Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I growled at the world as my Atlas rang, drawing me from sleep and I tried to hide beneath my pillow in an attempt to ignore it.

Who the fuck is calling me now?

The moment the call ended, another one started up and a tingle of unease ran through me as I wondered who the hell would call me so insistently in the middle of the night.

I shoved the pillow off and reached for my Atlas, squinting at the screen and frowning in confusion as I spotted Diego’s name on the caller ID.

“If you seriously think I’d be up for a midnight booty call with you, dude, you are abso-fucking-lutely mistaken,” I snarled as I answered.

“Tory! Thank fuck, I’ve been trying to get hold of you. My mother just added another memory to the soul web. And it’s bad. Really bad,” his panicked tone made my heart leap and dread raced through me as I wondered whether Lionel had found the star. Were we already fucked? Gabriel had said we had three weeks to fuck up his plans and I’d wanted to believe we had all of that time to beat him to the Imperial Star, but maybe I’d been fucking deluded to trust in that.

“Just spit it out,” I snapped as I pushed out of my bed and looked out of my window at the pitch black sky coated in a blanket of stars.

“Lionel took Darcy.”

I fell still, every inch of blood in my skin freezing over as a wave of cold so intense it blinded me as it raced through my body. My ears were ringing, my heart pounding and my grip on my Atlas tightening like it was a lifeline, the only thing stopping my bones from turning to jelly and me collapsing into a heap of nothing on the floor.

“Where are they?” I demanded.

“I’m not totally sure. But I think they’re at the Orions’ house. I’ve only been there once but I think I recognised the room they were in,” his shaky reply came and the fear in his voice was enough to banish mine.

True Fae didn’t let fear stop them. My sister needed me and that was all that mattered. Terror would consume me if I let it. But I wouldn’t let it. I hardened the walls around my emotions, locked down the paralysing fear deep inside my heart where Lionel Acrux couldn’t touch it and sprung into motion.

“Tell me everything,” I demanded as I ran to my closet and ripped it open, dragging on a pair of black yoga pants beneath Darius’s Pitball jersey before he’d even gotten a word out.

“They have her in a huge dining hall with a roaring fire in the grate. Lionel and Clara are there. Darcy’s tied to a chair and they’re torturing her for information about the item they’re looking for. They know you’ve been searching for it too-”

“Where are you?” I snapped as I kicked on my sneakers and pushed my door open.

“I’ve just left Aer Tower, I was going to come and break down your door if you didn’t answer and-”

“Go back in and go to her room,” I commanded. “See if there’s anything there to confirm where they’ve taken her.”

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Getting reinforcements. I’ll come to you when I’m done.” I cut the call and pounded my way up the stairs to Darius’s room on the top floor.

I hammered my fist against his door and when he didn’t answer right away, I tried the handle. The door was locked but magical locks had been on our Cardinal Magic exam and we’d gone above and beyond in our studies to master them.

I had to force myself to concentrate as my fear for Darcy distracted me, but on the third attempt, I managed to find the weak point in the lock he’d cast and forced my power into it, breaking the spell apart and shoving the door open in the same breath.

The scent of smoke and cedar washed over me as I stepped into the dark space, but one look at the freshly made bed let me know he wasn’t here.

Fuck!

I dialled his number as I kicked his door closed behind me, but he didn’t answer, his electronic voicemail bitch giving me the please leave a message bullshit. I did it because I needed his help and I didn’t have time to call again.

“Darius, I…need you.” Good thing that doesn’t sound utterly pathetic. But for Darcy, I’d happily swallow my pride. “Lionel has taken Darcy. He’s got her at the Orions’ house and they’re torturing her for information on our search for the Imperial Star. If you get this…” I huffed out a breath and forced my own insecurities and pride deep down into an icy pit of nothingness. “Please just come. I can’t lose her. I just, can’t.”

I cut the call, ran into his bathroom and destroyed the panel beneath the Jacuzzi bath with a blast of fire magic before grabbing a pouch of stardust from his hidden stash.

I ripped his Pitball jersey off and dropped it on the floor so that I was just wearing the crop top I had on beneath it and I could coax my wings from my flaming skin. I shoved Darius’s window open and spread my wings as I dove out into the night, racing across the sky towards Aer Tower.

I flew faster than I’d ever flown before, a sharp pain twisting my heart with the certainty that my other half was in trouble. Fuck knew how long they’d already had her. What they’d done to her. Or what they were doing right now. The panic I was fighting to contain was breaking free of the dam.

I could cope with anything in this world but this. Not her. If anything happened to Darcy then all the light in the world would be stolen from me.

She was the light to my dark, the joy to my pain. I loved her more than life itself and there was no life to be had at all if I didn’t have her by my side.

I made it to her window and ripped it open, causing Diego to shriek in fright as I leapt inside. Her room was a mess but it often was these days. She alternated between cleaning it like a woman possessed and living like some kind of wild bear with a hoard. I guessed sometimes she didn’t care about it enough to tidy it now that Orion was gone and others she cleaned frantically just to have something to achieve which didn’t involve him. My heart twisted to think of the pain she’d been in since his arrest. And now that motherfucking Dragon bastard had his claws in her too.

But I’d die before I’d let him take her from me.

“Is there anything here?” I asked as Diego recovered from his shock.

“Her Atlas,” he pointed out. “And her door was unlocked.”

“Show me the memory,” I demanded, holding my hand out to him and he took it instantly.

I gasped as he dragged me down into the shadows at his side and a white cloud appeared out of the darkness, his shared memories appearing before me from the haze.

I was looking through the eyes of a woman as she walked down a long corridor in a gothic looking house, her high heels clipping along the wooden floorboards.

She approached a door but before it could open, a piercing scream cut through the air and pain tore through my chest as I recognised Darcy’s voice.

The woman pushed the door open as the scream faded and the fear in me turned to agony which ripped me in two as I spotted Darcy tied to a chair in the centre of the room.

Lionel stood before her, his arms folded as he asked her a question and his voice filled with a vivid kind of excitement.

“Tell me where it’s hidden,” he growled.

“Fuck you,” Darcy hissed, spitting blood from her lips as Clara cackled with glee.

“Again, Daddy?” she asked eagerly.

Lionel nodded firmly and she reached out to place her hands on either side of Darcy’s temples as thick shadows poured from her palms.

Darcy screamed so loud it cut through me, tearing my soul to shreds and making my vision blur as I was filled with rage and the desperate need to help her.

I hardly even noticed as Diego dragged us back to reality and the shadow world faded.

“You’re sure that’s the Orions’ house?” I demanded as I blinked back tears and locked Diego in my gaze.

“Yes,” he breathed.

“I’ve never been there before. So you’re going to have to take me.”

“How?” he gasped, his eyes widening with fear.

“I’ve got stardust and I can get us off campus to use it.”

I didn’t wait for his reply before throwing a net of air magic around him and leaping back out of the window as I yanked him after me. I flew for the gap in the magical boundary surrounding campus as fast as I could, dragging Diego along with me as he screamed from within the bubble of air magic I was using to transport him. But I didn’t have time to waste waiting for him to walk there, so I couldn’t bring myself to care.

I dropped out of the sky beside the barrier, placing Diego down on his feet beside me as he panted fearfully.

“Come on,” I commanded as I led the way through the gap in the defences to the outside world.

I dialled Darius again one last time, but my Atlas died before the second ring sounded. I cursed it and yanked the stardust from my pocket instead, handing it to Diego.

“I’ve never used stardust before,” he breathed and the terror in his eyes looked almost set to consume him.

“It’s easy. Just toss it over us and focus on the place we need to go,” I replied.

“Okay…” Diego took a pinch of stardust from the pouch, released a shaky breath and then tossed it over our heads.

The stars twisted and whirled all around us as we were swept up into their embrace and I could only hope that we’d get there before it was too late.