Heartless Sky (Zodiac Academy, #7)

by Caroline Peckham

“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.”

Bro i swear if you still end up dying i will resurrect you myself and stab you to death

“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?”

“I wouldn’t be fine if I was Power Shamed,” Leon said sadly. “I can’t think of a worse fate actually. I’d rather be eaten by acid slugs, or chomped up and swallowed by a Bear Shifter, or dropped from a really, really, really, really-” “I get it,” I gritted out.

“Oh please, you’d love it if I went all Dom on you,” I tossed back, tugging on his hair a little harder and liking the way it felt to have him beneath me like that.

He is so whipped

Orion followed my gaze and pinched me softly to get my attention onto him. “You want one of those?” he murmured, darkness entering his eyes.

The academy has gone totally downhill and if I’m being entirely honest, I’m fairly sure Elaine was planning to have me murdered, so here we are.”

“I think I’m all hatted out,” she murmured and I leaned over to kiss her temple. “You’re hatigued,” I joked

“Nooo, don’t dick punch him. You’ll break it and I need it,” Darcy complained, making me chuckle darkly. “How about if I break it, you can break Darius’s in return,” Tory offered conversationally and I swear my cock tried to run and take shelter from this heartless dick hunter. “Hey,” Darius barked as the two of them hooked their little fingers together to make the deal.

"Yeah. Remind me why we’re with them again,” Lance teased but as the two of us continued to jog along behind them like a pair of whipped little guard dogs while blatantly checking them out, the answer to that question seemed kind of pointless.

“You tell me - you’re the one who doesn’t seem to have a future past Christmas Day.”

Throwibg up

“Mine,” I taunted, taking a big bite from it and making him grin at the challenge before he shot towards Seth, grabbed his jaw and held him still so that he could lick the icing from the edge of his lips. “By the stars, Cal,” Seth gasped as Caleb just chuckled and pushed his jaw further back before sinking his teeth into his neck.

Darius Acrux had taken full ownership of my heart. And I was claiming his right back in return.

A snarl like a beast from a cavern of sin filled the air and a rush of wind wiffled through my hair a moment before Justin was hurled back and pinned to the closest wall with a crack which said something had likely broken. Probably his ego, but it was hard to be certain.

“Nah, he’s busy right now,” he said with a knowing smirk. “So have we got a deal?” He offered me his inked hand.

“Ready?” I teased and he grinned wider, magic crackling at his fingertips as he practically buzzed with energy. “I’m just so ready to start fighting back properly,” he replied with a Wolf’s snarl on his lips. “And this feels like the beginning of it, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, I guess,” I agreed.

The beginning of the end

Seth caught my hand just as I was tugged into the mind of our enemy and I curled my fingers around his, holding on tight.

“Hell yeah we can,” Seth agreed. “We’re the Phoen Dream, Bitchy Flame Eyes, Wolfman, Bitey C, Fish Fury, Dragzilla, Professor Shame and Batty Betty.”

“Caleb,” I snarled. “Think of the best memory you have and hold onto it with everything you’ve got.” “What are you talking about?” he muttered, trying to pull free again, his eyes falling back to the blade, but I clung on, getting up in his face so he had to look at me instead of that portal or the weapon it wanted him to wield against himself. Though I wasn’t much use to him considering he hated me. “Think of the Heirs,” I tried. “Of Darius, Max, Seth.” His eyes softened as I said that last name and the tension rolled out of his posture. “Think of Seth,”

We fell in to thoughtful silence as we headed outside The Burrows and before we exited, Darius moved forward and hugged me, making my eyebrows shoot up. “I’m gonna go tell the others about all this, little shrew. I want you to know you have a weight of Dragon gold to buy any cure in this world that you need, and the full wrath of my Order to help you find an answer to this curse.”

Crying

“I can catch myself,” I told him. “You didn’t before. I’m your backup parachute,”

“Because the stars have taken everything from me. My dream, my free will, my status, my family,” his voice thickened on that last word and pain sliced into my heart for him and all he’d lost. “And when there was almost nothing left to take, they gave me you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I swore and he nodded, his expression settling into something demonic. “I know,” he said, his voice rough with grit. “Because I’m not going to let them take you from me, Blue, even if they come down from the heavens themselves to try and rip you from my arms. I am not named after the hunter constellation for no reason. I will make the stars my prey if they set you in their sights, and so help me, I will carve every one of them out of their seats in the sky and watch them fall.”

If you didn’t want me this close and all I was left with was the option to watch you and hunger for you from afar the way I had to when we were Star Crossed, then I’d take that as well. It’s you, Roxy. Only you. So here I am and I’m yours. The rest of it is up to you.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “Tell him I love him and he can’t be a dick while I’m gone. Good enough for you, asshole?” “It brings a tear to my eye,”

“Yup,” they said at the same time and I looked between them as they grinned at each other, sensing the two of them together would be like mixing two very explosive potions in the same cauldron. They were both just so…peppy.

“It’ll be one of those tales we tell for years to come,” Seth encouraged. “Like that time I was on the moon and I stuck my dick in a crater.” “You did?” Leon asked, looking at him in awe as Seth nodded proudly. “Holy shit, tell me everything. What did it feel like? Did you get magical dick powers after?” I groaned as Seth jumped on the opportunity to tell someone new his moon stories and I worked to zone him out as Leon led the way down into the sewer and Caleb reluctantly followed.

“Can I have this hat?” Seth asked and we turned, finding him wearing a ridiculous red cowboy hat with leather tassels hanging from it. “I’ve always fancied myself as a hat person.”

“Don’t be such a sourpuss, shamesy,” Leon said, slinging an arm around me. “You’re still my favourite.” He licked my face. “Oh wow, you can really taste the shame on you.” He licked me again. “It’s like cinnamon and failed dreams.”

“I think you could bottle it as a scent actually, it’s kind of alluring. You could call it eau de toi-regret.”

- By Tyler Corbin

He hs come SO FAR

unleashing my gauntlets on the back of its head as I punched and punched with all the fury of a man’s soul who’d been ripped from his body. And if Cal was dead, then it might as well have been.

I was fucking privileged to be Caleb Altair’s friend, and if that was all we were ever destined to be then that was enough for me. Because I’d spent most of my life loving the moon without ever resting a paw on its surface. So Caleb would be my new moon, my unreachable love hanging over me in the sky. And I would show up to watch it night after night with no resentment in my heart, just a lone Wolf on a mountain, trying to get close enough to bathe in its light.

Would she have preferred that version of me? He’d looked happy, stress-free, no hint of darkness in his eyes. This version of me was hard and cold at times, but she was the one who broke through all of that. She was my sunshine after an eternal winter, and I didn’t know whether to grieve the life we’d missed out on or be thankful that we had still found our way to each other regardless.

“Yeah, I really thought that was gonna pose more of a challenge,” Darius said thoughtfully. “But then bam, thwack, splatter, dead.”

“Are you checking me out?” I teased, my blood heating a little at that idea. Seth’s lips twitched then he raised his chin, jerking a nod at me and just owning his behaviour like it didn’t mean anything.

“I love you guys,” Seth said dreamily. “Even you, Lance. I know that your snappy snaps are only ever meant with love.” “They’re not,” Orion mumbled.

I opened my mouth to apologise or ask him why he wasn’t kissing me back or fuck knew what, but it didn’t matter because as I made a move to step away, he caught hold of my belt and dragged me back against him again, kissing me so hard that it was bruising and my whole fucking world caught alight alongside my flesh.

“I think you’ve gone well over your quota of wanting ‘no more friends than you have fingers’, if I remember correctly.” “Whatever. Seth Capella isn’t joining the ranks,” he said firmly. “Then why did I have a vision of you cuddling him all night long while Darcy was away?” “Oh fuck off,” he muttered. “I said he could have one hug and we both fell asleep, that’s all. Anyway, what are you, the friend police now?” “I’m actually quite enjoying watching you fall in love with all the Heirs,” I teased and he growled in warning.

“I think it’s romantic!” Geraldine gushed, cupping her chin in her hands. “A shamed, repulsive Fae professor claiming a princess when the whole world would rather he didn’t.” “Geraldine,” Darcy hissed. “Forgive me, my lady. Have I spoken out of turn?” she gasped. “Don’t call him repulsive,” Darcy insisted. “Oh my holy biscuit box!” Geraldine gasped. “Forgive me, dear Darcy. I shall pick a more fitting word in future. Ghastly perhaps? Or abominable? Maybe the word pugnacious would be more to your tastes?”

Mom was pale as she looked to me. “That’s wonderful news, sweetie, well done you. It sounds like you did a great job too, but we’ll have to discuss it later, okay?” No…no. Not again. I didn’t want to discuss my sex life with my mom. I’d just told her point blank I’d fucked a guy and a girl in all the holes. Oh my stars I just said ‘all the holes’ in front of my mother.

“But you are a cad and I am a lady,” I breathed. “We are as unlikely as a fish and a dandelion finding truest love.” “Well this fish would grow legs and crawl from the water to sit with you, dandelion.” My throat bobbed and my fingers stilled in the dough. “And what if the wind blows and my seeds take flight?” I murmured. “Then I would grow wings and follow you to the moon,” he replied. “Because nothing in this world means more to me than you do, Gerry. And there are no differences we can’t overcome to be together.” I

He kissed me like I was a hogmoth dancing in the nether breeze and I kissed him like he was a mongoose who just needed love. It was sweet and honest and utterly ours and as our hands returned to kneading the dough, I fell into the rhythm of baking with him and together we made the butteriest bagels that I ever had made which we devoured together away from the crowd. And not a single crumb was offered to Justin’s thin lips.

I am the object of their envy because they can’t have you while you’re down on Earth in the cage of my arms, but if they’re waiting to claim you in death, they will find me right beside you, guarding you even then. Because no one will take you from me, and no one will love you as fiercely as I love you. Where you go, I will follow. There is no force powerful enough in this life or the next to tear you away from me. So don’t you dare question my love for you.”

surface was my final I.O.U. from the ones I’d gifted Orion for his birthday. I.O.U. One kiss anywhere you like.

“Can I decree that everyone stops pointing in horror at me and Orion whenever we touch?” I grumbled. Geraldine reached out, patting my knee with sympathy in her eyes. “No, my sweet and gentle Darcy. You can only decree things that are possible within the realms of reasonability.” I growled, messing up the pink paint I was coating onto my nails and using water magic to correct it. “Dammit.”

“I’ll love you ‘til the world is dust,” Orion breathed and those words sent a delicious tremor down to the centre of my being. “I’ll love you even beyond then,” I answered and our lips collided as we accepted this bond and a ripple of power blazed through my body as the stars threaded our souls together.

“I was looking for Seth,” I said, figuring I might as well own it at this point as I took in the empty room around them and finally accepted that he really wasn’t here. Rosalie’s lips curved into a sly grin and she nodded. “Of course you are, siete destinati l'uno all'altro.”

“You’re a good man, Darius. So much better than the monster who tried to forge you in his image. The world will be a far emptier place without you in it.”

You’re not some gift from the stars to me, Darius. You’re the spoils of a war no one else ever could have won but us.

“Let’s go then. I already texted Geraldine and the others so no doubt she’s freaking the fuck out and making some insane preparations with zero timescale. I don’t want to give her long enough to make it fancy.” “Heaven forbid,” I teased.