Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I headed to dinner, unsure where Orion had gotten to and taking my Atlas out to shoot him a message. No response came and I pouted, but my mood brightened as I checked FaeBook and scrolled through post after post about Lionel’s humiliation at his interview, #lamelionel trending like crazy.

Gabriel hadn’t told us a single word about it, but he’d been heavily involved in the plans to sabotage the whole thing and had encouraged us to watch the interview before disappearing off with Dante last might. We’d laughed our asses off the entire time, and when they’d all shown up back here with Portia Silverstone in tow, the whole of The Burrows had erupted in cheers. I was never going to forget the way Lionel had squirmed on that stage, and it had made me proud as hell to see my dad tearing him down to size at school – like, literally down to size.

I pushed my Atlas back into my pocket and turned down a passage that was a secret shortcut to the dining hall which me and Tory had created to make it simpler to get there and back from the royal quarters. The darkness was thick down here and I cast a Faelight above my head, the amber orb bobbing along above my head, pressing the shadows away in a ring around me, but beyond them I could see nothing at all.

Something moved up ahead and I squinted towards it, wondering if some of my friends were here, but when I called out, no one replied.

I guided magic to my fingertips, thinking of the brutal murders that had been happening down in these tunnels, my pulse rising as I prepared to blast an attacker into the afterlife. I wasn’t afraid to keep walking. I’d been trained by a queen of old, I knew the depths of my power now, and I could take on some cowardly Fae who slunk through the dark and cut down my allies.

“Come out,” I commanded in a growl.

A whoosh of air made my hair swirl around me and I sucked in a breath, turning sharply, certain something had passed me. And it had felt awfully like-

“You shouldn’t be wandering around in the dark alone, Blue. What if there was a monster lurking down here?” Orion growled and a relieved laugh left me as he came up behind me, closing his arm around my waist in a snare, his fangs grazing down my neck.

“Then I’d kill it,” I said, a shiver darting along my flesh as I let my head fall to the side in an offering.

“And what if the monster is me?” he asked, his breath on my neck making me heady as he toyed with biting me.

“You’re not a monster, Lance,” I teased and a rumble of a growl in his chest made goosebumps rise across my skin.

“No? But you’re a princess, so maybe I’m the cruel beast who wants to keep you locked up in a tower.”

“You wouldn’t be able to keep me locked up,” I countered.

“True…” he conceded.

“So what’s your next move?”

“I suppose I’ll be your vicious attack dog and destroy anyone who touches you,” he said, a grin in his voice.

“You could get arrested for that,” I said lightly, fighting another shiver as he dragged his fangs up to the sensitive skin behind my ear.

“That would be quite awful.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” I said dryly and he laughed deep in his throat.

As he went to bite me, I twisted fast in a move Queen Avalon had taught me, wrenching myself out of his hold and turning to face him, my Faelight following me as I backed up with a challenging smile on my face.

“Come bite me in the dining hall,” I offered and the playful look in his eyes melted away.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Well maybe it’s the only place I’ll let you do it in future then,” I said, anger igniting in me. I was so sick of him acting like we weren’t a couple in front of the rebels, always shifting away from me whenever I tried to take his hand or lean in to kiss him.

“Blue,” he growled.

“Lance,” I growled back and he sighed, stepping closer to me as I stepped away.

“You know why it has to be this way.”

“Fuck what everyone thinks,” I huffed, my thoughts spilling out in a torrent. I was tired of abiding to the rules he set, letting him dictate how this relationship was going to be. “I’m giving you everything I am, but you only give me part of you in the name of protecting me. Are you really planning to walk away from me if I one day gain the throne?”

He paused, his silence speaking volumes and making rage spew like lava through my veins. “I will always be here for you.”

“It sounds awfully like there’s a ‘but’ hiding in there.”

“Darcy, it’s what’s best.”

“For who?” I snarled. “Because the best thing for me would be to stop living under a veil of secrets. I want to claim you as mine in front of everyone in Solaria, but you won’t let me.”

“Because it would destroy you,” he snapped.

“Let me be destroyed then,” I growled. “I would rather be judged for living a life of my choosing than have to lie about you, to have to watch you pull away from me every time some random Fae looks at us. I don’t care what they think.”

He shook his head. “I won’t be responsible for your downfall.”

“You’re not responsible for shit, Lance. You just won’t let me make the choice I want to make. It’s my downfall, so let me have it if I want it.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he hissed, stalking towards me as I continued to back up. “Solaria needs you more than I need to claim you in public.”

“Or maybe you just don’t want me in public,” I spat, knowing it was just coming out of anger, but I said it anyway.

“Oh don’t be a child,” he said dismissively.

“No, maybe there’s something to it, Lance. I’ve always been your dirty little secret. Maybe you like the thrill of sneaking around. Maybe that’s the appeal for you.”

He shot toward me in a blur, shoving me up against the wall and baring his fangs in my face. “Don’t belittle what I feel for you. I would tear down mountains for you. The stars look my way in contempt, resenting me for getting to love you while they’re way up there never feeling anything real, never touching anything as beautiful as you. I am the object of their envy because they can’t have you while you’re down on Earth in the cage of my arms, but if they’re waiting to claim you in death, they will find me right beside you, guarding you even then. Because no one will take you from me, and no one will love you as fiercely as I love you. Where you go, I will follow. There is no force powerful enough in this life or the next to tear you away from me. So don’t you dare question my love for you.”

Tears were pooling in my eyes and I shoved at his shoulders, needing air to breathe, but he wouldn’t let me go.

“Then why can’t you love me in front of the world?” I whispered, my voice cracking on those words. “You say you love me more than anything, but you keep our love hidden like it’s something shameful. Do you know how much it hurts me that you expect me to accept that the man I love won’t touch me in front of anyone but our inner circle? It kills me.”

His face twisted in pain at my words, his eyes a sea of agony and confliction as he stared at me.

“Let me choose my fate. If I’m to be ruined, then so be it, but let me be happy in my fucking destruction,” I demanded.

He leaned in close, his mouth against mine in the softest of kisses which tasted an awful lot like heartbreak.

“I’ll see you later, Blue.” He stepped back and before I could answer, he’d shot away into the darkness in the direction I’d come from, leaving me with tears falling down my cheeks and my heart cleaving apart.

I wiped away my tears, standing up straight, not really feeling hungry at all anymore, but still heading in the direction of the dining hall all the same, wanting to see Tory, my friends. I made sure I had myself together as I arrived in the large cavern and spotted everyone sat in front of a large buffet laid out on our table by Geraldine as usual.

I headed over to them, slapping on a fake smile as I took a seat beside Tory, but the moment she looked at me, she gave me a twin look that said she knew something was up. I shook my head marginally and she squeezed my hand under the table, a promise in her eyes to talk to me later if I wanted to. She knew me so well, but honestly I didn’t see the point in talking about this. Orion had made up his mind. He was never going to stand at my side and say he was mine to the world, because he believed doing so would be the end of my bid for the throne. But what right did he have to decide that for me?

I picked my way through my veggie burger, trying to laugh and smile along with my friends as they shared jokes about Lionel’s interview and discussed our next move against him, but my heart was heavy and I wasn’t really engaged at all.

Seth came to sit at my side, whimpering softly while Max looked over at me with an expression that said I wasn’t doing well at keeping my emotions hidden. I didn’t know why I’d even bothered to try and hide it at all. They all knew me too well.

Caleb was sat at the far end of the table from me and Seth, and I looked to my Wolf friend beside me with a sad smile, knowing he was hurting inside. He’d told me everything that had happened between them and I wished I could help, but honestly it sounded like they needed to talk it out and Seth wasn’t willing to do that. So instead, the two of them barely spoke, or when they did they acted overly civil, pretending nothing was wrong at all, but quickly heading in different directions the moment they could escape each other’s company. It was painful to witness.

Geraldine took out the spyglass with the shadow eye in it, slamming it down on Darius’s plate.

“Oh for the love of fuck, Geraldine. Why?” Darius complained, the burger on his plate completely ruined as the eye swivelled back and forth inside the spyglass on top of it like a grotesque slimy animal.

“Because I am making a statement, you buffoon of a Dragoon.” She rolled her eyes like Darius was the one being unreasonable and Tory cracked up, earning her a narrowed eyed look from her boyfriend.

“We must push on to find a map of espial,” Geraldine said.

“And do we need the fucking shadow eye on my plate to discuss that?” Darius growled.

“Of course we do, you lout of a lizard,” she said firmly. “Has our Power Shamed ally heard from his contact at the FIB yet? Can she procure us a map?”

“No,” Darius said. “Francesca hasn’t responded to his message.”

“Fucking Fran,” I muttered and Tory glanced at me with a nod of solidarity.

“Fuck her up the butt with a coconut,” Tory added.

“And a pineapple,” Seth added. “And a bushel of prickly pears.”

“And a rotten carrot,” Tyler called across the table and I looked over at him, his hand on Xavier’s on the table while Sofia sat on Xavier’s other side, nuzzling him with a look of contentment on her face.

I was super freaking happy for them but also like, fuck my life. Because it was just another perfect relationship on display for everyone to see. Xavier was showing off his Subs at every chance he got, and they were doing the same to him in return. My fingers tightened around my fork as I gritted my teeth so hard it hurt, and Max raised his eyebrows at me.

“You okay there, little Vega?” he asked. “You’re giving off murderous death vibes, it’s kinda ruining my appetite.”

“Sorry,” I murmured, trying to focus enough to put up a barrier and keep my emotions from leaking out towards him. My Phoenix could stop him invading my feelings, but I still had to have magical barriers in place if I didn’t want him to get a taste of my emotions.

I sighed, stabbing my burger moodily, giving up any pretence that I was enjoying myself and Seth nuzzled into my head.

“You okay, babe?” he asked and I shrugged.

“Oh my stars,” Seth whispered, tugging on my sleeve but I ignored him, attacking my burger more viciously.

“Oh shit,” Tory gasped.

“Is he drunk?” Cal laughed.

“He’s walking straight, I think he’s sober,” Darius chuckled and Seth continued to tug on my sleeve, but I jerked my arm to stop him.

“My lady!” Geraldine gasped, half mounting the table as she waved her hand to get my attention. “Your one true love and shameful Vampire is here making quite the hullabaloo!”

My head snapped up as I frowned, spotting Orion striding through the cavern shirtless with ‘I love Darcy Vega’ written on his bare chest in what looked like lipstick. He jumped up onto a table and the rebels all gasped, trying to ignore him as he kicked their dinner plates and sent their cutlery and food flying everywhere.

“Burnt strudels on the eve of my Great Aunt Tulip’s grave!” Hamish wailed from across the room, jumping to his feet and Catalina tried to pull him back down into his seat.

“I can’t sing, or dance, or write poetry so I’m just gonna shout this really, really fucking loud,” Orion announced, looking right at me with a smirk on his lips. He raised a hand to his throat, casting an amplifying spell before tipping his head back and hollering so loud that the roof of the cavern rattled. “I am in love with Darcy Vega, heir to the throne of Solaria, daughter of the Savage King – who by the way was tricked by Lionel Acrux into being an evil sonuvabitch. And I know you all think I’m a complete waste of oxygen.” He kicked a bread roll into Justin Masters’ face and it bounced off his forehead as he tried not to react. “That my shame is infectious and you don’t want it anywhere near you, let alone your precious princess.” He leapt from one table to another, making his way towards us and I got up, a smile nearly splitting my cheeks open. “But it turns out she wants me anyway. And I’m done making decisions for a girl who has always made better ones than I do. So if this is what she wants, then she can have it. Because she owns me right down to my black heart.” He leapt forward again, a round of cursing and outrage sounding as he landed on my table, looking down at me and holding out his hand with a piece of paper folded inside it.

I took it with a curious frown, unfolding it and realising what it was as my heart hammered out a wild and desperate tune. On the surface was my final I.O.U. from the ones I’d gifted Orion for his birthday last year.

I.O.U.

One kiss anywhere you like.

“This cannot be!” someone cried in anguish.

“Crabcakes through my mail slot, please stop this madness,” Hamish begged as he lumbered his way towards our table.

“Papa!” Geraldine flew out of her seat to halt him. “They are in love. And Mama always said love is like a peppercorn buried in a salt pot.”

“But sweet Gerrykins,” he rasped, bringing his handkerchief to his mouth. “I cannot stand to look at it.”

“Then don’t look,” I growled, taking Orion’s hand and letting him pull me up to stand in front of him.

He gripped my waist and yanked me flush to his body, his warmth surrounding me and the scent of cinnamon hanging in the air.

“You owe me a kiss,” he purred, a devilish gleam in his gaze.

“Where do you want it?” I asked, high on this moment as raindrops pattered in my gut.

He tapped his lips, his smirk still hitched in place and I swear I was never going to get enough of this man.

“Are you sure about this?” I whispered as the crowd muttered and cursed him.

“No,” he admitted seriously. “I’m so terrified of what this will mean for you, Blue, but I’m so much more terrified of hurting you. So if you want this, then it’s yours. Besides, now the decision is made, I get to do what I’ve wanted to do since I first laid eyes on you.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, my hands sliding over his broad shoulders and looping around his neck as I zoned out the cries of disgust around me, focusing on him and nothing else. He was all that mattered anyway.

“Kiss you in front of the world, and show them that you’re mine.”  He leaned down and I offered him my mouth and everything else I was made of right down to the dust that made up my bones. Our lips collided and I swear I could feel the stars watching, their whispers hanging just on the borders of my hearing like they were conspiring, and I prayed they were done working against us, because we’d suffered enough, and it was our time to be happy.

His tongue met mine in firm strokes and my sister whooped loudly, pounding her fist on the table, the Heirs taking up the cry and all my friends were suddenly working together to drown out the rebels.

I swear I had never felt so much joy in all my life as I did then, and I hoped it was never going to end.

***

“Crustaceans on a cracker,” Geraldine gasped. “And then where did the second Long Sherman go?”

Sofia giggled, releasing a horsey snort as she pointed at her ass and we all fell about laughing.

We were having a girls night in Geraldine’s room, using Angelica’s surprisingly extensive collection of nail varnishes and beauty products to pamper ourselves. Geraldine had just finished freshly dyeing my hair blue and it glittered around my shoulders as I dried it with air magic, the loose waves falling gently down my back.

“Perhaps I shall dye my hair a more flamboyant colour,” Geraldine said thoughtfully as she sat opposite me and Tory on the bed.

“You’d suit scarlet,” Angelica suggested.

“Nonsense! And have my hair look like a boiled lobster to attract more hungry hammerfish to my shores? You’re being nonsensical, Angelica,” Geraldine said, shaking her head fiercely.

“How are things with you and Max?” Tory asked.

“Oh my lady,” Geraldine sighed. “I am of a dither! Maxy boy has declared himself ready and willing to service my lady garden at my beck and call. And oh, how I wish to grant him the keys to its wild meadows and wandering daffodils forevermore, but alas…I fear I must marry Justin Masters instead.”

“Ew,” Tory breathed. “He’s so nice though. He literally held a door for me while I was a hundred yards away from it. I had to walk so. Fucking. Far. To get there. And he still waited.” She shuddered.

“That’s not exactly a bad thing, Tor,” I snorted. “And Darius holds doors for you all the time.”

“Well yeah, but he does it obnoxiously. So it’s not the same at all,” she said, tossing her hair and I laughed.

“I see what you mean, Justin has no edge. He’s…” I tried to find the word.

“Dull?” Geraldine offered. “Boring beyond what should be possible within the realms of our kind?”

“Err, yeah,” I admitted and Geraldine wailed like a half strangled goat.

“Can’t you just break the wedding off?” Sofia suggested. “I’m sure your dad won’t care.”

“Papa has given me his blessing to end the engagement. But I am a lady of my word, and what am I without my word, Sofia?” Geraldine gasped, clutching a hand to her chest in horror.

“What if we break it off for you?” I suggested. “Like a princess declaration thingy?”

“You would do that for me?” Geraldine breathed in awe. “You would stand between me and a loveless marriage to a hapless worm and decree it as disbanded? You would banish the worm to a faraway land so that I may never have to fret over the loss living in his beady snail eyes?”

“Err, the banishing part seems a bit overkill, but we can do the decree thing,” I said with a shrug.

“Holy shit, have we had the power to decree stuff this whole time?” Tory gasped. “I wanna decree that no fucking decaf coffee is allowed to be served next to the caffeinated goodness.”

“And so it is decreed.” Geraldine slapped her knee even though I was pretty certain that Darius got all of Tory’s coffees these days anyway.

“Can I decree that everyone stops pointing in horror at me and Orion whenever we touch?” I grumbled.

Geraldine reached out, patting my knee with sympathy in her eyes. “No, my sweet and gentle Darcy. You can only decree things that are possible within the realms of reasonability.”

I growled, messing up the pink paint I was coating onto my nails and using water magic to correct it. “Dammit.”

“Can I ask you guys a question?” Angelica squeaked and we all looked to her, smoke pluming from her nostrils for a second as she turned bright red. “As you know, I’m having relations with a dashing Minotaur, and everything’s been great sexually, but last night he asked to do something that I’d never heard of before and I said I’d think about it, but I’m not sure…and maybe one of you have tried it.”

“Is it the flipping dipstickle?” Geraldine asked and Angelica shook her head. “The backwards fornicator? The sprouting duck tail?”

“Um, no,” Angelica said. “He said he wants me to shift into my Order form, so he can climb up my tail and ride me like a cowboy.”

My jaw went slack as everyone stared at her in shocked silence.

“So…one of you guys must have had Order form sex, right?” she asked hopefully, looking from Sofia to Geraldine.

“Hang on, he wants to fuck you while you’re a massive Dragon?” Tory blurted.

“Like, in his Minotaur form or Fae form?” I asked in horror, unsure why it mattered or which answer would be worse.

“Um, the second one,” she whispered, her cheeks getting pink. “So none of you have ever…”

“Let someone service my petunia while I am a giant three headed dog?” Geraldine cried. “Certainly not, Angelica.”

“Well, I’ve had my wings out during, but I don’t have a dog vagina…so it’s not really the same,” I added.

“Oh,” Angelica breathed.

“I let Tyler stick a few sugar lumps up my butt once, but I wasn’t in my Pegasus form,” Sofia offered and we all fell apart laughing.

We continued pampering ourselves through the evening and I headed to bed at midnight, smelling like vanilla and looking forward to waking Orion. I’d put on a silk blue teddy which was nearly transparent, and I closed my white dressing gown around it as I jogged down the cool corridor to my room. I’d bribed one of the rebels to get me some more fancy underwear on their last supply run too to replace the ones Orion had destroyed, but he’d already massacred a few of them. It would have been kind of annoying if it wasn’t so hot.

I stripped out of the gown as I made it to our door, tossing it onto the floor and taking a moment to draw my hair forward over my shoulders and fluff it up a little before stepping into the room. The bedside light was on but I frowned as I found the space empty.

I grabbed my Atlas from the nightstand, typing out a message to Orion but I got distracted as a drumming started up inside my head and I was bathed in the absolute feeling of needing to go somewhere. I just wasn’t sure where that somewhere was…

I threw my Atlas on the bed and turned towards the door, hurrying out of it as the urgency intensified and I walked down the icy tunnels on bare feet, too distracted to will fire into my veins to warm me.

I blinked and I was outside, my feet sinking into the mud left behind after last night’s storm and guards shouting to me beyond the rising drums in my head. I’d somehow lost track of the time it had taken for me to walk out here and though I knew deep down that something about this could be dangerous, I still couldn’t tear myself from the path of fate which was guiding me forward.

“Princess!” one of the guards cried, trying to run forward and grab me as I headed to the barrier, but I flicked a finger, knocking her back with a gust of air.

I headed through the boundary and let my wings burst from my back as I stared up at the impossibly clear sky, the stars seeming to shine brighter than I’d ever seen as I took off towards them. They were whispering, plotting, speaking my name and beckoning me onward as I flew far and fast, pushing myself hard as I sailed over the dark and sleeping land below.

I lost track of time once more as I found myself flying above a city, the lights twinkling and glittering in the windows.

I circled down, the pull in my chest intensifying until I spotted a grassy hill rising up behind a tall building at the edge of the city with trees dotted across it. I wasn’t afraid as I landed, my feet pressing down on the golden leaves and crunching under my weight. The wind picked up and carried the fallen leaves around me in a circle, marking out a ring that seemed to hum with expectant energy.

My wings flexed against my back as my gaze rose to the stars and I felt their unimaginable power weighing down on me, making my heart beat to a beautiful, hungry pace.

Destiny was calling to me and I knew I stood right where it wanted me to be. I could feel fate wrapping around me, binding me to this moment. And for once, I was sure this wasn’t some curse or cruel twist of fortune. This was a gift from the stars, and they were about to ask something of me which I had to answer. And as I watched the sky, it started to shift, the heavens rearranging until the Gemini constellation sat right next to the Libra constellation, glittering so brightly it was hard to keep staring.

My breathing became shallow as it pooled out before me in a fog, because I suddenly knew what was happening. I’d been taught about it in class, Tory had described it to me, I’d even dared to wonder if Orion and I might be Elysian Mates too on occasion, but to actually find myself offered this bond with the man who owned my heart still left me speechless.

“Hello, Blue.”

I dropped my head, finding Orion there before me, his breaths coming heavily as if he’d run all the way here and I supposed he had. He stepped into the circle of peace carved out for us and suddenly the world beyond the ring of leaves blurred and we were captured in a dome of starlight, standing before one another with no one but the stars to watch. The air was perfectly still within the bubble of calm, and everything was so quiet it was like the world had been wrapped in cotton wool.

I stepped forward, our hands clasping and his eyes igniting as his gaze fell down me. “You must be freezing.”

“I can’t feel anything but this moment,” I whispered, staring up at my soulmate. The Fae chosen for me, perfectly designed to match me in every way. And as I looked up at the stars, I had to wonder if they were truly spiteful, or if they just had a twisted way of leading us to our destinies. “They made us for each other.”

He nodded, a smile spreading across his face as he drew me closer and I could hardly breathe with how much I needed him in that moment. The stars were whispering our names, driving us together, offering us a life united, bound and promised to one another in every way. And though I didn’t need the stars’ acknowledgement of our love to be happy, now we were here I couldn’t deny the rush I felt at the idea of having him marked as mine. Of laying a permanent claim to this man who had brought so much good into my life that it made me feel like rays of sunshine lived within my flesh.

“Tell me this is real,” he murmured, tucking a lock of blue hair behind my ear. “Because I fear the stars are playing wicked games with me again.”

“It’s real,” I said through a grin.

“Well then, Blue.” He stepped closer to me, swallowing up the space dividing us until my blood was heating and every part of my body hummed with the need to be closer still. “Will you kiss me and be mine in every way imaginable? Will you accept a grumpy asshole of a Vampire as your one true mate?”

I smiled up at him, my toes scrunching in the dead leaves beneath my feet as my wings fluttered a little. “I will. But only if you’ll accept a clumsy nerd of a princess as yours.”

He leaned down, our lips a hairsbreadth apart, the stars’ whispers filling my head and urging us on, begging us to be together. But they didn’t have to beg, I’d chosen this man long before this moment, this was just the icing on the cake.

“I’ll love you ‘til the world is dust,” Orion breathed and those words sent a delicious tremor down to the centre of my being.

“I’ll love you even beyond then,” I answered and our lips collided as we accepted this bond and a ripple of power blazed through my body as the stars threaded our souls together.

Our tongues moved in perfect synchrony, and I moaned as the most powerful urge drove me toward him. Our kiss deepened and I felt it everywhere, sending quivers skipping through my skin. The bond roared and I fell into a frenzy as he groaned, pressing his hand against the base of my spine and pulling me firm against him. But I needed more, so much goddamn more.

My fingers ripped at his clothes as he growled into my mouth and tugged my lower lip between his teeth. His hand clasped my breast and his thumb scored over my hardened nipple through the thin material, drawing another moan from my lips. But as I considered pulling his clothes off and fucking him right here on this hill, the sound of sirens rushed in on me and our lips broke apart.

Flashing red and blue lights made me freeze and my head whipped around as I took in row after row of FIB agents standing around us on the hill with magical guns in hand.

“Lance Orion and Darcy Vega, stay where you are!” a large man cried, his voice amplified by magic. “You are under arrest by decree of the king.”

Orion tugged me closer to him and I cursed the fact that we had no stardust as a line of FIB started closing in on us.

“Shit,” I growled, letting my wings stretch out as I held onto him and prepared to take flight. But then a dart pierced my neck and Orion snarled furiously, ripping it out of my skin and tossing it aside just as one was shot into his own neck.

I met his gaze in horror as I felt my Phoenix being locked down deep inside my chest as the Order Suppressant kicked in, my wings falling away.

“What do we do?” I gasped as I raised my hands in preparation of a fight, but he pushed them down, shaking his head with a frantic look on his face.

“They’ll kill us if we fight,” he warned and suddenly the agents were upon us, pulling us apart and snapping magic blocking cuffs onto our wrists.

I was spun around, finding myself in the hands of Orion’s ex Francesca Sky, her jaw falling slack as she looked at my eyes.

“You’re his Elysian Mate,” she rasped in disbelief, then towed me along and I looked back for Orion in fear, relieved to find him being marched along right behind me. For a moment I was captivated by the silver rings circling his dark eyes, glinting at me like starlight.

My skin was still burning and itching with the need to be closer to my Elysian Mate, the bond between us flaring so sharply I almost cared more about getting back into his arms than I did about the fact that we were being arrested and likely walked to our doom.

Francesca guided me into the back of a cop car on a track halfway down the hill and Orion was shoved in after me, the door snapping shut and locking tight.

I immediately lunged at Orion, swinging my leg over his lap and he dragged me against him with a growl of need, his cock hard between my thighs as our mouths fell together and we kissed like the only source of oxygen in the world lay between us.

“Hey!” a man barked as he dropped into the driver’s seat, banging the bars between us and the front of the car with a baton. “Enough of that.”

Francesca got into the other seat, staring at us as I turned my head but Orion grabbed my face, forcing me back around to look at him and sinking his tongue between my lips again.

“Lance!” Francesca snapped. “This is serious. Do you understand what’s happening right now?”

“Perfectly. I’m being arrested while I’m trying to fuck my mate,” he growled against my lips, his hands sliding up the back of my little nightgown, grasping my ass and making me moan loudly.

“Stop it!” the guy shouted again, whacking the baton against the bars once more. “You’ll be split up if you can’t control yourselves.”

We ignored him, our animal needs blocking out all else as we fought to get closer to each other, kissing and biting and grinding on each other as the car drove off down the track.

“Did you know you were right outside an FIB precinct?” Francesca called.

“Fucking stars,” I cursed as Orion slid his fingers between my thighs and found me bare and soaked for him.

“Mine,” he growled, driving two fingers into me and I gasped, riding his hand and panting as I bit down on his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. He tasted his own blood with a groan and pumped his hand harder, the two of us completely lost to each other, unable to even think about the fact that we were in a cop car with two agents right there in the front of it.

“Fuck, I need to be inside you,” Orion exhaled and I reached down to his waistband, unbuckling his jeans, planning to grant him that wish but then the car came to a halt, the door was flung open and I was yanked out of it.

I growled and kicked like a wild thing, slashing my nails down the arms of whoever had hold of me but then a taser slammed into my side and I screamed, my knees slamming into concrete and splitting open as the electricity burst through my limbs. My mind was in a daze as I blinked away the darkness, looking up and finding Orion punching the guy who’d tasered me, beating the shit out of him as he went completely feral and I smiled at my savage mate as someone pulled me upright again.

I found Francesca looking me over in concern. “The stars have cursed us all by bringing you here,” she whispered.

“Then let us go,” I snarled and she almost looked like she wished she could.

It took three agents to get Orion back under control and I looked up at the huge building in front of us with FIB stamped above the doorway.

We were marched inside, Orion’s shirt torn half off of him and his shoulders heaving as he looked back at me, and somehow all I felt was a rush of desire at the sight of those silver rings glinting at me and the carnal look of need in his expression.

We were marched past a desk and through several security doors before the two of us were shoved into a barred cell together. Eight agents stared in at us while one of them locked the door tight and I stood in a patch of moonlight that filtered through a barred window behind me.

“We’ll have to contact the king,” one of the men said anxiously.

“He’s at a press conference,” another said in concern. “We’re not supposed to bother him.”

My heart juddered with fear for a second, but then I looked at Orion and the mate bond flared once more, driving me towards him.

I forgot about the onlooking agents and ran to him, leaping up and wrapping my legs around his waist, our mouths coming together in a furious kiss that lit me up from the inside out.

“Are you sure we should leave them together?” one of the agents said uncertainly.

“This is the only spare cell we have after the Sphinx raid we did this afternoon,” another answered as Orion slammed me up against the bars and a dong reverberated throughout the whole cell. I pulled off the remnants of his torn shirt, moaning at the heat of his muscular body meeting with mine.

“We, um, will need you to help us fill out some paperwork,” one girl tried addressing us and Orion broke our kiss, my lips bruised and swollen, but somehow I just wanted more. More of his passion and strength, more of everything he had to offer me.

“GET OUT!” he roared. “Anyone who stays is going to see me fuck my mate. And if you stay, I will mark you as dead for laying your eyes on her skin. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth to ensure I get my cut of meat from you.”

“Lance,” Francesca hissed. “You need to calm down, you need to focus.”

“OUT!” I yelled at her and she backed up like I’d slapped her.

The agents all shared a look then shrugged and scarpered from the room. Francesca was the last to go, looking to Orion with some hint of loss in her eyes and I bared my teeth at her, my hand sliding possessively around the back of his neck and she bowed her head and ducked out of the room, leaving us alone at last.

Orion was already dropping his fly and he laid me on a hard wooden bench at the back of the cell, gripping my hips and guiding the tip of his cock to my entrance.

“Let me see those eyes, beautiful,” he commanded and my gaze flicked up to meet his as I panted and bucked my hips, needing him to stop taunting me.

He took in my Elysian rings with a groan of desire, cupping my chin in his hand as he turned my head left and right to examine them, and then he made me cry out like a girl possessed as he drove himself into me with an earth-shattering thrust, every inch of him sheathed deep within me. He gripped my hips, spreading me even wider for him as he pulled himself out of me agonisingly slowly, watching me like a hawk hunting in the sky.

“Fucking perfect,” he sighed, then slammed into me again, making my back arch against the bench and my cries filled the whole precinct as he unleashed the full force of his inner animal on me.

My hips worked to meet every thrust of his and suddenly he slowed right down, his hands pressed above my head and our bodies working in the most delicious fucking way together, his hips rolling and grinding until I was seeing stars, my head falling back as pleasure spilled through me and my body trembled in the wake of his power over me. I was still coming when he pulled out of me even though he wasn’t done, tugging my nightgown down to free my breasts, sucking one of my nipples while toying with the other.

I could feel him everywhere, my skin electrified from him as if his magic was skittering under my skin, but I knew that couldn’t be possible with the magic cuffs blocking off our power.

He dropped further down my body until his tongue was assaulting my clit and he feasted on me like my pussy was the source of life, my thighs wrapping around him as he licked and nipped and teased me. He swirled his fingers in my wetness, sucking them into his mouth with a hum of satisfaction before driving his tongue into me, lifting my ass with his hands so he could spread me out for him like a fucking buffet.

I came twice more before he sat up, wiping his glistening mouth with the back of his hand and smirking at me like a prime asshole. God, those silver rings looked good on him. They were like diamonds encrusting his pupils, so bright it was as if they held moonlight within them.

He bore down on me once more, but I moved fast, jumping up and pressing my hands to his shoulders to make him sit on the bench, his back to the wall. Then I knelt over him, gripping his hard cock as I looked directly into his eyes and guided him inside me once more.

The most sexy fucking sound left his lips as I took him all the way in and started rocking my hips, our mouths almost touching as we just stared at each other, our hands roaming, caressing and fire trailing up my spine as pleasure rolled through my body.

I couldn’t think about anything but him as he sucked his thumb then placed it against my clit, letting me grind on his hand as I climbed towards another impossible high, and suddenly I was coming again, my body tightening around his solid length and he grabbed hold of my ass, guiding me up and down as I rode out the wave, forcing me to go to the pace he wanted as he fucked me from below and took total control of my movements. He drove into me with an intensity that told me he was on the verge of coming apart too, my pussy squeezing every inch of him as he watched me like I was a divine being born to rule him.

His head fell back against the wall as he finished with a final firm thrust of his hips, and I felt the deep heat of him spilling inside me and slicking between us, his breaths coming heavily as he groaned like he was in nirvana.

As my forehead fell against his, I knew we weren’t even close to done, because this need inside me was still blazing. So the world would have to wait for us to be done with each other, because I wasn’t going to part from his body until I physically had to stop.

He scored his thumb up between my shoulder blades as my hips started grinding, a villain’s smile on his lips as he made me shiver. “Wasn’t that enough for you, mate?”

“Not even close,” I panted, feeling him getting hard again for me already and I leaned forward so all I could see were those shining, star-gifted rings in his eyes.

“When I’m done with you, Blue, you’ll never get the feel of me off of your skin.”