Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

We crept across the grounds of the Orion Manor, tucked within a concealment spell which I’d managed to construct to help hide us in the shadows. It wasn’t good enough to hold up against direct scrutiny but on the balmy summer night, it was more than enough to conceal us in the dark garden.

Diego was keeping so close to me that he kept bumping against my back and I was half tempted to tell him to just wait outside. He’d been doing a lot better in class, but he was nowhere near the strongest group in our Elemental Combat lessons and anyone we came across here would easily outmatch him.

They’d outmatch me too technically if we were talking skill, but if it came to it, I wasn’t going to go for subtle. One of the first lessons I’d learned in our combat class was that might outweighed skill a lot of the time. Lionel and Clara were obviously powerful enough that that wouldn’t help me much, but if Diego’s family or any other Fae were here, I was willing to bet I could pack a strong enough punch to win out against them.

The building was mostly in darkness but to the east of the house, light shone through the curtains covering some of the lower windows.

My instincts told me that that was where they must be, but I wasn’t going to head straight into it.

“I need you to cause a distraction,” I hissed at Diego. I had a silencing bubble covering us but it didn’t feel right to speak at a normal level.

“Like what?” he asked, his eyes widening fearfully.

“I’ll start a fire and once I’m around the far side of the house, you use your air magic to coax the flames into action until they’re big enough to draw attention, then just run for it. Daddy Acrux and his shadow bitch will come running, I’ll grab Darcy and then we’ll fly the fuck out of here. We should split the stardust so you can use your portion to escape back to the academy as soon as the fire has taken root.”

“What if it goes wrong and you get caught?” he hissed anxiously.

“Then you still need to get back to the academy and you need to find Darius and get him to come save my ass.” My gut twisted at the idea of dragging Darius into this. If he turned up and showed his hand in trying to help us against his father, I wasn’t sure what Lionel might do to him in retaliation. I was also pretty damn surprised that I knew for a fact that he would come anyway. A hell of a lot had happened this year between us but I had to admit that right now, when it came down to the shit hitting the fan, I knew he’d be by my side if he could. Which meant I trusted him. And there weren’t many more surprising things than that.

“Are you sure?” Diego asked, catching my hand to stop me from leaving.

“My sister is in there, Diego,” I growled. “Even death itself couldn’t stop me from going to help her.”

“Okay,” he agreed and before I knew what was happening, he’d thrown his arms around me. “Good luck,” he breathed.

“You too.” I accepted the bag of stardust from him once he’d taken his portion and turned my attention to creating a small blaze at the far corner of the house.

Diego took control of stoking the flames with his air magic and I slipped away from him as I skirted the huge building.

Half way along the wall, I found an open window and snuck in, dropping down into an empty bathtub as I paused to listen for sounds within the building.

All was quiet and my pulse was steady as I crept towards the door in the dark. I’d done more than my fair share of thieving to be confident in how to move through a house undetected. House burglaries hadn’t really been my thing, but people often forgot that the simplest way to steal a bike was to steal the keys. And if people were dumb enough to leave their keys hanging on a hook by the door while they left their windows open, then they really were asking for me to come in and take them.

I inched the door open and slipped out into the corridor just as Darcy screamed from somewhere within the house.

I heard that sound like a punch to the heart and I started running towards it without hesitation.

My silencing bubble concealed my footsteps as I sped along the empty hallway but as I drew closer to the source of the screams, I forced myself to slow.

I wanted to leap into that room and kill every fucker in there who had dared to lay a hand on my sister, but I had to force myself to be smart. I had to wait for Diego’s distraction to draw them out.

Light spilled beneath a door at the end of the corridor and my heart leapt at the sound of Lionel’s voice coming from with in it.

“Tell us now, or you’ll only suffer more,” he snarled and my blood ran cold at his icy tone.

There was the sound of something breaking and then a curse. The scent of smoke filled the hallway and a chalky taste coated my tongue as I ducked beneath a curving staircase and allowed my concealment spell to hide me.

I shivered as the fear in me took the opportunity to raise its head and I tried to call on the comfort of my Phoenix fire to banish it. But instead of the warming calm of the flames, all I felt from the beast beneath my flesh was a sense of drowsiness as I tried to call on my Order.

The door burst open before me and I cringed back into the shadows as a blur of motion shot away from me towards the source of the fire at the far end of the house. A moment later, Lionel strode from the room too, the door swinging over behind him as his boots banged against the floorboards and he followed the Vampire, who I had to hope had been Clara, towards the source of the smoke.

I forced myself to remain still as I waited for him to move out of sight at the end of the corridor then lurched forward.

I dropped the concealment and silencing spells around me and threw a solid shield of air up instead before conjuring a blade of ice into my hand and running straight towards the room where they were holding my sister.

I just had to get in there, grab her and get out of this house. Once we were outside we could set our wings loose and fly. Even Clara couldn’t catch us in the clouds. And though Lionel might chase us in his Dragon form, I’d out flown a Dragon before and the moment we were beyond the perimeter of this house we would use the stardust in my pocket to return to the academy. Easy.

I shoved the door open and ran forward several steps before falling still as I stared around at the empty dining room in confusion. There was a huge mahogany table to the right of the room and a fire in the hearth at the far end. A long window looked back out over the grounds of the estate and the curtains were wide. Fires burned in sconces around the room, casting the space in warm light but there was absolutely no sign of Darcy, or anyone else for that matter.

“I should have just counted on your stupidity sooner,” Lionel’s voice came from behind me and I whipped around as I tightened my hold on the shield that surrounded me.

“Where’s my sister?” I snarled as his lips pulled into a deadly grin and he stepped away from where he’d been standing behind the door. My brain tried to comprehend how that was possible – I’d just watched him walk away down the corridor outside.

“Oh that’s right, they don’t teach you how to detect an illusion in your freshman year do they? Pity you don’t have parents to assure you’re as far ahead of the class as my Heir,” Lionel mocked, flicking his fingers so that the sound of Darcy’s screams filled the air and a chill raced down my spine.

“She’s not here?” I breathed, relief spilling through me as I realised this was a trap. I was a stupid, idiotic bitch for walking into it, but I didn’t even care in that moment. Because that meant Darcy was still safe.

“I suppose you believed I walked off down the corridor after Clara too?” he taunted as he took a step closer to me and my grip tightened on the ice blade in my hand.

There was a hunger in his eyes as his gaze skimmed over me which made my skin crawl.

He was wearing a white shirt with the buttons undone to reveal his muscular chest where I was surprised to see almost as much ink as Darius had. But his tattoos weren’t filled with beauty and power like his son’s. They were all made up of runes which seemed to writhe against his flesh like they were constructed out of the shadows themselves and the more my gaze lingered on them, the more I was sure that was true.

I backed up slowly as he closed in on me, happy to play the part of prey to this hunter if it got me closer to an exit.

“Is Diego working for you?” I growled, anger flaring through me at the thought of him betraying us. The perfect double agent, gaining our trust by admitting he’d been sent to spy on us and then playing us for fucking fools when we chose to believe he’d had a change of heart.

“Oh it was better than that. The Polaris boy is a pathetic specimen who really did fall for your charms. But he didn’t account for my dear Clara. Her hold on the shadows lets her look through the eyes of anyone connected to the Polaris family soul web. We knew he’d changed sides, but we left him in place, using him to monitor you whether he wanted to or not.”

“So why give him up now?” I asked, backing up again and hoping he wouldn’t catch on to my ploy of moving closer to the window.

“Because I have need of a Vega. And my Seer predicted your sister leaving her room so that you wouldn’t be able to locate her. And how you would believe the worst so easily. All it took was a few minutes of Drusilla watching an illusion of your dear sister being tortured to create the memory for the web. She delivered it to her spineless son and you came charging in like a warrior to rescue Gwendalina when you were really just a sacrificial lamb racing to the butcher’s chopping block.”

I swallowed thickly as I took in the depths of this plan. The way the stars had let things fall into line for him to allow all of this to come to pass. Why did they favour him and curse us? Were they seriously that keen for the entire kingdom to fall to ruin at the hands of this madman?

“What do you want me for?” I asked, lifting my chin as I looked into his cold eyes.

His blonde hair was swept away from his callous face and I was glad that there was so little of his looks in Darius.

“I am searching for something,” he said slowly, wetting his lips as he took another step towards me. “Something which is bound to royal blood.”

I kept my face blank, not wanting him to read anything into our own attempts to find the Imperial Star from the look on my face. Not that we’d had much luck yet, but with Gabriel’s visions to help guide us, we were making some progress towards figuring out where it was.

“But I found out something troubling about it,” he went on as if we were having a pleasant conversation over cream tea or something. “It turns out I need royal blood to wield it. And then I figured, you have more than enough blood to spare.”

“You’re not having a drop of my blood,” I snarled.

I tried to urge my Phoenix to my flesh to help give me strength, but it still felt like it was sleeping and my heart fluttered uselessly as I tried to figure out what that meant.

Lionel watched me eagerly like he was waiting for me to make my move and I realised I really needed to do it.

“Come along now, Princess, let’s not waste time.”

I flicked my fingers at him and a fireball exploded in the space between us, blinding him for a moment as I turned and ran for the window.

A second fireball smashed the glass ahead of me and I leapt up onto the ledge, but I slammed into a solid wall of air magic before I could make it outside.

I cursed as I fell back onto my ass, tightening the shield I’d constructed around me as I threw the ice blade in my hand at him.

Lionel’s gaze lit with glee as he melted it easily and he threw an explosion of fire magic ramming into my shield with enough force to make my breath catch.

“Why don’t you hit me with some Phoenix fire?” he taunted as I conjured vines to erupt from the floorboards at his feet and tangle around his body.

I tried to reach for my Phoenix again as Lionel was forced to give his attention to fighting off the vines and my heart fluttered in panic as I failed to draw it from my skin.

“What have you done to me?” I snarled, throwing more magic into the vines and chasing it with ice to lock them in place around his legs.

“I didn’t want you using your Order gifts to run away before you’ve offered up your services, so we filled the house with Order Suppressant. You won’t be able to call on your beloved Phoenix for hours – at least not unless you take a shot of the antidote like Clara and I did.” Lionel smirked at me as he revealed the full extent of this trap and I cursed myself for being such a headstrong idiot and walking straight into it.

I gaped at him in horror and Lionel took the opportunity to destroy my vines and ice with a powerful flood of fire magic before sending it flying my way.

I braced for it, building my own fire all around me as the heat of the flames only stoked my power and I drew all of his fire under my control too, absorbing the blast before throwing it back at him tenfold.

I snarled at him as he fought to shield himself and followed my attack up with a torrent of water which I froze all around the surface of his shield, growing it thicker and thicker to contain him as I raced for the smashed window again.

I swore in frustration as I found my way still blocked by his air shield and turned my attention to the wall instead as the sound of cracking ice filled the room.

I gathered power into my hands and launched fire and air at the wall with everything I had. Bricks and mortar exploded out from the side of the house and I tightened my grip on my shield as more of it came raining down on me.

I ran for the cavernous hole I’d punched into the wall of the house but Lionel threw whips of blazing fire after me.

They curled around my air shield, wrapping around it tightly and yanking me to a halt as I fought to keep the shield intact.

I gasped as my feet started sliding backward across the hardwood floor as Lionel used the whips to drag me back towards him.

I gritted my teeth and pushed more power into my shield, focusing on the sides of it where the whips were constricting.

Air magic slammed into the top of my shield with such force that it stole my breath and with my focus on holding the sides, his magic punched through mine.

I screamed as I was snared in a cage of air and yanked off of my feet.

My back collided with the mahogany dining table and pain splintered through my spine as cords of air magic twisted around me to hold me down.

I fought against them with everything I had but as my arms were pinned in place, it became more and more difficult to bend my power to my will.

Lionel moved to stand by my feet and I cursed him as I thrashed against the binds, managing to tear a leg free and kicking him square in the nose.

A tremendous snarl tore from his lips as blood spilled over his face and a flash of triumph filled me as I fought like a Tom cat to free myself from the rest of his magic.

Lionel grabbed my leg, his fingers digging into the calf with enough force to make me cry out as he pinned it to the table again.

But I wasn’t going to give up. I fucking refused to bow to the whims of this psychopath and I was more than willing to bleed for my freedom if that was what it took to claim it.

The shadows licked keenly beneath my skin and I slid into their hold as easily as breathing, coating my flesh in darkness which hungered for blood.

Shadows coiled from my body, reaching for him eagerly and wrapping around his wrists as he fought to restrain me.

I urged them on as they pressed beneath his skin, heading for his heart, his soul, his power.

Lionel grunted as my shadows invaded him and a twisted smile captured my lips as I felt their hunger infecting me. The more I chased what they wanted, the tighter their grip on me grew and the sweeter their call sounded.

To my surprise, Lionel wasn’t trying to fight me, instead his eyes lit with glee as I dipped further and further into the dark.

“That’s it,” he breathed, his grip on my leg loosening until he was caressing me instead of restraining me. “Embrace it.”

His words sounded like a bell ringing in my ears as my entire body tingled with the pleasure the shadows were delivering to me. They ached for me to push even further into them, calling my name like the sweetest song. But as I drew closer to the oblivion they offered, the memory of my sister’s voice called me back.

With a snarl of defiance, I pulled away from the dark, my back arching against the table as I tugged at the cords of magic restraining my wrists and I forced the shadows back beneath my flesh.

Lionel’s lips curled back in a sneer and his magic quickly twisted around my free leg as he tied it down too.

Air magic tightened around my hands as they were pressed flat to the table, and he cast a tight shield around them, locking them still so that I couldn’t cast any magic.

“What the fuck do you want?” I shouted at him as he reached up to heal the damage I’d done to his face.

“I need a Vega who is willing to bow to me,” he purred as he moved around the table, his eyes lighting as he looked down at me, pinned beneath him like a butterfly on a board just waiting for the end.

“I’d sooner die,” I snarled.

Lionel tutted like I was nothing more than an inconvenience to him. “It always amazes me how many Fae throw those words about like they’re nothing. Yes, death can be a simple release, but what if it’s not an easy affair? What if I stand here and cut you apart piece by piece until you agree to my terms? Any time you come close to death, I can just heal you and start again. How long do you think you will resist me then?”

He moved to look down into my eyes and I spat right in his face.

The psycho barely even flinched, but his gaze darkened hungrily as he reached out to brush my hair away from my face.

“All you have to do to make me stop, is give yourself to the shadows,” he breathed as he moved around the table, his fingers trailing down my body from my neck all the way to my ankle and drawing a shudder of repulsion from my skin before he stopped by my feet. “Once you surrender to the power of the darkness, you will willingly follow the Shadow Princess and do my bidding when required.”

“Never,” I growled and the corner of his lips twitched in amusement.

I fought to contain my fear as he pulled my sneaker off and dragged his thumb up the sole of my foot.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my muscles bunching as he slid a knife from his belt.

“You need to know exactly who it is you belong to,” Lionel breathed, his expression lighting hungrily. “And I have a little theory that with your Order form locked down, you’ll no longer be immune to Dragon fire. How many times do you think I will have to burn my name into your flesh before the message sinks in?”

His grip on my foot tightened suddenly and I bucked against the table in panic as he placed the knife on the table and raised a finger, holding it close the sole of my foot so that I could feel the molten heat of his magic.

“Wait,” I gasped but he didn’t miss a beat as he pressed his finger to my flesh and began to brand the letter A into my foot.

The pain was blinding, every nerve in my body lighting up like it was on fire as I bucked against my restraints and his magic held me down. I’d never felt the pain of fire before and it was unlike anything I’d ever known. The burn that tore through me burrowed right through my flesh and set me alight with agony as he traced his finger over my skin.

I bit my tongue against the scream I wanted to release, tasting blood as I fought against it with everything I had and my heart pounded so hard I feared it would burst.

Lionel finally finished branding the X into my foot which completed his surname and I fell still against the table, panting as a tear slipped from the corner of my eye. But he wasn’t done there.

“The only problem I have with burns,” he said slowly as he lifted the knife from the table and pressed it to my skin. “Is that I don’t get to see you bleed.”

A scream lodged in my throat as the knife bit into my flesh and he drew a line of agony beneath his name, spilling the blood he was so eager to see.

I almost blacked out and when he drew the bloody knife away, I fell back against the table once more with my chest heaving as I fought to regain control of my thoughts.

The smile he gave me was one of pure glee as he moved to my side and slid his fingers across my stomach in a gentle caress which was somehow even worse than the kiss of the blade.

“You will scream for me, Roxanya,” he promised as he lifted the knife and brushed it across my ribs, painting my flesh with my own blood. “It’s only a matter of time.”

My muscles clenched as he lifted the blade once more and my eyes rolled back in my head as the pain of his torture began all over again.

I clamped my eyes shut and I thought of my sister, focusing on the fact that she wasn’t here and was safe away from this monster. That knowledge gave me strength as the pain ripped into me and the shadows begged for me to slip into them to escape it.

But I wouldn’t. I refused. No matter what he did to me, I wouldn’t become his puppet.

So I gritted my teeth against the agony of him carving into my body and branding me with his fire again and fought with all my strength not to scream.