Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(71)
“Just like you don’t know the first thing about me,” I replied. “I’ve met much meaner bastards than the four of you before and come out swinging. And I’ve learned a thing or two about the way basic bastards like you operate; you’re not very original. And you don’t frighten me,” I said, my tone miraculously level despite my thundering heartbeat. I was lying and it was pretty clear we both knew it. Yes I’d dealt with my fair share of dickwads and biker dudes with a superiority complex but I doubted any of them came close to rivalling the Heirs in strength or brutality.
Darius eyed me for another second before releasing a breath of laughter.
“You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that,” he muttered, before dropping his eyes to his Atlas and hitting a button on it.
The shelves before us suddenly began to move and I looked around at them in surprise as they shifted left and right, up and down, making way for a compartment which had been near the roof to slide down before us. The movement ground to a halt and Darius stepped forward to claim the contents of the shelf for himself.
He flicked through a handful of envelopes before stuffing them into his blazer pocket.
He turned for the door without bothering to do anything else to me and I counted my blessings that he seemed to be in too much of a hurry to torment me today.
I looked back at the shelves before me, frowning in confusion and pulling my own Atlas from my bag as I tried to figure out how he’d just gotten his deliveries to present themselves.
Darius sighed heavily and pulled my Atlas out of my hands. I looked up at him in shock, reaching forward to snatch it back but he ignored me, pulling up an app on the third page and quickly selecting ‘Post Retrieval’ from a list of options. He caught my hand and the warmth of his skin surprised me almost as much as the fact that his touch was gentle.
My traitorous heart fluttered at the contact and I tried to stop my eyes from trailing over the strong line of his jaw and the set of his mouth but failed miserably. He was just too damn good to look at.
“It needs a thumb print,” he explained in his deep voice as I tried to resist his directions. I relaxed marginally, letting him press my thumb to the screen and the shelves beside us started moving.
Darius released me, tossing my Atlas back to me so that I was forced to catch it before it ended up hitting the floor.
A big compartment stopped before us, stuffed full of bags and boxes containing new clothes for me and Darcy.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I pushed my Atlas back into my satchel and stepped forward to claim my hoard.
Darius beat me to it and pulled a box from the top of the pile which was emblazoned with the slogan of a lingerie company.
“Looking to burn even more of my clothes?” I asked, wondering if I was about to watch everything I’d just bought go up in flames.
“I could be persuaded not to,” he replied, his mouth hooking up at one corner and making my heart leap in response. I had no idea what he was going to demand of me but I knew exactly what the answer would be. There was no way I was going to start dancing to his tune.
“Just do what you’ve gotta do, dude. I can’t stop you.” I folded my arms and waited him out. I wasn’t going to beg.
“You’re really sucking the fun out of this, you know that, right?” he asked. “How about you give me a fashion show wearing the contents of this box and I’ll let you keep your new wardrobe?”
I rolled my eyes and turned to leave the room, abandoning my new clothes and resigning myself to ordering all of it again. At least our stipend was stupidly generous; I wasn’t in danger of running low on funding any time soon.
Darius caught my wrist before I could make it to the exit, tugging me back to face him again. My skin flared beneath his as my heart leapt in either fear or excitement and I wasn’t entirely sure which. I yanked my arm out of his grip and he smirked at me.
“Keep your shit, Roxy,” he said in a tone that suggested I was boring him. “Ruining your clothes was last week’s fun. I can do better than that next time.”
He tossed the box of lingerie into my hands before sauntering out of the room like he thought he owned the place.
“Pleasure seeing you as always, asshole!” I called loud enough for it to carry to him before heading back to claim my deliveries.
I stacked my arms up with the various bags and boxes before running them all back to my room. I sent Darcy a quick message, urging her to go on ahead rather than waiting for me. Thanks to Darius, I was running late for my first Earth Elemental lesson and I was going to have to run across campus to reach it, following the directions on my Atlas with one eye while making sure I didn’t fall with the other.
I jogged down a path which skirted the edge of The Wailing Wood before swinging a right and heading along the side of a tall rock face covered in vines and moss.
The path finally led me to the mouth of a wide cave which delved beneath the ground and I hesitated a moment before heading inside. Rough steps were hewn into the stone at my feet and I descended quickly, following the tunnel until I reached the bottom. To my right were the locker rooms and I headed on in, finding it full of girls getting changed and a bag of clothes waiting for me again. Irritatingly, it was still labelled Roxanya which instantly made my mind go to Darius’s stupid nickname for me. I made a mental note to email Professor Prestos about changing it when I had the chance.