Applause rang through the room and Portia smiled sadly.
“Yes, indeed, it was a most terrible tragedy, but one that has not gone by without scrutiny,” Portia said, sending a prickle up my spine.
“Scrutiny? What scrutiny?” I played dumb. I’d seen the bullshit printed in The Daily Solaria, the conspiracies that pointed at a covered up murder. But no evidence had ever been found, and I certainly didn’t want to discuss such things live on fucking television.
Portia pointed to the screen again and I was suddenly faced with the swollen features of my brother Radcliff after his death, the gruesome image causing the crowd to gasp and mutter.
“The sting marks were solely located in this one spot,” Portia said, a ring appearing around the blistered red sting marks on Radcliff’s chest. “And some biologists claim the norian wasp stings erratically, that it wouldn’t sting in a localised place repeatedly unless it was held in place by magic, or perhaps a jar-”
“Preposterous,” I blurted, waving a hand at her as heat flared within my limbs. What the fuck was this? Was she accusing me of something? This was meant to be my night of celebration, how dare she bring my brother’s death into it?
She moved swiftly on, detailing my strengths at school and the awards I won in the art of illusion and Coercion, and I relaxed as I drank in the praise, enjoying sifting through the memories of my ascension to greatness, letting go of the anger I’d felt over the Radcliff questions. I supposed Portia had a duty to get a reaction on such a critical moment in my life; I was likely being sensitive due to the secret nature of his death.
“Upon your graduation, you had officially taken the place of your brother as an Heir to the Celestial Council and Hail Vega was set to ascend to the throne and take over from his father. It seemed your bond with Tiberius Rigel, Antonia Capella and Melinda Altair had solidified, and your public appearances alongside Prince Hail were widely publicised.” A stream of newspaper articles ran across the screen with shots of us all standing as one, showing our unity to the little crowned prince who was set to seize the throne. But even back then I had had plans of grandeur far greater than the boundaries set for me. Why should Hail take all the glory? Why settle for second best when I could have first place?
“A bond we share to this day.” I lifted my drink in toast to the Councillors up on their balcony and they smiled tightly, raising their drinks in return to me as the audience clapped and cooed.
“And yet,” Portia interjected, making my eyes snap back to her. “When we delve deeper, it appears that bond wasn’t always in place.”
“How do you mean?” I laughed lightly, taking a long swig of my drink as I set this woman in my deadly gaze.
“Well, let us take a look at this exclusive undercover footage from the graduates party at Zodiac Academy,” Portia announced and a new video started playing that made my blood freeze within my veins. Because that night still left a shudder in my soul, it still drove its way into my nightmares, it was one of the things I’d held firmly in my mind when I’d watched Hail and his wife die.
I sat in a cordoned off booth in The Orb while some lout must have recorded me in secret on their Atlas. I had a girl on my lap who I planned on taking back to my room, and I wish I had sooner as I spotted Tiberius jogging up to me excitedly.
“Hey, they want you to get measured outside in your Dragon form in front of everyone. The cheerleading squad wanna know if you’re bigger than Radcliff now,” he said keenly and I pushed the girl from my lap, jumping up in excitement.
“Well of course they do,” I said, pressing down my shirt and following Tiberius through the crowd as the sly Fae who was recording followed. They turned the camera back on themselves as they went and Hail gave a thumbs up to the camera, making the crowd chuckle.
I shifted in my seat, shaking my head at Portia and covering my microphone as I leaned towards her. “This is unsuitable. Have it turned off immediately,” I commanded.
“It will endear them to you,” Portia said, not bothering to cover her mic and I swallowed a curse, heat blazing along my veins as the Dragon within me begged me to deal with this.
“Stop this instant,” I hissed, but the video was getting to the worst part already.
I was outside, up on a platform of earth magic Melinda had cast as most of the academy gathered around to watch. I stripped out of my clothes, my body on full display along with the giant cock that hung between my thighs, enhanced just a little with an illusion – there was no harm in that, every hot blooded male was guilty of it.