Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(49)

FaeBook Admin: Students are reminded that this social media site is not intended for sharing pornography.

Milton Hubert you have been docked ten house points for Ignis. In future, please share naked photographs privately and not on the public page.



I blinked at the message. Ten house points? That was all the teachers were going to take from the boy who had posted a naked photograph of me for the whole school to see? And there was no mention of punishing Darius for the hazing. That was it. In fact, as I read it again, I realised they weren’t even telling him not to share that photograph - just to do it via personal message.

Screw that.

I grabbed my uniform out of the closet, pulling it on as fast as I could before jamming my books into my satchel. I picked up the Atlas again and tapped on Milton Hubert’s profile picture so that I could get a look at him. He was a jock type, well built with a prominent brow and thick eyebrows that almost ran into each other.

I shoved the Atlas into my bag and headed out of my room before marching straight downstairs towards the common area.

No one noticed me as I arrived and my gaze was snagged by a large group in the centre of the room. Darius was leaning back in an armchair beside the fire which apparently never went out. His black hair was dishevelled in an I-just-rolled-out-of-bed way that should have made him look like shit like it did for the rest of the population but instead made him look hot as hell. If he wasn’t such a grade-A asshole I would totally be okay with waking up to his bed hair. But as he was, the sight of it just pissed me off more. An ugly soul deserved to be housed in an ugly vessel.

A girl with vivid, blood red hair and legs that went on for days dropped into his lap and claimed his attention with a kiss that crossed the line from uncomfortable into inappropriate as she began dry humping him in front of the whole room.

Ergh.

I quickly scanned the faces of his fan club while they still hadn’t noticed me and a savage smile pulled at my lips as I spotted Milton Hubert to the left of the group.

I knew I had very little chance of matching anyone in this room in a straight fight but with my anger burning hot and fast in my veins, I could feel my power raising its head like a prowling beast readying to strike. And with the element of surprise coupled with the raw brutality of my power, I was hoping to teach this douchebag a lesson.

As luck would have it, his Atlas was sitting on the table beside him which meant that photo was within reach too.

Magic flared inside me as I strode into the room and I felt Darius’s posse turning their attention my way but I didn’t spare them an ounce of attention. My gaze was set on Milton Hubert and his monobrow raised in surprise as he realised it.

“Oh hey, it's Tory, right?” he asked but he’d forfeited the chance for an introduction when he’d plastered a naked a picture of me all over the internet.

My magic rose to my fingertips and I grinned as I realised I’d summoned water. Of course I had, what better way to punish a fire-hungry masochist than by giving him an ice cold shower?

I raised my hand and a torrent of water slammed into him, knocking him flying back off of his chair and crashing to the floor. I increased the pressure of the water bursting from me, rolling him across the wooden floor and pinning him to the wall.

The rest of Darius’s crew all leapt up in shock and the redhead practically fell out of his lap as Darius stood too. But to my surprise, no one stepped in to intervene on Milton’s behalf. I guessed their screwed up Fae way of doing things meant that these kinds of disagreements were handled personally and I tried not to show my relief at that fact.

Milton was shouting something between gargling on the water which pummelled his face and I lowered the deluge a fraction so that it slammed into his chest instead, making sure I pinned his arms down so that he couldn’t aim any magic back at me.

“Delete the picture,” I snarled, grabbing his Atlas and holding it out towards him with the hand that wasn’t directing my magic.

The power inside me purred with satisfaction and I couldn’t deny the swell of pride that came with holding my own like this.

“Piss off,” Milton snapped.

With a flick of my fingers, I switched the water for air and Milton was lifted and slammed against the wall upright by a gust of wind so powerful that even his bushy eyebrows were fluttering in it. I wasn’t subtle, I was just using the full force of my power to immobilise him but that was fine by me. It got the job done.

I stalked forward and jammed his thumb down on the Atlas to unlock it before quickly opening up his photo album and locating the picture of me. There were actually over twenty of them, though he’d chosen the clearest one to share on FaeBook and luckily for me, his position in the room had only offered him a view of the rear. I deleted all of them, double checking the trash folder before tossing his Atlas at his feet.

I released my magic and he stumbled forward, raising a hand at me. Before he could recover enough to attack me, I threw my power at him again, this time summoning earth though I hadn’t planned it. Milton was wrapped tightly in vines which sprang to life as my rage channelled itself into the shape that came most naturally. I didn’t know what I was doing but my magic seemed to. The vines pinned his arms to his sides and encircled his mouth to make sure he stayed quiet. Milton fell to the ground with a resounding crash and I finally let my magic fall still. The swell of it within me felt a little less full than it had but I still had plenty to go around.