Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess

I strolled towards Asteroid Place, smoothing down the non-existent creases in my black shirt and expelling a long breath. 

With everything that had been going on recently, we hadn’t had much chance for any down time and I was determined to make this night a stress free experience. It was Lance’s twenty sixth birthday and we were going out partying. We would drink and dance and talk shit about things that didn’t matter one fucking bit. Hell, we might even find some hot girls to keep us company and help us forget about our problems. Though as soon as that thought crossed my mind, an image of Roxy Vega came to me.

I growled, forcing the thought aside. It was getting fucking pathetic. I felt like a thirteen year old with a crush. All I ever did was think about her and fantasise about her, wonder what she was doing or if she was thinking about me too. Only to remember that even if by some miracle her thoughts fell on me from time to time, I’d done a bang up job of making sure that every single one of them would be filled with hate. So as far as hopeless crushes went, I was pretty much fucked. She didn’t want me. And that should have been the end of it but of course it fucking wasn’t. I’d fallen back on my old role of tormentor and I couldn’t fucking stop myself from keeping it up. I didn’t even know why half the time. Only that the only thing worse than her hating me was her ignoring me. Because then I knew she didn’t care about me at all.

I clenched my fist tightly then released it again, forcing Roxy Vega out of my head. For tonight at least, I was going to forget about her. And my father. And my throne, the shadows, my responsibilities, the other Heirs, my school work, my betrothal and every other little fucking thing that caused me stress or grief in my life. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last night out I’d had that hadn’t been tainted by something bad. I was probably in need of this as much as Lance was. So I was determined to make this birthday the best fucking birthday he’d ever had. It was going to be epic. Just the two of us without a care in the fucking world for one single night.

I approached Asteroid Place from the east, keeping away from the main path so that I could be sure no other teachers would see me. I was fairly sure a few of them had noticed my visits here from time to time, but so long as we all maintained the ruse of pretending it didn’t happen I was pretty confident they wouldn’t reprimand me for it. Being a Celestial Heir had some perks after all.

I reached the wrought iron fence that ringed the complex and took hold of two of the bars, exuding heat until I was able to bend them apart. Once I was able to, I squeezed through and fixed the bars back into position again from the other side.

I skirted between alleyways until I made it to Lance’s bedroom window where I knocked lightly.

A moment later, he pushed the window wide and I hopped in. He was wearing baggy sweatpants and no shirt and didn’t look in the least bit prepared for any kind of celebration.

“Hey,” Lance said with a confused frown. “What are you-”

“Happy birthday,” I interrupted, pulling him into a tight embrace. “We’re going out.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head as he stepped out of my arms. “I don’t celebrate my birthday. Not since Clara, you know I-”

“Oh come on, Lance,” I urged. “We need a night out. We need to get out of this place and out of our heads and just forget about all the shit here for one night of freedom.”

He groaned, turning away from me and padding back through to his front room where he snagged a glass of bourbon from the counter.

“I’m already having a party for one right here,” he said, settling back into his seat on the couch.

“Fuck that. This is the most pathetic birthday I’ve ever seen. Those pants are stained for fuck’s sake. What the hell has happened to you, man? You used to be cool!”

Lance looked down at the orange stain on his grey sweatpants and a smirk pulled at his lips.

“I had spaghetti,” he said defensively.

“Please tell me it was at least made from scratch by the kitchen staff and you didn’t just microwave it,” I said.

“Well it was fresh yesterday…”

“Fuck no. You’re not spending your birthday in stained sweatpants eating reheated leftovers. We’re going out. No excuses.”

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed finally, shooting away into his room to get changed.

I crossed into the kitchen and poured myself a measure of bourbon, knocking it back so the strong taste of it rolled down my throat. I poured another and emptied that too. I didn’t want to waste a moment of the night I had planned. I’d gotten us a table in the VIP room in Celest so we could do whatever the fuck we wanted without having to worry about the press catching sight of us and I was planning on getting wasted.

Lance returned in a grey shirt and jeans, his dark hair styled and a grin on his face that said he was ready to party with me.

“Fuck yes,” I said, enthusiastically, reaching into my back pocket and holding out the envelope for him.

He indulged me with a smirk as he accepted it and pulled out the birthday card, flipping it open to discover his gift inside.

“Pit side seats for the entire Solarian Pitball League Cup?” he said, letting out a low whistle.

Yeah, they’d cost a small fortune but if I wasn’t going to spend money on my friend for his birthday then what the hell did I even have so much of it for?

“Thanks, man, these are-”

A loud knock came from the front door and Lance looked around in surprise before motioning for me to hide.

I sighed irritably as I slipped into his room. Though I imagined he’d be in even more trouble if someone found me in his bedroom than he would if they’d found me out there. I was a student out of bounds though, so I guessed I just had to suck up the hiding bullshit.

“Noxy!” Lance cried enthusiastically from the front room and I scowled as the Harpy yelled out his little nickname in return. I hadn’t gotten that kind of a welcome and I was his best fucking friend. The two of them acted so fucking weird together, like they were both these cheery, jokey little buddies who giggled all the damn time but when they weren’t together, neither of them acted like that at all. Gabriel hardly even spoke unless he had to and certainly not to me. And Lance’s reputation as an asshole was well earned. But together they were like Bert and fucking Ernie. Nebular Allies my ass. The other Heirs were all my Nebular Allies but I didn’t start jumping up and down like a little girl at a princess party every time I hung out with them.

“Orio! Happy birthday! I almost missed the vision about this, but it looks like I just made it. What time are we heading out?” Gabriel’s voice came and my scowl deepened.

What the hell? This is supposed to be our night!

Great, now I was sounding like a fucking jealous girlfriend even inside my own head.

I folded my arms and waited for Lance to get rid of him so that I could come out again and we could get the fuck out of here, far, far away from third wheels.

“Oh,” Lance said, stalling as he came up with an excuse to get rid of the Harpy. “Well I was just going to-”

“It’s alright, I know Darius is here and he’s coming out with us. I saw it. I also saw myself not being an asshole and ruining the night by turning him in to campus security so we’re all cool.”

Lance laughed at that and the sound of it was way too loud and went on way too long to be genuine. It wasn’t even fucking funny. He was just stating facts about his visions. I could state facts about things that were happening and they wouldn’t be funny. The air is cool. That bed looks comfortable. The door is ajar. Not fucking funny. Dammit.

“Come out Goldilocks!” Gabriel called. “The bears are promising not to bite tonight.”

I ground my teeth and strode out of the bedroom to find Lance pouring him a drink just as Gabriel took a small, square package from his pocket wrapped in red paper.

“Hi,” I said to Gabriel and he gave me a vague nod without even looking my way properly.

Lance smirked as he accepted the gift, tearing it open with a swipe of his thumb and flipping the lid on the jewellery box inside.

They both started laughing instantly and Lance cooed. “No fucking way! This is just like the one I-”

“I know! I saw it and I just knew.”

“Too right!” Lance could barely get his words out around his laughter and I frowned as he slid a tacky, plastic signet ring onto his middle finger.

“Ooooooooo!” They both started saying together waving their hands like they’d lost control of them.

“Am I missing something here?” I asked as Lance tossed the Pitball tickets I’d bought him down on the coffee table without even looking to check where they’d landed. His gaze was locked on that tacky piece of plastic like it was a goddamn rainbow stone.

“Oh yeah, a few years ago when we-”

“We got lost along the Pontus Bay walk. And do you remember when we-”

“Ohhhh shit yeah! I’d almost forgotten all about that!” Lance fell into laughter again, waving me off as I frowned, looking for the rest of the joke which apparently they weren’t sharing.

“You kinda had to be there,” Gabriel said with a shrug.

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “It’s hard to explain. Don’t worry about it. Let’s all get going.”

“All?” I asked, my gaze fixing on Gabriel. “I only made reservations for the two of us and it’s pretty exclusive-”

“It’s fine, I already added to the reservation,” Gabriel said dismissively, not even looking at me.

My lips parted on another protest, thoughts swirling in my mind as I tried to think of anything I could say that wouldn’t come off like I was being a brat, stamping my foot and demanding time alone with my friend. But I came up blank.

Lance was grinning like this was a great fucking addition to the night’s plans even though until about ten minutes ago his only intended birthday celebration had been reheated goddamn spaghetti and getting drunk alone.

I sighed, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the pouch of stardust I’d brought to get us into the club. Arriving this way meant no press would catch onto us and realise I was there so we could have a night of freedom. Plus, it got rid of the need for designated drivers as we could just reappear back home in the blink of an eye.

I tossed a handful of stardust over us and Orion’s house swirled out of sight as we were transported through the stars to Celest.

The heavy bass of the music reached me a moment before the air swirled and the club’s arrival hall materialised around us.

A pink lip-glossed serving girl walked forward with a wide smile as she spotted us, holding out a tray with three glimmering glasses of Fae champagne.

I accepted mine with a nod of thanks, emptying the glass and setting it back down on the tray.

The magic infused in the drink bubbled through my veins and I felt myself relax as it got to work stealing my worries and helping me to focus on happy thoughts.

“Good evening, gentlemen, I’m Alissa and I’ll be your personal chaperone this evening,” the serving girl said with a bright smile. “I hear we have a birthday boy amongst us?”

Lance groaned as Gabriel threw an arm around his shoulders and pressed him forward. “Here he is!”

“The staff at Celest would like to send our warmest congratulations!” the girl said. “Here we think that a birthday boy should be treated like royalty so-” She took a golden crown from the table behind her and placed it on his head. Lance looked like he was caught between amusement and the desire to take it off. “Happy birthday, your majesty.” She bowed low and Lance barked a laugh. “If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you on up to the royal table. Your other guests have already arrived.”

“Other guests?” I asked with a frown, but she’d already turned away and headed up the silver staircase at the back of the room without hearing me.

“That was my idea,” Gabriel said with a knowing smile. “I had a vision about it and inviting them will make your night exponentially more enjoyable, Orio.”

Who says exponentially? And who the hell gave him permission to bulldoze our fucking night? If it wasn’t for the fact that this whole thing had been my idea and that I wanted to celebrate Lance’s birthday with him, I’d have been sorely tempted to bail. I could only hope that whoever the hell else he’d invited wasn’t as irritating as him.

Alissa led the way into the VIP room which was located on the third floor of the club. The room was really a balcony which had a magical wall to the right of it where we could look down over the rest of the people enjoying the club. If they looked back our way, all they could see was a sea of sparkling silver stars to maintain our privacy.

Everything in the room was black, inlaid with swirling silver patterns from the floors to the walls, tables and chairs.

Alissa led us through the small crowd gathered around the bar and over to a booth with a padded bench curved like a horseshoe ringing a low table. A curtain of glimmering silver lights hung around it, creating a cocoon of dimly lit space inside. There were two half empty glasses abandoned on the table, one pale pink cocktail with a cocktail stick full of cherries sitting in it and a tumbler which was almost empty and had red lipstick marking the rim.

“Who else is here?” I asked as Lance and Gabriel took their seats and glanced at the menu.

“Oh, your other guests headed to the dance floor,” Alissa explained.

I looked over at the raised area on the other side of the room where people were dancing to Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy and my heart leapt as I spotted Roxy Vega dancing with her sister like she didn’t have a care in the goddamn world.

She was wearing a red dress which hugged her perfect figure and showed off her long, bronze legs. Her dark hair was half pulled up in some kind of messy bun and trailed over one shoulder, looking like an artist’s version of just fucked. My mouth dried out as I watched her, my heart beating faster just looking at her. I knew I shouldn’t. I knew I should be angry she was here but a selfish, secret part of me wondered if she might just overlook our differences tonight. The few times I’d gotten close to her had been when she was relaxed like this.

“You invited the Vegas?” Lance asked suddenly as he spotted them too and I dropped into my seat, pointing at the first thing I saw on the menu so that Alissa would leave us alone.

Gabriel smiled widely. “Yeah, they know how to party.”

“How the hell would you know that?” I asked. “You literally just met them.”

“Maybe psychically,” Gabriel replied dismissively like I was the one acting weird, but I didn’t see how he could just claim vision friendships with people and act like he didn’t have to put in any fucking groundwork to actually make that into reality.

“I don’t think we should really be out drinking with students,” Lance said warily, his gaze still on the Vegas who hadn’t looked our way yet.

“Students like Darius?” Gabriel asked with a snort of laughter.

I almost said I’m different, but realised that would sound a bit odd.

“I guess…” Lance said and I was surprised when he didn’t raise more objections. “I mean, we’re all together, there’s nothing inappropriate going on and no one can see us here. So I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

Alissa returned with our drinks, smiling widely as she laid them out between us.

As she stepped away from the table, the Vegas appeared.

They fell still as they spotted us, Roxy’s gaze narrowing while Gwen’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Fuck, Gabriel, when you said we were coming out with your friends, I assumed it would be people we didn’t know. Not tweedleass and tweedledipshit,” Roxy said, folding her arms and pushing her tits up in the process. Her eyes were lined in black and her lips painted a deep red to match her dress. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a girl I desired as much as her and I couldn’t stop myself from drinking in the sight of her even while she stood insulting me right to my face.

“Believe me, if we’d known this place had such low standards, we wouldn’t have come here either,” I deadpanned, unable to resist the urge to bite back at her.

Her gaze cut to mine and her eyes swept over me slowly, seemingly drinking in the sight of me just as I was her. That illusion was shattered though as she looked away again dismissively, not rising to the bait and ignoring me yet again. That shit was getting old fast and I gritted my teeth in irritation as she proceeded to act like I wasn’t even fucking here.

“I didn’t know it was your birthday,” Gwen said, her eyes on Lance like she was surprised by the news.

He gave her a half smile, seeming a little embarrassed. “I don’t usually like to celebrate but Gabriel and Darius decided to surprise me with a night out so…”

Gabriel and Darius? What the fuck? I organised this whole thing and that asshole just gate-crashed it!

“Well, happy birthday,” Gwen said, dropping down into the seat beside him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. He turned towards her as she did and she almost caught his mouth. She blushed as she drew back, looking flustered and turned to give her sister a pointed look.

“Oh, yeah, happy birthday,” Roxy said, placing her hands down on the table and leaning forward to kiss Lance too. The red lipstick print she left on his cheek was about as far from his mouth as possible and she drew back the moment she’d delivered it.

Gabriel jumped up and pulled the two of them into a hug over the table and Roxy laughed as she was crushed to his broad chest like they really were old friends. I didn’t get it. They’d only met him a week ago and he was their damn teacher, why were they instantly acting like they were best friends, offering out hugs and laughs and somehow making me feel like I was the odd one out at a party I’d fucking organised?

He released them and waved at Alissa to bring us more drinks as he sat down again and the girls followed suit.

Roxy cast a look my way for a moment before reaching over and snagging the cocktail stick full of cherries from her sister’s glass. Gwen made a half assed complaint as Roxy smirked at her.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her mouth as she slowly drew a cherry off of the stick and pulled it between her lips. The girl was seductive without even fucking trying. I was getting hard just looking at her and she still wasn’t looking at me, her eyes on Gabriel as he started going on about some game he wanted to play. I gave his words enough of my attention so that I’d know the rules while continuing to watch Roxy fucking Vega eating cherries.

“It’s simple. We come up with dares and take it in turn to do them. Anyone who chickens out or can’t complete it has to drink a shot of Sourache-”

“What’s that?” Gwen asked.

“It’s a shot that tastes like absolute shit and is imbued with magic that makes your entire body ache for a whole minute,” Lance explained. That didn’t really cover the fucking awful experience you got from drinking Sourache, but I decided not to expand on it. They’d find out for themselves soon enough if they lost the game.

“So, when you get a dare you can pick one other person to help you complete it if you want to. But if you fail with help, then you have to take two shots,” Gabriel finished.

“Okay, but you might as well prepare yourselves to lose because me and Darcy are gonna whoop your asses,” Roxy taunted.

“Well there’s a first time for everything,” I said mildly.

Roxy’s eyes lit with the challenge as she glanced my way, but her attention quickly diverted back to Gabriel as she went back to ignoring me.

The Dragon stirred beneath my skin and I fought off the urge to growl. People didn’t ignore me. It rubbed against every ingrained part of my nature to allow her to continue, but snapping at her wasn’t going to work. So I’d make it my mission to get her attention tonight whatever way I could.

I smirked as I thought of that, getting to my feet and heading away from the table to track down our chaperone. Alissa spotted me before I made it more than a few steps and I ordered a tray of Sourache shots for the game before turning back to the table.

I dropped into the seat beside Roxy and she exhaled irritably as I threw my arm around the back of her chair.

“So who’s picking the first dare?” Gwen asked, tucking a lock of her dark blue hair behind her ear.

“I dare Roxy to be nice to me tonight,” I said and the others all looked between us.

She sighed impatiently. “Pass. Give me the sour shot thing,” she said.

Gabriel laughed way too loudly in response to that and the others joined in too. I grinned at her, just glad to have forced her to actually respond to something I’d said and ready to keep pushing her for more. Because I couldn’t fucking help it. If she was here and looking like that then every inch of my attention was going to be on her whether she wanted it or not.

Alissa delivered the tray of Sourache shots for our game and Roxy leaned forward to snare one. She eyed the violent green liquid with a raised eyebrow for a moment before tipping it into her mouth and swallowing it in one.

Her back straightened and her hand gripped the table as she fought against the urge to cry out from the effects of the shot and we all laughed. Gwen stared at her sister with her lips parting, reaching out to pat her back like she was wasn’t sure how to help her.

The minute wore out and Roxy released a breath as her posture relaxed and she barked a laugh.

“That stuff is fucking awful,” she said. “But it’s still less painful than fulfilling that dare would have been.”

I laughed before I could stop myself. That girl had bigger balls than half the guys I knew. Max practically started crying if we made him take a shot of Sourache and Seth howled the whole time its effects were in place. Roxy barely broke a sweat and came out swinging on the other end of it.

This night may not have been going the way I’d planned. But maybe it was still salvageable after all.