Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

Darius was looking at me like the whole world had just imploded and I was about to be ripped right out of his arms.

He stood suddenly, lifting me off of his lap and planting me on my feet as he shoved me behind him and bared his teeth at his father and Clara.

“Name your price. Anything you want to undo this,” he snarled, one hand staying clamped around my wrist like he thought if he could just keep hold of me then none of this was really happening.

Clara burst into laughter, clapping her hands like this was all some game.

“Don’t you see, Darius?” she asked. “This is perfect. Now we’re all just one big, happy family. We can get back to loving each other and making sure we keep Daddy happy. Maybe he’ll even let you share her sometimes?”

Darius’s grip on me tightened and he growled, rolling his shoulders back like he was aching to end this fight while not knowing how to go about it now.

There was no way for him to do it without having to get through me. When he’d attacked Lionel, I hadn’t even been aware of myself moving before I’d leapt in front of him and even the thought of Darius attacking him now was filling my head with thoughts of how I’d immobilise him. But that was so fucked up because the thing I wanted most in this world was Lionel dead…didn’t I?

“Tell me your price,” Darius demanded furiously and Lionel’s lips lifted into a smile that made a shiver of fear race down my spine.

“This isn’t a negotiation, boy,” he said. “She belongs with me now.”

“You’ll keep your fucking hands off of her,” Darius growled and I reached out to wrap my fingers around his arm, touching the mark of the Phoenix Kiss I’d given him as he continued to hold my other wrist.

“I don’t believe in fate,” I hissed. “Or destiny, or gods, deities, demons or even fucking lizard assholes choosing my life for me. So you can bind me to you or curse me or capture me but I will never be yours or anyone else’s unless I choose it.”

“Oh I think you’ll choose it,” Lionel purred and the deep rumble of his voice was kind of…soothing. What the fuck? “The Guardian bond does more than make you protect me. It will make you crave me too.”

“It will make you love him like you should,” Clara put in, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Never,” I swore.

“What’s your price?!” Darius shouted and I could feel him trembling where we held each other, the tremors in his skin making me shiver too. It was rage and fear and something much worse because the terrified look in his eyes said that he didn’t really believe this could be undone. He’d lived it. He knew.

“Come with me, Roxanya,” Lionel commanded, jerking his chin like the pompous ass he was.

My fucking foot shifted as some unrecognisable part of me ached to do just that. To go to him, make sure he was alright, reach out and touch him and-

What the fuck has he done to me??

The door burst open and we whirled around as Darcy, Caleb, Seth and Max practically fell inside.

My heart leapt to see them all here, their ferocious expressions and determined postures telling me in no uncertain terms that they’d come for me.

In all my life I’d only ever had one person who I could trust with that kind of loyalty. And to see her surrounded by boys who I had thought of as my enemies until recently set something blazing in my soul which I hadn’t even known I’d been aching for.

“You’re outnumbered,” Darcy snarled, her eyes locking on Lionel as flames coated her fists. “So just let my sister leave.”

“I think you’re forgetting how Fae fight, Gwendalina,” Lionel laughed. “But if you think you can take me on alone then feel free to try. Otherwise I’ll be taking the two of you with me.”

Darcy raised her hands and threw the flames she was holding at him with a shout of anger.

Fear sped through me and I leapt forward with a cry of panic, flinging my arms up as I tore out of Darius’s grip and I tossed a shield up to protect Lionel. The fireball hit me in the chest as I failed to protect myself and Darcy cried out as I was knocked to the ground by the blast.

Lionel hadn’t even flinched, his lips twitching with amusement like he was having the time of his fucking life. Clara had thrown a river of shadows between us and the others to protect him too and we were effectively cut off from them as it continued to writhe in the centre of the room.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Clara hissed behind me as Darcy gaped at me in confusion.

“What’s going on, Tor?” she asked, her gaze flicking between all of us as pain tightened my chest like it was being squeezed in a vice.

Before I could reply, the shadows in me flared to life and my limbs were flooded with dark energy as I got to my feet and moved to stand before Lionel and Clara. Adrenaline flooded my veins as I tried to figure out what the fuck was happening to me and Darius moved to my side, controlled by the shadows too.

“Shall we kill them?” Clara asked in a sugary voice.

“I need the twins,” Lionel said firmly.

“Not that one,” Clara said with a disappointed sigh, pointing at Darcy. “The shadows have left her.”

My lips parted as I tried to figure out if that could be true and the look Darcy was giving me said it was.

“Then I suppose we don’t need any of them,” Lionel agreed slowly. “And wiping out the Heirs to the other Council seats will only make my ascension smoother…”

Clara giggled excitedly and I could feel the shadows growing within me as they moved to coat my body and flared to life in my palms.

I raised my hands without wanting to and Darius did the same at my side. Shadows burst from us so suddenly that they stole my breath, the raw power of them tearing through me like a hurricane and slamming across the room with more energy than I’d ever felt.

Darcy, Seth and Max all threw up their most powerful air shields to protect the four of them and when the shadows collided with them, there was a resounding boom which knocked all four of them off of their feet.

A shriek drew my attention to the hole in the wall and I gasped as I spotted movement outside, almost thinking the trees themselves were shifting before I realise what it was. Across the grounds, highlighted by starlight, a whole host of Nymphs were coming this way.

“Holy fuck,” Caleb breathed as he looked out too and the others all gazed on in terror.

Neither Lionel nor Clara seemed concerned in the least and that might have been the most terrifying part of it all.

My hands lifted again as Clara laughed with glee and fear consumed me as I looked at Darcy, scrambling upright as she tried to prepare for the next attack.

“You can fight it Tory – you can break free too!” she yelled and I fought with everything I had to do just that, but with my Phoenix still sleeping deep within me thanks to the Order Suppressant gas, I didn’t even know where to begin.

Power was building in my hands again, even more potent than the last time and Darius was cursing beside me as he tried to fight the shadows back too. But it was no good, they were only intensifying and any moment now I’d be forced to unleash them on Darcy and my friends-

“Wait,” I gasped desperately, wondering if there was even the slightest chance that I could bargain with a mad man. “You want me, don’t you? You want me to give in to the shadows and give you my blood? I’ll do it. All of it. Whatever you want. Just let my sister go. Let them all go.”

“Tory no!” Darcy shouted and Seth grabbed her as she tried to lunge towards me despite the river of shadows dividing us.

“Over my dead body,” Darius snarled furiously beside me, but he couldn’t move any more than I could.

My hands were shaking as the shadows coiled around them, but I was far more terrified of what they were about to do to Darcy and the Heirs than anything that might happen to me.

Footsteps sounded behind me and I shuddered as Lionel’s hand slid over my shoulder, though I couldn’t tell if it was in repulsion or pleasure and that was almost the most terrifying thing about this bond I now had with him.

“Say goodbye to your sister,” he breathed, his lips brushing against my ear and making me shiver again.

“And Darius,” I choked out. “All of them. Leave all of them here. Then I’ll do whatever you want.”

“If you’re going with him, I’m coming too,” Darius snarled.

“He’ll come running back to the manor to find you either way,” Lionel scoffed, but I ignored him.

“Do we have a deal?” I demanded.

There was a pause where only the sound of the host of Nymphs drawing ever closer to the house reached us and the fear of their arrival made my entire body feel numb.

“The moment you give yourself to the shadows, the three of us will leave,” Lionel agreed, eyeing me hungrily. “Tick tock.”

Clara released her hold on my shadows and I staggered forward as Darius was still frozen in her grasp.

Darcy started screaming at me, begging me to reconsider, swearing to fight and win but with the Nymphs coming, I knew that there wasn’t any choice to be made. Lionel and Clara weren’t going to let me leave and there was no more time for fighting. She had to get out of here before that army arrived or I’d lose her and even the thought of that had me falling apart.

Only the wall of shadow Clara had constructed between us was keeping her away from me and I knew I’d be doing the same in her position. But it was the only way.

I turned to Darius with my chest heaving and tears swimming in my eyes as he glared at me like I was ripping his heart out by doing this. But I didn’t have a choice. I’d do anything for the love of my sister. And I’d do anything to protect him too.

“I need you to get Darcy out of here,” I demanded. “If you meant all the things you said to me, if you feel any of it at all, you’ll make sure she’s safe.”

“Don’t do this,” he begged and my heart twisted with agony as I felt the pain I was causing him by giving in to his father.

I leaned forward, closing the distance between us and the brush of his lips against mine was an agony unlike anything I’d ever known, because I knew what it was. What it had to be. It was goodbye.

“Please,” I breathed, refusing to open my eyes as I pulled back and the warmth of him was lost to me.

“Roxy,” he growled, and the raw agony of that one word was enough to drown me.

“Now,” Lionel snapped and I forced myself to turn away from Darius as my heart broke for him all over again.

My gaze locked on Darcy’s as I let the shadows in because I was weak. I couldn’t face this darkness on my own. I wasn’t sure what I even had if I didn’t have her.

Tears flowed down her cheeks as Seth held her back and she watched as I sank into the darkness.

I couldn’t count the amount of times I’d been tempted by the promise of oblivion the shadows offered me in the past few months, but she’d always been the reason I’d fought them off. It was a cruel twist of fate that she was now the reason I was giving in to them too.

But as the agony of that truth washed over me, the shadows rose up to claim it. To claim all the pain and heartache and sorrow in me and whisk it away like none of it had ever mattered at all.

The shadows swept up and over me like a tide which rushed through my veins in the most elating way. They ran beneath my flesh, lighting me up with a pleasure so intense that I forgot everything else in favour of serving them. They were ecstasy, rapture, bliss and euphoria and they set me free of all of my demons. There was no more pain or heartache, sorrow or despair. Just the darkest parts of me which hungered for corruption and thrived in sin. I let them have me with a smile on my face and a moan escaping my lips as I finally invited the darkness in.

It was a relief to give in at last. No more pain or regret or anguish.

Just power.

And I was more than ready to claim my share of that.