Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

I had Max cornered against a tree, wrapped in lashes of shadow as Clara forced me to bind him there. I gritted my teeth, digging down inside me for my Phoenix as I tried to drag it to the surface of my skin.

Please, please come to me.

Fire seemed to burn in my periphery for a moment, the shadows easing their grip before they swelled up even more fiercely, sending a bite of pain deep under my flesh.

“Enough!” I screamed and Clara turned me away from Max, leaving him bound there and my breathing evened out.

Come into the darkness, what will it take pretty girl? Didn’t losing my brother hurt you enough? I know you love him. All that heartbreak will disappear if you just give in to the shadows, Clara’s voice filled my head and I tried to block it out as the shadows snaked through my chest, feeding on the dark emotions twisting inside me. I love him too.

“You don’t love him, you hurt him – you’re not his sister, you’re a monster! I’d rather suffer forever over him than give myself to you!” I yelled, trying to find her amongst the trees, but her laughter seemed to come from everywhere around me.

I was forced to stop walking and my head tilted down, showing me the blade that was half buried in the ground.

“No,” I growled, fire blooming in my veins as she tried to make me stoop down to retrieve it. I managed to fight back, my breaths coming raggedly as a blinding pain started up in my skull. But I held off from picking it up.

Just a little longer.

I have to stop this.

The shadows scraped along the inside of my body, no longer lulling and soothing like they usually were. They were a sharp weapon Clara was using against me. But I’d rather face her wrath than let her use me against the Heirs. I couldn’t hurt them.

Her voice filled my head once more and I wanted to claw it out and banish it forever. Just go into the shadows, let them take you away. I’ll look after you, Darcy.

“Go to hell!” I shouted but the darkness twisted inside me, drowning my resilience once more and making me crouch down to pick up the knife. The hilt was icily cold against my palm and I fought harder, fear ripping at my soul as she turned me to face Max, walking me toward him with a fierce intention.

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Don’t hurt him.”

Caleb shot towards me in a blur and my heart soared as I waited for him to take me down, but Clara intercepted him in a tremendous collision, sending them rolling away from me and snarling as they fought each other in the dirt.

Shadows crawled beneath my skin and made me step toward Max again, closer and closer as he struggled against his binds.

“You’ve got to get free,” I begged of Max, my hand lifting, poised to strike as I came within a foot of him, the blade held up to his throat.

“I can’t,” Max growled, straining harder as he tried to get his hands free from the shadows that bound him. True fear flickered in his eyes and I blinked back tears, my hand beginning to shake.

“Max,” I groaned.

I willed my Phoenix to come to my aid, drawing on its power as I tried to heave it out of the darkness. And slowly, it started to rise, my veins humming with energy as the slightest spark lit under my skin. But it was too late, my arm slashing forward about to strike when hands twisted me around to face the other way.

The knife sliced across my attacker’s throat and every piece of me screamed as I found myself looking into Seth’s eyes, his grip on me loosening as blood poured down from the gaping wound.

“No!” I yelled, my voice raw as he staggered backwards, still clutching my arm and dragging me down with him to the ground.

Max was shouting, but I couldn’t hear anything clearly apart from a violent ringing in my ears.

A clawing terror gripped me and the shadows rose up to claim me whole.

Seth clutched onto me, struggling to draw air against the blood. My hand was still locked around the knife and tears started pouring from my eyes at what I’d done.

“No, no, no,” I begged, falling deeper and deeper into the darkness.

It wrapped around me like a current of cool water, trying to ease my racing heart and the fear that was raking at my core. But then my eyes met Seth’s and I pulled away from it, a fierce heat building in me at what Clara had made me do.

“Just hold on,” I choked out, my arms locked to my sides, stopping me from helping him. Seeing him like that, bloody and dying beneath me broke something inside me.

Fire caught in the deepest regions of my belly then burst through me in a shower of raging sparks, tearing through my being as pure agony fuelled me, giving me the strength to fight back.

My Phoenix reared her head and the fire burned brighter, hotter, my head falling back so I was forced to look up at the stars, the entire heavens seeming to ignite above me.

I gasped down a lungful of air as the fire chased out the cloying darkness in my body, hunting down every blackened, corrupted part of it and burning it to nothing. My wings burst from my back in a storm of fiery light and the last of the shadows were banished. Gone.

I was free and I didn’t know how it was possible, but it was. And Clara no longer had control of me.

I frantically pressed my hands to Seth’s throat, desperate to stem the flow of blood and try to heal what I knew I wasn’t capable of healing. My magic attempted to hook onto his, failing again and again until I finally managed to latch onto it like we’d been taught in class. But I could instantly feel the extent of this wound and no matter how much energy I poured towards it, I couldn’t fix it. I wasn’t trained for this. I didn’t know how to heal it. And that caused me the most desperate type of pain.

“Help!” I screamed, my voice hoarse and laced with hopelessness.

A horrible whine parted Seth’s lips as he reached up to brush his bloody fingers across my cheek. “Together,” he mouthed but I didn’t know what he meant by that as tears rushed down my face, his hand falling back to the ground with a finality that hurt me.

Max was suddenly at my side, dropping to his knees and wrapping his hands over Seth’s throat.

“Heal him,” I begged, knowing I wasn’t gifted enough to do it. But I could lend Max power.

“Clara,” Max hissed in warning and my head snapped up as she caught hold of Caleb by the throat, slamming him against a tree.

I rose to my feet, my legs shaking as I raised my bloodstained hands and unleashed my Phoenix fire, sending it billowing toward her with the force of a hurricane, my teeth clenched as I aimed to destroy this bitch who had brought nothing but hell into our lives since her return.

Fury bubbled under my flesh and I let it fuel the dangerous fire pouring from my veins, showing her no mercy.

Clara shrieked in pain as my fire penetrated the shadows she was using to shield herself with, fleeing off into the darkness and Caleb slumped to his knees. His eyes locked onto Seth on the ground and his face became stricken with terror as he shot forward to join us.

I raised my hands and cast a circle of raging fire around us to keep Clara away before dropping to my knees and offering my wrist to Caleb.

“Bite me, take anything you need. All of it,” I demanded.

He didn’t hesitate, his fangs slicing into my wrist and his hands joined Max’s over Seth’s throat.

Max rested his free hand on my arm, looking to me with a grave intensity. “Let me feed on your emotions.”

I nodded, forcing my barriers down so he had access to the frantic grief inside me and he winced as he drained it from me, fuelling his magic reserves.

The green healing light shone brighter between them and my heart pounded wildly as the jagged wound began to knit over. But if he was already gone, if it was too late-

A shadow dropped from the trees above us and Clara landed in the circle of flames, her body illuminated by the red and blue fire of my Order. Caleb yanked his fangs free of me and I rose to my feet to put myself between her and the Heirs, raising my hands and snarling at her as I hungered for her death.

I blasted the immense power from my body, but she shot sideways, giggling as she evaded it.

“I guess Seth won the game,” she taunted as I roared my hate at her, casting a whip of Phoenix fire into my palm and slashing it through the air.

This time, she wasn’t fast enough and it seared across her back, making her scream in pain. “You bitch!”

She raced at me and I cast a shield of fire in front of me as she tried to get close, making her cry out as she collided with it. She darted towards the Heirs instead, reaching down towards them and I hurriedly cast another ring of fire around them, extinguishing the outer ring to try and guide her away. She hissed as she was forced back by the flames, but waved something at me with a look of triumph and I realised she’d gotten hold of the blade.

“You’re a monster,” I cursed. “And I’ll kill you for what you’ve done.”

“What have I done?” she asked innocently, batting her lashes as she stepped sideways and I mimicked her, moving the opposite way to keep her in my sights.

“You hurt people. I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Clara Orion. You’re just a hollow thing full of shadow and death,” I spat.

“So which would you rather I give you, Darcy Vega? Shadow or death?” She flexed her fingers and I prepared to shield.

A Nymph stormed out from the trees behind her, slicing its probes into the back of her neck and lifting its arm so she was suspended off the ground, her legs kicking and wheeling as she screamed.

My heart beat wildly in shock as I ran forward, aiming my hands at her, unsure what the hell that creature was doing, but I was sure as shit going to take advantage of it. Fire scored from my palms, but Clara twisted her hand through the air and the Nymph dropped her in an instant as she took control of it, the fireball spearing up towards the sky instead.

She hit the ground on her knees, clutching the back of her neck with a snarl. I gathered all of my energy once more and released it with a yell of exertion, but she shot out of the way with her Vampire speed, making me curse in fury.

I tried to follow the racing blur of her through the trees, but I couldn’t spot her and my gaze turned to the Nymph before me instead as I held my palms higher. Something stayed my hand before attacking it. It had helped me. Or that was how it seemed. But why?

The Nymph took a step away from me, bowing its head submissively and my heart trembled in my chest as I stared at it, fire swarming around my hands as I tried to figure out what it was doing.

Clara suddenly leapt onto its shoulders from behind, reaching over and slamming the knife into its chest again and again, making it release a horrible wailing sound. The Nymph fell to the ground beneath her as she struck at it like a psycho, stabbing and making my heart judder in alarm.

“You dare attack your princess?” she snarled, as the creature shuddered beneath her.

I released a tunnel of Phoenix fire with a shout of defiance and she leapt off of the Nymph, darting aside with a laugh.

“Bad girl,” she chastised, lifting her hands to fight me and I planted my feet, ready to finish her.

Her head snapped up and she suddenly clutched her throat like she was in agony. “Daddy, no! I’m coming!”

I released my fire as fast as I could, my wings beating enough to lift me off of the ground as I poured an inferno from my body, determined to end her. She raced away and the fire scorched a path after her, turning the ground black. But she was too damn fast as she disappeared in the direction of the house and my shoulders sagged as I failed once more.

I turned to the Heirs, dousing the flames around them and finding Max and Caleb still working to revive Seth. Terror gripped my heart all over again.

He can’t die. I couldn’t bear it if he died.

I was about to go to them when a guttural cough caught my ear and I turned back to where the Nymph had fallen.

My heart ceased to beat as I spotted a boy there, caked in mud and blood. A boy with raven hair and pale skin. A boy who couldn’t possibly be lying in the place of that Nymph.

“Diego?” I gasped, racing forward, confusion and fear strangling me as I fell down beside him and took in the gaping wounds that covered his chest.

I rested my hands over his skin as he blinked up at me, his cheeks splattered red and his eyes full of apology.

“I’m so s-sorry, Darcy,” he rasped.

“I don’t understand,” I sobbed, trying to knit the wounds over, but they were so deep and I couldn’t find his magic to hook onto. “Max!” I screamed, but Diego clutched my arm, shaking his head as panic took over me.

He can’t be here. Why is he here??

“Fae magic can’t heal me,” he whispered and the reality of what he was wrapped around my throat like a vice.

“How can you….how are you here?” Tears ran down my cheeks as I desperately continued to try and heal him, but I could see it was no use. My magic couldn’t latch onto his, it wasn’t like with other Fae, but how could I accept this truth even though I’d seen it with my own eyes? What did it mean?

Please don’t die.

“I’m not your enemy,” he swore and I could see the need in his eyes for me to believe that. I nodded, my tears splashing against his cheeks as I found his hand and clutched onto it tightly, not knowing what else to do. “I’ve done bad things,” he whispered, his breathing growing shallower. “You’ll see…you need to…take my hat.” He coughed and blood speckled his lips which I quickly wiped away, hating that I couldn’t do more for him.

“Just hold on,” I begged of him, tears blurring my vision and pain wrapping around my heart. “There must be something I can do.”

He shook his head slightly, acceptance settling over his expression. “I just wanted to be useful. Did I do okay? Was I good friend?” he asked, a tear rolling free of his eye.

“You’re the best friend, Diego,” I promised and a smile pulled up the corner of his mouth ever-so-slightly.

“You always felt like…home,” he said on a guttural breath, then he fell horribly still, his eyes fixed on the stars above as they reflected in their glassy surface.

“No,” I groaned, falling forward as grief took hold of me and I wrapped him in my arms, wishing I could have done more. Wishing I could make this right.

Don’t die. You can’t die.

His body suddenly turned to ash and a choked noise of pain escaped me as his remains danced away on the breeze, lost, gone forever. My friend. A boy I’d never see again.

A hand fell on my shoulder and I turned to find Seth there, his lips parted in shock, his throat smeared with blood, but somehow healed at last. I threw myself into his arms as relief crashed through me at finding him alive, unsure when exactly I’d gone from not only forgiving him, but to actually caring about him so deeply. My body shuddered as the weight of knowing he was okay tangled with the suffocating grief of losing Diego.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed as he held me.

“It’s not your fault,” he swore, clutching me tighter.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I said breathlessly and he nuzzled into my head.

“You too,” he whispered against my cheek as more tears escaped me.

I knew I couldn’t stay there in the safety of his arms any longer.

I had to get to Tory. I had to fight. I had to destroy the bitch who’d done this.

“Let’s end this, babe,” Seth growled in my ear and I nodded against his chest.

I got to my feet, forcing my tears away and burying my grief as I looked to the other Heirs, a powerful bond seeming to tie us together now. There was only one enemy that mattered, and it was time we defeated him. Together.