Zodiac Academy 6: Fated Throne

‘That’s it!’ Washer cried as he waded through the water in the Aqua lagoon to come and see what we were doing. ‘But if you really bend into the motion and thrust your hips you would get better drive on the cast.’

Darius arched a brow at me as Washer came to stand beside us, bending in half at the waist so that his head was almost submerged in the water before flicking upright and thrusting his hips forward. The bulge in his budgie smugglers was front and centre as he threw his hands out and cast the magic. A shudder of disgust ran down my spine which I absolutely let him feel with his Siren gifts. A surge of motion rippled beneath the waves before four perfectly casted horses leapt above the surface entirely crafted from water and galloped away from us.

He had something of a point; water magic was fluid and worked best in motion, so adding movements to your body could increase the power of the cast – but that was something weaker Fae needed. With the kind of power we were packing, we really didn’t need to do anything like that, and if he thought I was gonna bend over with my ass in the air then thrust my junk towards the sky as I lunged upright, he had another thing coming.

‘Come on, I’ll show you,’ Washer insisted, moving behind me with his hands held out like he actually believed I’d let him hold onto my hips while he showed me how to thrust in that tiny fucking speedo of his.

‘I think I’ve got it, thanks. That visual you gave me really helped,’ I said firmly and he bumped against the air shield I’d put up between us with a pout on his face.

‘Everyone needs a little help sometimes, Max,’ he insisted, pressing himself up against my air shield so that his chest was pressed hard against it like it was a pane of glass and his nipples were smooshed until they looked like a pair of pink fried eggs. ‘Even Heirs need a teeny weeny bit from time to time.’

‘I think I’m good,’ I insisted and he sighed dramatically before plodding away, looking like a dolphin who’d been slapped by a seal.

‘Are you sure you don’t want the extra tuition, Max?’ Darius joked. ‘I heard you can get some real power into your moves with a mega thrust like that.’

‘Yeah and I heard that Washer keeps a photo of you in his wallet and calls it his cheeky boy piccy,’ I tossed back.

‘Sure he does. I signed it. We all know that the Fire Heir has the most fans.’

‘Psh, I don’t think so, I got like fourteen pairs of panties sent to me this week,” I replied casually. I mean it was kinda gross but still true.

‘I’m not really interested in your choice of underwear, dude. But some crazy chick was arrested for breaking into my car and laying herself out naked on the back seat last Sunday,” Darius said.

“What car?” I asked with a snort of amusement.

“That Faerarri I never drive. One of Father’s servants takes it out once a week to make sure the engine doesn’t go to shit from lack of use and I guess she recognised it somehow when he parked it up in town. I don’t think she was banking on a middle aged Manticore with a moustache to find her – apparently she threw a fit and refused to get out of the car unless I came to get her.”

“That’s fucked up,” I sniggered. “Was it that crazy stalker one again?”

“Yeah, Cindy Lou something,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “The FIB said they’ll inject her with a tracker if she tries to come near me again but I’m not all that worried about some deluded psycho. Anyway, point is – I’ve got a stalker and you don’t. If that’s not proof that I’m more popular then I don’t know what is.”

I barked a laugh and threw a fistful of water at his face which he dispersed with a wave of his hand before diving through it and tackling me.

His big ass Dragon body slammed into me and I was knocked beneath the surface of the water where I instantly locked my arms and legs around him and used my control over the Element to shoot us back towards the shore like a torpedo.

As we made it to the sandy beach that ringed the lagoon, I propelled us out of the water and managed to flip us over so that I landed straddling him in the sand. Darius laughed as I threw a punch into his ribs with a snarl as my heart raced with adrenaline.

Darius took the hit with a grunt but the second time my fist came down, pain splintered through my hand as my knuckles met with a layer of ice that he’d used to coat his flesh.

I reared back with a curse of pain and he lunged upwards, flipping me beneath him and wrestling me down at the edge of the water where the waves crashed over us as we fought.

Darius shoved my head beneath the surface and I laughed as I cast a bubble of water around his head. I could have shifted or used air magic to help me breathe, but this was a water Elemental lesson after all so I just entered into the drown-off with the hopes that I could hold my breath for longer.

Darius held me down and the two of us glared at each other through the blurry water dividing us, daring the other to flinch first.

My lungs began to burn and bubbles slid from my lips as the seconds ticked past and neither of us let up on our positions for a single second.

Just as I was sure one of us was going to have to crack, a whip of water slapped down across my thighs so hard that the pain broke my concentration and my hold on the water surrounding Darius fell apart. He released me in the same moment and I lurched upright, sucking in a breath as I found Geraldine standing over us with a water whip held in her hand poised to crack again.

‘You pair of wet Wallys will get yourselves killed with this machismo lollygagging one of these days, mark my words,’ she announced, raising the whip threateningly.

‘I should put you on your ass for that,’ Darius growled as he stood, offering me a hand and as he pulled me up I noticed a pink whip mark crossing his back where she’d hit him too.

‘I’d like to see you try,’ she scoffed, lifting her chin. ‘Some of us actually pay attention in class, so I’m sure that I’ll be above you in the pecking order soon if I’m not already.’

‘You wanna put your money where your mouth is, Gerry?’ I teased, casting some water over myself to remove the sand from my skin.

‘Why are you always trying to tangle your tentacles around me, Maxy boy?’ she demanded.

‘I’d have thought that was pretty obvious by now,’ I said in a low voice.

‘Oh hell no,’ Darius growled drawing my attention to what he was glaring at on the far side of the lagoon.

Tory and Darcy were working on lifting whirling water up above the surface into mini cyclones, and Tory was lost in the movements of the work, trailing her fingertips so that the water swirled all around her legs while she moved in circles to draw it up around her. As she worked, Washer was closing in on her, whirling his hips around and around in circles like he was using a hula hoop and shouting, ‘Rotate! Rotate! Gyrate!’

Darius took an angry step towards them but Tory beat him to it, sinking her fingers into the water and pushing more magic into it before the cyclone took off, leaving her behind and crashing into Washer. It scooped him up and spun him around while he wailed something about the powerful thrust she’d created then he was launched away from her towards the centre of the lagoon.

She did a pretty good job of keeping her bitchy shadow girl mask in place, but as she turned and looked at Darcy, a smirk escaped her hold and the tension ran out of Darius’s limbs.

While I’d been distracted, Geraldine had taken the opportunity to stride away from me and I sighed as I watched her go, my gaze finding her ass in the tight swimsuit she was wearing as I sagged in defeat. 

‘Dammit, why is she always walking away from me?’ I grumbled but Darius had ditched me too, heading over to Tory with water magic swirling around his arms before he cast a field of liquid flowers to bloom all around her.

Tory’s lips twitched as she stole control of the water and created a miniature city instead, the Empire State Building rising up in the centre of it. Enough lust was pouring from the two of them to make my skin tingle and I decided to leave them to it.

I made the decision to hound after Geraldine, but before I could, my little sister stepped in front of me, arms folded and chin raised in a challenge, causing me to sigh as I felt the lecture coming even without using my gifts. She really was her mother’s daughter.

‘What do you want, Ellis?’ I asked her in a tired tone.

‘Mom said you had to help me master my water magic, Max,’ she said haughtily. ‘And you haven’t even helped me once. Am I going to have to call her and tell her all you do is hang out with the other Heirs and laze about all the time?’

‘Do what you want, Ellis. I don’t have to teach you shit, especially when you’re being a little snot bag. Go cry to Mom about being a single Elemental who needs extra tuition, because it’s not my job to help you make something of yourself.’

Sometimes I felt kinda bad about the relationship I had with my sister. Her mom had forced her into rivalry with me from the moment she was born, always showering her with more love and praise than me, comparing us and finding me wanting, making comments about the way Ellis was a more natural leader just to rile me up. But I knew the real reason for all of that didn’t have anything to do with my so-called mother’s low opinion of her son. It was all about the fact that she wasn’t my birth mother, and it ate her up that her own kid wasn’t going to be the one in power after my father retired from his spot on the Council.

There had been a time when that had worried me a lot, that I’d been genuinely concerned about Ellis being stronger than me even though we both would have inherited our power from our father as he was the strongest of our parents. But not anymore – especially since she only had water magic. The idea of her taking my place now was practically laughable.

‘Don’t walk away from me, Max,’ Ellis snarled as I turned to do exactly that.

I chuckled just to piss her off and kept walking. But as the water around my ankles was drawn away and I felt her anger crashing against my senses, I threw up an air shield at my back.

A tidal wave crashed over my shield as she screeched in anger and threw all of her power at me in an unrestrained, wild act of fury which made my blood boil.

Who the fuck did she think she was to be attacking me in public like that? 

‘Do you really wanna play this game with me, Ellis?’ I asked, turning back to face her with a taunting grin plastered in place as pretty much everyone in the lagoon turned to look our way. 

In reply, the cocky little brat swept her hands through the water and flung another huge wave at me like she seriously thought she could take me on.

I widened my smile, flicking my fingers and parting her wave as I walked right through the centre of it with my feet stepping on the surface of the water. 

Ellis shrieked at me as she threw more unshaped water at me with nothing but brute force and I laughed as I slapped it aside with a casual gesture then dunked a torrent of ice cold water over her head.

I would have left it at that, but she ran at me, screaming furiously and making the water all around me rise up like she intended to drown me with it.

With a twist of my wrist, I lassoed the back of her swimsuit in a rope made of water and lifted her up by it so that the material was pulled right up her ass, giving her a mega wedgie as I carried her over to the sandy beach.

Ellis kicked and flailed wildly, looking like an octopus on killblaze as she tried to fight her way free. But I just dropped her face first onto the beach, using my magic to force her head beneath the sand so that she was left there with her ass in the air for everyone to see like a turtle set to lay its eggs.

The sound of laughter tore out all around me and I caught sight of a couple of girls filming from just outside the changing rooms, where I guessed they’d run back to grab their Atlases when our fight started. Maybe that had been a dick move, but it had also been a necessary one. The only people in Solaria powerful enough to face me were the Vegas, the Heirs and their siblings.

The spares weren’t likely to pose much threat with their lack of training, but they had just as much magic in their veins as us and if they wanted to claim our spots then they only had to challenge us and win to take them. It didn’t happen often, but it had been done more than once in the history of the Council and I wasn’t going to allow so much as a whisper of a rumour to get out suggesting that Ellis might be able to match me one day. 

The bell rang to signal the end of class and I turned and strode out of the lagoon, leaving my little sister to scramble back out of the sand, coughing and spluttering as she wrenched her swimsuit out of her butt crack. My power swelled with the rush of amusement and cruelty that I drew in from the surrounding crowd and my smile widened as I headed back inside to get changed.

I pulled my uniform on to a chorus of sycophantic praise from the dudes who had just seen me put her in her place and wanted to make sure they made their loyalty clear. It was political bullshit but I still lapped it up.

When I opened my Atlas and found myself tagged in a post which included a video of me handing Ellis her ass, I couldn’t help but laugh aloud.

Tyler Corbin: It looks like the Water Heirs decided to have a throw down during class today and I just received this video from an anonymous classmate of theirs. It’s just a shame that @EllisRigel made such an ASS of herself looking like an ostrich with a plucked butt after @MaxRigel was done with her. Are we sure she’s a Siren, because she might have lost control of her Order form and I’m pretty sure I saw a camel toe.

#fullmoontonight #watershame #whoissheanyway #feelingbutthurt #mindthecrack #spareforareason #camelshifterindisguise

Lucy Burfoot: Do you want some cheese on that butt cracker? – maybe a slice of camelbert?? #shesgotthehump

Sophie Ruddock: They might have room for you at the court of Camelot, Ellis! #knightoftheroundtoeble

Annemarie Mclaren: Watch your mouth, Corbin! The only one who’s going to end up with a plucked butt is you just before the true king roasts you and eats you for dinner. #Pegatwat #lesserFae

Tyler Corbin: Could you tell the King thanks for the offer, but if he wants to spit roast me he should really eat my ass beforehand, not after. Besides, I don’t fancy getting split in half by his monster dick #longdongsilver #kingdong #Lionellongschlongenstein #dicktator

Erica Collins: @TylerCorbin no way! He’s so big headed, he’s definitely overcompensating for his tiny todger #lillionel #minimeat #hunglikeadragonfly #dinkypinky 

Telisha Mortensen: @EricaCollins his junk so small that when a Lionel dick pic got leaked everyone thought it was a photoshoot for a Lagulian Worm Shifter #hiswormmakesmesquirm #canhiswormevengetfirm

***

I woke up in the middle of the night in King’s Hollow to the feeling of Tory’s panic and fear slamming into me and I shoved myself upright with a curse as I stumbled towards the door.

She was sleeping in the room beside mine which had become a habit since we’d pulled her back from the shadows and her nightmares were the reason for that. At night it was harder for her to keep the memories of her torture at bay and they often crept up on her, disturbing her sleep and slowing her recovery.

I pushed her door open just as Caleb stepped out of his room down the hall in a pair of white sweats and yawned as I waved a hand at him, letting him know I was on it. But as I headed into her room, using my gifts to calm her down, he slipped in behind me.

‘Does this happen every night?’ Caleb breathed, his brow furrowing as Tory tossed and turned in the sheets, her skin lined with a sheen of sweat and little whimpers of fear escaping her.

‘Not when she sleeps with Lionel,’ I muttered, telling him what she’d told me. ‘He trained her mind so that she feels safe in his presence, but the longer she’s away from him the worse this gets.’

‘Does Darius know?’ Caleb asked as I reached out to take her hand and push more calming energy into her. Her fingers gripped tight around mine and my breath caught as her power slammed into me, forcing a full memory into my head even though I hadn’t been trying to look at one. 

‘Whose fault is this?’ Vard asked as I found myself peering out of Tory’s eyes in that same cold, stone room with the beige walls and single lightbulb hanging overhead. 

I blinked up at him through the pain in my body as I tasted my own blood on my lips. I couldn’t look down at my flesh to see what they’d done to me, the sight was enough to turn my stomach and if I threw up then the punishment would only be worse. But the pain consuming my flesh told me well enough how bad it was.

My lips parted on a word that stuck in my throat and Lionel tutted irritably.

‘You’re strong of spirit, I’ll give you that, Roxanya,’ he commented, moving to stand before me as Vard stepped aside with a bow of deference. ‘But that’s only making this take longer. Tell me who you love.’

‘You,’ I gasped out as he reached forward to caress the side of my face, smiling like he was proud of me as healing magic slid into my skin and a whimper of relief crept past my lips. 

‘Good girl. You know how much I hate seeing you like this, Roxanya. I only wish to look after you, but I can’t help you until you give Vard what he needs. Don’t you want to please me?’

I nodded mutely and his soft touch on my cheek grew firm as he moved to grasp my chin tightly in his big hand and turned my face so that I was forced to look straight into Vard’s single Cyclops eye with no warning.

‘Darius Acrux,’ he spoke inside my mind and I fell into a memory of kissing him before I could even try to fight it. 

The second my mind latched onto the memory, pain burrowed into my body so deep and fast that a scream tore from my lips, ripping my throat raw.

I blacked out, falling into the soft embrace of oblivion willingly as I begged it to take me away, but I woke again with a gasp as ice cold water crashed down over me.

‘Whose fault is this?’ Vard asked as I recoiled in fear, the chains binding me to the chair not letting me escape.

‘Darius,’ I breathed and he nodded, stepping back as Lionel moved forward.

‘It’s alright, Roxanya,’ Lionel purred, placing his hands against the bloody wounds on my stomach and healing me as I choked against the pain. ‘I’m here now. I’ll take care of you.’ 

The chains holding me down came loose and I sagged forward into his arms as he picked me up easily and held me against his chest.

‘Who do you love?’ he murmured as my tears slowed and I curled against him.

‘You, my King,’ I whispered, leaning into him while my limbs still trembled with the memory of pain. ‘Only you.’

I grunted a curse as I took control of her memories with my gifts, gently reminding her of the truth and separating my psyche from hers as I soothed away her fear and pain until her breathing settled.

As I drew back into myself, I realised Caleb’s hand was on my shoulder and I turned to look at him with a frown, finding his face pale as he slowly stepped back.

‘Did you see that?’ I asked, a little pissed that he’d done that without asking.

‘Yeah,’ he muttered, his gaze straying to the girl sleeping in the bed as her brow furrowed again. ‘I’m sorry. But you were broadcasting bits of it without me touching you. I was getting flashes of screams and pain and I just…sorry.’

‘It’s alright,’ I said, releasing a heavy sigh. ‘But you might want to apologise to her in the morning – it wasn’t my memories you snooped on.’

Caleb nodded, his throat bobbing as he looked down at her again and I swiped a hand over my face.

‘You’re taking that fear and shit away from her like this a lot?’ he guessed, eyeing me as I cringed a little.

‘Yeah…well if I don’t she just gets worse and I-‘

‘That’s gotta be fucking with your emotions though,’ he said, knowing too well how my Order gifts worked and the way I was affected by the kinds of emotions I fed my power with.

‘A bit,’ I admitted. ‘It’s not too bad doing this once or twice a night, but she won’t really settle unless I sleep in here with her and then I end up automatically feeding on it all night. It makes for a kinda sucky night’s sleep.’ I shrugged as I moved to get into the bed with her and Caleb caught my arm.

‘You want me to stay too? I’m not exactly laughing my ass off, but I’ve probably got some lighter emotions than that going on in my head to balance you out.’

My shoulders dropped as some of the tension spilled from me and I gave him a smile as I nodded. ‘Yeah, you’re nowhere near as deep as Tory. So if you’ve got the magic to spare-‘

‘I had a snack earlier,’ he said with a smirk, pushing a hand into his blonde curls and I caught a taste of laughter, joy and lust on him as he thought about that which made me grin.

‘Come on then,’ I urged as I pulled the blankets back and moved to get into the bed with Tory, lifting her a little and moving her across the sheets to make room for us. She was more than used to me doing this in the night now, so she didn’t wake, but the tension in her body relaxed as I laid my head on the pillow beside her and drew her back against my chest. 

Caleb climbed in behind me and slung an arm over me too as a tendril of amusement slipped from him.

‘You’re my little spoon, Maxy pad,’ he laughed and the taste of his joy to counter Tory’s fear was enough to make me let that name slide as I used my gifts to make us all sleepy and we drifted off.

***

An incessant buzzing against my thigh woke me and I groaned groggily as I frowned at the dream I was currently taking part in. Caleb and Tory’s sub-consciousnesses had clearly connected to mine to create a weird ass jumble of thoughts. I snorted a laugh at the sight of Mildred Canopus getting her ass kicked by Tory while a shirtless Seth whooped and cheered in between doing a strip tease to Milkshake by Kelis. Caleb and I danced on the back of a golden Dragon while Gerry’s voice intermittently called out types of fish in a seductive voice.

I groaned as I managed to pull my Atlas from my pocket, frowning at the messages I’d received and the notification that I’d been tagged in multiple news stories.

Tory mumbled something sleepily and I wriggled out of the bed so as not to disturb her, managing to catch Caleb’s knee in the gut before I made it out.

I paused and pushed more sleepiness over the two of them as they rolled towards each other before slipping back out into the living area and opening up the messages I found there.

I had eight missed calls from my dad and a bunch of texts from him telling me to phone him and I quickly tapped on the newspaper links to see what the hell was going on.

A headline stared up at me, slapping me in the face as I took it in.

Water Heir Max Rigel not really an Heir at all.

What the fuck? I clicked the next link and my gut plummeted as I realised exactly what this was.

Max Rigel – bastard! The truth about the Water Heir’s hidden parentage and everything you need to know about his secret Minotaur grandfather.

Shit. This wasn’t good. Especially right now while Lionel had half the country believing that the Minotaurs were in on some secret plot with the Sphinxes to steal and hide knowledge from the rest of the Fae population. 

My Atlas rang again and I answered my dad as I sank down onto the couch with my heart racing.

‘Max? I take it you’ve seen?’ he demanded. 

‘Yeah, Dad,’ I said in a hopeless kind of tone. ‘Who the fuck leaked it?’

There was a long pause before he replied. ‘You…already knew?’

‘Yeah. I found out years ago so I’m not freaking out over that. And believe me, I’m not upset that that bitch you married isn’t my mother, but…this is really fucked up timing, isn’t it? I mean, it would have been a scandal before but with Lionel going after the Minotaurs-‘

‘I’ve already got all of my people on this,’ he growled. ‘Don’t you worry. Besides, you still have my blood in your veins which is what really counts. Everyone screws around before they get married, so the idea of a bastard being a scandal is absurd in this day and age. You’re still my Heir as far as I’m concerned and you’re more than powerful enough to fight off anyone who tried to challenge you for your place which is all that really counts anyway. Fae fight for their position and no one is strong enough to unseat you. Don’t worry son, we’ll weather this storm.’

I smiled weakly, endlessly grateful to my father for standing by my side like this. ‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘Nothing to thank me for. Now we just need to focus on damage control. We’ll play down the Minotaur thing as much as we can. What about the other Heirs, how will they take it?’

‘They already know, Dad,’ I admitted. ‘They don’t give a shit. We’re loyal to each other.’ I’d gotten over the fear of losing my place amongst my brothers the moment they’d found out the truth about me being a bastard. They didn’t care about my bloodline – they cared about me. We were family, unbreakable, united always. And knowing that took away some of the fear I held getting through this shit.

‘Well that will make this a lot easier then,’ Dad said firmly. ‘Assuming they’re willing to say that publicly?’

I opened my mouth to say they would but then I paused. ‘I’m pretty sure they will, but I guess it depends on what their parents’ take on it is… I wanna think that Cal and Seth won’t be any issue, but I guess if Lionel tells Darius he doesn’t want him speaking out in favour of someone with Minotaur blood-‘

‘I’ll be making house calls to Melinda and Antonia today. If we’re united then hopefully our king will see sense and back you up too.’ I couldn’t help but doubt that and I didn’t miss the way Dad spat the word king. 

‘Do you know who leaked it?’ I asked, knowing there was no point pursuing that topic right now.

There was a pause then Dad sighed. ‘Not for certain, but… Your mother was-‘

‘Not my mother,’ I growled, glad at least that I wouldn’t have to pretend about that shit anymore even if everything else was fucked.

‘No, I suppose not. Well, she was most upset about those videos that were circulating yesterday of you and Ellis,’ he said heavily. ‘Of course I told her that was just usual Fae on Fae posturing and that Ellis needed to figure out how to handle it without coming crying to us but Linda wasn’t satisfied with that. She wanted me to force you to make a formal apology and said that I should make you give Ellis private tuition daily to improve her magic at an accelerated rate. When I told her you needed to concentrate on your own studies and pointed out that Ellis wasn’t the Heir anyway, not to mention the fact that she was only gifted one Element so she really isn’t ever going to be-‘

‘The bitch decided to go public,’ I summarised. ‘You think she’s going to try and push Ellis to challenge me for my place one day?’

Dad grunted an agreeing noise. ‘Well she does have very high ambitions for her and of course I love Ellis dearly, but the girl just isn’t cut from the same cloth as you, son. You’re my oldest and my strongest. There’s no doubt in my mind over who the Heir is. We just need to make sure the rest of the kingdom stays in agreement with us over that.’

‘Okay,’ I agreed, trying not to feel too hopeless. ‘I’ll see if I can get the Heirs to release statements in support of me and let you get on with damage control.’

I made a move to cut the call, but Dad called out to stop me. 

‘I love you, Max,’ he growled. ‘We’ll fix this.’

The line went dead and I smiled a little even as panic consumed me at the knowledge that this secret was out. One thing was for certain though – I wouldn’t be helping Ellis learn shit. If she seriously thought her single Elemental ass could take me on then she could come at me like Fae. 

For now, I was going to have to work on damage control and just hope that this didn’t all go to hell.