Zodiac Academy 6: Fated Throne

I hadn’t felt this alive in months. The pure, unadulterated power of my Phoenix was burning through my limbs with such intensity that my freaking veins were humming with it.

Molten fire burst from my hands in a mixture of red and blue and I revelled in the heat of the flames as they stoked my magic and filled me to the point of bursting.

Darius fought like a warrior beside me, swinging his axe with a two handed grip and carving through the bodies of the dead like he was felling trees. His muscular frame flexed with the power of the blows and my gaze kept travelling to him over and over again.

A ferocious howl caught my ear from the direction of the gates and I froze as I whirled around to look down the hill in that direction. That wasn’t Seth.

My blood chilled as I spotted the figures racing up the path towards us, the sound of the pack of hounds baying for our blood making fear wash through me in droves.

‘The Reaper Hounds just broke down the gate!’ I yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear me as I pointed in their direction.

They were too far from us for me to have to worry about looking them in the eyes yet. But their mountainous black bodies stood out as darker shadows within the graveyard, their monstrously large size impossible to miss as they looked more like horses than dogs.

‘We need to run for the tomb!’ Darius commanded in a tone that brokered no arguments. ‘We can make a stand there if we have to and I’ll fly us out of here the moment Orion and Darcy return with the Imperial Star.’

The others were still fighting the undead who continued to crawl up out of the ground and I urged my wings to burst free of my flesh as I took to the sky. 

‘What are you doing?’ Darius demanded, reaching for me as I swept over him and I pointed towards the pack of dogs charging this way.

‘I’m going to make it as hard for them to follow us as I can,’ I said, ignoring the way he was shaking his head in refusal as I swept away from him over the heads of our friends and further down the path with fire burning in my limbs.

The moment I was past Max and Geraldine, I swept my hands out either side of me and cast a blazing wall of Phoenix fire across the path to slow the hounds.

As soon as it was in place, I dove back to the ground, casting a sword made of nothing but Phoenix fire into my hands as I banished my wings before swinging it at the head of the closest corpse and barking at the others to start running.

Seth raced up the path ahead of us in his white Wolf form and Caleb shot between the headstones, stabbing corpses with his twin daggers and sending them tumbling to the ground before they even knew he was upon them.

Geraldine and Max came to run with me and we charged through the crowd of undead, with our weapons swinging and power blazing through the air which made it crackle around us.

I’d lost sight of Darius and I hunted for him through the throng of corpses as we fought our way up the hill, my heart racing as I looked left and right with fear taking me captive.

The sound of the Reaper Hounds reaching the wall of fire behind me made my pulse skip as they howled their fury at the sky and I looked back over my shoulder, my gut lurching as one of them leapt right through the flames and landed on the path at the foot of the hill.

‘Oh fuck,’ I gasped, putting on a burst of speed and dropping my hold on the sword I’d created as I wielded air instead.

I created a shield around myself, Max and Geraldine then threw it out from my body with the full strength of my power so that the corpses surrounding us were blasted back and we were gifted a free run up the path.

‘Have heart, my lady!’ Geraldine cried. ‘We are true of honour and have the stars at our backs. We cannot fail.’

‘The stars are never at my back, Geraldine,’ I grunted as I ran on. ‘Those sparkly motherfuckers only ever send me bad luck.’

Geraldine didn’t get a chance to answer as we crested the hill and found ourselves surrounded by the undead once more. 

‘Brace yourselves!’ Darius bellowed and relief filled me as I spotted him standing on top of a stone Dragon that was guarding the entrance to a tomb.

He had his hands raised before him and I threw more power into the air shield protecting the three of us just before he sent a tidal wave of water crashing through the crowd of the undead.

The corpses screamed for our blood as they were swept away and I whooped in triumph as the wave crashed over my shield, leaving the three of us in place on the path.

I chanced a look back down the hill as the Reaper Hounds leapt on the corpses, tearing into them savagely, ripping bones free and devouring them with snarls and howls as they fought over their meal.

Darius leapt down onto the path ahead of us and my gaze fell to his bare arms, the ink slick with a sheen of sweat that made my heart race as I got caught up in the idea of being crushed in his firm hold. There was still some fear lingering in me every time I was around him from what Lionel had done to me, but I was starting to crave the rush of it, always hungry for the little shivers of adrenaline I got by being close to such a dangerous creature.

He took his axe from the sheath at his back and waited for us to catch up to him, giving me an assessing gaze that sent my heart racing before we ran on in search of Darcy and Orion.

‘Over here!’ Caleb shouted from somewhere up ahead and I spotted him and Seth who had shifted back into Fae form and pulled some sweatpants on. Max always carried spare shit for his friends; he probably had a whole outfit change in his bag for me too if I needed it.

They were all stood in front of an enormous tomb beneath an arching willow tree and we ran to join them.

‘You only have to say the word and I shall charge down yonder to delay those beasts, my lady,’ Geraldine said, swinging her flail as she moved into position by Seth’s side. 

‘No one’s going anywhere, Geraldine,’ I commanded. ‘Just stay beside me and let’s try and not have our souls sucked out, yeah?’

I looked around us to get my bearings and spotted mine and Darcy’s rings lodged in the round stone door of the tomb, marking Orion and Darcy’s passage inside. The door seemed to be shut tight and I couldn’t hear any sound coming from inside, but they must have been in there.

‘Close your eyes, Roxy,’ Darius commanded as the baying howls of the Reaper Hounds signalled them taking up the scent again.

‘You close your eyes,’ I bit back as he moved to stand in front of me with his axe raised. ‘I can use air and earth magic to sense where they are and flames clearly don’t bother them that much, so maybe you should just stand behind me.’

‘Not a fucking chance, gorgeous,’ he said, smirking at me tauntingly before turning his back on me and hefting the axe in his hands.

‘If I die, don’t let my mom clear out my room,’ Seth muttered. ‘There’s like soooo much porn beneath my bed.’

Caleb snorted a laugh as he closed his eyes, the earth Elementals all tapping into their connection with the ground to let them feel the Reaper Hounds coming.

‘By the guiding light of the moon, I know we will prevail,’ Geraldine said, her eyes closed as she swung her flail at her side and my heart raced as the sound of the pack drew closer.

As the first of the huge, black beasts crested the hill, I snapped my eyes shut and used my connection to the earth to buck the ground beneath their feet.

Caleb, Geraldine and Seth all joined me as we felt every place their paws met dirt and we thrust spears of rock and wood up into the paths of the oncoming beasts.

The scent of rot and death washed over us as they ran closer and my friends yelled out as they fell into battle with the beasts come to drag us to hell.

I kept my eyes clamped shut as I felt for every movement against the ground, every stirring of the air and I cast deadly magic at them time and again.

Darius was swinging his axe with savage blows as the beasts reached us and I could feel the ripples of his movement rebounding through the air every time he moved.

The need to open my eyes was overwhelming and I had to fight it with every scrap of self control I had. But as Darius grunted in pain, I couldn’t help but crack an eye open to see what had happened to him.

My breath stilled in my chest as he fell to his knees before a monstrous beast, his eyes wide and locked in the blood red gaze of the creature. His axe fell slack at his side and my heart fractured.

The Reaper Hound prowled forward, teeth bared and drool sliding from its jaws as its rotting flesh was stretched into a hellish snarl.

‘No!’ I roared, racing towards him as the beast’s red eyes flared with power and I ripped the axe from Darius’s grip before swinging it with every scrap of strength I held in my body.

The axe fell on the hound’s neck, bone snapping and a huge thump sounding as I severed its head with a furious scream as I refused to let that monster steal him from me.

Darius gasped as he rocked back onto his heels, suddenly freed from its monstrous power.

Max roared a challenge to the sky and a huge air shield was blasted into existence surrounding all of us as he fought to keep the creatures back.

Seth raised his hands too, strengthening the magic as the hounds dashed themselves against the shield, barking and snarling in wild fury as they tried to break through it.

I lunged at Darius, dropping the axe by my feet and slamming into him hard enough to knock him back onto his ass as I landed in his lap.

‘Is it you?’ I demanded, looking into his dark eyes and grabbing his face between my hands as I held him still, searching for the man the stars had chosen for my mate. ‘Are you still you?’

‘It’s me, Roxy,’ he said roughly, his hands moving to grasp my waist as he looked at me like I was the answer to every question he’d ever asked of the world.

Relief spilled through me in an overwhelming torrent that made me sag forward as I pressed my forehead to his for the briefest of moments before rearing back again.

‘You fucking idiot,’ I snapped, punching him in the chest as I realised he was okay. ‘Why the fuck were your eyes open?’

‘Because I wasn’t going to risk them getting past me to you,’ he snarled like that was the most obvious thing in the world and I punched him again.

‘And what would I do without you?’ I demanded, making his eyes widen with surprise before I even realised what I’d said, but fuck it.

I didn’t even want to think about the answer to that question or the implications of me asking it, so I just tipped my chin up and climbed off of him, closing my eyes tight as I raised my hands and added my air magic to the shield.

I cursed as the hounds crashed against it, trying to force their way in and the entire thing rattled with the strength of their power.

‘How long can you hold it?’ Caleb demanded from my left.

‘Longer if we power share,’ Max grunted and Darius grasped my left arm instantly.

The moment I felt his magic pushing up against the barrier of mine, I opened myself to it, the feeling of his power merging with mine the most natural, exhilarating sensation in the world.

But if I’d thought that was a rush then it was nothing compared to what happened when he connected his magic to Caleb’s then Seth’s and the barrage of their magic flooding into my body almost knocked me from my feet.

I gasped aloud as I fought to contain so much power at once and when Geraldine grabbed my other arm and her and Max’s power joined with ours too, my knees almost buckled from the weight of all of it.

‘Ho-ly fuck,’ Caleb groaned.

‘This might just be better than sex,’ Seth gasped and I made a sound of acknowledgement which came out as a breathy moan.

‘Good golly lobsters,’ Geraldine sighed and for once I knew exactly what she fucking meant.

The Reaper Hounds continued to throw themselves against the shield and I grunted with the effort of holding them back as we all flooded our magic into keeping it in place.

‘Come on, Darcy,’ I growled, hoping for some miraculous twin instincts to give her the message to hurry the fuck up, because even with all of our combined power holding this shield up, I knew it wasn’t going to remain in place forever. And I wasn’t sure I liked our chances against the Reaper Hounds once it broke.