Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I strode down the long corridor in the FIB interrogation suite with agents trailing at my spine and an air of cautious respect surrounding me which I had to admit I liked the taste of.

Too long had these rebels thwarted me. Too long had I been playing cat and mouse in a game where the mice found hiding all too easy. Too long had I suffered the intolerable taste of failure upon my tongue. But at last, that was over.

Agent Hoskins kept his head bowed respectfully as he led me to the room where the prisoner was being held and pulled the door wide for me. I stepped through without a word, Vard close on my heels with his black cloak sweeping the floor behind him.

“This is her?” Vard questioned, taking in the bloody, broken woman who sat with her hands cuffed at her spine – likely the only thing keeping her upright on the chair.

“I want every filthy rebel secret torn from her mind before the execution.”

“Yes, My King,” Vard simpered, licking his pale lips as his red shadow eye swirled with darkness in its socket and he drew his hood down to reveal his lank hair.

The woman whimpered and I was torn between a sneer and a smile as she lifted her terrified gaze to meet mine.

I moved to perch my ass on the edge of the interrogation table before her as Vard took the empty chair intended for an investigating officer and sat before her, watching, waiting, ready to strike on my command.

I took my Atlas from my pocket and opened the most recent article this woman had published about me, a thrill dancing through my veins at finally cornering this thorn in my side and knowing I would be tugging it free permanently before the day was done.

“The Rise of the False King,” I read, anger bubbling beneath the surface of my skin as my fire magic licked a path around my body. ‘By Felicity Corbin.”

Felicity raised her chin at the sound of her name, her swollen features conveying contempt and disrespect even after hours of the most punishing questioning the FIB could offer. Still that defiant spark flared in her eyes as if she really believed she were a true Fae. Like her defiance in the face of my might meant anything to me at all. 

I skipped a lot of the waffling trite she’d published in her rag of a newspaper and cut to the pieces which would see her burn.

“The self proclaimed ‘most powerful man in Solaria’ has done little to claim his crown upon his own merits, instead, his use of the shadows and dark magic have been the true claimants to his power. Without the aid of these dark and twisted additions to his magic, he is in fact no more powerful than the rest of the Celestial Council and never will be. Worse still, the power he is wielding has been outlawed since long before he ever sat his unworthy ass upon the throne, and this alone should nullify his claim and see him sent to Darkmore Penitentiary to rot.” I looked up at her over the grossly provocative bullshit she’d published about me time and again, wondering how much longer it would take her to break.

The interrogation had turned up nothing of interest. So far as the FIB could tell, she didn’t know where the rebels were hiding, but I knew she had firm links to them. Her royalist drivel and repetitive sniffling over the treatment of her kind and that of the other traitorous Orders made it more than clear where her loyalties lay, and she would soon suffer the consequences of that devotion. But I had to admit I was a little surprised to see the defiance still burning in her eyes as she looked at me with disdain.

“The true queens will rise,” she hissed, her split lip spilling blood down her chin. “When they ascend fully into their power, they will come for you. They will tear their father’s crown from your brow and rip you from the throne, showing the whole of Solaria what a small man you truly are.”

I backhanded her so hard I damn near knocked her from her chair, the crack of breaking bone lighting the air as she fell dangling from the seat, only her bound hands holding her to it where it was bolted to the floor.

“Do it, Vard,” I growled, shoving myself upright so that I towered over her at my full height, letting her see how big this small man was. “And make it hurt.”

Vard’s smile widened as he leaned forward, reaching out to grab a handful of Felicity’s tawny hair and forcing her upright in her seat, making her meet his gaze as he shifted. I watched as his deep red shadow eye merged with his normal one, the swirling darkness within that bulbous orb making Felicity tremble as he forced her gaze to lock with his.

He dragged her into the depraved depths of his mind with a twisted smile on his scarred face and her screams filled the air as he began tearing each and every secret from the recesses of her brain. But as he scraped everything he could from her worthless head, leaving her mind scarred beyond repair, I knew she was going to offer me nothing. Which made her a waste of perfectly adequate oxygen.

I pushed Vard aside when I was done waiting, setting a fire at her feet which licked around the base of her chair and scalded her legs. Her head fell back as a cry of anguish left her and I smiled, rising up on a gust of air to make sure I was the only thing she could see.

“Do I look like a small man now?” I asked, leaning in close to taste her fear, coaxing the flames higher as they began to burn and char and consume.

She trembled violently as she held back another scream, but through the fear and pain in her eyes rose another wave of rebellion. “You are nothing but a parasite living in the house of the true queens. And when they kill you, long may they reign.”

I spat a snarl, raising my hand so my fire raised with it, and the wretched waif screamed her last screams as it ravaged her.

I kept my eyes on her, watching the skin melt from her bones and the pained sobs die in her throat as she was devoured in my fire, my gaze snagging on a locket which hung around her neck.

When she was nothing but ash and bone, I doused the flames and took hold of the golden chain, yanking hard enough to decapitate her charred head from her body and turning the locket over in my palm, claiming my new treasure. It was of high quality, but an arrangement of diamonds in the front of in the shape of a Pegasus marred it. I ran my thumb across it, melting the surface of the gold to dislodge the gems and letting them fall into my jacket pocket.

Then I cracked open the locket and found a photograph of a boy who I assumed was Felicity’s son; he was around the same age as my Heir with silver glitter in his brown hair.

I sneered, pressing my thumb to the photograph to burn it to cinders before dropping the necklace into my pocket and turning to Vard. “Was there anything else in her possession?”

“Just a pouch of stardust, my Lord,” he said. “It seems she has been evading the FIB for quite some time by moving from location to location with her herd.”

“How dare they use a Dragon-made creation to defy their king,” I spat, striding past him out the door with a decree firmly in mind as he scurried along at my heels. “Inform the press that a new law will be announced this afternoon. I am prohibiting all Orders from carrying stardust except Dragons or those with a permit from the king. Anyone found in possession of it will be charged with treason.”

“Yes, sire,” Vard said. “A wonderful choice, My King.”

I strode out of the FIB headquarters, fastening my coat as the wind whipped around me and a throng of photographers rushed forward to intercept me. A ring of FIB agents kept them back, but I paused a moment on the steps, letting them take their pictures as my chest swelled and a satisfied smile filled my face.

“Another traitor has been dealt with,” I called, pride in my voice as a barrage of photographs were taken and questions were thrown my way which I had no interest in answering. I’d have a statement drawn up tonight and-

A loud splat made me look down as something wet hit the ground at my feet and I sneered at the pile of shit which had exploded across my shoes.

“My Lord,” Vard gasped, grabbing my arm but I shoved him away from me with a snarl just as a huge and foul smelling turd slapped down onto his shoulder and chunks of it splattered across my chest.

“Argh,” I growled, my head snapping up to look toward the sky where it had come from, finding a familiar looking lilac haired girl sitting on the back of a Griffin as she held up its tail and another huge pile of faeces came tumbling towards me. I tried to wield air to stop it from striking me, but I was still within the no magic wards which surrounded the FIB headquarters so I was helpless to stop it as it slapped across my entire face and I staggered backwards in disgust and outrage.

I wiped it from my eyes, the substance already beginning to burn and itch as I set my enemies in my sights with a roar of fury.

“All hail the king of the turds!” she cried.

“Seize them!” I bellowed as the FIB hurried to get themselves in order, but the girl was already throwing stardust over herself and the Griffin she was riding, disappearing into the ether as a roar tore from my lungs.

I turned to the press, finding a hundred cameras going off in my face as I tried to wipe the shit from my eyes, the burn intensifying.

I hurried towards my car, barking at Vard to keep up as my driver opened the door for me and I leapt onto the backseat, ripping my coat off of my back and wiping at my eyes.

“Oh Daddy, how embarrassing,” Lavinia said from somewhere beside me and I snapped around to find her as smoke billowed from my nose. “What if she’d tried to kill you, you’d be deader than dead and I would be a lonely queen.” She laughed and I locked her hand around her throat, silencing her.

“Do not mock me.” I snarled in warning. “No one can cast within a hundred yards of the FIB headquarters. She couldn’t have fucking touched me with anything lethal.”

I felt my shadow hand rising, latching around my own throat and tightening hard enough to cut off all of my air. Panic rose in me as I fought to regain control of the hand she had gifted me, trying to force my own will into it and finding it unresponsive as it continued to work against me, following her command instead of mine. No.

“Do not speak to me in that tone,” she hissed, a crazed look entering her gaze that spoke of the power she held.

Shadows spilled out all around the car and I fought to blast them away from me with the Element of air, but her power was too great. She bound me in shadow, forcing me down onto the seat and climbing on top of me as she smiled like a demon.

I struggled for air, anger flaring hotter and hotter inside me. How dare she wield her power against me? She was nothing without me. Nothing!

“Poor angry little Daddy,” she purred, gripping my shirt and ripping it open with a sharp pull that sent the buttons scattering everywhere. She let me breathe again and I growled, thrashing against her hold.

“How dare you?” I snarled. “Release me this instant and grovel to your king!”

She laughed wildly, scratching my chest hard enough to tear open the skin as she wielded my shadow hand against me once more, making me slap my own face hard enough to bruise, bringing the taste of blood to my tongue.

“Silly boy, you’re all mine. Mine, mine, mine. My Acrux King,” she said with a wild gleam in her eye and I fought harder to get free, fearing her power as she crushed me within it and held me at her mercy. This was unacceptable. I had to exert my will over her, show her who her master was.

“You will obey your king!” I roared as she bounced up and down on top of me.

“Um, sire?” Vard asked meekly from the front of the car.

“What?” I spat.

“It seems there’s going to be a protest against your claim to the throne in the city of Nostria this afternoon,” he said, his eyes glazing with his vision. “If we head there now, we can round the rebels up before it begins.” He didn’t look directly at me, clearly pretending not to see the situation Lavinia had me in as he fixed his gaze on the rear window.

Her grip suddenly lessened and I was able to sit up, eyeing my shadow hand with trepidation at how much power she wielded over me. I had to get her back under my control and as she slithered into the footwell and started wetting her lips in preparation for my cock, I was glad to see her submissive side returning.

“Take me home,” I commanded as I tried to ignore the blazing itch in my eyes or the way the scent of shit still lingered on me. “But I will not capture them Vard. Any rebel I get my hands on today will die.”