Preorder Edition Bonus Chapters from Zodiac Academy #3
I was guessing having her pinned beneath me, moaning my name while I lost myself to the tightness of her body and the heat of her bare skin against mine wasn’t okay.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to land me hundreds of feet underground in Darkmore Penitentiary at all if anyone ever found out about it, was it?
And as she currently held no loyalty to me and was off turning those enchanting green eyes on someone else already, I couldn’t say for sure whether she was going to keep our secret either. Fuck.
I took another turn at speed, descending downhill as the sunlight died all around us and the stars came out to play, glittering up there in their bed of darkness.
I had to get a grip. Darcy wasn’t spiteful.
She wasn’t going to give me up to the authorities unless she had a damn good reason to, and what we’d had had been real, hadn’t it?
It sure as hell had been for me, but the way she seemed to be moving swiftly on already made me wonder if I was a complete idiot to have believed she had actual feelings for me.
I made it to the Fairy Fair, turning into the field where rows of cars were parked up in front of the carnival, picking a place at the far end next to a flashy white car which belonged to Seth Capella.
I got out and Francesca joined me as we walked towards the entrance beneath a glittering arch.
Beyond it, a Faerris wheel rose up from the dark along with several rollercoasters, standing high above the avenues of stalls, games, and vendors.
Francesca offered the tickets to an attendant, and we were let into the fair where neon lights blazed at me from every direction.
My eyes instinctively hunted the crowd for blue hair before I forced myself to stop and led Francesca toward the first row of stalls.
We wandered along, pausing at a van shaped like a giant beer bottle to grab some drinks, but despite my hunt for Bourbon earlier, the want had subsided. I ordered myself a coffee and got Francesca a beer, then we wandered deeper into the fair, catching up on general shit going on in our lives.
“Oh hey, there’s Anika.” Francesca pointed to her friend. “I’ll be back in a sec.” She jogged over to greet her friend, and I drained the last of my coffee, the crowd moving around me, people smiling and chatting, having the time of their star-damned lives. Couldn’t relate.
“Cooweee!” Washer’s voice set my nerves on edge, and I didn’t turn my head in the direction it had come from, praying it wasn’t my attention he was after. But apparently, I wasn’t so fortunate. Go fucking figure. “Lancey boy! Look behind you!”
I turned reluctantly, finding him waist deep in purple Jello in a wide rubber ring on the ground. There was a sign beside it naming this game ‘Fight a Fellow in the Jello’.
“Hello, Brian.” I nodded to him curtly, hoping that would be enough to avoid more of his attention, but of course it wasn’t.
“Come have a little rompy-pompy in the Jello with me. Elaine is just stripping down in the changing tent to prepare for getting wet and wild, but you could go next. What do you say?”
“Nah, I’m good,” I said with a false smile. “I’d rather pluck my eyes out with a fork.”
“What was that?” he called, cupping a hand around his ear. “So loud in this place, isn’t it? Now, come on, strip off and I’ll wrestle you into submission, big boy.”
He started sloshing up and down in the Jello so it made a gross noise, the purple sludge slapping him wetly against his tanned chest and dripping down it.
He rolled onto his hands and knees, his speedo-bound ass jerking up in the air as he started arching his spine, tossing his head back so Jello flew from his hair and showered over him.
“By the stars,” I cursed, backing up a step.
Elaine Nova stepped out of the changing tent in a black bikini, leaping straight into the Jello and slamming down on top of Washer, knocking him flat on his front.
“Ha!” she cried, and Washer flipped backwards to knock her off of him with a whoop of excitement, rolling over onto his back and half sitting up in the Jello.
Elaine threw a leg over his waist, straddling him, and the two of them started see-sawing in the sludge, shoving and slapping each other before they started kissing with way too much tongue.
Francesca caught my hand, and I turned to look at her in horror over what I’d just witnessed.
“Run,” she whispered, tugging me away, and I broke out into a sprint, letting her guide me along through the crowd in desperation to escape the sight I could never unsee.
We turned down another row of stands, coming to a halt beside one of the game stalls, and the two of us broke a laugh, sharing a look of relief.
“Thanks,” I said, tossing my coffee cup away into a nearby trash can.
“Any time,” she said through a grin, throwing her beer bottle away too. “Seriously, any time. No one deserves to be subjected to Washer as often as you are.”
“It’s like his fate is entwined with mine,” I said with a grimace.
She patted my arm with mock pity. “Yup. Maybe you’re Elysian Mates.”
I barked a laugh. “By the stars, if there was ever a reason to turn down a perfect match, that would be it. I’d wear my black rings with pride and never love again.”
She grinned at me. “Guess what? Anika’s new boyfriend has this cabin up in Lucena by the coast, she was saying we could all head up there in the spring and-”
She went on but the sound of a girl cooing excitedly made my eyes snap away from her through the crowd, right to where Darcy was standing beside Diego in front of a game where a large Pegasus toy was up for grabs.
“I’ll win you it,” Diego said, puffing out his chest like a peacocking asshole and placing his drink down on the counter. A long-barrelled red gun sat at the centre of it, and a single magical target was suspended in the air at the back of the stand.
The guy behind the counter sidled closer. “Are you going to have a go, missy?” he asked Darcy.
“Sure,” she said brightly, stepping forward to pick up the gun.
“I’ll do it,” Diego insisted, passing over the money before Darcy could get there, and my jaw ticked. She said she wanted a go, you little cock.
Darcy sighed, folding her arms in disappointment as Diego picked up the gun, and my teeth ground together in my mouth.
“I just have to hit that target?” he asked the man.
“You have to hit it three times. You get thirty seconds and unlimited shots,” the vendor confirmed with a look that said it wouldn’t be so simple, and I hoped Diego was about to make an ass of himself. “Ready?”
Diego nodded and the man grinned, stepping aside to let him shoot, and he lifted the gun to fire at the wide target.
An explosion of red light burst from it with a powerful kickback that made him stumble away from the counter, and I smirked at his failure.
The target sped sideways, and the blast exploded into a shower of sparks as the shot missed.
Diego cursed, raising the gun and firing again, but this time, the target shrank to the size of a pea and Diego missed once more.
Well, if this was his attempt to impress Darcy, then maybe I didn’t have so much to worry about after all.
“That’s impossible,” Darcy said with a laugh, but Diego looked furious as he lined up the gun again. He took shot after shot, the target darting left, right, up, down, moving all over the place and not letting him hit it a single time.
I was moving before I’d realised I’d walked straight away from Francesca, fuelled by the primal need to show him up.
Diego slammed the gun down in frustration, and I stepped in beside him.
“Move over,” I commanded, pushing Diego aside as Francesca joined me.
I refused to look at Darcy at all, knowing she was going to throw off my concentration, and I really, really wanted to make a point here.
Francesca tilted her head, resting her hand on my arm. “For me?” she asked.
I curled an arm around her waist and tugged her against my hip, wanting Darcy to see, wanting her to hurt the way I hurt when I looked at her with another guy. “Do you want the blue Pegasus or the silver?”
In my periphery, Diego caught Darcy’s sleeve to draw her away, but she dug her heels in and satisfaction poured through me. Good girl, now watch what a real Fae can do.
Francesca caressed my arm. “Blue,” she decided, which was just perfect.
“My favourite colour.” I kissed the tip of her nose, knowing it was overkill and half expecting Francesca to knock me away for going all PDA on her, but for some reason, she didn’t.
I moved to face the target, pressing the end of the gun to my shoulder, aiming down the sight.
The man behind the counter restarted the game and the target flew sideways, my gaze speeding after it and locking tight.
I pulled the trigger and it exploded into a shower of multi-coloured sparks as I hit it dead on. Easy .
The target reappeared in a tiny form, whizzing about like a bee, and I shifted the gun with a flash of my Order speed.
I pulled the trigger and a display of sparks followed as I hit it, following up with the final shot so quickly that I managed to shoot the target even before it had settled into its next form. It was child’s play.
The guy unhooked one of the huge blue Pegasus toys from where it hung on a rack, handing it over to me, and I passed it straight to Francesca.
I slung my arm over her shoulders and led her away, not looking back but not focusing on where I was going either as my hearing remained trained on the girl behind me.
“Let’s go on all the rides until we puke,” Darcy said in a bright tone, and bitterness threaded through me. Was she not at all affected by any of that? Was she not going to make a single comment about it?
“Er…okay,” Diego said, and I glanced back, catching sight of her grabbing Diego’s hand, and leading him away into the crowd. My heart was butchered, sliced up and laid out for the crows to pick at.