“I’m Principal Nova, your guiding star here at Zodiac Academy,” she said warmly. “I hear we have two things to celebrate with you both tonight.”
“You do?” Darcy asked, glancing at me with a small shrug.
“Of course!” Nova gasped. “When Orion informed me that the girls he’d been tracking were indeed the lost Vega Twins I couldn’t have been more delighted to welcome you back into the fold and return you to your people! But to then discover that the two of you hold all four Elements within your grasp… it’s unheard of. Your return will be the talk of the entire Fae population, not just the school. Your every move will be watched and assessed as we all clamour to find out if you can truly reclaim the throne and-”
“Throne?” Darcy squeaked.
“Yes, didn’t Professor Orion explain your heritage to you?” Principal Nova asked, looking around as if she hoped to spot the man in question.
I glanced over my shoulder and noticed him slipping away through the crowd as if he’d overheard her and didn’t want to be caught.
“He just broke into our apartment and forced us to come here,” I said.
“He told us our parents weren’t who we thought they were,” Darcy added. “And that we had to come here to claim our inheritance.”
“That’s… a very brief overview,” Nova said, her lips pressing to a firm line that told me she wasn’t pleased with Orion. “Your parents were the last King and Queen of Solaria, you return here as joint Heirs to the throne.”
My lips parted but no words came out. I caught Darcy’s eye, almost laughed then looked back at Nova and found I couldn’t actually come up with a response at all.
“You mean we’re like… princesses?” Darcy asked and the disbelief in her tone was punctuated by my scoff of laughter.
“Well, yes. Which is why you've caused quite a stir. Since the demise of your mother and father, the four Celestial families have held the power of the throne between them equally. They had intended to keep hold of that power with their own Heirs in the knowledge that the royal line had fallen. But with your return, everything could be about to change once more.”
Nova seemed excited by that idea as her eyes whipped between Darcy and me but in my head all I could think was hell no. We didn’t know the first thing about this place, let alone the family we’d supposedly been born into. How could she be standing there like Prince Charming with a glass slipper expecting us to shove our feet straight in?
“I really don’t think-” I began but Nova cut me off.
“Of course, the throne won't just be handed to you. You will have to graduate from the Academy and prove your worth before that could ever happen. And you’ll soon learn that Fae have to claim their own power if they want it. You have a lot of catching up to do if you want to reclaim the throne from the Celestial Heirs.”
I stared at her in a weird non-blinking way for several seconds too long before my mind snagged on the one part of her announcement that my brain could process with ease.
“So if our parents were royal, does that mean they left us a load of crown jewels and a castle in their will?” I asked.
Darcy’s eyes twinkled at the idea of that and a smile hooked the corner of my mouth.
Nova tittered a laugh. “Well of course your inheritance is quite sizeable - presuming you graduate and become eligible to claim it. And in the meantime you can acquaint yourselves with everything you will need to know to live up to your birthrights. And of course there will be interviews and exclusives, I’ve even heard talk of a documentary being made to detail your return and-”
“We don’t want any attention like that,” I said firmly, not knowing what the hell she was going on about and not really wanting to either. “We’re here because that Orion dude said we had to come to claim our inheritance. That’s it.” I didn’t mention the fact that since my magic had been Awakened I’d begun to think coming to this school could give me so much more than just money because it didn’t matter. Whatever way I looked at it, I knew neither my sister or I would want the kind of attention she was suggesting.
The Principal’s eyes widened in surprise but she covered it with the kind of fake-ass smile which wasn’t really a smile at all but held something much more calculated in check.
“It must be a lot to take in,” she conceded gently. “Of course you can spend a bit of time settling in before you have to make any choices about how you’ll handle your claim or anything else besides that. Perhaps we’ll hold the media off for a while so that you can get your bearings.”
“Great,” I bit out, not bothering to hide the fact that as far as I was concerned there wasn’t any choice to be made. I tried to step away but Principal Nova had her claws in my sister and I and she didn’t seem to be willing to let go any time soon.
A lump formed in the pit of my stomach as I realised she’d decided to make a spectacle of us on our very first day in front of the entire school and I couldn’t quite shake her off before she turned to address the crowd of students who filled the huge room.
“Can I have everyone’s attention?” Nova called and all eyes in The Orb swung to us as silence fell amongst the gathered students. I noticed several older men and women lining the edges of the room and spotted Orion amongst them which I guessed meant they were the faculty. Their eyes were on us too and I promptly looked away.
“I’d really rather not make a fuss,” Darcy muttered but the Principal continued as if she hadn’t spoken.
My gaze slid over the crowd and hooked on the group of guys sitting around the fire once more. They were looking at us curiously now and I tried not to let my gaze linger on them too long but it was difficult. Somehow, they commanded the room despite the fact that it was full to the brim with more people than I could count.
The guy on the right tilted his head to the side, his long, chestnut hair tipping over his fist as he leant his chin against his knuckles. There was something deeply animal in the way he eyed us and I found myself lifting my chin, refusing to cower beneath the challenge in his earthy brown eyes.
“This year’s attendees have been joined by two particularly important girls,” Principal Nova said, a wide smile pulling at her lips as I tried to ignore the fact that the entire student body of the Academy were looking at us now. “I am delighted to announce that we have recovered the missing Vega Heirs and brought them back under the protection of our great nation. For seventeen years the Vega Twins were lost to us, believed to be dead. But to our great surprise, with the surfacing of their powers on their eighteenth birthday we were able to track them down in the mortal realm and return them to their rightful place amongst us.”
No applause followed her words, though the long pause she gave suggested she was expecting one. Instead a pregnant silence had built in the room and I held my breath as I waited for someone to break it.
A high-pitched shriek of excitement broke the silence as a tall, broad shouldered girl with long, brown hair leapt to her feet. She started applauding so quickly that her hands were almost a blur and the wide smile on her face looked more than a little manic.