Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I shot away from Darcy as she threw shadows at Seth and Max and they yelled out at her to stop. I kept my focus on my target, carving a trail through the trees and circling back to the bitch responsible for this.

I bared my fangs as I shot towards Clara Orion, her shadowy eyes darting my way as I came for her, and a smile twisting her lips as if my arrival had made her damn day.

“Come catch me, little Vampire,” she called, shooting away from me as she circled the others, trying to put them between us.

I snarled at her as Darcy cast a whip of shadows and Seth was forced to shield at the last moment, his grunt of effort giving away just how strong the strike had been. Max threw his power up to block Darcy too and she begged them to run as more shadows curled around her arms.

Clara continued to circle them, laughing like a little girl, trying to keep them between us so that I couldn’t get my hands on her. I growled in frustration, throwing my influence into the ground at her feet to slow her as she tried to shoot away from me again.

She stumbled into the pit, vines snaring her for just long enough to make my speed count.

By the time she was ripping her way free of them, I was on her.

I threw my weight into her as we slammed down into the pit I’d created and my hands locked around her throat as the dirt rose up around us, burying her beneath me.

Clara laughed manically as I squeezed harder, my palms burning with heat as I wielded my fire magic against her too.

Shadows licked along her arms as she reached out and wrapped her fingers around my wrists and I gasped as the icy power of them sent pain raking through my body.

I released her in an instant, shooting back up onto the bank of the pit as I urged my earth magic to bury her beneath the ground, piling more and more power into the attack as she fought to dig her way free.

I snarled as I tightened my grip on my power, choking her with earth and making the ground squeeze and squeeze, until-

Clara burst from the dirt, cackling wildly as she rode on a wave of shadows and leapt straight for me with her fangs bared.

I twisted aside, throwing fire into her face, but the flames were swallowed by the shadows as she directed them to protect her.

“You’ve grown into such a big boy, Caleb,” she giggled as she waited for my next move and I ignored her entirely. That thing wasn’t the girl I used to play with when I came over to Darius’s house as a kid. Whatever the fuck she was, it wasn’t Fae anymore.

I shot around the pit, but a tendril of her dark magic caught my ankle and flipped me off of my feet before I could escape it.

My chin slammed into the ground and I tasted blood as my fangs cut into my tongue.

Clara was on me before I could do any more than roll over.

A cape of black shadows writhed around her flesh as she straddled my hips, the shadows looming all around as she directed them towards me. Her ice cold hands pressed to my chest and I gasped as the darkness she owned bled into me, hunting for my heart with deadly precision.

Everywhere the shadows touched came alive with agony and made my skull echo with the memories of all the worst things I’d ever done.

“You look tasty, Caleb,” Clara moaned, licking her fangs as her gaze roamed over my throat.

I waited for her to lunge and caught her jaw in my hand with a flash of movement. My skin burned with fire magic and she howled in pain as I twisted her jaw with my enhanced strength until I heard it snap.

My other fist slammed into her side in the same movement and I gasped in relief as she was thrown off of me, taking her foul shadows with her.

I leapt to my feet with another snarl as I coated my arms in fire and caused the ground to tremble beneath her as she clambered upright again.

The shadows rose up all around her until she looked like nothing more than a blot of darkness beneath the trees. I’d learned my lesson. Those shadows weren’t getting close to me again and as she ran at me, I darted aside, throwing a torrent of flames at her and burning her dark magic back.

She howled with frustration as the ground bucked and collapsed beneath her and I chanced a look towards Seth and Max to find that Clara’s distraction was giving them an advantage.

Darcy was shouting at them to run as she was forced to hound after them with the shadows, but without Clara’s full attention guiding her, her attacks were sloppy.

That was all the encouragement I needed. I bared my fangs at Clara as I cast spears of wood into my hands and launched them at her one after the other.

She had to jump one and the next was consumed by the shadows, but I didn’t slow as I just cast more and more of them into existence.

If I wanted to save the others, I needed to release Darcy from Clara’s hold over her. And there was one sure way to do the job.

Clara Orion needed to die. And this time, she wouldn’t be coming back from it.