Heartless Sky (Zodiac Academy, #7)

by Caroline Peckham

“And I don’t think you’re understanding the fact that I don’t care what it means. I’ll fight to make everyone see how worthy you are. I’ll make them all forget this stupid title placed upon you,” she said fiercely and I fucking loved her for that. “It’s not that simple.” I toyed with a lock of her hair, loving the way the dark blue colour glittered deeply in the firelight.

“No. Get up, Blue,” I growled, leaning down to pull her up but she knocked my hands away, a dangerous fire flaring in her eyes. “I will kneel for you as you would kneel for me. You’re my king and I’ll rub my knees raw for you until you’re sated,” she said powerfully

“You have me leashed and collared, Darcy Vega. I’ll always be close by, watching you from the dark for as long as you’ll have me there.”

“You are meant for the sunlight, Lance Orion. So you’ll stand with me in it or else we’ll stay in the dark together,” she said hotly and I met her gaze, the taste of that very sunlight she spoke of on my tongue now.

“Yes,” she gasped breathlessly as I fucked her with my hand and watched her crumble for me. “That’s a goddamn order, my king.”

Between teaching classes of his own, Gabriel spent time in the amplifying chamber we’d worked together to build, trying to see paths forward not only to get to Lionel, but to find the gemstones my father had wanted me to acquire. But with each passing week, we were all going a little bit more insane over waiting for opportunities.

“Miss Vega, get your ass in your own seat.” I sent a blast of air at Tory, sending her flying down into the chair beside Darius, making her lips pop open in surprise. “Rigel, Acrux and Altair, if you throw one more fucking ice ball in my classroom, I will blast you through the wall and you can forget about coming back here to learn a single thing.” I caught their ice ball with a whip of air, sending it flying into the door so it smashed into a thousand pieces, and the three of them slowly sank down into their seats in shock.

“Actually, I know some annoying people we could send as bait to Lionel, then when he eats them, we could shoot an Order Suppressant dart up his ass and bang. Dead Dragon. Annoying people eaten. Win – win.” “Capella, if you ask another pointless question this lesson, I will force feed you three people in your Werewolf form and we’ll put your theory to the test,” I snarled,

“You’ve already lost a bunch of time to Highspell’s bullshit classes, are you going to waste any more of it?” I demanded and they all shook their heads at me like obedient little mice. Perfect. “Right then.”

Auras are more effective in reading a person’s intentions. It is a more subtle, and far more difficult skill to perfect, yet it can give a more accurate read on someone’s character.”

“Enough, Hamish,” I said. “My position isn’t one just chosen by me, it was by my father and the stars too. I can’t do what you’re asking of me. Destiny decided this. I can’t change it.”

The Guild elixir would be ready tonight and I didn’t even have a single member in mind to initiate, because the Heirs certainly weren’t going to pledge themselves to the Vegas and between Geraldine and her father, I wasn’t sure they could bear to join up while I was in charge either. Fuck.

It was about this girl who owned my heart and the future she wouldn’t get to live out with me. About my brother and the Heirs and Lance and the pain my loss would cause them. That was where the guilt stemmed. Yet still I hadn’t spoken a word of the deal I’d made with any of them.

Roxy never looked at me with pity when I recounted the times he’d beaten me or the cruel lessons he’d forced me to learn. Instead, her eyes would flare with this unending hatred for my father and a lust for his death that made my heart thrash with the knowledge that she cared for me so deeply.

Only pride in the strength and fortitude she’d found to survive and rise up through the shitty fate they’d been dealt to become the powerful woman she was now.

“Dragons are all about treasure,” I explained

“Yeah, I noticed the huge chest of it taking up half of our room,” she teased. “Not to mention the fact that I wake up with gold coins stuck to my ass every other day.” She reached over and plucked a coin from the mattress behind me to prove her point and I smirked at her.

And you, Roxanya Vega, are more important to me than all the gold and jewels in the entire world combined. I’d go without them for the rest of my days if it meant I got to steal a moment in your arms with you looking at me the way you are right now. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe and to make sure you stay mine. I want to possess you with all the greed and wrath of the monster in me and I want to own you with the desire of a thousand Dragons guarding a priceless treasure, but more than all of that, I just want to love you like this. Endlessly and brutally and possessively. Now that you’re mine, I won’t give you up for anything.”

“You’ll make a stunning Councillor’s wife,” I teased and she punched me in the pec hard enough to bruise. “Ow,” I complained as she gave me a look that warned the next one would be harder. “You’ll make a gorgeous king consort,” she tossed back. “You know, pretty, good in the sack…silent.”

Lance was with her and he caught her arm, tugging her to a halt so that we could catch up to them. Roxy hurried forward and grabbed Darcy’s hand, the two of them exchanging relieved looks and muttered reassurances as I moved to stand beside them. “What’s going on?” I asked, looking to Lance as he strained his ears to listen for some more information.

“Darcy refuses to let me protect her as much as I want to.” “That’s because they’re stubborn as all hell,” I grumbled, smirking as Roxy heard me and flipped me off over her shoulder.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be throwing stones from your glass house, Darius,” he hissed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You tell me - you’re the one who doesn’t seem to have a future past Christmas Day.”

“I think we both know I do. So tell me, asshole, what deal did you make with the stars to break the bonds placed on you and my sister?” he demanded like he had a right to know my business. I wanted to punch him in his stupid face. I never had liked this prick. He was always giggling with Lance over their little private jokes or acting so self-assured because he had the damn Sight.

“I traded my life for theirs. I get one year to prove to her that I can give her the world then the stars will tear it away from her when they call me into their embrace.” Gabriel’s jaw dropped and I could tell he hadn’t been able to foresee those words leaving my mouth. Hell, I hadn’t even known I was going to tell him until they’d forced their way free. But there it was. The ugly, honest truth of it and now it was cutting him open just as it was carving into me.

“What does this mean about your intentions for the throne?” Gabriel asked me and I released a long breath. “I don’t know anymore. I was born to rule but now I’m fated to die. But my opinion still stands true that the Vegas don’t know enough about running this kingdom to just claim the throne and do it.

Bruh

“I can see that future as a possibility. The kingdom run by the other Heirs and your younger brother. But it is one of many futures open to us at the moment and the way to almost all of them are paved in death. The most likely path right now is that your father will wipe all of us out given time and his brutal reign will continue.”

I let out a soft whinny as Hamish clapped a hand to my back and leaned closer. “Not to worry your Wendy about it, my boy,” he promised, giving me something of a fatherly look – or as close to one as I could imagine anyway. My father had certainly never looked at me like that.

“Listen,” Darius growled, stepping closer to me as a cloud of urgency fell over him. “Gabriel has foreseen your herd being killed today; they’re being denounced as traitors. We have barely any time to get them out. And I have no doubt Father will have made a new boundary around Zodiac to alert him of us returning here. The moment we step past this fence, he’ll know where we are.”

Tyler: Lionel’s here. I’m coming to get you. Sofia: Highspell locked me in Orion’s office. I’m trying to get the door open. Tyler: Hang tight, baby.

Tf

“You had so much potential, Darius,” he called bitterly. “You could have been magnificent. But you have your mother’s weak heart in you.” “The only weaknesses I possess were gifted to me by you,” I growled, bracing against his strike again.

End him. And every terrible thing he’d forced me and the people I loved to suffer through played on repeat inside my skull. I wanted him to bleed for them, to burn for them and fucking die for them.

“Fuck, you’re so powerful,” he gasped, staring at me in surprise as he felt the full weight of my magic. “Not as powerful as me,” Darius muttered, unable to help himself even while he was bleeding out on the ground. “True,” I admitted because of course that was the first thing our father had checked when my magic had been Awakened and he was right. I wasn’t as powerful as my older brother as far as power levels went. “But I have three Elements,” I taunted and Darius chuckled, though it turned into a curse of pain.

“No, I wouldn’t,” I said. “How can you say that? I’d be lost without you, Darius.” “You’re stronger than that,” he pushed, gripping the back of my neck and pulling me forward so our foreheads rested together. “You’re the good Acrux. Father didn’t corrupt you.” “You’re not corrupted,” I growled. “You’re the best person I know.” He laughed dryly, letting me go. “Did you hit your head back there?” “You’ve done bad things, Darius, but that doesn’t make you a bad person,” I insisted and he frowned, shaking his head at me. “Bad deeds are what make bad people,” he said, pushing himself to his feet and pulling me up with him. “No,” I disagreed.

He sighed, looking like he was going to keep arguing but then he gave in and slung an arm over my shoulders. “Fine, but don’t go putting ‘here lies a saint’ on my tombstone. Make sure it’s honest. Like, ‘here lies an absolute legend’.” I shoved his arm off of me, shooting him a glare. “That’s not funny, Darius.”

“Oh my stars,” he gasped, grabbing the bag from me and rifling through the books with a youthful smile on his face. I snorted a laugh as Darius gave me a pointed look, realising I’d just lost myself fifty auras, but the look on Orion’s face was definitely worth

If we’d acted any slower, if Gabriel hadn’t seen it coming…

“Darius may be a lot of things, but he would literally move heaven and earth to be with you,” Gabriel said. “I’m sure he's doing everything within his power to return to you quickly.” I clucked my tongue, knowing that was the truth while still unable to shift the sense of unease from my gut.

“I feel like everything we’re doing here is taking too long,” I said. “We fought to get free of Lionel, stole a hand from him, managed to gain the Imperial Star and kept it from him and yet here we are, sitting around in some cave network, taking magic lessons in between helping make more caves to house a thousand refugees instead of just finishing this.” “It’s not the time,” Gabriel said,

“I just want him dead at my feet,” I snarled. “Is that too much to ask? For my boyfriend’s father to just bleed out painfully at my goddamn feet?” “Wow, you get really bloodthirsty when you’re worried,” Darcy teased.

“You look like a girl who needs some comfort food.” “In the form of a cupcake with a random letter B on it?” I questioned, arching an eyebrow at him. “Yeah. No doubt you’ll need to keep your energy up for all the angry sex you and Darius will be having later on.” “Keep the sexual references about my sisters to times when I’m not within earshot, yeah?” Gabriel suggested with a grimace. “It’s bad enough that the stars show me flashes of that shit without me having to listen to conversations about it too.”

“So you stole someone’s cupcakes on their birthday, and the only ones you left behind spell out the word ‘die’ right after another guy has been randomly found dead? You’re a fucking psycho.” Gabriel laughed with me as Seth frowned and Darcy slapped a hand over her mouth like she was trying really hard not to find that funny even though it totally was. “Are we having cake?” Caleb asked

“That had better not be your balls pushing up against my ass,” I warned him, though I was grinning, unable to really summon the strength to get angry while the relief over them being here and being okay filled me. “My balls belong firmly to the girl on the other side of this hug sandwich,” Tyler replied. “So don’t worry about it, Princess.” I snorted at the use of my title and let them squeeze me for a moment longer before the interruption of a pissed

“I’m gonna need access to an Atlas and info on the FaeBook group you all run in here - what did you call it? Rebels Forever? Down with the King? Let’s stick it up his Dragon Ass? Tell me it’s something catchy.” “I dunno, dude, there hasn’t been a whole lot of social anything going on here so far as I know. It’s a closed system so we can only share FaeBook posts and messages with other people in The Burrows on our Atlases. I spend most of my time training with Orion and the Heirs so-” “Back the fuck up, you have the Power Shamed professor here? Hashtag did they do it in detention.

“You mean since Catalina started sneaking into Hamish’s room every night instead of sleeping in her own?” I asked, making Xavier wrinkle his nose. “She thinks me and Darius haven’t figured that out,” he muttered, glancing over at his mom who was helping Hamish hand clothes out to the rest of the herd since he’d arrived. “And I don’t think she will admit it if you asked her, so maybe they’ll just have to get a room in the new tunnels.”

Her smiles were no longer plastic but shone with actual happiness and she was finally able to spend time with her sons and shower them with the love they’d been missing from her for so long. She even extended that maternal love to me and Darcy whenever the opportunity for it arose, as well as Lance and even Geraldine too.

since we umm…said the L word, he feels like we should really be married if we are going to continue to be…physical.” Catalina honest to shit blushed and if that wasn’t just the cutest thing in the world then I didn’t know what was. “So…do you want to get married?” I asked, unsure if that was what she was saying or if she was saying she’d refused. “Well, technically as I didn’t really die, my marriage to Lionel still binds me. So if I tried to marry again, the bond wouldn’t form and the stars would reject it.

“Gabriel said it will work,” Darcy said as the others turned to look to her too. “With no further explanation.” “Any chance he told you what we need to do?” I asked, a grin filling my face as I realised that this was actually happening. “He just said we should combine our magic, call out to the stars and tell them it is so. Whatever the hell that means.” She shrugged. “What in tarnation is going on, my ladies?”

“Their royal majesties are going to attempt to untether my dearest Kitty from the clutches of that uncouth usurper to the throne,” Hamish said excitedly. “He will free her from her bonds and make her available to woo in the most natural of ways!” “In English?” Darcy asked me as Geraldine burst into tears. “We’re gonna try and give Catalina a star divorce,” I explained and Darcy smiled widely. “Okay then. Let’s do it.”

“The wedding shall occur on the new moon to give it the most wondersome of blessings!” Geraldine announced, taking off running without another word, her arms flapping in the air as she barked excitedly. “Isn’t the new moon in like two days?” Darcy asked me, grinning as we backed away a little more while Hamish and Catalina continued to make out like a couple of horny teenagers. “If anyone can pull off the wedding of the century in two days it’s Geraldine Grus,” I replied

But amongst all that, I never really caught him sleeping, and now that I had, I was starting to realise how odd that was. Did he always sleep this little? I’d never had the chance to find that out before we came here, but it seemed strange that he literally never fell asleep before me or woke after.