Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I’d spent another night tossing and turning, trying to convince myself to sleep while my brain turned over everything that had happened from the fight to us running for our motherfucking lives and abandoning everything in the name of rebellion against Lionel Acrux.

In fact, it wasn’t just a rebellion. With us and the Vegas set against him, I could only conclude that what we’d all done on Christmas Day was declare civil war within Solaria and from now until the end of this we would be fighting to win.

Eventually, some time around dawn I’d passed out, wondering where the fuck Seth had gotten to again and taking up the entire bed in his absence as I fought to get some rest in this strange place.

A heavy thumping came at the door and I groaned, cursing whoever it was as they tried to wake me and calling out a choice insult or two as I dragged my pillow over my head.

“Cal?” Max’s concerned voice reached me and I frowned as I felt the press of his worry on a tide of emotions that swept through the door.

“What is it?” I asked anxiously, pushing myself upright and reaching out with my magic to unlock the door.

Max shoved through it the moment he could and he strode into the room with an Atlas tight in his grasp. Hamish had given out untraceable ones to each of us earlier so we could keep up with the news outside of this place.

“Lionel has moved against our families already,” he growled, holding the device out to me as my gut plummeted and fear for my Mom, Dad and siblings drove into my flesh.

My eyes widened as I read the article he’d given me which had been printed in the Celestial Times less than an hour ago.

A New Age for Solaria! 

The Celestial Council have announced their support of three new Heirs to take their places when the time for succession is upon us. Hadley Altair, Ellis Rigel and Athena Capella are now next in line after the shocking events which saw the original Heirs all turn from their life path and throw in with the unstable and untrustworthy Vega twins.

Reports have been running rife for months about the strange thrall the Vega girls used to capture the attention of the four boys who had once had such bright and promising futures ahead of them. 

It is said that Gwendalina (Darcy) Vega has long since been using manipulation of the mind to convince those closest to her to believe in the ravens she falsely claims to see. Once convinced of the existence of such ravens, she uses that illusion to feed lies and delusions to those she seeks to control – just as the Phoenixes of old did a thousand years ago. 

It was once well documented how tricksome and untrustworthy the Phoenix Order could be with their twisted gifts playing out in all kinds of horrendous and mind-altering ways.

Sadly, once the Phoenix power has been used to infect the mind of a victim, there is no hope for returning them to their former selves and unfortunately by the time it became clear that these girls were wielding their wicked magic against the Heirs of this kingdom, it was too late to save them. Not to mention it is too risky to ever consider allowing them into a position of power with their now tainted minds.

Reports of the sex magic that Roxanya (Tory) Vega has been using against the former Heirs have also been coming in thick and fast as it has recently been discovered that that too was a power the Phoenixes of legend once possessed. 

Some of their kind hold a power over seduction and desire which is far more dangerous than even Incubus gifts. Once someone has lain with such a creature, they become bound to them. In using her body in such lewd and promiscuous acts, Roxanya has in fact been stealing pieces of the souls of the men she has had coital relations with and bound it to her will.

Many accounts have now emerged which prove that she has been having regular and some might say vulgar sexual relations with all four of the former Heirs, further working to place them all beneath her thrall and thus, the Vega twins have taken captive the minds and bodies of the boys we once hoped would help lead our kingdom.

But have heart! Our kingdom is not so easily knocked to its knees and in light of the disturbing acts which have taken place with the former Heirs, the Celestial Council and our king himself have all placed high hopes and faith behind their replacements.

A brighter dawn is coming. Though now it is feared that the rebel uprising caused by the daughters of the Savage King might put the lives of our loyal citizens at risk. But our king will work tirelessly to quell this small insurgence of power-hungry Fae who skulk in the shadows and don’t dare to challenge him head on. 

He will stop at nothing to assure the safety of his people, and may we all praise him for all he has done to protect us thus far. 

He has already quelled many Nymph attacks as well as bringing the creatures to heel, saving us from the threat they once posed. Now, he will gladly rise to the challenge of protecting us all from this new and worrying threat to our great nation.

Beneath the article were a series of pictures, some of which had been kept from the press by our families before this moment. There were images of Darius and me dancing at the club with Tory all those months ago, some of me and her engaging in the hunt – even one of me bending her over a table in the Tarot classroom which was grainy and obviously taken by some perving asshole, but you could see the way her skirt was shoved up and my pants were half hanging off even if you couldn’t see our faces.

Then there were images of her and Darius in various heated moments, a picture of her kissing Max when he’d caught her with his Siren Song and several of Seth with his arm slung around her and whispering something in her ear which in all likelihood had just been some kind of threat, but the way they’d been mixed in with the others helped to paint the picture they were trying to create of us being some kind of sex harem for her.

The images of us with Darcy had been just as carefully selected, some of us laughing with her at Pitball training or looking at her as if we were enamoured by her. There was even one of me on one knee before her with my head bowed which I was almost certain had been taken while I was tying my shoelace. There were a lot of her and Seth together, some of him going in and out of her room at the academy and even a few of her standing over him after she’d beaten his ass that time.

Then there was a full page spread with perfectly posed pictures of our siblings who had been selected to take our place like power claiming had fuck all to do with it and Lionel could just make a decision like that on a whim. My gaze scanned over my brother’s face and I was certain I could see tension there as he posed for the shot, my throat bobbing as I wondered what Lionel had threatened him with to make him play along with this.

“Fuck,” I breathed as I dropped the Atlas into my lap and looked up at Max as he scored a hand down his face.

“My dad wouldn’t back Ellis for my position,” he said. “Not unless he was forced to. He’s always been firm in his support for me, and she’s only got one fucking Element! Besides, she could no sooner take me down than fly herself to the fucking moon.”

“Yeah, this reeks of that asshole with the crown,” I agreed on a growl.

“We need to talk to the others. Seth is-”

“Seth is what?” Seth asked as he appeared, sticking his head around the door and grinning in at us.

“Show him,” I grunted, shoving myself out of bed and hunting for some clothes.

I’d spent time wielding my earth magic in this space I’d been given to use as a bedroom, so I had a wardrobe, a proper bed, a mirror and even bedding which I’d spent a few hours casting from scratch by creating my own cotton. The mirror was just heated sand with a wooden frame and the rest of the furniture was made from wood too, grown into place with my magic. I’d even hung an everflame in a glass lamp above the bed and had made myself a carpet out of grass so soft it felt like silk beneath my bare feet. I wasn’t the Terra Heir for nothing. Though as it stood, maybe I wasn’t the Terra Heir at all.

I dropped my boxers and pulled on some fresh clothes, trying not to wrinkle my nose at the borrowed items and mentally planning to work on creating my own clothes the next time I had a few hours to kill. Either that or I wanted to go shopping. We were rebels, not fucking homeless people for fuck’s sake.

I could feel eyes on me as I changed and I glanced over my shoulder, meeting Seth’s gaze for a fraction of a second before he scooped up the Atlas and dropped onto my bed to read the article.

My skin prickled at the thought of catching him looking at me and I frowned as I wondered why I liked that so much. But as a mournful howl fell from his lips, I dragged my pants and shirt on and turned to him, my jaw clenching at the sound of his pain.

“It’s a good thing,” I said, moving to sit beside him and clasping his shoulder as Max dropped down on his other side. 

“How is this a good thing?” Seth asked, his dark gaze whipping around to meet mine and I squeezed his shoulder tighter.

“Because they’re playing along. I know my mom and she would never back Hadley over me unless he took me on and won. That’s what true Fae do. They claim their fucking power, and there is no way in hell that she would just switch her preference to him unless she knew it was the only way that she could protect our family.”

“He’s right,” Max agreed. “Think about it. Lionel will have threatened them and as it stands, with him having the shadows on his side and that shadow witch at his command, he is more powerful than our parents. If they didn’t fall into line, then he could kill them.”

“Then maybe they should run too?” Seth suggested. “They could all come here, join us and-”

“We need to find a way to contact them,” I said decisively. “And we need Darius’s opinion on this too. Where is he?”

“Fucking Tory Vega of course,” Max said with a derisive snort. “I know you’re not a Siren, but surely that amount of lust is enough for the rest of you to sense too?”

I breathed a laugh, shaking my head at him and getting to my feet. 

“They can’t just fuck all the damn time,” I pointed out. “They’re probably sleeping or some shit. Besides, they have to eat.”

“We’ll see.” Max led the way to the door but as I went to follow him, I looked back and found Seth still sitting on my bed looking utterly dejected as he stared at the floor.

“Hey,” I barked at him, shooting forward and gripping his hair in my fist, jerking on it to make him look up at me. “No pouting. We can figure this out.”

Seth’s eyes widened and he nodded slowly, his tongue wetting his lips and drawing my attention for a moment.

“Alright,” he agreed, a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. “But you didn’t have to go all Dom on me.”

“Oh please, you’d love it if I went all Dom on you,” I tossed back, tugging on his hair a little harder and liking the way it felt to have him beneath me like that.

“Maybe I would,” he replied and as my gaze met his, the joking lilt to our conversation slipped and I found my pulse picking up with that crazy idea.

I shifted a little closer to him, my gaze roaming over his face as he looked at me with something akin to vulnerability in his expression, like he was trying to tell me something without voicing it and I found myself really wanting to know what that was.

“Are you fuckers coming or what?” Max barked from outside and I released Seth’s hair, barking a laugh as I stepped back and jerked my chin at him in a command for him to follow.

“I’ll have to pencil in topping you for another time,” I teased and Seth laughed a little manically.

“Yeah. Just tell me where and when and I’ll make sure to bring the ball gag and the handcuffs.” 

I chuckled at the ridiculousness of that idea and Seth moved past me as we made it into the corridor, shoulder checking me hard enough to knock me into the damn wall.

“Asshole,” I called after him and he flipped me off over his shoulder before jogging to catch Max and leaving me behind.

I followed them through the so called royal quarters and down the corridors dedicated to housing us, the roughly hewn tunnels made up of nothing more than the rock they’d been carved into with a series of everflames burning at intervals to light the way.

Max pulled up short by the door to Tory and Darius’s room and knocked loudly as me and Seth moved to stand beside him.

There was a long pause, but no one responded from within the room and as I strained my ears, I couldn’t hear a sound from inside it either.

“Are you sure they’re here? Because if they are they’re using a silencing bubble,” I said and Max groaned.

“To drown out all the fucking sex noise,” he said, giving us an ‘I told you so’ look.

“Well at least one of us is getting laid,” Seth grumbled and I arched a brow at him in surprise.

“I thought you were too? You told me you weren’t sharing a room with me because you were spending your nights getting your cock serviced by a secret lover.”

Max snorted. “Yeah – probably his fucking hand, just like I am these days. You know Gerry still won’t give me the time of day even after I became a star damned rebel?”

“Seth?” I pushed, frowning at him as he cut his gaze away from mine and moved towards the door to Darius’s room, pressing his hand to it like he intended to bust the lock.

“A gentleman never tells,” he replied, not looking at me as he focused on the door and I shot Max a confused look while he just shrugged, clearly more interested in his Geraldine drama than he was in Seth’s night time antics.

I pursed my lips and dropped the questions. It wasn’t like I gave a fuck who he was screwing anyway.

“Got it!” Seth announced and the door swung open a moment later, revealing Darius and Tory lying in bed together, but instead of finding them fucking like animals as we’d all been expecting, we found them holding each other.

Tory was nestled into the crook of Darius’s arm, her eyes closed and breathing heavy as he trailed his fingertips along her spine, the sheets tugged over them enough to cover most of her body from us.

His gaze snapped to us, but in the brief moment before that, all I’d seen in his expression was this, deep, fulfilled kind of contentment as he’d been watching her, and it made the knot in my chest loosen to know that at least one good thing had come from this nightmare. The stars had finally been forced to reconsider and it looked like everything the two of them had suffered through had finally paid off.

Darius frowned at us, clearly less than impressed by the interruption as he flicked his fingers to disband the silencing bubble before tugging the sheet up around Tory more firmly to hide her body from our view.

“What is it?” he growled, his voice pitched low so as not to wake her as his muscles tensed in anticipation of a fight.

“Nothing life threatening,” I reassured him before he could freak out.

“But we do need to talk,” Max pressed. “And not all of us have sex on tap right now, so stop rubbing it in our faces and just come talk with us.”

Darius rolled his eyes at the less than angry taunt and slowly shifted himself out of bed, drawing a murmur of protest from Tory as she sleepily reached for him.

“I thought I owed you a wake up blowjob?” she mumbled, catching his arm and making him pause.

“I will absolutely take you up on that later, baby. But right now, there are three assholes at the door,” Darius replied, leaning down to press a kiss to her hair.

Tory rolled towards us and cracked her eyes open as Darius lurched forward to make sure the sheet remained over her tits to shield them from our view, a possessive growl escaping him as his Dragon peered out at us from within the depths of his eyes in a clear warning.

“Do the assholes just want him, or do I have to drag my ass out of bed too?” she asked us, scrubbing some sleep from one eye with a fist and yawning.

“Just the Dragon thanks, sweetheart,” I confirmed and she nodded, grabbing a pillow and tugging it over her face in a clear dismissal.

“And this one claimed she didn’t wanna be a princess,” Seth scoffed, backing out of the room as Darius approached us wearing a pair of jeans and some sneakers, not bothering with a shirt.

It was cold down here beneath the ground in the middle of fuck knew where, but for those of us with fire magic it wasn’t much of an issue.

Darius and Seth fell into step ahead of me and Max and my gaze roamed over the tattoo on my friend’s back as I took in the Phoenix and Dragon which played at war with one another across his flesh. I’d always liked the image, but looking at it now hit different than it had before. Because instead of the heat of the battle which I’d always seen in the image, I found more of a dance in it now. Two predators who had met their match and fought for nothing more than the thrill of one another’s company and the challenge they posed.

We headed down to the large cavern which had been set aside for meals and Seth picked out a spot in the centre of the circular space where a rough table and chairs had been hewn from the rocks. It looked exactly like every other table in the place, but I was guessing its location front and centre was what was drawing him to it, the circular layout of the domed cavern somewhat reminiscent of The Orb.

Before he could sit his ass down, I twisted my hand and sent magic spilling towards the stone bench, building a back for it from wood and leaves that wove together as they grew, then padding the whole thing with a layer of blood red roses with petals softer than silk until it resembled our usual couch.

Seth grinned broadly as he cast a silencing bubble around us then sank onto the newly modified chair and I took my spot beside him, nudging him with my elbow.

“I knew you couldn’t cope without home comforts,” I teased him and he shoved me back.

“Says the dude who has literally fully furnished his underground cave to make it look like it belongs in a five star hotel,” Seth mocked.

“Well, no one said being a rebel had to mean living in squalor,” I tossed back, shoving him again, but before we could fall into a full blown tussle, Max pushed us apart and sat down between us.

“Stop flirting with each other and focus on the problem here,” he snapped, pushing a whole bucket load of serious energy at us to dampen the mood. It had only been a jibe, but why did I suddenly feel awkward?

Darius was reading over the article on the Atlas, ignoring all of us as he took in the latest bullshit to be tossed our way and I looked around hopefully as my stomach growled.

“The service in this place is a fucking joke,” I muttered, looking between the rebels who were all gathered at various tables, each of them eating their own meals and drinking coffees, while none of them seemed inclined to bring any to us. 

We drew a lot of looks, even after a few days down here and it was obvious that most of them didn’t trust us one bit. But as we were powerful motherfuckers and the Vegas themselves had vouched for us, no one seemed inclined to voice their thoughts on whatever reasons they had to dislike us, so mostly we were left to our own devices.

“There is no service in here,” Darius replied. “You’re just an entitled prick who hasn’t noticed that the food you’ve been eating has been brought to you by one of us for the last few meals instead of having it hand delivered by some lesser Fae like you’re used to.”

“Hold the fuck up,” Seth said, shoving himself forward in his seat as I blanched at that suggestion. “Are you telling me that the food we’ve been eating is not only of a questionable quality but that there is no service here either?”

“No, asshole. They’re rebels living in a fucking cave. There isn’t any catering service, just like there’s no laundry service or cleaning service or-”

“Are you telling me I’m supposed to just wear dirty clothes for however the fuck long I’m down here?” I interrupted, putting that shopping trip to the top of my damn list because that would be a fuck no. “I don’t even have water magic.”

“Well, I’ll wash your clothes if you’ll make my room all fancy with earth magic like you did with yours,” Max offered and I nodded in agreement. 

“Done.”

“You guys are fucking princesses,” Darius said, shaking his head as Seth continued to stare around in horror like he was expecting a waiter to appear from thin air at any moment.

“Oh so you don’t want me and Seth to make your room all fancy?’ I shot back. “Or do you just refer to it as a fuck palace now?”

Darius smirked and shrugged. “Alright fine. If you two assholes make the room nice for Roxy’s benefit then I’ll go find you something to eat.”

“Pfft, like you don’t want it nice for yourself,” I replied. “That girl grew up in the mortal realm with no fucking money. She knows how to survive these conditions far better than you do and you know it.”

“All the more reason for her not to have to suffer them again,” Darius replied. “Now why don’t you figure out what you wanna do about this situation with your families while I go find us some food.”

“Alright,” I agreed with a shrug like it was no big deal, but Seth practically sagged in his seat with a groan of relief and I couldn’t deny that I was glad I wouldn’t have to go figure out the food thing myself. I mean, if they had stuff to pick from then I’d be fine, but what if I was expected to actually cook something? Fuck that. I wasn’t cut out for that kind of shit.

“So what are we going to do?” Max asked, swiping a hand down his face and relaxing back into his chair as he looked around the room like he was hunting for someone. Probably Grus. Man had it bad.

“I can meet with my mom,” I said. “We have a plan in place for anything going to hell like this. There’s a place where I can go and summon her. She left a crystal there which is linked to the stone in her wedding ring. No one knows about it besides me and her, so I know it’ll be safe.”

“Shit. Why didn’t my dad think of something like that?” Max asked.

“Or my mom,” Seth added with a huff.

“You don’t have emergency plans set up with your families?” I asked in surprise and they both shook their heads at me. “Well I guess after everything that happened with her brother going missing she decided to take the safety of our family more seriously.”

“Is it really safe for you to go though?” Seth asked, his brow pinching.

“My mom hasn’t turned against me,” I said firmly, knowing that in every fibre of my being. “She loves me and she would take the secret of that place to her grave. Besides…I need to be sure that my family are okay. I need them to be alright.”

“She probably knows about our families too,” Max added and Seth looked to me hopefully.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “They’re all in the same situation so she should know how they are.”

‘Though if Lionel wants to bump off my evil stepmother I won’t be complaining,” Max added, making me smirk.

“I’ll head off once we eat then,” I said and we all glanced around in hopes of seeing Darius returning with a huge tray of food for us, but instead found Geraldine striding into the room in a tight red and blue jumpsuit with ‘A.S.S. Forever’ printed over her tits. She was holding an enormous plate piled high with buttery bagels and another filled with every kind of topping anyone might ever dream of putting on one.

“Make way for the breakfast of the true queens!” she cried, striding towards us and making my damn stomach grumble as the scent of those delicious creations wafted over us.

“Oh fuck yes,” Seth groaned, pushing to his feet as Geraldine swerved us and placed her bounty down on the table next to ours.

She set to work decorating the table the way I had our couch, creating two chairs large enough to arguably be called thrones and setting them at either end of the long stone table she’d selected then covering the table in flowers and laying the food out on top of them.

Several other A.S.S. clubbers hurried over with a pitcher of orange juice and a large cafetière filled with fresh coffee before placing plates, mugs and glasses down too.

“How come the Vegas get table service?” Seth whined, dismissing the silencing bubble that surrounded us so that Geraldine could hear him.

“Do you mean to ask why the true and glorious monarchs of our fair and noble land deserve the mightiest of breakfasts to sup upon before the start of their day of training in the quest to conquer the dastardly Dragoon?” Geraldine scoffed loudly. “I think the answer to that most foolish of questions is more than clear, even to a lowly mutt, a bothersome barracuda and a sharp toothed Sally such as you rapscallions.”

“Come on, Gerry, give us a couple of those bagels,” Max tried, getting up and moving towards her. “You know the Vegas can’t possibly eat all of-”

“Avast!” Geraldine cried, flinging her arm out and damn near smacking Max in the face as she pointed across the room to the tunnel which Darcy and Tory were emerging from, appearing less than thrilled at the fact that everyone was now looking at them. Darcy was dressed in a white shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans, but Tory had just thrown on one of Darius’s shirts and a pair of thick socks, looking pretty pissed about being the centre of attention. “What’s this? Two shining stars come down to grace us with their beauty? Two flawless gems, blessing us with their attendance? Two most beauteous-”

“Stop, Geraldine,” Tory begged, slipping through the crowd with her sister. “I’ll go on a fucking hunger strike if I’m forced to endure this kind of welcome every time I come looking for food.”

“You heard my lady!” Geraldine roared. “Avert your gazes and return to your business!”

Tory cringed and Darcy blushed furiously as they made it to the table and everyone in the room pointedly looked anywhere but at them.

“Good morrow, fine ladies!” Hamish called as he bustled his way across the room with a bowl of fresh fruit in his arms and my stomach rumbled as I looked at the fucking feast that had been laid out for the Vegas. “How are you on this wondrous day-ahhh!”

His greeting turned to a cry of horror as Orion shot into the room and dropped into the chair beside Darcy just as she took her seat in one of the thrones Geraldine had created for them and our former Cardinal Magic professor scowled back at him.

“My lady, are you certain you wish to dine with a Power Shamed cretin such as…such as…”

Hamish seemed to gag over the idea of speaking Orion’s name and I couldn’t help but bark a laugh at his expense.

“I want him here,” Darcy said firmly. “He’s my boyfriend.”

Hamish paled at that and Seth bounced up and down in his seat as Tory grinned at them. Orion glanced at Darcy with some objection in his eyes as Hamish broke out in a sweat.

“Thanks to me,” Seth said excitedly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Orion demanded, narrowing his gaze on him, his hand straying towards a pineapple in a fruit bowl on the table.

Seth mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key as Orion’s hand closed around the pineapple in a threat. Darcy laid a hand on his arm, drawing it away from his weapon of choice and Orion’s eyes slowly slid to her instead, the death threat in them melting.

“This conversation isn’t over,” Orion warned Seth, but he just shrugged and I tried to catch his eye, unsure what his game was and why I wasn’t in on it.

“Remember how I said it’s best if we keep our relationship between the people we know, considering my position in society,” Orion said to Darcy in a low growl.

“Yep, and remember how I said I didn’t care what people thought of me for dating you?” Darcy tossed back with a firm look and they fell into a glare off that pretty much put them at a stalemate.

Hamish cleared his throat. “Forgive my doodads, my lady, but the shamed Fae makes a fair point.” He grimaced as he swallowed like bile was rising in his throat then continued on. “It is best it remains a secret until you inevitably go your separate ways in life.”

Orion’s shoulders stiffened as pain crossed his features, but he said nothing and I had to admit I felt kinda sorry for the asshole.

“We’re not going to go our separate ways,” Darcy hissed and Hamish bowed his head in deference.

He managed to reign in his silent retches as he looked to Orion in horror then turned away from him, drawing my attention to Darius and his mom as I spotted them at the far side of the room, smiling together and even laughing. She still had her disguise in place so that no one would be able to recognise her, but if anyone paid attention then surely they’d notice how much time she spent with Darius and Xavier. They could figure it out if they were smart enough.

I watched as Hamish headed over to them, placing the back of a hand to his brow as he pointed at Orion in dismay, and Catalina patted his arm sympathetically.

Darius withdrew from their interaction, heading our way with a plate in hand and I perked up at the arrival of our food.

“This is the best I could manage,” Darius said, dropping the plate of toast down on the table before us and making Seth gasp in horror.

“Why is there only butter on it?” I asked.

“And why isn’t the butter all the way to the edges?” Seth added.

“Do I smell burning?” Max asked, picking up a slice and turning it over to reveal the black underside.

“I’ve never tried to make toast with my magic before, alright?” Darius grumbled. “Would you rather I’d just brought you uncooked bread?”

“Than this horror show?” Seth said, clutching his imaginary pearls. “Yes I would.”

Tory laughed at us as we all picked up a less than desirable looking slice of toast, before taking a big bite of the butteriest bagel I ever saw and groaning in pleasure as she ate it.

Darius turned away from us and moved to pour her a mug of coffee, making it how she liked and placing it down beside her plate before leaning in to press a kiss to her hair.

He made a move to back away and return to us, but she caught hold of his belt and tugged him back again, scooting out of her own seat and nudging him into it before dropping onto his lap with a grin.

“Hey, how is that fair?” Seth demanded while Max continued to try and catch Geraldine’s eye as she got to work placing toppings on bagels, singing a tune which seemed to be about a troublesome tuna who ended up baked in a fish pie.

“He worked up a big appetite last night,” Tory replied, smirking at us as Darius’s hand landed on her thigh just below the hem of the oversized shirt she was wearing. “And he needs to keep his energy up if he plans on keeping up with me again tonight.”

Darius leaned in and murmured something in her ear which I chose not to listen in on as it managed to bring a blush to her cheeks and she slapped his chest in mock anger before biting her lip and saying ‘maybe.’

“Oh so all we have to do to earn our way onto the tasty table is give a Vega a bunch of orgasms then, is it?” Seth demanded, like that was some kind of challenge.

“Well technically I have given a Vega a load of-” I began but Darius cut me off with a snarl.

“Do not finish that sentence, Caleb,” he barked. “Or I swear to fuck, I’ll cut your dick off and toss it in the tray with those chipolatas over there.”

“Oooh, there’s chipolatas?” Seth asked hungrily, looking around and I raised my hands in surrender, letting my joke fall away.

Probably best not to goad the Dragon over the fact that me and his girl had history.

“Come on, Darcy,” Seth whimpered, turning the puppy dog eyes on her as he failed to spot any miniature sausages. “We just got bad news about our families, and we’re stuck in this strange place and nobody here likes us and we’re really, really hungry but we don’t know how to fend for ourselves like common people and now we’re going to starve to death and-”

“Will you shut up if there’s a bagel in your mouth?” Darcy shot at him and he mimed zipping his lips again, nodding profusely and making me laugh. “Fine. Then the three of you can join us – but only so long as you keep playing nice. One dickish piece of behaviour and you’re back to burnt toast at the losers’ table.”

Tory laughed at her sister’s joke, but I resisted the urge to protest that assessment of our current social standing in favour of eating a decent breakfast.

We dropped down opposite Orion and Geraldine, listening while Orion filled us in on how he was getting on with brewing his fancy potion.

Seth’s arm kept brushing mine as we ate, and I allowed his Wolfy ways, even nudging him back from time to time, enjoying giving him that little bit of pack reassurance even if I shouldn’t have really needed it myself. But I was away from my family like he was, cut off and in this strange place, so it made sense for our honorary Alpha pack to draw closer to one another while we were getting used to the changes here.

Once we’d finished eating, I filled Geraldine in on my plan to go get some information from my mom and despite her warnings about me ‘taking the utmost of care out in the wild beyond,’ as she seemed to be referring to the normal world, she got her dad to agree to me going. Not that they could have stopped me, but it made sense for me to at least seek permission before I went even if it was only to keep the peace.

Seth followed me up into the farmhouse which hid the entrance to The Burrows and he walked with me out into the snowy landscape which surrounded the hidden sanctuary until we made it to the magical border which kept the place hidden.

“Why don’t I come with you?” he suggested, clearly worried about me heading out there alone but I shook my head.

“It’s not worth risking you as well,” I said firmly. “I’ll be there and back before you know it.”

“I’ll wait right here,” he swore, folding his arms against the cold and making it clear he wouldn’t be swayed from that choice.

“Okay,” I agreed, flicking my hand at a spot beside him and casting a fire into existence to keep him warm while I was gone.

Seth lunged at me as I made a move to cross the barrier, yanking me into his arms and squeezing me tight as the rich, earthy scent of him enveloped my senses and I breathed in deeply.

“Stay safe,” he growled fiercely. “I love you.”

“I love you too, man,” I said on a breath of laughter, patting his back as he tensed up in my hold. “I love every fucking one of you. And I’ll be just fine. You’ll see.” I leaned back and clasped his face in my hands, pushing fire magic into his skin to warm him up as he gave me a lingering look which made my throat bob.

“Stop looking at me like you think you might never see me again,” I teased, trying to break the tension but it only seemed to build higher.

“If I never saw you again I think I’d just cut my heart clean from my chest rather than live on in that agony,” he breathed and I frowned at him as I felt the intensity of those words.

“I’ll be back,” I swore and he nodded, stepping back forcefully and making my hands fall from his face.

I gave him one, last reassuring smile, then stepped through the crackling energy of the magical barrier which was in place to protect us here, before tugging a pouch of stardust from my pocket and tossing it over my head.

The snow filled mountain scape was whipped away as I was torn from my position in the world and the stars spun me through their hold before depositing me where I desired.

I landed smoothly despite my footing being uneven, my gifts lending themselves to a quick correction of my balance as I found myself in a sun baked desert.

I glanced around warily, squinting against the onslaught of light from the bright blue sky and blazing sun as I held the stardust ready just in case there was any kind of magical detection system here which would alert the FIB to my presence. It was highly unlikely. My mom wouldn’t give up this location even under torture but with Lionel’s talent for Dark Coercion I couldn’t rule anything out.

After a few minutes it was clear that there was no one here besides the buzzards circling high above and the sand surrounding me, so I strode forward. This place was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. It was just a random spot in the centre of the Kerdian Desert with nothing but sand and wasteland for miles all around it. Hell, we weren’t even in Solaria anymore. This came under the rule of the southern kingdom of Voldrakia where the Vegas’ mother had been born – not that anyone made any use of this endless expanse of nothing.

I couldn’t see what I was searching for, but I knew it was here, buried beneath the sand and waiting for me, the stardust having brought me to the right place beyond a doubt.

I lifted my hands and took hold of the sand surrounding me with my earth magic, hunting through it until I felt the pulse of my mother’s magic which protected this place then shifting the sand aside until a large, black boulder was revealed beneath it.

I stepped up to it, placing my palm flat against it and bypassing all of the spells cast upon it, which would send anyone other than me or her scurrying away from this place long before they got close enough to touch the stone like this.

I pushed my magic into the rock, summoning the treasure buried within it and drawing out the gem hidden there until it sat shimmering in my hand.

I glanced around once more before pushing a flare of magic into the white opal gemstone, letting it read my magical signature and knowing it would alert my mom to my whereabouts.

I prepared myself for a long wait, not knowing what she might need to do to set up a cover story for her absence, but she appeared in a flash of stardust barely a heartbeat later, her arms flying around me as a relieved sob spilled from her lips.

“Oh my darling boy, I’ve been so worried,” she gasped, her head buried in my shoulder as I wound my arms around her in her grey dress. She looked like she’d been doing something official if her outfit was anything to go by and I got the feeling I had far more reason to be worried about her than the other way around.

“I’m fine, Mom. How about you guys?” I asked, concern lacing my voice for my family.

“Making the best of it,” she said, the anger in her tone clear as she drew back and wiped the tears from her face. My mother was a loving woman and she wasn’t afraid of her emotions, but she knew how to lock them down when she had to for her job and I could see that professional facade slipping over her now. “Don’t tell me anything about where you are. Just tell me the other boys are okay so that I can pass the message along to Tiberius and Antonia.”

“Yeah, we’re all good, Mom. I swear, you don’t need to worry. The Vegas are safe as well.”

She nodded, relief spilling through her eyes which were the exact same navy shade as my own.

“Good. I only have a few moments – I’m in a Council meeting with the so-called king and I just excused myself to the bathroom.”

“What the fuck, Mom?” I exclaimed, fear of them catching her out making my heart race.

“It’s fine. Much easier to slip out from under his nose than to try and do anything when I’m at the house. He has spies on all of us and though I’m confident I could bypass them if necessary, it is far simpler to do it this way. Now, take this.” She handed me a small journal bound in brown leather and I flipped it open, frowning at the empty pages.

“It’s linked to my scribing stone. Whatever I write on my stone will disappear from my end and reappear in this. We will pass you whatever information we can.”

“Why not just join us?” I begged but she was already shaking her head.

“We have to be close to him. You need people working against him from the inside and we’d never manage to get everyone out anyway. He will come for anyone we love or even just like if we try to turn from him. So far, in his arrogance he believes we are all content to serve him as we did the Savage King. We can let him go on believing that while you gather the strength you need to face him.”

“But what if he uses a Cyclops on you or Dark Coerces you or something even more powerful?” I hissed, clutching her hand like she might be about to leave me already.

“I’m not afraid of Lionel Acrux,” she scoffed. “He may have cheated his way into gaining command over the shadows, but he isn’t any more powerful than me. In fact, he’s barely an echo of the man his brother would have been if he’d come into his power instead of dying the way he did.”

Everyone knew the rumours about the apparent accident that had seen Lionel’s older brother Radcliff into an early grave, and there had long since been suspicions that Lionel was the one who was truly responsible for killing his brother off so that he could take his place without ever having to face him like Fae. His father had crushed the rumours at the time, but if the Lionel we now knew was anything to go by, then I was willing to bet that Radcliff’s death was nothing beyond cold blooded murder.

“Are you certain?” I asked, unwilling to let her go even though I could see her mind was set on this and there was never any changing it once she got like that.

“Yes, Caleb, don’t worry yourself about me. Just keep hold of that ledger and we will figure out the rest as we go along. Now unless you want them all to think I’m taking the world’s longest shit, I need to go.”

I breathed a laugh and let her pull me into a tight embrace once more. 

“Keep the gemstone with you. Activate it if you get any information which leads you to believe my life is in danger or if Antonia or Tiberius’ lives are at risk then activate it to warn me of that too. Just press your power into it once if it’s my life that is in danger, twice in a row if it’s Antonia’s family and three times for Tiberius. If you do it four times then we will know that we all need to run. I’ll make sure we have plans in place if it comes to that.”

“I don’t know how long it will be until I see you again,” I breathed, crushing her in my embrace and almost feeling like the little boy who used to crawl into bed with her when she got home late from a Council meeting, even though I was now more than a foot taller than her.

“I’m always in your heart, Caleb. And you’re always in mine.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek, squeezing me one last time before stepping back and disappearing in a swirl of stardust. 

My gut clenched as I watched her go, knowing she was heading back into the lap of that psychopath and fearing that I might have just seen my mother for the final time. Our parents were the closest Fae in the whole of Solaria to his level of power. They were the most obvious threat surrounding him. And maybe for now he cared enough about public opinion to try and force them into line rather than just killing them off, but long term? I didn’t trust him one fucking bit. Which really just meant we needed to work even harder to bring him down as fast as possible.

I drew in a deep breath, took my own stardust from my pocket and left the desert behind as I fell into the embrace of the stars.

I landed back in the cold, snowy landscape which housed The Burrows, glancing around once more as I failed to spot the farmhouse or anything to let anyone know that the rebel stronghold was right beneath my feet. The illusions around this place were strong and I was certain I wouldn’t have found it at all if I didn’t already know its position and hadn’t been granted the right to enter.

I started walking, my eyes set on a distant snow-covered mountain as I went until I met the resistance of the magical barrier flaring against my senses. I ground my teeth as the power of the magic tore through me and the next moment the farmhouse and barn appeared alongside a ring of worn-out snow which had been trampled along the edge of the barrier.

I frowned at the set of footprints which were ground right down to the mud before the sound of a wolfish bark made me spin just in time to get pounced on by a big ass white Wolf.

Seth knocked me to the ground, making an oomph leave me and I laughed as I fell beneath him in the snow and he ran the pad of his tongue right up the centre of my face.

“Gah!” I batted him away and his excitable yips turned into laughter as he shifted back, straddling me and grinning widely.

“Dude, I’ve been pacing since the moment you left,” he began. “I’m so fucking hyped up it’s untrue. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see your gorgeous face before.”

“Oh yeah? Just how grateful are you to find me alive and well?” I asked, my gaze trailing over his neck and landing on the thump of his pulse beneath his skin.

“I see how it is – you only want me for my blood,” he huffed, leaning back and giving me a clear look at his abs, not to mention his cock which was out and pretty much half mast. Then again, he always seemed to be hard these days so I was starting to think it must be a Wolf thing. He was used to getting laid a whole hell of a lot with his pack after all so maybe his body had grown used to the demand of satisfying so many of them.

“Are you staring at my dick?” Seth asked, tilting his head as he looked down at me and I snapped my gaze back to his face.

“More like the artery in your thigh,” I replied quickly though that wasn’t entirely true.

“Oh yeah? Well maybe if you can overpower me then you can bite me there,” he teased and my grin turned feral as I felt the bloodlust powering through my veins.

“Promise?” I demanded.

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” he replied before shoving himself off of me and taking off fast towards the barn, his bare ass on full display in the pale light of the day.

I tried to shoot after him but found myself rooted to the ground by earth magic I hadn’t even noticed him wielding.

A curse spilled from my lips as I severed the roots which were clinging to my shirt and jeans before lunging to my feet and taking chase.

Seth cast a blizzard of air magic back at me as he raced for the barn, almost knocking me on my ass before I managed to shoot aside, speeding around to the other side of him so fast that he couldn’t change the direction of the wind in time to stop my advance.

He darted into the barn and I chased right behind him, scenting blood in the air and losing control of the beast inside me as I slammed into his back and whirled him around, throwing him against the rotting wooden wall of the barn.

Seth swore and threw a punch at me but I dove below his strike, dropping to my knees before him, grabbing hold of his leg and yanking it aside a second before driving my fangs into the thick vein at the top of his thigh.

“Sweet, holy, mother of…fuck,” Seth gasped, his fingers taking hold of my hair and dragging me closer as I kept a tight grip on his leg with my right hand and splayed my palm against his firm abs to hold him in place with my left.

The rush of blood I got from that throbbing pulse point was enough to make a growl of pure pleasure escape me as I swallowed greedily, the mixture of his blood and the adrenaline rush from the hunt getting me hard as I flexed my fingers against the firm ridges of his six pack.

“Cal…by the stars, Cal, this is so fucking…I can’t…holy shit,” Seth garbled and I felt the brush of his cock against my cheek as he got hard too, his fingers still tightly fisted in my hair as my pulse spiked and I froze for a moment, realising exactly where I was biting him and what this might seem like.

But…he was pulling me closer, not pushing me away. And even though I probably should have been pulling back myself, that was the last thing I wanted. 

My heart began to race as I sucked on his thigh again, an insane idea occurring to me as my dick chafed against the fabric of my boxers with a need I wasn’t sure I wanted to put a name to and I slowly began to shift my hand down Seth’s abs.

“Caleb, are you sure you want to-” Seth groaned as I sucked harder on his thigh, drawing even more of his delicious blood into my mouth and no doubt making him light-headed as I took more than I knew I should. But I couldn’t help myself. I was becoming addicted to the taste of him and I couldn’t help but be a glutton when it came to feeding from him like this.

I growled in warning as he shifted his weight and he cursed as his cock scraped across my cheek in a demand I felt echoed in my own body. A demand I was starting to seriously think about answering.

A wet drip landed on my cheek and I flinched minutely before a second drip fell on my skin right next to it.

“What the fuck is that?” Seth hissed before a yelp of alarm spilled from his lips and he shoved me back with enough force to make me respond.

I jerked my fangs free of his leg, tilting my head back to look up at him, unsure what I was even going to say or do-

A wet splatter hit my face once more as I found him staring at the roof above us and a curse spilled from my lips as I spotted a body hanging from the rafters. Or what remained of a body anyway. And as I squinted, using my heightened vision to see through the darkness, I spotted the body parts of other victims, whole pieces of them strewn everywhere.

Blood and gore filled the space above our heads and the wide open mouth of a Fae caught in an endless scream stared down at us from above.

“Holy fuck, what the hell did that?” I swore, scrambling to my feet and training my senses on everything around us as I tried to make sure nothing was about to leap out at us from the shadows.

“I think that’s the group of rebels who should have been on guard out here,” Seth said, his hand latching around my arm as he drew me back towards the exit, a shield of air forming around us just in case. “Can you hear anything nearby?”

I strained my hearing to the best of my ability, but if there was anything here it was either concealed within a silencing bubble or it was neither moving nor breathing. Fear crept along my skin at the thought of our enemies being so close to my friends.

“Nothing,” I confirmed, hunting the shadows for any signs of movement and finding nothing there either.

“We should tell the others,” Seth said urgently and I nodded, letting him draw me back towards the exit and leaving the bloodbath behind as my gut knotted and frayed.

“Come on. We need to make sure the others are alright. Are you certain no one passed you while you were waiting for me?” I demanded, my skin prickling with tension as I kept my senses trained on everything that surrounded us.

“I’m pretty sure,” Seth said, looking around too, tilting his head to one side as he no doubt used his Order gifts to survey the surrounding area just like I was. “But I was running and focused on you. I guess there’s a chance that someone fast could have gotten past me. I wasn’t exactly on high alert.”

I nodded. “Then we need to make sure everyone is safe,” I said, fear twisting through me as I grabbed Seth and hoisted him onto my back before shooting towards the farmhouse to find the others.

I had no idea how a bunch of guards could have been massacred without anyone noticing a damn thing, but we needed to figure out what the fuck had happened here.