Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning
The Reckoning: Chapter 34

I MADE IT TO the common room before I stopped walking. My Atlas was burning a hole in my pocket, but at this point if I looked at that picture she’d sent me one more time I was actually going to self combust.

I moved towards the biggest fireplace in the room and leaned my back against the wall beside it, tugging at the neck of my t-shirt which was suddenly feeling tighter than it had earlier.

I kept my gaze fixed on the foot of the stairs which led up to the dorms. Waiting. Not that I’d admit it to anyone but myself. But I had no other reason to be standing here. I was already late to meet Lance. I was definitely waiting.

Someone came down the stairs and my muscles tightened in anticipation for a moment but I sagged back against the wall as I recognised Marguerite.

I should leave.

My fingers flexed with the desire to pull my Atlas out again. I could settle on some kind of reply to send her at least. One which didn’t involve me showing up at her door like I expected…what exactly? For her to have suddenly forgotten she hates me? Or maybe to ask her who the moon was pushing her towards tonight. Because I’d known before the sun rose this morning exactly where it would be pushing me. I just couldn’t tell if she’d fall under its spell for me too.

I crossed my arms as the urge to take my Atlas from my pocket seized me again.

“You’re looking so lonely over here, Dari,” Marguerite purred as she walked straight towards me.

I hated her calling me that. And her hair needed dying again. Nothing about what she was presenting me with was working for her.

I skimmed my eyes her way once then looked back towards the stairs.

“I’m all ready to party with you, Captain,” she tried, reaching out to run a finger down the centre of my stomach until she reached my waistband.

I caught her hand in my grip and pushed it away. “What part of done don’t you grasp?” I asked, still not looking at her.

“Remember the last Eclipse?” she breathed, leaning closer to me despite the aura of fuck off I was definitely exuding.

“Not particularly,” I replied.

“C’mon, that was the first time we kissed,” she pushed. “It was so hot.”

“Fuck knows how many girls I kissed that night,” I replied dismissively. “Don’t count yourself too lucky.” It was probably a dick thing to say but it was true. An Eclipse always brought people’s desires to the forefront of their minds and I tended to have more than a few girls circling around me at all times. They always took a shot at me once the moon rose. And I’d said yes to more than a few of them in the past. Not tonight though. I only had my eyes set on one girl tonight and the joke of it all was that I knew she wouldn’t be looking back. Or at least I had known that until she’d sent me that photo.

“I’ll let you do anything you want to me,” Marguerite offered, dipping her voice in a way I guessed she thought was seductive but came off desperate which was not attractive in any way.

She leaned forward like she was going to kiss me and I raised a hand, placing it over her face and pressing down so that she fell back into an armchair beside the fire.

“Stop embarrassing yourself,” I muttered as I pushed off of the wall.

Roxy Vega had just walked into the room.

She looked…I didn’t even know what to make of her dressed up like a freaking prom queen but I liked it. I wanted to pull the flowers out of her hair and get her white dress filthy in the mud.

Her gaze found mine and she bit her bottom lip in a way that made me hard just looking at her.

She was holding her sister’s hand, Gwendalina tugging her along like a puppy on a leash. The two of them cut through the room quickly, clearly not planning on stopping for any reason.

I watched as they passed, caught between approaching her and not. The moon wasn’t fully up yet so I still had some control. Not a whole hell of a lot, but some. Not that I ever seemed to have much around her in the first place.

I clenched my fist tightly and waited for them to leave.

I needed to see Lance. I couldn’t get distracted by a girl. Even the girl.

They made it to the door and Roxy looked back over her shoulder at me. I almost went to her and asked why she’d sent me that photo. I almost called her name. I almost-

Her sister tugged her hand and they were gone.

I released the breath I’d been holding and swiped a palm over my face.

If I got near that girl when the moon was up then there would be no stopping me. I’d be begging on my knees for a moment of her time and she’d probably be laughing in my fucking face.

I should have asked her why she sent it.

Fuck.

I half considered following her but I was late. Lance was always late but still…he’d probably be at his own house on time.

I turned sharply and headed out of Ignis House, half considering shifting just to get there quicker. But it was pretty hard to disguise a big ass golden Dragon descending upon Asteroid Place. Much easier to sneak in there in my Fae form.

I headed off down the path as quickly as I could without running and soon gave in to the temptation to look at my Atlas again.

I flicked open my messages and looked over the photo she’d sent me. If she hadn’t followed it up with the message about her shoes not matching I doubted I’d have ever even seen the filthy black walking boots she’d put on.

Her head was tilted to the side, half a smile lifting her full lips like she knew she was toying with me.

It was hardly the first photo a girl had ever sent me of her in her underwear, but there was something about it that I couldn’t work out.

It should have been pretty simple. Girl sends half naked photos – not so subtle hint she wanted in my pants. But Roxy wasn’t an open book. She hadn’t offered me that photo; I’d dared her to show me what she was wearing. And she wouldn’t blink. Because she never fucking did. The filthy shoes were her way of flipping me off and saying this isn’t sexy. Even though she’d failed pretty abysmally if that had been her intention. I’d never stared at a photo that hard in my fucking life before. What was that smile about? Why did she send this? What would she taste like? Fuck. If she wanted me hooked she had me. I just didn’t know if she wanted me.

I made it to the gates before Asteroid Place where the faculty lived and punched in the key code Lance had sent me. I ducked inside, taking an indirect route through the chalets ringing the complex so that I could avoid passing the swimming pool where I could hear a clamour of voices and splashing. I guessed that meant the faculty had already started their Eclipse celebrations.

I made it to the back of Lance’s house and pushed open the patio door as I let myself in. I felt the moment I stepped through his silencing bubble, his magic sliding over my skin like a caress.

“Lance?” I called, looking around the open space but there was no sign of him.

I strained my ears and heard the shower running so I headed to claim one of his beers while I waited. I checked the clock. I was twenty minutes late which meant he was even later than that. Asshole.

I should have gone after Roxy.

I strummed my fingers against my leg and drained my beer, Atlas firmly in pocket. The sun was setting fast and I could feel the moon tugging at me to move. It wanted me to replace her.

I closed my eyes, staying still through pure force of will.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I headed for another beer.

Lance was taking his sweet time in the shower.

The sound of splashing and high pitched laughter caught my ear outside and I crossed the room, twitching the curtain aside at the front of the house so that I could look out at the swimming pool.

I frowned as I instantly saw way too much pasty skin and a whole host of teacher tits. It looked like the faculty were gearing up for a fucking orgy. Half of them were naked already or wearing thongs and speedos which should have been illegal. There was a reason most of them stayed covered up in tweed blazers and I sure as hell wished I’d remained in my little bubble of headspace where none of them ever took them off.

“Who wants to make my helicopter take off?” Professor Washer called loudly as he balanced at the end of the diving board thrusting his hips so that his dick swung round and round in circles.

I dropped the curtain with a grimace, wishing I could burn the images from my mind.

“Enjoying the view?” Lance asked, laughing as he stepped into the room in a pair of jeans, his bare chest still damp from the shower.

“I’m scarred for life here,” I groaned in disgust.

“Well I got a fucking invitation to that little slice of hell so how do you think I feel?” Lance joked as he moved forward to embrace me.

We hadn’t had much time alone together this week and it always made the bond a little stronger when we were reunited. The sign for Libra on my skin had been itching all day, begging me to replace him.

I wrapped my arms around him tightly, releasing a breath as I leaned my head on his shoulder and just stood there holding him for a few moments. We were beyond the point where we questioned the way this fucking thing made us feel about each other after all these years and I was just glad it had never progressed any further than occasional spooning.

I tried to pull back but Lance didn’t release me, his fangs grazing against my neck as a soft growl escaped him.

“For fuck’s sake, Lance,” I muttered, straining against him. “If you bite me on the Eclipse you’ll probably start trying to suck my dick right after it.” This bond between us did all sorts of crazy shit and the way we were drawn together when he bit me was so intense on a normal day that we’d sworn off doing it for fear of how it might escalate. He only drank my blood if we had no other option now and him falling prey to the bloodlust because of the moon didn’t count as a good enough reason for me.

He sighed dramatically, loosening his hold as he fought against his Order instincts.

“You’re probably right,” he agreed. “And I’d be so fucking good at it that you’d fall in love with me before the morning.”

I laughed as he finally managed to pull his fangs away from my flesh.

Lance’s beard tickled my neck and I drew back, shoving him off of me playfully like I hadn’t just been nuzzled right into his goddamn skin. He smelled of cinnamon. And dammit but I loved that smell.

“They’re safely away?” he asked seriously, moving to pour himself a bourbon as I sank back onto the couch and finished my beer.

“Xavier just texted me,” I confirmed. “Him and Mother were about to use stardust to travel to the mortal world. They won’t be back until tomorrow when the moon is gone and he can be sure he’s safe from Father again.”

“Good,” Lance said, a grin tugging at his lips as he tossed me a new beer. “It feels pretty fucking great to beat that asshole at his own game. And it’s too late for him to replace a replacement before the moon comes up.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Looks like he’s in for a night of disappointment and solitude.”

“To beating him at his own game,” Lance said, holding his drink out to me so that I could tap my bottle to it.

“To beating him altogether,” I growled.

“Soon,” Lance agreed darkly and I nodded.

I drank deeply and leaned back against the soft cushions, feeling like I was king of the goddamn world for once. Outsmarting my father felt so good I just wanted to bask in the feeling of it forever.

“So where’s the secret Eclipse party being held tonight?” Lance asked.

I smirked at him, offering an innocent shrug. “What party?”

“You expect me to believe a bunch of teenagers are going to ignore the opportunity to celebrate the end of Hell Week and stay in on the one night they get a free pass to screw whoever the hell they like? Pfft.”

I smirked at the idea of screwing whoever the hell I liked and Lance leaned closer to me as he noticed.

“Are you going to tell me who you’ve got your eye on then?” he asked.

“It’s a terrible idea on so many levels,” I said, not sure if I should tell him or not. He knew how important it was that we take down the Vegas so that when I took my Father’s place on the Celestial Council it would still be strong enough to face the Nymph issue without faltering. We couldn’t risk the unbalance their return could bring. But the Vegas as the Vegas were a problem simple enough to discuss solutions to. The girls themselves were a whole different situation.

“Tell me. I’m a poor old man destined to lock myself up in this place or get molested by Washer in the pool party from hell. I need to know that people still have fun somewhere in this world,” he begged.

I smirked at him then pulled my Atlas from my pocket, eyeing the picture Roxy had sent me for the thousandth time.

“If a girl sends you a photo of her in her underwear, she wants to screw you, right?” I asked, frowning at myself for even asking this question but it just didn’t seem that simple somehow.

“Generally I’d say that’s a pretty clear indicator,” he joked.

“Even when that girl hates you about as much as is humanly possible?”

Lance hesitated, his gaze dropping to the Atlas in my hand even though I held it so he couldn’t see the photo. I wasn’t sure why but I didn’t really want to start showing it around to anyone else. She’d sent it to me. It was mine.

“Would this girl happen to be seeing one of your friends?” he asked slowly.

I clicked my tongue dismissively. “Caleb has a different girl every other week. She’s not his girlfriend and he’s shared a girl with Seth before so…”

“So you don’t think he’d care?”

Caleb had already sent me several messages warning me not to go near Roxy tonight and I’d happily baited him by responding with a message that simply said it wasn’t up to me, it was up to the moon. He’d threatened to sneak out of his parents’ manor and come back to school but I knew that was a load of shit. There was no way he’d be coming back which meant he wouldn’t get in my way, but that still didn’t mean she’d want me instead.

“Oh he’d care. He just couldn’t say much about it. Besides, like I said, she’s made it clear she’s not his. It’s her choice to make.” And I want her to be mine.

“And you think she might choose you?” Lance asked slowly, raising a brow.

“You’re sounding sceptical as fuck right now, Lance,” I snapped. “I’m not trying to pretend she doesn’t hate me. I’m just wondering if hate is the only thing she feels about me.”

“Well…there’s only one way to replace out, isn’t there?” He smiled knowingly and drained his drink.

“And if she tells me to fuck off?” I demanded.

“Then you get to taste the bitter sting of rejection for the first time in your life,” he teased. “It’ll be good for you.”

I groaned, placing my bottle down on the table as I stood.

I rolled my shoulders as the Dragon stirred beneath my flesh. It was dark out now, the moon was all the way up and I needed to expel some of the energy the moon was pushing into me before it drove me insane.

“Where’s Lance?” Principal Nova’s voice came from outside. “He should be here for this, I need him…”

“I’ll replace him, my popkin,” Professor Washer replied instantly. “He’s probably just a little shy. We’ll have to be gentle with him!”

“Oh hell, you have to rescue me,” Lance begged, looking towards the front of the house where he was no doubt using his Vampire hearing to listen as Washer approached the front door.

I snorted a laugh. “You have to promise not to go all dickhead teacher on us and break up the party,” I warned.

“I swear on my life, just get me out of here,” he said and I smirked as I led the way to the back of the house.

Lance shot away from me, returning before I’d even made it to the rear door with a t-shirt and sneakers on and I headed outside just as Washer rang the doorbell.

Lance locked the back door and we slipped away through the chalets until the sounds of the pool party were left behind and we made it out of Asteroid Place.

I led the way into Air Territory, intermittently complaining about Roxy Vega while trying to psyche myself up to track her down.

Every step I took was getting me closer to her, I could feel it. But I couldn’t move too soon either. I knew my chances with her were slim at best so I had to play it just right if I wanted her to give me the time of day.

We headed to the top of the cliffs above the cove and I took a seat in the long grass beside my friend as we looked down over the bonfires burning all along the beach.

It didn’t take me long to spot Roxy. Her white dress stood out on the sand and her laughter carried to me on the wind like that particular sound had been picked out just for me.

I leaned forward, shifting back and forth as I looked down at her, wondering if there was any point to this. Was I even going to go down there? I could feel every nerve in my body crying out to follow the call of the moon and go to her but what if she just turned me away? All the time I lingered between doing it and not doing it, there was still a chance and I knew I was hesitating in the what if.

“Just go,” Lance snapped eventually. “Tell her how you feel. Lay it the fuck out and replace out if she feels it too. You won’t get rid of that need by sitting beside me dry humping the grass.”

I laughed at that and turned to look at him. “You think she’ll even listen?” I asked.

“I think you have to replace out. We’ve been together for an hour now and you’ve spent fifty nine of those minutes talking about her. I can’t bear it anymore. Leave this old man to sit on the cliff and go get your girl.”

I got to my feet, shrugging like I didn’t much care either way but the way he’d just called her my girl made the Dragon purr beneath my skin.

“Fine, but if it blows up in my face then it’ll be your fault if we end up spooning tonight,” I warned him.

“Suck it up buttercup, she’s just a girl.” Lance grinned at me and I turned my back on him.

She wasn’t just a girl though. Not to me. She was the one girl I shouldn’t want, the one I couldn’t have, the one I didn’t need. And yet I did. And everything in my life could be damaged so badly by that need that I’d fought it tooth and claw up until this point.

But apparently I was about to let the moon call me out on my bullshit. Because deep down I knew that every time I pushed her, every time I hurt her, each time she snapped at me and got back up, she’d been chipping away at my resolve a little more, breaking down my walls a little more. And even though I knew that all the things I’d done to her had only pushed her away from me, they’d each drawn me in a little closer every time.

I’d pushed her for her hatred because a moment of her scorn meant more to me than what it cost. I took her attention whatever way I could get it because all the time it was on me it lit me up and made me burn. And I wanted to burn with her more than I think I’d ever wanted anything in my life.

I headed down the trail to the beach with one thing on my mind and the determination to get it if there was even the slightest chance I could.

Roxy Vega, I’m gonna make you mine.