AS I SNUCK back into Ignis House with the light of dawn following me inside, I headed straight upstairs to the top floor. I slid my headphones down to hang around my neck as I listened for the sounds of anyone waking. There were a few scuffling footsteps, the odd hum of a shower running and the faint sound of an alarm clock leaking through the doors which surrounded me but it didn’t seem like anyone was actually out of their rooms yet.
I tiptoed towards Milton Hubert’s door and pulled the thin envelope from my pocket which contained a rather recognisable gold ring set with a row of black onyx through its centre and a love note from a secret admirer. The note had urged him to wear it today for luck in the match with the added promise of a hook up with the very promiscuous mystery woman who’d written the letter later on as a reward. I’d even taken a tip from Darius’s fan mail and sealed it with a lipstick kiss.
The real genius of the note was in the spell Sofia had found to cast on it though; once unfolded, the letter would be readable for two whole minutes before it would burst into flames and destroy all evidence of its existence. She may not have held a lot of power but the tricky little spells that she was able to master already astounded me.
I smiled to myself as I pushed it under his door before jogging back down to my own room on silent feet.
When I made it inside, I quickly peeled off my running gear and jumped into the shower. My heart was pounding with adrenaline at the thought of today. It was beyond time that we saw Max suffer publicly and with a bit of luck, Darius would fall into my trap too.
By the time I emerged, dried and styled my hair, applied my makeup and got dressed in a crop top and ripped jeans, I could hear a lot of people up and about.
I pulled on thick socks but didn’t bother with shoes as I headed out of my room and down to the common room. The moment I stepped into the wide, comfortable space Darius appeared in front of me.
“You’re up early, Roxy,” he commented, his gaze trailing over me inquiringly.
“You take way too much interest in my routine, dude,” I replied lazily as I attempted to side step him. I didn’t want to be drawn into a conversation with him, all I wanted was a front row to the drama which was about to explode just as soon as Milton Hubert dragged his sorry ass out of bed.
“Moved on to your next conquest already? That sex addiction of yours must be quite difficult to maintain,” he teased, clearly hoping to get a rise out of me.
I leaned closer to him, the scent of cedar and smoke overwhelming me for a moment. “Well the real challenge is finding someone who can keep up with me,” I said.
“I’ll pass your complaints on to Caleb,” Darius replied, though his jaw tightened as he said it, making me believe my hook up with Caleb pissed him off far more than trying to taunt me with it would.
“Oh no,” I replied smoothly. “No complaints there from me.”
Darius seemed to have something else to say to me but I didn’t wait around to find out what, heading for the coffee machine in the corner of the room. After my early start, I was going to need a lot of caffeine to fuel me today but I was confident it would be worth it. He didn’t give up that easily though and followed me across the room.
I was tempted to tell him to take a hike but I was in a good enough mood to let his stalking slide.
I tossed a cup into the machine and hit the button for a mocha before turning to Darius with a raised eyebrow.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“I’m just waiting to get a coffee.”
“Let me guess, flat white?”
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“Because it’s the most boring coffee you can get. Maybe you’re an espresso guy though, to go with that whole intense thing you’ve got going on… but the idea of you holding one of those teenie tiny cups in your massive hands is kinda ridiculous so I think not.” I pulled my coffee from the machine and added three heaped spoonfuls of sugar to it as Darius hit the button for a flat white.
“Whereas you prefer your coffee with a bucket of sugar added because you’re just so damn sweet?” he asked sarcastically as he watched me.
“No. I like my sugar with a dash of coffee added because I’m bitter.” I gave him a false smile then walked away.
The early start gave me my pick of the room so I chose an armchair opposite the huge couches where Darius and his posse always sat so that I’d have a front row seat to the show.
I took my Atlas out and stuck my headphones on as I started scrolling through FaeBook posts without really looking at them. There were plenty of people quoting that ridiculous article and tagging both me and Darcy in their posts but I shrugged it off and tucked my feet up onto the chair opposite me.
I laughed as I spotted a notice for all Werewolves to report to Uranus Infirmary for a flea dip by the end of the week.
Slowly but surely, Darius’s little fan club all emerged from their pits and moved to join him on the couch. There was no sign of Sofia and I guessed she’d taken the chance to have a lie in. Every now and then I’d feel eyes on me and glance up from my social media perusal to find Darius looking my way. I didn’t like it. What did he want with me? It couldn’t be anything good.
Marguerite appeared wearing pyjamas which could arguably be called underwear and positioned herself in Darius’s line of sight with a few of her friends. He didn’t even blink at her as she tossed her red hair about and laughed too loudly in response to any joke one of her brain dead cretins came up with.
Her performance made me smirk into my coffee, especially when Darius looked my way again and stared long enough for her to jump to her feet in outrage.
“Enjoy it while it lasts, whore,” she snarled at me before stalking away.
“It’s sex addict, not whore,” I called after her. “And it’s not cool to mock people for medical afflictions.”
Marguerite whirled on me, her eyes blazing with fury as I casually flipped her off.
“Go and get dressed, Marguerite,” Darius said lazily before she could do anything in response. “You’re ruining the pre-match vibe in here with your shrieky voice.”
If looks could kill then Marguerite would have just impaled me on a bed of nails before feeding me alive to a hoard of bloodthirsty ants. But as they couldn’t, she only succeeded in turning her face the same beetroot shade as her hair before she burst into tears and ran from the room with her friends trailing behind.
I could feel Darius looking at me again but if he was waiting for a thank you then it’d be a hell of a long time coming. I dropped my gaze to my FaeBook feed and pointedly ignored him while I continued to wait.
After what seemed like hours, a monobrowed lump of muscle swaggered into the room sporting a fancy new ring alongside his flashy gold watch.
I perked up, straightening in my chair and trying not to be obvious about the fact that all of my attention had fallen on the arrival of Milton Hubert.
A preemptive smile came for my lips and I lifted my hand so that I could chew on my thumbnail to hide it.
Milton crossed the room to get his own coffee and I waited… and waited… and holy crap the anticipation was freaking killing me but I waited some damn more.
Milton collected his coffee, his eyes scanning the room as he held the cup in the hand which sported the ring from Darius’s treasure haul. He was showing it off, hoping the mystery girl would see it. Little did he know his mystery girl was a six and a half foot Dragon asshole with the shortest fuse I’d ever come across and a temper to rival a hurricane. I almost felt bad for Milton Hubert. Then I remembered the fact that he’d taken naked photos of me and shared them around the school on my first day at the Academy and my pity whipped away on the wind.
Milton headed for Darius’s fan club, still looking around hopefully as he lowered his ass into an armchair opposite Darius on the couch.
He said hey. Darius stayed silent. I should have been subtle but I was full on staring now and I couldn’t help it.
Darius frowned at Milton just a little, his brows pulling together and his eyes narrowing.
“Where did you get that?” he asked and his voice was so low and dark that almost everyone in the room fell silent instantly.
“Huh?” Milton lowered his coffee carefully, registering the threat in Darius’s voice without taking in the words.
The House Captain kept his gaze fixed on his prey as he leaned forward slowly, resting his elbows on his knees as he pinned Milton with a deathly stare.
“That ring,” Darius reiterated and I had to give Milton credit for not pissing himself.
He cleared his throat, tilting his hand as he looked down at the offending piece of jewellery. “I err… it was left in my room-”
“By who?” Darius snarled. He wasn’t moving. At all. He wasn’t even blinking.
My heart started thumping an uneven rhythm in my chest as excitement mixed with what was undoubtedly fear. I began to go over every step I’d taken in laying the foundations of this trap. I’d taken everything into account, there was no way to trace any of this back to me. But if Darius didn’t believe that Milton had been the one to screw him over then he’d be hunting for an alternative suspect. And realistically, how many people in this Academy could he even count as his enemies? Maybe he didn’t believe that me and Darcy were brave enough to do something like this but last night I’d looked his father in the eye and insulted him. I was showing him my true colours more and more often. He could see he hadn’t beaten me when he’d tried to drown me. So maybe me pulling off a stunt like this wouldn’t seem like such a stretch anymore.
“I don’t know,” Milton breathed, placing his coffee down on the table and flexing his fingers uncomfortably. “There was a note though-”
“Show it to me.”
“It… it’s gone. It burned up. Does this ring mean something to you?”
“It was in my room, before it burned down,” Darius snarled. “Which means someone stole it.”
Milton ripped the ring from his finger as if it had scalded him, tossing it to Darius with a flick of his wrist. Darius made no attempt to catch it and it bounced off of his chest before hitting the floor.
The rest of the posse seemed to smell blood in the water and they all started getting to their feet, shrinking away from Milton and moving to stand behind Darius.
“Look, man, I didn’t know. You know I’d never… I love you, I-”
Darius got to his feet in one swift motion and Milton fell to his knees on the floor in front of him, lowering his head as fear wracked through his body.
It didn’t matter that I was staring now, everyone in the common room was and you could have heard a pin drop. I slid my headphones from my ears to hang them round my neck, my lips parting in surprise as Milton trembled before the Heir he’d pledged his loyalty to.
“Where did you get that watch?” Darius asked slowly.
Milton quickly unbuckled the watch and tossed it at Darius’s feet too. “Someone sent it to me, I don’t know why-”
“Let me guess, no note either? No proof that you didn’t buy it after coming into a shit load of Dragon gold?” Darius asked.
The room was growing hotter the longer this interrogation went on and it took me a moment to realise that it was heat pouring from Darius as his rage grew.
“I didn’t, I swear I didn’t-”
“Then you won’t mind if I check your room.” Darius turned and swept towards the stairs, the crowd of students scrambling out of his way like he might just eat them alive if they didn’t.
I got to my feet, shallow breaths passing my lips as I drifted after Darius with the rest of the Ignis House students, though no one dared follow him up the stairs.
My gaze slid to Milton who was still kneeling on the floor, a wide space left empty all around him like he was some kind of pariah and no one wanted to be associated with him.
A huge crash sounded from the top floor followed by the roar of a Dragon. I flinched but then so did everyone else. Darius’s rage was a tangible thing, coiling in the air and threatening to consume everyone within sight.
He strode back into the room and everyone scrambled out of his way.
A rolling wave of heated energy slammed through the centre of the common room, crashing into Milton Hubert and sending him cartwheeling across the space before throwing him into the wall.
Darius advanced on him with his teeth bared and his eyes transformed into golden reptilian slits. His power burned through the air and more than one person ran for the exit.
“What the fuck is this?!” he bellowed, launching a handful of gold coins at the floor beneath Milton’s feet.
The heat pinning him to the wall fell away only to be replaced with ice which crawled over Milton’s body, fusing him to the wall and making his eyes bulge with panic.
“I don’t know, I swear I’ve never seen those before,” he breathed, shaking his head again and again.
Darius yelled out in rage, the ice shattering and releasing Milton to fall sprawling at his feet where he landed a solid kick to his gut.
“You are a liar, a thief and a fucking traitor!” he snarled. “I can’t even trust my own people in my own House! From this day forward you are nothing.” Darius turned away from Milton as if he didn’t even warrant his rage, his gaze sweeping over the rest of the students. “As far as I’m concerned Milton Hubert is shunned. He doesn’t bear relevance. He doesn’t matter. He doesn’t exist at all. If you’re with me, then I suggest you all see him the same way.”
No one dared speak but heads nodded all around me and I recoiled from the way these people behaved. They were so willing to shun someone they’d called their friend just five minutes ago. All because some bigger, badder, meaner jackass told them to.
Darius prowled through the room and once again everyone scurried out of his way, desperate not to be the next victim of his rage.
Silence fell and Milton whimpered where he lay on the floor. I actually felt kinda bad; I’d known Darius would lose his shit but I hadn’t quite been prepared for the level of it. Guilt twisted at my insides and I wrung my fingers together uncomfortably.
A huge crash sounded upstairs and a few people screamed. The next sound to come was the echoing roar of a Dragon intent on burning down the whole world.
I looked out of the window and spotted Darius wheeling through the sky breathing a gigantic fireball into existence.
A shiver ran down my spine at the raw, unbridled power of the beast before me. If he ever found out what I’d done then I was sure I’d meet a worse fate than what he’d just dished out to Milton Hubert. But despite the fear that that invoked, as I watched him running away from the place he’d called home, his faith in the unwavering loyalty of his fan club well and truly shaken, I couldn’t help but bathe in the glow of satisfaction it gave me.
Too bad Darius Acrux, you really should have realised who you were dealing with before you declared war on us.
