Zodiac Academy 6: Fated Throne

I materialised outside the gates of The Palace of Souls and strode straight forward at a fast pace. The journalists who were camped out there all perked up at the sight of me, scrambling to jump to their feet and intercept me. But I was in no mood to entertain the press tonight and I upped my pace, my chin raised as the guards on the golden gates opened them to admit me.

“Would you like me to call you a carriage, Prince Acrux?” one of them asked and I stumbled a step at that title, wondering what insane parallel universe I’d just fallen into as I shook my head and growled a no at him.

I was already unbuckling my belt and I kicked my shoes off as I prepared to shift. I didn’t need to wait around for some damn transport to take me up the ridiculously long drive to the palace itself. I hooked my shirt off single-handedly, and the flash of one of the journalists’ cameras went off behind me as they crowded in close to the gates for the strip show.

“If any one of you takes a photograph of my naked ass without my permission then you’ll find yourselves out of a job and knee deep in a legal case before you even get home tonight,” I snarled, glancing over my shoulder and a flurry of apologies came from them as they all diligently turned away again.

I dropped my jeans into the pile of clothes last and shifted in the blink of an eye.

The moment my enormous feet hit the ground, the cameras all went wild again as they all desperately tried to get a good shot of me in my golden Dragon form. But I wasn’t in the mood to pose for them so I let them photograph my scaley ass, grabbed the heap of clothes from the floor into my mouth and took off fast.

I beat my wings hard as I sped towards the palace, the gigantic building dominating the view ahead of me as the countless towers reached up towards the dark clouds above and the moonlight seemed to make the walls gleam.

I didn’t know why Father had summoned me back here at such short notice, but I wanted to get it over and done with. We were supposed to be working on our plans to lure Roxy away from the K.U.N.T.s again so that we could dose her with the antidote, and I hated being called away from that. No doubt the others would come up with something without me, but everything that had happened to her was because of my father and I felt responsible for her in a way that pained me.

I dove from the sky outside the huge door which led into the palace, dropping my clothes and shifting back as the guards on the door watched me uneasily. I yanked my jeans back on and kicked my feet back into my boots, but I didn’t bother with the shirt, keeping it in my hand as I strode up the steps, my jaw ticking with tension.

Jenkins pulled the door wide before I reached it, bowing as little as he could get away with and murmuring a greeting to me which I ignored. The old fucker didn’t even deserve basic pleasantries from me and he wouldn’t be getting them.

“Where is he?” I asked, not caring that my boots were tracking mud over the perfectly polished white tiles or that he was eyeing my bare chest with distaste as I strode through the entrance hall.

The palace was familiar to me from the many visits I’d made here over the summer to see Darcy. We’d worked tirelessly to try and burn the shadows from my veins so that I’d be in a position to challenge my father and rescue her sister, but nothing we’d done had worked. Not that that stopped us trying regularly.

“The King is currently occupied in his study,” Jenkins replied haughtily. “He asks that you wait for him to-”

I walked away, moving up a flight of stairs and casting slick ice over them to stop the nosey butler from following me as I headed for the study which had once belonged to the Savage King. A bang and a yelp made me grin as I realised Jenkins had tried to follow and fallen.

A door opened before I made it to the study and I smiled as my mom slipped out, her dark hair coiled into some perfect creation as usual and a stunning black evening gown hugging her figure.

“Darius,” she cooed, glancing around before moving to embrace me and I smiled as I held her close for a moment. “What are you doing here tonight?”

“I was hoping you might be able to tell me,” I replied. “The old motherfucker summoned me. I was just heading to ask him why.”

She drew back, her eyes flashing nervously as she glanced down the corridor in the direction of the study.

“He has those things in the house,” she breathed, her fingers bunching in the skirt of her dress nervously.

“Nymphs?” I asked, my skin prickling at the thought of that.

“Yes. I try to stay out of the way when they’re here.”

I was filled with the urge to go and find out what he was doing with them, but I hesitated a moment longer, enjoying the small bit of time alone in my mom’s company. “How has he been?” I asked her. “Is he leaving you alone?”

“No worse than usual,” she replied, painting on a smile which I knew she wore to try and stop me from worrying.

“So, pretty fucking awful then?” I surmised and she just gave me a little shrug.

“He has Clara to occupy him. I’m usually just trotted out for photoshoots and parties. It’s a big palace and I can avoid him for the most part.”

I sighed heavily, hating that she was living like this, sneaking around and hoping to go unnoticed. It was a lonely, miserable kind of existence and I wished I could just take her away from here so that she could have a life of her own. I guessed making her into a widow would be a good way to achieve that.

“I’d better go and find out why he summoned me,” I said, drawing her close again for a moment and she sighed contentedly.

“Is Xavier settling in well?” she murmured as we lingered there for a moment, making up for all the hugs we’d missed out on over the years.

“Yeah,” I said, breathing a laugh. “He’s got the entire Pegasus herd in a flurry and I don’t think he’s even noticed. All the mares are trotting about trying to catch his attention while the Dom looks about ready to bust a blood vessel every time he lays his eyes on him. He’ll be leading the herd in no time.”

A choked sob escaped my mom’s lips and I drew back, frowning down at her to find her smiling through her tears.

“Don’t mind me,” she breathed, waving a hand to dismiss my concerns. “I’m just so relieved that he’s finally free to be himself.”

“He is,” I agreed with a smile, glad to at least have that one thing to be happy for.

Though my heart sank as I considered the girl who had given him that chance. Roxy had forced my father to accept Xavier’s Order and had effectively broken the shackles that would no doubt have still been binding him to a life locked up and out of sight if she hadn’t. And now she was the one chained to that monster and I couldn’t even free her in return.

My mood soured as it always did these days and I placed a kiss on my mom’s head before heading towards the study once more.

I cast a silencing bubble as I approached it then felt out ahead of me for the detection spells Father no doubt would have placed along the corridor to sense anyone approaching.

As expected, I found them placed like trip wires across the floor and primed to inform him if anyone walked through them.

With a twist of my fingers, I cast water beneath my feet and raised myself up to float over them, moving along the corridor and stopping outside the door next to his study. He’d have cast a silencing bubble to block the door from the outside, but I knew him well enough to know the best ways around his habits.

I entered the door to the small smoking parlour beside his study and headed inside, crossing the space and moving to the door which connected this room to the one he was in.

I moved to stand beside it, smirking as I slid into the outer edge of his silencing bubble as expected before pressing my ear to the door and casting an amplification spell so that I could hear what was being said inside.

“-go on this way,” a woman’s harsh voice came. “Our kind have been denied our rightful magic for too long. We swore allegiance to you because you promised that our needs would be met. That we would no longer have to suffer on the edges of society but would have the opportunity to flourish and prosper. And now we are dealing with some rogue Nymph hunters too who are destroying friends of mine whenever they get the opportunity.”

“As I have said, Drusilla,” my father’s crisp tone came next and I could tell his temper was fraying. “What you want is not so easy to give. I have told my kingdom that your kind is under control. If the Nymphs start attacking Fae again then it would undermine my hold over the people. And there have always been hunters of your kind among Fae. You have dealt with them up until now, so I suggest you find a way to deal with them now.”

“They’re hungry, Daddy,” Clara moaned, a pout in her voice. “It hurts me to feel them starve.”

“I had assumed you wanted a strong army,” a man growled. “Not a bunch of heathens who don’t even hold any magic.”

Father sighed in frustration and I could picture him pinching the bridge of his nose as he fought a losing battle with his temper. When meetings went badly for him like this, someone usually ended up bloody for it. Maybe that was why he’d summoned me home. He did love to force me to take a kicking after all, using his hold on Roxy to compel my cooperation.

“Perhaps we could come up with something,” Stella’s voice came next, her tone placating like she was working the peacekeeper angle. “Some outlying town that no one would miss…”

“Ooooh I like that idea!” Clara cried, clapping excitedly.

“Perhaps,” Father conceded though I could tell that wasn’t an actual agreement. Whatever this was about, he was considering it though. “I’ll look into it. But I don’t wish to discuss this any further now. See our friends out, Clara.”

The man and woman grumbled as they were dismissed, but they went all the same, the sound of the door opening and closing calling to me as Clara began singing happily out in the corridor.

I waited for them to pass the door that led back out there and then eased it open a crack to get a look at them, recognising Drusilla and Alejandro as they muttered irritably and Clara pranced ahead of them like some excitable kid.

The sound of voices drew my attention back to the study as I slipped out into the corridor again and I realised that Father had dropped the silencing bubble.

I moved to stand outside the door, the amplifying spell I’d cast still working so that their words sounded clearly through it.

“I miss you, my beast,” Stella purred seductively and I shuddered at the kissing sounds which followed.

“Yes. You make it painfully obvious,” Father muttered cruelly, but apparently that rebuke wasn’t enough to make her give up.

“Let me have a real taste of you, sire,” she breathed. “Let me remind you of how good we were together.”

Father sighed as the sound of his fly rolling down came and I scrunched my nose up, taking a step back before he spoke again.

“Have some self-respect, Stella,” he growled. “I was fucking your daughter over this desk before you got here and you know it. Desperate doesn’t look good on you.”

Stella sucked in a shocked breath and the sound of him yanking his fly up again came.

“She can’t possibly compare to what we have, Lion,” she said, the sound of her crocodile tears starting on the last word. “Besides, you’re a king. You can have as many lovers as you please. Why can’t we just-”

I decided I wasn’t going to overhear anything else that was useful, so I threw the door open and strode inside, pretending I didn’t notice my best friend’s mother scrambling up off of her knees as I looked into my father’s cold eyes.

“You summoned me,” I said, my voice dripping with disdain.

“No need for the attitude, boy,” he growled. “I only wish to offer you a gift.”

“What gift?” I asked sceptically.

“You’ll find it in the summerhouse. And don’t say I never give you anything.”

He flicked a hand dismissively and seeing as I had no desire to linger in his company, I turned and strode from the room, relieved to have been able to keep it so brief.

But as I headed down the long corridors and descended a curving staircase, my heart began to patter with concern over what I was going to find when I made it out to the summerhouse.

When I was growing up, he’d often bought me expensive gifts like cars or motorcycles to reward me for any particularly desirable behaviour. I’d once lost my temper with a bunch of assholes in my school when I was twelve and beaten the crap out of the three of them. The school had called my father to tell him and he’d bought me a million aura speed boat which was currently docked in Skybour Bay. But I hadn’t done anything to please him recently that I could think of, so I wasn’t sure what I would have waiting for me now.

The summerhouse was to the east of the rear grounds of the palace and my boots thumped heavily down the path which led to the little cottage as I glanced at the white roses which climbed up the walls of it.

When I reached the door, I hesitated for a moment, drawing my magic close in case this was some dumb test then I pushed the door open.

It was dark inside, the open space only lit by a single lamp sitting on a desk in the far corner and I frowned as I stepped inside, not spotting anyone anywhere.

“Hello?” I called, knocking the door closed behind me and feeling like a girl from an old school slasher movie waiting for the psycho to spring from the closet.

I moved further into the dimly lit space, passing a living area with a couple of couches and pausing at the foot of the king-sized bed which was placed against the wall.

A blur of motion caught my attention and I twisted to look towards it a beat before something collided with me and I was sent crashing down onto the bed beneath a hard body, the air driving from my lungs in a whoosh.

The scent of cinnamon filled my nose and I almost swung a punch at the asshole on top of me before his deep laughter had a grin tearing across my face instead and I started laughing too as I wrapped Lance in my arms.

“Holy shit. How?” I demanded, squeezing him tightly as the dull ache in my chest loosened at the feeling of his body against mine. Fuck, I’d missed him.

“The king dick wants me to find the Imperial Star for him. Seems he’s got a Seer who knows I’m the key to finding it,” he said into my neck and I dragged him further up the bed so that we could lay with our heads on the pillows to talk.

“Vard,” I spat. “Father’s new pet. Now that he’s King, he made that asshole his Royal Seer. He’s been using that glass chair in the palace to help him see things to strengthen his power.”

“Perfect,” Orion growled. “Just what we needed – for him to be able to predict us coming for him.”

“The stars are against us as always,” I agreed on a sigh, but the smile stayed glued to my face as I reached out and brushed my fingers through his dark hair. “Didn’t you cut this while you were in there?” I teased and he rolled his eyes.

“I was too caught up pining for you, big boy,” he joked in return, his fingers tracing the pattern of the tattoos on my left bicep. It was kinda weird if I gave it too much thought, but the bond demanded we be together as often as possible and after months of surviving on half hour visitation slots, I knew damn well that we’d be glued to each other for a good few days while the magic got its fill.

“Anyway, you didn’t let me get to the best bit,” Lance went on. “Right before Lionel came and got me out, I managed to figure out how to unlock the diary. My father had left me a note and I really think it’s going to lead us to the Imperial Star.”

“Seriously?” I asked, my brows going up as hope built in my chest. “What do we need to do? Is there somewhere we have to go or-”

Lance caught my arm as I made a move to get out of bed and shook his head. “I can’t read any more of it until the next full moon,” he said, disappointment clear in his voice. “But this is it, Darius. The beginning of the end. I just know it.”

“So how are we going to get out of you helping my asshole father?” I asked, scooting forward until my forehead pressed to his and I was surprised when he started laughing. “What?” I demanded, smiling too because it was damn infectious.

“The arrogant motherfucker got me to make an oath to find it,” he explained. “But he didn’t say a thing about me finding it for him.”

I started laughing too and the relief of just feeling something good after so fucking long had my chest swelling with happiness. I knew it wouldn’t last, but for right now, we weren’t going to talk Vegas or Nymphs or Dragon overlords. I was just going to bathe in his company.

Orion dropped his head back against the pillow, his gaze roaming over my features like he was trying to memorise them and I noticed the movement as he ran his tongue over his teeth.

“Are you thirsty?” I asked and he groaned, nodding slowly.

“But I’m also having trouble keeping my hands off of you right now and I’m concerned that if I bite you we might end up fucking,” he joked and I barked another laugh.

“It’s probably inevitable after all this time anyway, right?” I carved a hand through my dark hair as he eyed my neck hungrily.

“If only you didn’t have that big Dragon dick between your thighs, we could have been perfect,” he joked.

“Oh please, we both know you’d be the girl in our relationship,” I told him and he rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say.” Lance ran his tongue over his fangs again and I gave him a hard look before tilting my head and offering him my neck.

He held out for all of two seconds before pouncing, grabbing my wrists and slamming them down on the pillows either side of my head as his weight crushed me to the mattress and his fangs slid into my neck.

I growled, caught between my natural desire to assert my dominance and my desire to see him happy.

I mean, we weren’t happy. Not really. But I was gonna steal this little bit of joy and hold it tight while I could because him being stuck in that hell had been tearing me apart. And though he clearly wasn’t free here, this was a million times better than Darkmore.

Lance finally drew back, smirking down at me with my blood on his lips as he kept me pinned beneath him and I growled as I lunged forward, flipping him off of me and making him into my little spoon as I rolled onto my side.

He struggled a little bit then just gave in because we both knew we needed the contact right now anyway and we were gonna roll with the weirdness like we always did.

“Tell me everything you had to hold back on while I was stuck in that place,” he begged, settling in and holding my arm tight around his chest as we ignored the ridiculousness of this and just fucking snuggled.

“Okay. Then you have to tell me about the assholes who hurt you in that place so that I can go in and kill them with my bare hands,” I replied.

“Maybe we should focus on your father first?” he suggested with a dark chuckle.

“Fine,” I agreed. “But then I’m going down there to kick some ass.”

“You’re so protective of me, sweetheart,” he joked.

“Always, baby,” I agreed with a laugh and I held him tighter as I began filling him in on everything I’d had to hold back on when I came to visit him.

Things might still have been pretty fucked up, but now that I had him back again, I had to wonder if the stars might finally be on our side for once.