Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts)

I’d asked the students who were housed in the rooms closest to her dorm to keep an eye on her and report anything strange back to me. A few of them had told me she woke up in the night screaming pretty regularly. But when I’d tried to ask her about that, she’d taken it as some kind of attack and had just started placing a silencing bubble around her room every night so that no one would be able to hear her scream anymore. I knew because I often walked to her door in the middle of the night and pressed my hand to it, reaching out with my own magic until it brushed against hers and reassured me that she was okay. Or if not okay, then at least alive.

Because now I’d had a taste of Grus, I wasn’t going back. That girl was going to be mine.

We kept coming back to this point and maybe I should have just accepted it. Because I couldn’t keep trying with her and having it thrown back in my face. So if she wanted us to hate each other then I’d just have to play my part in it. Because I couldn’t keep away from her, that much was becoming abundantly clear. So I’d just have to keep being her villain.

For a moment I remembered laughing with her after racing on my bikes and wondered if there was any chance she’d ever look at me like that again.

Help!” I screamed until my throat was hoarse. “Help me!”

My Phoenix stirred and I forced her to get up, dragging her power into my veins as the shadows shifted enough to set her free.

I raised my hands toward the sky and cast fire at the heavens, a huge line of crimson and sapphire igniting the entire cliff in the urgent and magnificent light.

“I need help!”

I shook him in desperation, my tears washing over him as I pleaded with the stars, tried to bargain with anything and everything I was to bring him back to me. We were supposed to be forever. I’d sworn an oath to fight for him, no matter what it took to be with each other.

I lay a shaky kiss to his forehead, squeezing his hand and vowing not to give up. I’d never, ever give up on him. On us. We were meant to be together no matter what anyone said. And death wouldn’t get a say in it.

“I needed you so badly, you have no idea,” he said, his voice fading as he pressed me back and searched my face like he was committing it to memory. “Now Solaria needs you…as their Queen. Promise you’ll claim the throne. Share it with Darius, he’s not his father.” His hand fell from my face like he wasn’t able to hold it there anymore. “Promise,” he whispered and the look in his eyes made me give in.

“I promise. But you’ll be there too. Darius needs you. I need you.”

“You don’t need me, beautiful. I was always a shitty teacher,” he said, taking a rattling breath that chilled me to my core.

I shook my head, wiping my tears away as I clutched onto him, rejecting the possibility that I was really going to lose him.

“I love you,” I sobbed and I hated myself for saying it because it sounded like goodbye.

His mouth pulled up at the corner then he fell still, his eyes closing and shaking the foundations of my soul

“You made the last few months the happiest of my life, Darcy Vega. I’m sorry for being an asshole when we first met – biggest regret of my life.”