Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess

I lay in my bed listening to Sweet Dreams by Beyoncé with my headphones on and my eyes closed as I finally found a little peace from the shadows.

I breathed out a sigh of relief as sleep called to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because the sun hadn’t quite set yet or just because I’d had a brilliant time flying with Gabriel and Darcy at lunch time which had blissed me out. But for whatever reason, I actually felt relaxed for the first time since the Eclipse. And I hadn’t even been drinking. Points to Tory.

I hummed along to the song, my mind snagging on my own beautiful nightmare as I thought about Darius for a moment. I hadn’t spoken to him since the slightly mortifying screaming through the door scenario and I didn’t plan on it either. And yet for some reason, he still managed to work his way under my skin and into my daydreams.

I sighed as I tried to concentrate on falling asleep and forget about Dragons who were way too attractive for it to be fair. Not that I cared what he looked like…

A huge crash sounded, followed by the sound of splintering wood and I screamed as my eyes snapped open and my door was blasted right off of its hinges. I scrambled upright, throwing a shield of air up around me in a panic just as a blur shot into my room.

“You’re late for cheer practice, Miss Vega!” Orion boomed, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he looked down at me.

“What the fuck?” I gasped as I scrambled upright and yanked my headphones off. “Are you insane?”

“It has been suggested before,” he agreed with a dark laugh. “Now get your ass up and grab your shit. You’ve already lost fifty points for Ignis.”

“Boohoo,” I growled, strengthening my air shield so that he couldn’t get to me. “I do hope my poor House Captain isn’t too devastated. I can’t imagine how he’ll feel when I lose even more for not showing up at all.”

“That won’t result in further loss of points, Miss Vega, it will result in a trip to see Principal Nova to discuss your future at this school. You are required to take part in a club to keep your place here.”

“Well then I’ll tell her that I want to join the Ass Club and we won’t have a problem anymore,” I growled.

“No. I’m in charge of club allocation and she will stand by my decision. So either you get your pep in place or you get your ass out of this academy.”

I glared at Orion as I tried to consider my options but he was clearly out of patience. A spurt of water shot from his palm and coated my air shield before solidifying into a ball of ice and locking me inside.

I gasped in panic as the cold of the ice reached me and a flare of fire burst from my skin to counter it.

The ice shattered and before I could make another move, strong arms wrapped around my waist and I was hoisted over Orion’s shoulder.

I shrieked in panic as he shot straight towards my open window and leapt outside.

My scream carried across the whole of Fire Territory as we fell and Orion laughed as he used his air magic to slow our fall before we went splat.

The second his feet hit the ground, he shot away with his Vampire speed and I clamped my eyes shut to stop myself from puking at the combination of the insane motion and swinging upside down.

We came to a sudden halt and Orion dumped me on my ass on a wooden bench.

I blinked around at the girls locker rooms in confusion as he started backing up.

“Get changed and get out on the pitch in two minutes or its detention with me every night next week,” Orion commanded in place of a goodbye and he left in a blur of speed, a snort of laughter hanging in the air behind him.

“You’re fucking insane!” I shouted after him as I shoved myself to my feet.

My chilled vibe was most definitely dead and worse than that, I now had to endure the torture that they called cheer practice.

Fuck a duck.

I ground my teeth as I stood staring at the black sports bag which hung from one of the hooks with Tory Vega sprawled across it in pink and silver sequins. Sequins!

I glanced at the door. Surely detention would be preferable to this hell?

“She won’t make the cut anyway,” Kylie Major’s voice came from outside the locker rooms and I got the feeling she was calling out specifically to make sure I could hear her.

“I just don’t understand why Professor Orion would do this to us,” Marguerite lamented. “We’re the school cheer squad. I’ve never even seen her crack a smile unless she’s following up after some wiseass comment or just laughing at her own rudeness. She has no pep! No pep at all!”

I groaned because for once in my fucking life, I’d found something to agree with Marguerite Helebor over and it didn’t make a single inch of difference.

Orion had abandoned his Pitball coaching to hoist me to this hell over his shoulder like a sack of fucking potatoes. This was serious. He meant it. I just didn’t know why. Why curse me with this? Hadn’t I admitted I thought he was marginally less of a douchebag the other day? Didn’t that make us ever so slightly friendly? Was this one of those asshole boys club things that dudes did to each other for a laugh but girls did not find funny? Not one fucking bit…

I released a long breath and unzipped the bag.

If I’d thought the sequins were bad then I hadn’t even begun to realise the level of hell I’d be participating in with the rest of it.

I slowly unpacked the contents of the bag.

One cheer outfit consisting of a navy and silver trimmed skirt which barely covered my ass and a matching crop top which showed off way more cleavage than made sense for a sport that involved jumping up and down so much. A pair of glimmering pom-poms which changed colour magically as I shook them unintentionally while tossing them down on the bench like they were contaminated. One pair of knee high navy socks with silver bows at the top of them. One can of Ultraglitz spray-on sparkle, whatever the fuck that was. One pallet of Cheery Faevourites face paint. A pack of sparkly pink hair ribbons. A tube of Pegasus pink lip gloss. And to top it off, a pair of glittering pink sneakers.

Fuck my life.

“Hurry up, Vega!” Orion yelled from somewhere outside and I growled to myself as I stripped out of my clothes and donned the cheer outfit. It felt the way I imagined peeling the skin from my flesh and wearing it inside out would feel. Not entirely pleasant. 

Once I was in the ultra tight outfit, I moved to look at myself in the mirror by the sinks. It wasn’t entirely horrendous. I mean, sure, my personality had been stamped out and any sense of individuality I may have wanted to cling to was being bleached away by the uniform singularity of being part of a team.

Tory was not a team player.

Fuck.

I eyed the hair ribbons for a long moment before taking one and tying it around my neck like a choker.

The pink lip gloss went in the trash and I topped up the blood red lipstick I’d chosen earlier after fishing it out of my jeans’ pocket. It was the only damn thing I had on me aside from my key. Which I was guessing was useless now that I had no door.

I kicked the sneakers on reluctantly and fell still as I realised they were changing colour with every step I took. It was kinda cool…you know, for a ten year old.

I scooped up the fucking pom-poms with a growl and started heading for the door but before I could get there, an idea struck me. I paused, looking back at the sequinned bag as a smirk pulled up my lips and I hurried back to it.

My plan didn’t take long, though it was a little awkward to complete with a mirror and no help but fuck it, it would make my point.

By the time I stalked back out onto the Pitball pitch I looked peppy as fuck – discounting the scowl I was sporting in protest of my abusive situation.

“Let’s all have a round of applause for our latest cheerleader!” Orion called, drawing every fucking Fae in the stadium’s attention to me.

Caleb stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled at me. I responded with a single finger of my own before turning and stalking away from him and the other Pitball players to join the cheer squad. That’s right, I had a fucking squad now. Peachy.

The mean girls lined up to stare at me, pouting their pink lip-glossed lips and folding their arms in a wall of plastic defiance as if they thought I wanted to be here or some shit.

“By all means, don’t let me join up,” I said as I arrived before them. “I give zero shits about this but Orion has forced me to attend. So if you want to kick me out then please do – I can still say I showed up.”

“Oh no,” Marguerite said coldly as she trailed her eyes over every inch of me, making it clear she found me lacking. “We won’t be doing that. You came here to cheer. So let’s see what you’ve got.”

“I bet she can’t even do a standing backflip,” Kylie scoffed, covering her mouth as she spoke to Jillian beside her like it might stop her nasally voice from carrying.

I rolled my eyes at her before leaping straight into a backflip and landing it perfectly.

“At the last high school we attended in the mortal world they gave you a choice in what subjects to study and I chose the physical options over the academic ones,” I said, yawning to let them know how bored I was. “Gymnastics was four times a week and we practiced inside so I didn’t have to go out in the goddamn frost in the winter. It was a no brainer.”

“No brainer’s right,” Marguerite scoffed.

I offered her a sweet as pie smile and she scowled at me.

“I don’t like her,” Kylie whisper shouted behind her hand to the other girls.

“Boo to the fucking hoo, I don’t like you either. It’s not really the point though, is it?”

Marguerite sighed dramatically, marking something down on her clipboard which might as well have been a self portrait for all the interest I had in it.

“Come on, girls. We have to persevere through the hard times. The stars have decided to challenge us with this…new recruit…and we will just have to get on with it. I know that the rest of you can shine brightly enough to dazzle the attention away from less desirable teammates.”

I rolled my eyes and looked away from her to the far side of the Pitball pitch where Orion was making the team do sprints back and forth. Darcy looked about ready to bust a lung and I offered her a smirk as she started running my way.

She raised an eyebrow in response, glancing at the cheer squad as if to say you’ve got it worse. I cut my gaze to Darius as he raced away from me up the pitch like a stampeding rhino and shrugged to say I’m not so sure about that.

Darcy snorted a laugh and Orion spotted us.

“If you can exchange loaded looks with your sister then you can run faster, Vega!” he barked and Darcy groaned as she turned and started running for the far end of the pitch again.

My gaze slid to Orion as he took in my new, peppy as fuck appearance and he smirked at me like a goddamn psychopath.

“Very nice, Tory, I can see your inner pep shining through already,” he called.

I scowled and flipped him off.

He barked a laugh. “Five points from Ignis. And you’d better start cheering if you don’t want to lose more.”

“You’re a fucking sadist,” I muttered as I turned my attention back to the cheer squad and his laughter followed me.

“We’re going to have to think about the pyramid,” Marguerite was saying. “It’ll need a rearrangement now that we have an additional member.” Her eyes fell on me as I stood at the edge of the group and folded my arms. “You should probably be on the bottom tier, Tory,” she said sweetly. “So we can make use of your brawny arms.”

She clapped her hands which apparently was some kind of signal because the other girls all ran and started building a pyramid. Seven of them kneeled in the sand at the edge of the pitch and Marguerite pointed to the end of the row, clearly expecting me to get down there beside them. 

“No thanks, hun,” I said sweetly. “There’s only one thing I ever get on my knees for.” I pushed my tongue into my cheek tauntingly and she practically spat a fireball at me.

“You don’t get to choose what you do! You just follow orders!” she snapped.

“Says who?”

“I’m the captain, which means you have to!”

“Well, how about we just come to a little arrangement so far as my participation in this horror show goes? I’ll pick and choose what I’m willing or not willing to do and you’ll suck it up or I’ll kick your ass again.”

Marguerite glared at me, fire crackling between her fingers as she tried to figure out what to do with me.

“And I should probably remind you that fire doesn’t hurt me,” I said sweetly, glancing at the flames she was conjuring. “And as you’re just a fire Elemental that basically makes you’re powerless in a fight against me. Doesn’t it?”

“If you don’t fall into line, I’m going to talk to Professor Orion about getting you kicked off of the squad,” she snapped angrily.

“Please do,” I deadpanned.

Jillian released an unexpected laugh which she tried to cover up with a cough as Kylie glared at her.

With a growl of frustration, Marguerite turned and stormed away from the squad across the pitch towards Orion.

I smiled innocently at the rest of the squad and started playing with a handful of water which I conjured into existence, making it run between my fingers then hop from one hand to the other while ignoring the looks they were giving me.

“Do you think you could shoot yourself twenty feet up with your air magic?” a girl to the right of the group asked me curiously and I banished my water magic as I gave her my attention.

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“Well we’ve been trying to perfect a routine and we wanted a huge air leap in the middle of it. If we have a girl who can shoot herself that high and spin all the way down in a controlled descent then-”

“We don’t need a Vega to take the central roll in our routine, Bernice,” Kylie snapped. “I told you I’ve almost got it figured out.”

“Let’s see it then,” I suggested, eyeing her as she tossed her platinum blonde curls.

“I said almost,” she snarled at me. “It’s not quite ready yet.”

“Oh, so you can’t really do it then?” I teased.

Kylie’s face turned a rather unattractive shade of beetroot as several members of the squad laughed at her expense.

“Fine. I’ll show you, but don’t go complaining that it’s not perfect yet,” she said, tossing her pom-poms to the floor.

Everyone stepped back to give her space but I held my ground, watching her impassively as she took a steadying breath and hopped up and down a few times.

She bent her knees and jumped up, directing her hands at the ground and shooting air magic from her palms to propel her up towards the sky.

She ascended about twelve foot off of the ground then turned one hand out so that she started spinning as she descended.

She put a little too much power into the air meant to turn her and it knocked her off balance, her descent looking more like a fall. The air magic she used to slow herself sent her tipping to the right and as she reached the ground, she fell straight back on her ass with a snarl of embarrassment.

“I told you it wasn’t quite ready!” she said as Jillian clapped enthusiastically.

“And like I said,” Bernice replied dismissively. “We don’t have anyone capable of the move yet.”

I smirked at Bernice as she eyed me up, twisting her dark braids around her finger.

“So are you gonna give it a try or are you too chicken shit?” she challenged. 

I barked a laugh, smirking at Bernice as I stepped back, calling air magic into my palms. Perhaps this whole cheerleading thing wouldn’t be entirely horrific with her on the squad.

“I’m not afraid,” I said confidently. “I’m just not sure how to do it. I feel like imitating Kylie would be a mistake.”

Bernice and some of the other girls laughed as Kylie glared at me.

“You just wanna propel yourself up in a straight line then come back down to land in exactly the same spot while spinning in place. Kinda like a pirouette on the spot as you fall,” Bernice said. “So let’s see what you’ve got, Vega.”

I glanced up again, wondering if I was about to fall on my ass like Kylie had. But I’d been using my air magic like this a lot in our flying lessons and I was starting to get pretty good at knowing how much energy to exert to get the desired movement through the sky. I just had to hope it wouldn’t be too different without wings.

“Okay then, but if I fall on my ass, I want you all to laugh louder than you did for Kylie,” I joked.

Kylie folded her arms, smirking expectantly as she waited for me to make an ass of myself.

I rolled my shoulders back and called on my air magic, aiming my palms at the ground beneath my feet as I directed a blast of it to propel me skyward.

I shot into the air, way higher than I’d really meant to as I released too much power by accident. I must have been about forty foot in the air before the magic eased and I started falling again. I directed a small shot of air behind my back which got me spinning and the stadium blurred around me as I rotated again and again. The girls beneath me started cheering and a laugh spilled from my lips as I let sparks of fire magic fall from my fingertips as I spun. They whirled around me like I was a Tory shaped comet falling back to earth and I couldn’t help but grin at the rush I got from using my magic for something so fun.

I hit the ground a little harder than I’d meant to, stumbling back several steps but managing to stay on my feet.

“Shit, Vega, you don’t do things by halves do you?” Bernice cooed with a wide smile while Kylie glared at me like I’d just used her bleached blonde hair for toilet paper.

“Well she doesn’t seem to be doing too badly to me,” Orion’s voice came from behind me and I turned to find him approaching with Marguerite at his side.

“Cheering isn’t just about using flashy magic,” Marguerite snapped. “It’s about school spirit, team work and being cheerful. She doesn’t fit.”

Orion folded his arms, looking like this debate interested him about as much as discussing a pimple on Marguerite’s ass would.

“Well as you’re so cheerful and friendly, I’m sure you will make it your mission to help Miss Vega fit in,” he replied.

I glanced across the pitch to the Pitball team who were stretching their limbs out and I smirked as I realised that meant practice was over.

“Well, as fun as this has all been, it looks like it’s time to go,” I interrupted.

“She didn’t even use any of her face paint to show her support for the team,” Marguerite pushed. “She doesn’t care about anything that we stand for!”

Orion looked to me like he was expecting me to deny that fact but I only shrugged. All the other cheerleaders had painted cute little slogans or names onto their arms and cheeks. Most of them had opted for the Heirs’ surnames or initials but I was about as likely to start doing that as I was to change my name to Dorothy and fly on home to Kansas.

“That’s not entirely true,” I said with a smirk.

I turned my back on them and started walking away, flipping up the back of my skirt so that they could appreciate my use of the face paint I’d been gifted. Marguerite gasped in shock as Orion released a surprised laugh. I’d scrawled bite me across my ass cheeks where they hung out beneath the tiny pair of shorts which somehow counted as a uniform for this ridiculous sport.

“Don’t be late for your next practice on Tuesday, Miss Vega!” Orion called after me.

I dropped my skirt and raised both middle fingers over my shoulders as I strolled away. I really wasn’t cheerleading material. But if Orion was going to force me to attend then it looked like I was stuck participating. It didn’t mean I was going to suddenly have a personality transplant though.

“Tory!” Caleb’s voice made me pause just before I reached the locker room and I turned his way as he shot towards me.

“Hi,” I laughed as he came to a halt, smirking at me with his hair falling into his eyes. Mud splattered up one side of his face and his Pitball kit was filthy and ripped along the hem.

“Hey,” he replied with that smug as fuck grin that I kinda loved. Not that I’d ever tell him, but his overconfident bullshit was a pretty big turn on.

“Good training session?” I asked, reaching out to finger the hem of his ruined kit.

“Did you see the way I just tackled Max? He almost drowned in that puddle,” he laughed, his eyes bright with excitement.

“Sorry, I was concentrating on my own rigorous training schedule and I must have missed it.”

“I dunno if I’ve congratulated you on making the cheer team actually,” Caleb said, his gaze drifting over my uniform slowly.

“I don’t think congratulations are in order. More like commiserations,” I sighed.

Darius, Seth and Max made a beeline for us as they walked off of the pitch too and I shifted back a step, meaning to leave. Caleb caught my wrist, halting my escape.

“Wait a sec,” he said. “I wanted to ask if-”

“Looking good, little Vega,” Max called as they drew in on us. “I hope you’re practicing chants with my name in them.”

“Oh yeah of course I have been,” I replied brightly, shaking my pom-poms at him. “Max! Max! His hair’s so shiny. It’s just a shame his dick’s so tiny!”

Caleb barked a laugh and Max rolled his eyes, cupping his junk. “I can easily prove that bullshit false.”

“No need,” I replied. “Geraldine told me all about it.” I held my thumb and forefinger close together and offered him a smile.

Max narrowed his eyes on me then turned sharply. “Grus!” he yelled, drawing a look from Geraldine just as she bent over in a stretch. She eyed Max while folded in half, looking through her legs with her ass in the air.

“I’m currently engaged in a cool down routine and don’t have time for chats with floppy flounders,” she called back.

Max growled and headed over to her with determined strides while Seth and Darius continued to linger like bad smells.

I’d done a good job of keeping the hell away from Darius since screaming at him through my bedroom door but now his gaze was boring right into me from barely a meter away. I kept my eyes off of him though, acting like he wasn’t there at all as I turned to Seth.

“Didn’t I hear Orion saying you got the most scores in your practice match?” I asked him. “Does that make you the best on the team?”

Seth smirked, his chest puffing up as he re-tied his man bun. “Hell yeah I did,” he replied. “And I’d agree that it probably does mean I’m the best.”

Caleb scoffed, shifting his weight so he moved closer to me.

“Well that’s hardly a measure of who’s doing the best in a match,” Darius pitched in. “Defensive players aren’t trying to score Pits so you can’t exactly judge the best player based on scores. Half the reason he scored so many was because I was on his team stopping the others from taking the ball.”

I turned to Caleb like the fart hadn’t spoken. “So, was there a point to you stopping me before I could go and change out of this hideous costume?” I asked him.

“Yeah. You’re coming out with me tonight,” he said boldly. Not asking. Telling.

I smirked at him while tossing up my responses. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him to fuck off or just go with it. I didn’t have any plans tonight and from the way Darcy’s face was painted with exhaustion, I was ready to bet she’d be crashing the moment she got back to her House. She was still on the far side of the pitch, talking to Orion about something and half the reason I was even still stood here was because I was waiting for her.

“Am I?” I asked slowly. “And where are we going?”

“Don’t you think you should be more careful around her until she’s mastered her Order?” Darius asked.

“I think she’s worth the risk,” Caleb replied dismissively, his gaze not straying from me as he addressed me again. “So are you going to get ready or what?”

“Alright,” I replied, smiling a little.

Caleb grinned and Darius growled loud enough to make me look at him for a moment despite my great intentions to ignore his existence. His eyes were dark and his posture tense, his arms folded over his broad chest. My heart jolted but I refused to balk as his gaze travelled over me, lighting fire beneath my skin everywhere his eyes landed.

The flames of my Order form flickered before my eyes and I blinked, turning my head away from him again as if I’d never looked at all.

“I’ll meet you outside the stadium after I’m changed,” I said to Caleb who grinned in response.

I turned away from him, joining Darcy as she trudged towards me, covered in mud and looking dog tired.

“Good try-out?” I teased as we headed into the girls’ locker room.

“Surprisingly yeah. I made the team as a Pit Keeper!” Darcy announced, her eyes glowing with excitement.

“No way!” I gasped.

“Way. But I’m wondering how long that’ll last because I’m aching in places I didn’t know I had and I think my legs will fall off if I have to do those sprints every session,” Darcy groaned before offering me a sidelong smile. “You look…peppy.”

“Yeah,” I agreed as I grabbed my bag and headed for a shower. “I owe Orion for this little slice of hell.”

Darcy giggled as she moved into her own shower stall beside mine and our conversation was cut off by the sound of running water.

I soon emerged and dressed myself in the high waisted jeans and red crop top I’d been wearing when Orion came and snatched me from my room. I braided my hair over my shoulder and raided Darcy’s bag for some makeup while she was getting herself dressed.

“Going somewhere?” she asked curiously as I moved to the mirror.

“Caleb’s taking me out. Hopefully for food because I’m starved,” I supplied.

“I thought you were just hooking up?” she asked. “Because this kinda seems like a date. Which after the carnival makes two…”

I rolled my eyes at her in the mirror as I applied my own red lipstick, the only damn thing I had on me. “Not a date. Just a…pre hook-up adventure.”

“Riiight.”

Darcy took her makeup back and tossed it in her bag, not bothering to put any on herself. “Well I’ve got a date with my pillow. Pitball is insane and I’m knackered.”

I laughed and we headed out side by side. Darcy waved goodbye to me as we spotted Caleb leaning against the wall of the stadium, his leg kicked back against it as he perused his Atlas.

“Ready?” he asked brightly, standing up straight as he spotted me.

“Where are we going?” I asked as he threw his arm around my shoulders and we started walking. I didn’t even have a coat so I called on my fire magic to stop me from shivering.

“It’s a surprise,” Caleb said, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

“Is there going to be food at least?” I asked, my stomach growling.

“Yes,” he agreed. “But I’m not telling you anything else so don’t ask.”

I sighed. I didn’t like surprises. But I got the feeling he wanted me to keep prodding him about our destination while he had no intention of giving it away so I let it drop.

We followed the path through The Wailing Wood to the multi-storey car park where he kept his car and we took an elevator up to the Batmobile itself on the top floor.

“Don’t you have a car that’s less…” I waved at the ostentatious thing, not even sure what to call it. It was all black and so pretentious I didn’t even have words for it.

“This is the only car I keep on campus,” he replied with a frown, sounding a little offended. “Don’t you like it?”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

“So what would you rather we drive?” Caleb asked curiously as he unlocked the car.

“Well if we’re taking our pick, I’d go with that,” I said, pointing at a beautiful red super bike which was parked in a space opposite his car.

Caleb snorted a laugh. “Well I don’t think Darius would agree to lend it to us somehow.”

A prickle ran down my spine as I took a step closer to the bike. Of course it belonged to Darius, I didn’t know why I hadn’t realised that instantly. It was a limited edition, fucking perfect, nought to sixty in two point six seconds, absolutely lust inspiring beauty.

“Well, I could probably get her started within about ten minutes,” I offered, my gaze running over the bike as my heart beat faster at the mere thought of riding it.

Caleb laughed like I was joking and dropped into his car beneath the door which swung up like a weird wing. And of course I was joking. Mostly. I wasn’t going to steal Darius Acrux’s bike. Probably. At least not while one of his besties was here.

I sighed and headed away from the bike to get into the car beside Caleb.

“Buckle up,” he encouraged as the doors fell closed and he started the engine which purred like a hungry beast beneath us.

“No,” I replied simply, ignoring the seatbelt as I made myself comfortable by sliding the window open.

Caleb eyed me curiously but didn’t ask. And I was hardly going to offer up details of the night I almost drowned as a fun topic of conversation so we both just left it alone.

He flicked the radio on and a playlist started up, making me wince as the clash of an ultra loud beat pounded together with some weird techno vibe.

“You can pick something else if you don’t like that,” Caleb said, tossing me his Atlas so that I could choose a different playlist.

I scrolled through the options as he drove us out of the academy grounds and down the winding road towards Tucana. Everything in Caleb’s playlists seemed to be one form of dance music or another. Apparently we were doomed to travel inside a mini rave despite my bleeding eardrums. I gave up on trying to find something good to listen to, realising our tastes in music were a bit too far from each other’s for me to find a middle ground easily.

I settled for lowering the volume and trying to ignore the doof doof doof of repetitive drivel that Caleb was drumming his fingers along to on the steering wheel.

Before long, we were pulling up outside a huge bar with blacked out glass windows and a name which seemed to be written in symbols instead of letters and left me just as clueless to our location as I’d been before I arrived. Caleb shot around the car and opened my door for me, offering his hand like I was a proper lady and making me smirk as he hoisted me out of the car and into his arms.

“You can’t park there!”

I looked around as the bouncer called out angrily but as Caleb turned to face him, the huge man dropped his gaze to the floor.

“Sorry, Mr Altair, I didn’t realise it was you,” he gushed, his bald head reddening.

“No problem,” Caleb said with a shrug as he drew me past the long line of people waiting to get in and another bouncer instantly opened the door for us.

“I always wondered what it would be like to be one of those people who cut the queue like that,” I said as we stepped into a posh atrium and a woman hurried forward to take Caleb’s coat.

“And how did it live up to your daydreams?” Caleb teased.

“It made me feel like a total douchebag,” I replied with a shrug and he laughed. 

“Well get used to it. You’re Roxanya goddamn Vega. You’ll never queue for anything in your life, ever again.” He took my hand and led me after the hostess as I frowned at his back. I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the sound of that. So just because it turned out I’d had royal parents now I was going to get special treatment my whole life?

We stepped through a velvet curtain and the hostess led us to a VIP table behind a rope. And so the doucheyness continues…

I sat at a little round table and Caleb said something to the hostess, pressing a roll of aura notes into her hand before she walked away.

“So is this your favourite restaurant or something?” I asked, glancing about. My gaze fell on a stage at the far end of the room. We were raised above most of the other diners so I had a clear view of it. There was a lone microphone standing in the centre of it with a screen sat in front of it facing away from us.

“It’s just a bit of a laugh,” Caleb supplied.

A girl got up and walked onto the stage to a smattering of applause and a few hoots of encouragement from her friends. I shuddered a little as she headed straight for the mic and looked away from her again.

“So, I have a weird kinda hate thing that it might be worth telling you about if a band is about to start playing,” I said, looking at Caleb.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. So, live music kinda weirds me out. I just find it so cringe when people sing at me and then there’s the whole awkward social pressure to applaud and jump about in appreciation for how great they are. Even if you don’t think they’re great. It just makes me feel kinda…sick.” I pulled a face as Caleb laughed.

“And how about when amateurs are the ones doing the singing?” he teased just as the girl struck up the first chord of We Are The Champions.

I fell still, my brain finally catching up to what this place was as I looked around at the stage and spotted the words to the song illuminated on the screen as the girl sung her heart out.

“Karaoke?” I asked in horror, looking at Caleb like I was begging him to make it not true.

He laughed and leaned forward. “You really hate it that much?” he asked.

“Fuck, Caleb, this is like…I don’t even have words for it. It’s like my worst nightmare come to life. Sorry to be a total fucking downer but can we just go somewhere else?”

“Seriously?” he asked with a frown, glancing down at the stage with a smile. “It’s just a bit of fun, Tory.”

I pulled a face. “Not my kind of fun.”

“You just need to give it a chance. Once you’ve had a few drinks you’ll be belting out Mariah Carey like no one’s business.”

I opened my mouth to protest but the hostess arrived at that moment with our drinks and food.

My stomach turned as she dropped a huge platter of slime in front of me, accompanied by a bright pink cocktail.

“What the hell is this?” I asked in disgust.

“Sushi,” Caleb said with a frown. “I got you the chef’s special. It’s all freshly caught today and-”

“You know I don’t eat animals, right?” I asked, picking up a chopstick and poking at something bright pink. It wobbled. I almost puked in my mouth.

“Not even fish?”

“No,” I replied. “And especially not raw fucking fish.” I shuddered again, dropping the chopstick in disgust.

Caleb laughed like this was all some big joke and not a total fucking disaster. I picked up my drink in desperation, ignoring the fact that there were goddamn flowers floating on the top of it and draining it in one. The achingly sweet taste of it sent my tastebuds haywire and I gagged a bit. Why the hell had he ordered for me instead of asking what I might actually like?

The next singer got up and started blasting out the Spice Girls. I was all for girl power but not when it was being butchered by a huge guy who looked like he was half transformed into a Werewolf and was wearing a sombrero.

I twisted my chair around the table so I didn’t have to look at the stage but my skin was still itching with the desire to get out of here.

“I’ll order you some vegetarian sushi,” Caleb offered as he ate his own food with the chopsticks like a pro. I didn’t even know how he was doing it but I was sure as shit that I wouldn’t be able to.

“Will it be hot? And not slimy?” I asked, looking around at the other tables and losing hope as all I saw were tables and tables of slime balls.

“Well…maybe you’ll like it if you give it a go?” he suggested.

I shrugged, knowing I wouldn’t like it. I enjoyed food that was heavy on the carbs and fat and ideally piping hot. But I wasn’t going to just write it off without even attempting to eat it, especially while he was giving me the puppy dog eyes.

The hostess hurried to replace my wet fish with wet vegetables and I tried not to sneer at the fresh meal. I gave the chopsticks three tries then just stabbed the closest weird, green thing onto one of them instead.

I forced it into my mouth and chewed slowly. Caleb watched with that smug look on his face like he thought I was about to start praising this cold, gross slime which I was fighting not to spit out. I eyed a napkin, wondering if I could do it before deciding even my sparse manners couldn’t allow that and forcing myself to swallow. It was even worse on the way down.

I tossed the chopstick down and shook my head just as the possible Werewolf belted out the chorus in a key so wrong my ears wanted to bleed.

Hell. I was in hell.

“You don’t like it?” Caleb asked in disappointment.

“Look, dude. You don’t really know me and I don’t really know you. I’m not into fancy, slimy food and listening to people sing live. I’m guessing you’re not into a lot of the things I like. It doesn’t really matter though, does it?” He was the one who’d told me he didn’t want any kind of future with me anyway. I wasn’t sure why he looked so disappointed.

“I guess not,” he replied, twirling his chopsticks between his fingers. “Do you wanna ditch this place then?”

“Please,” I replied with the first genuine smile I’d given him since we’d walked through the doors to this disaster zone.

Caleb grinned in return, tossing the chopsticks down and rising to his feet. I was up in an instant and the two of us headed straight for the door, much to the surprise of the hostess. Caleb cheered her up again with another wedge of auras and as soon as he’d collected his coat we were back outside and I was able to shake off the creepy feel of the place.

“What now then?” Caleb asked.

“Do you have any speedway tracks around here? Or motocross arenas?” I suggested.

Caleb arched an eyebrow at me and shrugged. “Maybe…I mean I could find out. Darius would probably know…”

“Maybe just scrap that idea,” I interrupted. He was clearly about as into bikes as I was karaoke and the stars only knew where the hell we’d end up if he got advice from Darius about it.

“There’s a stand-up club not too far away,” Caleb suggested.

“That kinda causes me the same issues I get with live music,” I replied. “Paintball?”

“At night? In these jeans?” His brow creased and I could tell he hated that idea.

“Never mind. Shall we just go drinking instead? And maybe I can find a burrito truck on the way?”

“You’ll eat food prepared in a van but not delicacies made in a five star restaurant?” Caleb asked with a smirk.

“Well, we aren’t all pretentious assholes,” I teased. “And most of the best foods are prepared in vans.”

“They’re really not,” he argued.

“Whatever. Let’s just agree to disagree,” I said with a shrug.

“About everything, apparently,” he replied with a frown.

I smirked at him. “Why are you pouting, Caleb?”

“I’m not. I just wanted to have a fun evening with you and it’s not really going to plan…”

“Well then why don’t we just call time on this fiasco? You find me a burrito, I’ll give you a blowjob and we’re all good,” I suggested.

“Seriously?” he asked, perking up at that.

“About the burrito? Hell yes. The blowjob? You just took me on what was arguably the worst date of my life. And I once went out with a guy who took me to a bridge over a ravine filled with junk so that we could ‘look at the view’ and he could do a drug deal. So I’m thinking no.”

Caleb laughed and led the way to his car. “Maybe we can have a do over tomorrow? We could have breakfast together?”

“I’m not a morning person. Remember?”

“No.”

“Like I said, you don’t really know anything about me. Do you?”

“Apparently not.”

We looked at each other awkwardly for a moment and I decided to break the tension. “But you are pretty good in the sack, so there is that.”

“There is that,” he agreed, smiling again as he pulled away from the kerb. “Maybe I can remind you just how good when we get back to the academy?”

I snorted a laugh without committing either way. “Maybe.”

“I can work with that.”