I wheeled around, spotting her standing above Darius as he gazed up at her from his position on the couch, seeming annoyed that she was causing such a scene.
“It's over, move on,” he said coolly, turning his cheek to try and dismiss her.
“Darius, baby, how can you throw away everything we have?” She clutched his hand and he prised her fingers off of him, attempting to continue ignoring her.
“Darius!” she shrieked, fire bursting to life in her palms.
The Heirs were suddenly on their feet and Darius practically snarled at Marguerite as he glared down at her, almost nose to nose. The flames in her hands extinguished and she backed up, muttering an apology and bowing her head. Several of her friends ran forward to group around her and I spotted Kylie amongst them. My tongue thickened as the tension in the room weighed down on me.
“This is about them.” Marguerite suddenly pointed at Tory and I all the way across the room and my heart rammed into my throat. “Ever since they arrived you've been acting different.”
“Stop embarrassing yourself,” Caleb shot at her, rolling his eyes. “You just can't deal with the fact that Darius got bored with you months ago. Move on, find someone else to screw. From what I've heard, it sounds like you need the practice.”
Marguerite looked to Darius in horror. “But you love me.”
Silence rang out and Darius glanced at his friends with a smirk. “Love you?” he laughed, turning back to her. “At what point in our once a week bed parties did you get that idea?”
She turned scarlet and her friends tried to pull her away, one of them petting her back.
Seth barked a laugh and Kylie shot him a death glare. “You're no better. I saw that video of you and Darcy fucking Vega at the bar last Friday.”
Seth held his heart, faking a wound. “Sorry, babe, did I forget to ask your permission? You know I'm totally polyamorous right?”
She huffed at him, her hands balling into fists. “No Seth, you have never told me that.”
“No?” he questioned airily, leaning his shoulder against Max's. “Well you can't go poly-shaming me now can you?”
She glared at him coldly. “You're a liar.”
The four Heirs fell deathly still and my heart seemed to freeze with them. Max stepped forward, cracking his neck. “Wanna say that again, peaches?”
Kylie backed up, a glimmer of fear entering her gaze. “He's not polyamorous, Max, he's just cheating on me.”
My brows raised and my stomach knotted. I had to give it to her. The girl was fighting her corner and she wasn't going to let Seth get away with anything.
Darius tried to walk around Marguerite and she grabbed his arm, holding on for dear life. “Please,” she begged and dark clouds drew over his eyes.
“Let go,” he said calmly, but nothing about him said calm.
She flinched back as if he'd been more abrupt and the other Heirs filed through the crowd of girls after him. They exited The Orb and the moment the door swung shut, mutters broke out throughout the whole lounge.
Marguerite wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and I realised I should stop staring a moment too late. She and Kylie locked sights on us like a missile and my heart jolted hard.
“Bitches incoming,” Tory hissed as she tugged on my sleeve to get my attention.
My heart beat in time with their furious footfalls as they closed in on us. Sofia turned pale and Diego rested a hand on her arm, his jaw set as his eyes fell on the group of pissed off tigresses breathing down my neck.
Tory's fists were clenched and I could tell she was preparing to defend herself with her power. There was no sign of the A.S.S and most of the girls in Kylie and Marguerite's vengeance squad were sophomores or older. So that meant relying on our own poorly harnessed powers.
I turned, hoping to try and explain our way out of this before a fight erupted when the entire table flipped up into the air. I was thrown to the floor beside Tory and Sofia yelped as she and Diego were tossed aside too. The table shot up above us at speed and screams broke out as it burst into flames.
I threw up a hand to shield myself, panic flowing through me as glasses and plates cascaded from the fireball and smashed on the hard floor around us.
I rolled onto my knees in a bid to escape and Tory cast a rogue fireball from her hand. It flew too high, missing her target as it soared over the heads of our attackers and hit the far wall.
The table smashed back down to the floor behind us and I stumbled to my feet to escape the blast. I steadied myself and gazed back at the devastation, checking my friends were okay as my heart battered against my ribcage.
“What did he give you?” Kylie demanded, shooting forward and thrusting her hand into my blazer pocket.
I gasped as she clutched Seth’s note between her fingers before unfolding it and staring at whatever it said for a painfully long second. With a choked sob, she threw it at me and ran away into the crowd.
“Get out of Zodiac, Vega sluts,” Marguerite spat, her eyes spewing acid. She stormed away with her crew and my eyes fell to the note as it landed at my feet. Seth's words were written in a scrawling handwriting and what they said made my heart pound like crazy.
Be my date for the dance.
I heard the group of girls make it out of The Orb, slamming the door behind them. My heart shuddered and nausea gripped my stomach. Because I knew without a doubt, this was far from over.
AFTER SPENDING A day dodging questions about the night I’d spent dancing with the Heirs, I was ready to admit that drunk Tory hadn’t done me any favours yet again.
The following morning we spotted Marguerite and Kylie throwing glares at us the moment we arrived at The Orb as if their relationship issues came down to us instead of being a problem with the douchebags they’d selected for themselves. For the sake of avoiding their nonsense, we decided to grab breakfast to go which we ate on route to our lesson rather than deal with any more of their crap.
At the end of the day, I said a quick goodbye to Darcy as we left our Cardinal Magic class and headed in opposite directions along the vaulted corridors of Jupiter Hall. She was off with Diego and Sofia for a study session in Venus Library but I just wasn’t in the headspace for more work. We had plans to meet in two hours for dinner at The Orb and in the meantime I had every intention of going for a nap. These early wake-up calls were wreaking havoc with my perfect sleep patterns and I just couldn’t force myself into the habit of going to bed a minute before midnight. I’d always been a night owl and the crack of sunset was no time for me to be headed towards slumber. So I decided that I could catch up with a nap without having to try and alter my bedtime.
As I walked to the back exit of the building, a junior slammed his shoulder into me hard enough to knock my satchel from my shoulder and send all of my books flying.
I cursed him as I scrambled to retrieve them while the rest of the class swarmed around me and headed off down the stairs towards the exit. Thanks to some less than accidental kicking, I was forced to scurry about and grab a few scattered pages.
I knelt down as I tried to piece everything back together and refill my satchel and the sound of giggling reached me from the stairwell.
“Hurry up!” I recognised Marguerite's voice. “That jumped up little boyfriend thief is going to be here any second and we need to get every moment of this on camera,” she hissed.