Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning

“TOR?” DARCY’S WHISPERED VOICE reached out to me where I was hiding in slumber and I recoiled from it with a groan. “Tory?” she said a little louder.

“No,” I mumbled, pulling a pillow over my head.

I was dog tired. We were in my room in Ignis House, neither of us wanting to part company since the horror of the Nymph attack. After everything that had happened after the Pitball match yesterday and attending that assembly where Nova had basically told us to suck it up and get on with our education, we’d stayed up into the small hours talking. 

I guessed at some point we’d both passed out but I had no idea why the hell Darcy thought it was a good idea to wake me up again. From the aching in my limbs and foggy brain I could only imagine it was the armpit of dawn and I had no reason to want to see that time of day.

“Can you hear that?” Darcy asked, the note of concern in her voice making me lower the pillow an inch.

I groaned again as I rolled onto my back and lay still until a strange sound reached my ears. It was like the distant clang of a metal gong.

“What is that?” I asked, forcing myself up a little onto my elbows and blinking the sleep from my eyes.

Darcy was sitting up in my bed, her arms folded as she cocked her head to listen.

“It could be anything in this crazy school. Maybe Manticores play the gong to replenish their magic or Harpies like to dance to gong music under the light of the moon just for the hell of it,” I suggested.

Darcy laughed half-heartedly and we both fell silent as the dull chime of the gong rang out again, sounding a little nearer this time. It wasn’t really a dancing under the moon kind of sound though; it was more ominous than that, like the promise of something to come.

A shiver ran down my spine at that thought and I pushed myself upright.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but shall we get an early start, maybe head for breakfast at The Orb?” I asked. Now that I was awake and that damn gong was ringing out I didn’t imagine I’d be getting much more sleep anyway.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Darcy replied, relief lacing her tone.

I moved to get out of bed but my Atlas suddenly released a loud ring which I’d never heard from it before. Darcy’s did the same on the desk across the room and we exchanged a look before I hooked mine off of the nightstand to see what this was about.

As my gaze fell on the message, my eyes widened in surprise and I held it out so that Darcy could read it too.

WELCOME TO HELL WEEK!

You and the rest of the freshman class are now formally beginning the week leading up to The Reckoning.

During this week you must pass the trials of your Elements before taking part in the final assessment which will determine whether you are worthy of your place at our prestigious academy.

To make sure you are thoroughly challenged, the rest of the student body will be throwing further tests your way at every turn and making your lives hell!

Will you make the cut for this year’s official enrolment?

It’s time to prove how Fae you are.

Yours – Principal Nova

“What the crap?” Darcy breathed in disbelief. “A bunch of people died yesterday. I get that Nova said we have to carry on with our education if we want to be strong enough to stand against the Nymphs in the future, but this seems like a bit much.”

“Everything in this fucking place is a bit much,” I growled.

“What do they mean the rest of the student body will be making our lives hell?” Darcy questioned.

“Well that bit at least won’t be any different,” I joked. “In fact, if they’ve got to spread their attention between all the freshmen instead of just focusing on us then maybe we’re in for an easier time than usual.”

“That’d be nice. Though I get the feeling it will just make the target on our backs even bigger,” Darcy sighed.

“Maybe you’re right. At least we’re used to it.” I pushed myself upright and ran my fingers through my hair as I fought against the urge to crawl back into bed.

The clash of the gong was getting louder and I got the sense that it was to do with this Hell Week shit.

“Freshmen!” a girl’s voice carried loudly from out in the corridor and I hesitated as I looked towards my closed door. “Hell Week is upon you! You have fifteen minutes to get yourselves ready for class and get out of your rooms. Anyone who doesn’t appear voluntarily will be dragged out. You have been warned!”

I looked back at Darcy and groaned. “Why does it have to start so early in the morning?” I asked. “It really is going to be hell if they wake me up at this time every day.”

“Let’s hope that’s the worst of it,” Darcy replied as she got up too.

We exchanged a look which said we both knew that was unlikely before I headed into the en-suite. I clipped my hair up before jumping into the shower, letting the hot water wake me up despite the longing I felt for pillows and soft sheets.

I emerged quickly, leaving Darcy to take her turn as I dressed in my Academy uniform and tamed my hair into something respectable. As I started applying my makeup, my Atlas pinged with a private message.

I reached for it automatically, my lips parting in surprise as I saw who it was from.

Caleb:

So I’m thinking we need to draw a few lines in the sand…

I frowned in confusion, wondering what he meant by that before replying.

Tory:

Talking in riddles only makes you seem like more of a douchebag.

Caleb:

And there was me thinking that was impossible. I’m talking about keeping the two sides of our relationship separate.

Tory:

We don’t have a relationship.

I tossed my Atlas onto my bed dismissively and returned to the task of completing my makeup. Darcy appeared from her own shower and claimed another uniform from my closet without bothering to ask. As we were the same size in everything, we’d long since taken to stealing each other’s clothes as standard. And even though we weren’t as short on options as we used to be in the mortal world, it was a habit that we weren’t likely to break any time soon. It was familiar and natural, and one of the few things that hadn’t changed when we’d come to this insane academy.

My Atlas pinged behind me. And again. And again.

“You’re popular this morning,” Darcy commented, eyeing it with interest.

I grunted in response. “Caleb’s just trying to get into my pants again.”

She snorted a laugh. “How hard are you going to make him work for it?”

“He took part in the whole throwing us in a pit business. So I’m thinking I’m done with him,” I said dismissively.

“Yeah, you totally should be,” she agreed. “But that look in your eye says you’re not.”

“That’s just the part of my brain which is blinded by his hotness. I refuse to listen to her because she’s a slut. The sensible part of my brain says hell no and I’ll be keeping company with her and her chastity belt from now on.”

“Okay,” Darcy said in a way which told me she wasn’t totally convinced but there wasn’t much I could do about that. My track record spoke for itself.

The Atlas pinged again. And again.

“At least let’s see how hard he’s grovelling,” she said with a wicked smile.

I laughed and moved to grab my Atlas from the bed.

Caleb:

That’s so cold, Tory. I know you felt things too… the noises you were making in response to them are kinda hard to deny 😉

Caleb:

Do you want me to beg? Do you like the idea of getting me on my knees for you?

Caleb:

Are you ignoring me now? Can’t we just agree to disagree about the whole throne issue and take out our frustrations over the situation on each other?

I promise, I’m super frustrated over it and it will take a lot of work to make me feel any better about it…

Caleb:

You wanna see how frustrated I am…? I really need help working through this…

The last message contained a photograph which Caleb had taken of himself in a mirror after getting out of the shower. His blonde curls were damp and looked darker than usual and every inch of his exposed, muscular body glistened with fat drops of moisture. The picture cut off at his waist and his navy eyes blazed with an intensity which made me swallow a lump in my throat.

Caleb:

Want to come over and see the rest?

Darcy released a breath of laughter. “Well he certainly knows what he wants.”

My gaze raked over the picture of his tight abs glistening with water and I groaned. “Why does he have to be such an asshole?” I complained.

“Well if he wasn’t, you probably wouldn’t like him at all,” she reasoned and I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“That is a tragically accurate assessment,” I agreed.

I decided to leave Caleb hanging and closed down the private messages with a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth.

“Time’s up freshmen!” the girl’s voice came from beyond my door again and we looked around at it with concern. “Come on out to face hell – it’ll only be worse if we have to come get you!”

“This school is insane,” Darcy groaned as she placed her satchel over her shoulder and we prepared to head out there.

I stuffed my Atlas into my own satchel and threw it on as we moved towards the door.

“Shield?” I suggested at the last second, imagining someone waiting outside the door to throw a bucket of water over our heads or something.

“Good idea,” Darcy agreed.

We both threw up a strong shield of air magic and I opened my door with my heart in my throat.

The door swung wide and I held my breath as we stepped out to find… nothing. The corridor was abandoned.

I exchanged a look with Darcy and quickly locked up behind us as we headed for the stairs which led down to the common room.

The only sound was the persistent clang of that far off gong which my heart was quickly falling into rhythm with.

We descended in silence but the second my feet landed at the foot of the stairs in the common room, I fell still. The whole room was full of students clad in long black robes with plain white masks concealing their faces.

For a moment nothing happened, they all stared at us through the eye holes in their masks and I felt like I’d just stumbled into a creepy ass cult nightmare.

Opposite me, I recognised Marguerite’s flaming red hair falling behind her white mask as she raised a hand to point at the two of us. “Fresh meat!” She cried and as one, every student in the room lunged at us.

I screamed, throwing more energy into the shield I’d created and accidentally creating a blast of air magic which crashed out from us and slammed into them, knocking students from their feet and tumbling across the red carpet.

“Oh shit,” I breathed, glancing around at what I’d done but Darcy had already caught my hand and she yanked to get me moving as the Ignis students recovered from their shock and came for us again.

We ran through the centre of the room as flames crashed into the outside of the shield Darcy was maintaining and I scrambled to throw up another of my own to help her.

“Stop running and drop your shields!” Marguerite demanded, her voice thick with Coercion. With our focus fully on maintaining our magic, we hadn’t even been attempting to keep our minds guarded from that kind of attack. The two of us stumbled to a halt, the shields blinking out of existence instantly.

We were swamped by a group of guys big enough to make me think they were seniors and they wrenched us away from each other.

I swore at them, thrashing as I fought to break free of their hold but they only laughed as they carried me back through the common room and shoved me to my knees before Marguerite. Darcy was pushed down beside me and she swore at the guys restraining her with enough vigour to make a few of them laugh.

“Don’t fight back,” Marguerite commanded and my traitorous body fell still as I cursed myself for not expecting that.

Her eyes sparkled with excitement beneath the creepy, expressionless white mask and she leaned towards me with a black marker in her hand.

Her Coercion glued me in place as she scrawled something across my forehead before turning and offering the same treatment to Darcy.

“Now run along to class,” Marguerite ordered.

I sprang to my feet and hurried from the room with Darcy at my side, the Coercion forcing us to run. The crowd of robed Ignis students parted to make way for us, laughing their asses off as we went.

As we made it outside, I felt the grip of her power loosening and I gritted my teeth as I finally managed to throw it off and stop running.

Darcy halted beside me and I looked at her with a frown. The words just talk to my raven were scrawled across her forehead in thick black marker.

“What does mine say?” I asked after telling her what they’d written on her.

“Whore,” Darcy replied with a sigh. “She’s not very original is she?”

“I don’t think she’s ever had an original idea in her life,” I agreed. I channelled some water magic and tried to use it to clean the marker from Darcy’s skin but it wouldn’t budge.

“I’m guessing this is stuck on magically,” Darcy sighed after the third attempt failed.

“So we’re stuck like this?” I asked.

“Yep,” Darcy replied.

“Great.”

We trudged towards The Orb while I offered up many creative insults about Marguerite and Darcy smirked appreciatively. As I finished venting, I noticed a crowd of students in black robes hanging out near The Orb ahead and paused.

“I’m suddenly not feeling so hungry,” Darcy muttered.

My stomach growled its disagreement but I turned away too. It didn’t look like there was anything but trouble waiting in The Orb today anyway.

A hiss drew my attention to the shadows beside Venus Library and I turned to find the cause of it with a frown.

“Hey guys!” Sofia whispered, waving us closer as she spotted us. She was deep within the shadows, her back pressed to the brick wall of the library as she glanced about nervously.

“What are you doing?” I asked with a smirk as we drew closer to her.

“Trying to avoid the attention of the Terra House juniors,” she explained. “They’re tying freshmen to the spire of Neptune Tower with vines.”

I turned to look in that direction and my eyes widened as I spotted a ring of students bound to the roof ten floors up exactly as she’d said.

“Oh my god,” Darcy breathed.

“Did you know about this Hell Week stuff before today?” I asked Sofia, dragging my gaze from the terrified freshmen.

“No. But I just called my mom and she was laughing her head off. Told me good luck and said that’s how it’s done here – it’s kept secret from the freshmen on purpose.”

As Sofia leaned forward a little to get a look around, I noticed the words Vega ass-licker written on her forehead and I pursed my lips angrily.

“So did your mom give you any other advice on how to survive this week?” Darcy asked her.

“She just said that we can’t take it lying down. We have to try and fight back. Which is why I came to the library actually.” Sofia produced a book and opened it to a page where she’d wedged her thumb. “I think I’ve found the spell we need to unstick this pen from our faces.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly. I hadn’t exactly been thrilled about walking around with the word whore branded to my forehead for the foreseeable future.

“Yeah… if I get it wrong it might take off a chunk of skin though,” she added with a nervous laugh.

I exchanged a glance with Darcy then released a deep breath.

“Just try it out on me,” I offered. “I can always go to Uranus Infirmary if it goes horribly wrong.”

“Are you sure?” Sofia asked though she was already raising her hand towards me, sparks of magic twisting between her fingers.

“I trust you,” I confirmed, closing my eyes.

Sofia’s fingers brushed my skin followed quickly by a wave of cold energy. There was no pain and I slowly opened my eyes as she drew back, finding the two of them grinning at me.

“It worked?” I confirmed.

“It did!” Sofia said with a squeal of excitement. She quickly performed the magic on her and Darcy and I glanced out towards the path once more to keep watch as she did.

A bolt of fear ran through me as a group of ten juniors rounded the corner, vines curling around their arms as they wielded their magic. Before I could duck out of sight again, one of them spotted me.

“Fresh meat!” he bellowed and the three of us screamed as we darted away down the darkened path between Venus Library and Mercury Chambers.

I threw a handful of flames over my shoulder to slow them down and we scrambled around the building, turning left as we ran on.

The juniors were bellowing a battle cry as they chased us and my heart thundered with panic.

“Any ideas?” I gasped as Darcy directed a crash of wind behind us, knocking the juniors from their feet for a moment.

They were already scrambling upright again before I turned my attention back to the path before me.

“I’ve got one!” Sofia cried. She tossed Darcy her satchel then yanked off her blazer, quickly followed by her shirt then skirt.

I grabbed the clothes from her as she threw them my way and she ripped her shoes from her feet, leaving her in her socks and underwear. She didn’t waste time on removing those before bursting into her Order form and shredding through them.

Her beautiful pink Pegasus form towered over us and she dipped her wing so that Darcy could jump onto her back.

The juniors were yelling curses at us as they saw their prey preparing to escape and huge vines sped our way like a thousand slithering snakes.

Darcy yelled out as she threw a fireball at the vines, destroying them and giving me time to leap up onto Sofia’s back behind her.

With an excited whinny, Sofia took off at a gallop and the wind swept through my hair at the immense speed.

The juniors yelled behind us as we escaped and with a few powerful beats of Sofia’s wings, we launched into the sky.

I let out a whoop of triumph, my heart soaring as the ground sped away beneath us.

Darcy was laughing excitedly in front of me and the smile on my face was so wide it made my cheeks ache.

Hell Week at Zodiac Academy had just begun, but we’d survived a whole lot of crap already since coming here so we could handle this. The wind whipped through my hair and the beautiful sight of the Academy grounds sprawled out beneath us, filling me with a joy so intense it made me ache.

The Heirs didn’t think we could make it through The Reckoning but as I looked down upon the Academy I’d begun to think of as home, I was determined to prove them wrong. We were Fae. And we belonged here. And we’d be staying no matter what.