he’d been Star Crossed. My heart lifted as he drew Tory closer and not a single tremor rocked the earth, no sign of the heavens crying out to tear them apart. They were free of their bond, it was as clear as day, and I couldn’t have been happier for them. “What did you do?” I asked in astonishment, my hand going to the place where the Leo mark had been branded on my skin for so many years. It was gone. My shackles broken at long last, my life returned to me and no longer pledged to someone else. And the weight of that truth only hit me now as I saw the truth in his gaze, that he really had done this. Somehow, he’d broken the bonds.

But before we could break out into a full-on tussle, the Heirs appeared, descending on him and pulling him and Tory into their arms, crushing them in a tight hug circle while Seth howled his joy.

“I’m fine,” I muttered, my eyes falling on Darcy as Seth lifted her up on his shoulders and Tory was lifted up on Darius’s a second later. My teeth ground in my mouth and I forced myself not to intervene as Darcy laughed, reaching out to hug her sister with happy tears in her eyes. Fuck, that girl deserved this. Both of them did. There’d been too much shit in their lives to wade through ever since I’d brought them to Solaria.

I’d have to go and fetch myself, but it was something to focus on besides the feeling that now the bond was gone between me and Darius, he might not need me anymore.

Oh lance :(((((

“You nothing scum, I’ll have you cast out of The Burrows for that,” Jim spat, blasting water magic at me, but as I’d predicted he wasn’t anywhere near as strong as me and I froze it with a flick of my hand, the jet of water turning rock solid and slamming down onto his leg. “Argh!” he wailed. “What did you call him?” Darcy’s voice made my heart jerk in my chest and I turned, finding her striding out of the farmhouse, her blue hair fluttering behind her and flames blazing in her eyes. Eyes which were locked on the piece of shit at my feet.

YES DARC

“I asked you a question,” she growled, glaring down her nose at him and I swear I got a semi for her right there and then. “I called him a-a nothing scum,” Jim forced out. “He is more than you will ever be,” she hissed. “And if you speak to him like that again, I will have you cast out of The Burrows, do you understand me?” “Y-yes, Lady Gwendalina.” “My name is Darcy,” she snarled then grabbed my hand and stepped over him, towing me away from them while I stared at her with my pulse thrashing.

I’d cut my heart out to claim that mouth alone.

We were torn away into the fabric between worlds, spinning through a beautiful sea of stars before my feet hit solid ground again and Darcy landed lightly beside me, no hint of a wobble in her steps. I kind of missed my clumsy little princess, but as she stepped forward onto the loose shingle at the base of the mountain, her foot slipped and my wish was granted. “Stoney fuckwits,” she cursed. I shot forward to catch her with a grin, drawing her upright again and she glanced up at me with a tint of pink lining her cheeks.

“Well at least I’ll get to spend the whole day on this mountain with you,” I murmured. “What?” she called back, glancing over her shoulder with the light spilling over her in a glorious haze. She was so fucking beautiful, it was like the stars had plucked her from my most desperate fantasies.

“How many times do I have to tell you I don’t need protecting?” I hissed. “And how many times do I have to tell you, that I will protect you regardless?” he tossed back in his stern professor tone which just angered me even more. “You’re infuriating,” I huffed. “And you’re cute when you’re angry. Shall we air more facts about each other, Blue, or go and kill some Nymphs?” He gave me a devilish grin and I ran my tongue over my teeth.

I’ll lose you all over again.” “That’s love, Blue,” he said in earnest, capturing my wrists as I went to push him again, just wanting to let out some of this burning rage that was coiling through my body. “You’ve saved my ass countless times, you do it for me, but you can’t bear that I do it in return. And you know why?”

“Because you’ve never let anyone love you but your sister. You don’t trust the world and you have damn good reason for that, but I’m not your enemy. I know I’ve hurt you, but I did it because I love you in a way that’s bigger than every galaxy in this universe. I was miserable before you showed up in my life, and now you’ve awoken a man in me who I actually fucking like, and I don’t wanna lose him almost as much as I don’t wanna lose you. So yeah, I’m going to put myself between you and death at every chance I get, and maybe that scares you, but it doesn’t scare me, Blue. It gives me a purpose I’ve never had before, and I never want to let go of it.”

But how could I be angry when he’d done it all for me, and now he was Power Shamed and no one would even look him in the eye anymore? It was unbearable.

It consumed me so fully that I tore at Orion’s back and a deep growl left me as it urged me to bite him, my teeth sinking into his lower lip. Orion cursed in a way that said he liked it but I drew back, finding his lip bloody and my mouth wet with it. Oh shit.

me. “Have me,” I begged. “I was yours the first time you called me Blue.” He sighed like those words were a gift bestowed on him by the stars themselves and he drove himself inside me hard,

“I’ve gone easy on you, Blue,” he said, his hand moving down to stroke the stinging mark he’d left on my ass, but he made no move to heal it. “But I’ve seen you blossom into the strongest Fae I know right before my eyes.

“So do you wanna find out why my Order is the best at fucking?” he asked cockily and I glanced back at him over my shoulder, his hair dishevelled and his eyes so full of lust it made my pussy throb with need. “Yes,” I panted, my skin tingling with the need for more of his touch while curiosity burned in my chest.

“Look at me. I wanna see those stars bursting in your eyes when I make you come,”

“Are we…back together, Blue?” Orion asked after a while, making my heart squeeze with a thousand good feelings. “I don’t think we were ever really apart, Lance,”

One that swore we’d never be parted again, that we’d fight for each other with the power of the moon on the tide, and no matter where each of us went in this world, the other would always follow.

revealing Darius and Tory lying in bed together, but instead of finding them fucking like animals as we’d all been expecting, we found them holding each other. Tory was nestled into the crook of Darius’s arm, her eyes closed and breathing heavy as he trailed his fingertips along her spine, the sheets tugged over them enough to cover most of her body from us. His gaze snapped to us, but in the brief moment before that, all I’d seen in his expression was this, deep, fulfilled kind of contentment as he’d been watching her,

I took in the Phoenix and Dragon which played at war with one another across his flesh. I’d always liked the image but looking at it now hit different than it had before. Because instead of the heat of the battle which I’d always seen in the image, I found more of a dance in it now. Two predators who had met their match and fought for nothing more than the thrill of one another’s company and the challenge they posed.

“There is no service in here,” Darius replied. “You’re just an entitled prick who hasn’t noticed that the food you’ve been eating has been brought to you by one of us for the last few meals instead of having it hand delivered by some lesser Fae like you’re used to.”

Darius smirked and shrugged. “Alright fine. If you two assholes make the room nice for Roxy’s benefit then I’ll go find you something to eat.” “Pfft, like you don’t want it nice for yourself,” I replied. “That girl grew up in the mortal realm with no fucking money. She knows how to survive these conditions far better than you do and you know it.”

“All the more reason for her not to have to suffer them again,” Darius replied.

His greeting turned to a cry of horror as Orion shot into the room and dropped into the chair beside Darcy just as she took her seat in one of the thrones Geraldine had created for them and our former Cardinal Magic professor scowled back at him.

“I want him here,” Darcy said firmly. “He’s my boyfriend.” Hamish paled at that and Seth bounced up and down in his seat as Tory grinned at them.

Darcy laid a hand on his arm, drawing it away from his weapon of choice and Orion’s eyes slowly slid to her instead, the death threat in them melting.

“Remember how I said it’s best if we keep our relationship between the people we know, considering my position in society,” Orion said to Darcy in a low growl. “Yep, and remember how I said I didn’t care what people thought of me for dating you?” Darcy tossed back with a firm look and they fell into a glare off that pretty much put them at a stalemate.

Orion’s shoulders stiffened as pain crossed his features, but he said nothing and I had to admit I felt kinda sorry for the asshole. “We’re not going to go our separate ways,” Darcy hissed and Hamish bowed his head in deference.

Darius turned away from us and moved to pour her a mug of coffee, making it how she liked and placing it down beside her plate before leaning in to press a kiss to her hair.

Darius leaned in and murmured something in her ear which I chose not to listen in on as it managed to bring a blush to her cheeks and she slapped his chest in mock anger before biting her lip and saying ‘maybe.’ “Oh so all we have to do to earn our way onto the tasty table is give a Vega a bunch of orgasms then, is it?” Seth demanded, like that was some kind of challenge. “Well technically I have given a Vega a load of-” I began but Darius cut me off with a snarl. “Do not finish that sentence, Caleb,” he barked. “Or I swear to fuck, I’ll cut your dick off and toss it in the tray with those chipolatas over there.”

“Stay safe,” he growled fiercely. “I love you.” “I love you too, man,” I said on a breath of laughter, patting his back as he tensed up in my hold. “I love every fucking one of you.

“If I never saw you again I think I’d just cut my heart clean from my chest rather than live on in that agony,” he breathed and I frowned at him as I felt the intensity of those words.

“We have to be close to him. You need people working against him from the inside and we’d never manage to get everyone out anyway. He will come for anyone we love or even just like if we try to turn from him. So far, in his arrogance he believes we are all content to serve him as we did the Savage King. We can let him go on believing that while you gather the strength you need to face him.”

“I’m not afraid of Lionel Acrux,” she scoffed. “He may have cheated his way into gaining command over the shadows, but he isn’t any more powerful than me. In fact, he’s barely an echo of the man his brother would have been if he’d come into his power instead of dying the way he did.”

“Cal…by the stars, Cal, this is so fucking…I can't…holy shit,” Seth garbled and I felt the brush of his cock against my cheek as he got hard too, his fingers still tightly fisted in my hair as my pulse spiked and I froze for a moment, realising exactly where I was biting him and what this might seem like.

Xavier hung his head and my attention was snagged as Darius and Tory walked into the room. She was wearing a red bikini which matched my blue one in every way, the surface a mimicry of snakeskin.

with. I waved to her and she jogged over, her hand locked in Darius’s as she pulled him along, his black and gold swim shorts the only thing he wore and I couldn’t help but smirk at their matching tattoos. My sister had gone freaking soft on that Dragon even if she had chosen to display it in a badass way instead of a soppy one. Orion shifted beneath me as Tory dropped down onto the lounger beside ours and Darius looked to him as he remained standing. “Hey, brother,” he said, a look of uncertainty in his eyes for a second. “Hey,” Orion said, clearing his throat and I sensed an awkwardness between them which made me shift in my seat. What was going on?

Darius and Orion fell back to walk beside me and Tory, and my hand brushed my sister’s as we shared a worried glance.

I caught hold of Tory before she could go, wrapping her in a tight hug. “It’s not him, Tor,” I said and she nodded. “If it is, I’ll take his other fucking hand,” she growled and the strength in her voice brought a smile to my lips. “We’ll cut his legs off too and throw him in a river to drown,” I agreed as we parted.

“Um, Darcy?” Seth whispered, pulling on my sleeve as Orion headed to the closet to grab some clothes. “Yeah?” I asked. “I know this isn’t exactly the time, but…” He cast a silencing bubble around us and my curiosity piqued. “Before we found those bodies in the barn, me and Cal were in there and I was naked, and he was on his knees and he totally got down and dirty with my boner.” “What?” I gasped. “He did?” “Well…no, but his cheek did. And his ear a bit.”

“He bit me right here.” He tugged his sweatpants down to show me the mark, but unveiled his dick in the same movement and a freight train seemed to run him over a second later. Orion slammed him into the wall behind me and I whipped around with a gasp as he choked Seth with one hand while Seth’s pants fell fully down to his ankles and he blinked back at him innocently. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Orion barked

Orion hit the ground running, but Seth kept blasting a huge storm of air at him to keep him back, turning to me with a casual grin as he pulled up his pants with his free hand. “Anyway, my boner was right there while he was biting me and I swear he flirted with it a little. His hand was moving down my abs and everything,” he said giddily and I glanced at Orion, unsure if I should continue with this conversation while he was battling to get to us with a satanic look on his face. But Seth kept going anyway, casting a silencing bubble around Orion as he started hurling abuse at him so that he could tell the rest of his story.

LMFAOOOOOO