Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I twirled the Imperial Star between my fingers as I lazed in one of the bubbling pools in the bathhouse, sighing contentedly and daydreaming about going for a fly later on today with Tory and Gabriel. We sometimes cast rings of fire in the air and raced through them, the three of us tossing spells at each other to try and throw each other off. It was a game of dirty tactics and all of us ended up in fits of laughter by the end of it, and none of us had any idea of who had won the most rounds by the time we trailed inside – though Gabriel always insisted he had seen that it was him.

I was getting well used to his little pranks with his Sight, and it was damn hard to get one up on him, but Tory and I were managing it more often by learning to act unpredictably around him. We’d even managed to cast an illusion on his shirt once after he’d been out flying, and when he’d put his wings away and pulled it on, the words Crabby Gabby had illuminated on the back of it. He’d worn it halfway through dinner before he’d figured it out and cursed us, promising to deliver vengeance swiftly. It was almost impossible to remember a time before he’d come into my life, and I wanted to make up for all the years we’d lost.

Tory lazed beside me while Angelica, Sofia and Geraldine sat in the bubbling tub opposite me.

“How’s Tyler, Sofia?” I asked with a tug in my chest over his mom.

“He’s okay, I mean…he’s not really. But he puts on a brave face,” she said with a sad whinny in her throat. “Xavier’s been amazing. He brings Tyler anything he needs and makes sure he doesn’t have to want for anything. But it’s also made me realise, well…” she sighed.

“What is it my sweet Sofia?” Geraldine urged as tears gleamed in Sofia’s eyes, glitter sparkling within them.

“I don’t want Tyler and Xavier to go back to fighting. When the three of us are together, we find this kind of peace which reminds me of home,” she whispered. “And I know Tyler feels it too even though he won’t admit it. We’re a herd, and it feels right to just enjoy that.”

“Are you still hot for Xavier or is it just a Pegasus Dom thing?” Tory asked.

Pink glittery tears spilled down her cheeks into the water. “I’m in love with them both,” she admitted on a breath like she’d been holding those words inside for who knew how long. “And it kills me every time they’ve fought before now. Just being able to spend time with them without them snapping at each other feels so good. I don’t want it to end.” She clapped a hand to her mouth at what she’d said. “I don’t mean I don’t want Tyler’s pain to end. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Of course you didn’t,” I said, moving across the pool to hug her and Geraldine and Angelica fell in around us, squeezing us tight then Tory joined a beat later, patting Sofia’s head before we pulled away again.

Sofia drew in a breath, wiping away her tears. “I just want peace in my herd. And I know things are still unbalanced, I can feel it. But while Xavier’s playing Sub to appease Tyler, things are at least amicable. And by the stars, sometimes when the two of them are pressed in on either side of me at night, I can’t help but think what it would be like to claim them as my stallions. Both of them.”

“Go Sofia,” Tory said with a grin and Sofia cracked a laugh.

“That’s pretty common in Pegasus herds anyway, right?” Angelica asked.

Sofia nodded with a small sniff. “Yeah, but not with Doms. A Dom could bond with two or more Subs easily enough, but Tyler and Xavier are both so strong headed, they’re never going to find a balance together. With them, it has to be one or the other.”

“If I may interject with my two tuppence,” Geraldine said, leaning back against the side of the tub as we all looked to her. “A Ron Johnson or four between the bedsheets is all well and good for pickling your baguette, but when it comes to matters of the heart, a platoon of Long Shermans would never be satisfactory. So do Tyler and Xavier rock your underboats as well as showering your cockles in fresh whelks? Do they make your Lady Petunia do the ding-dang-tango and button your damsen?”

“I’m not sure what you’re saying Geraldine,” Sofia said apologetically.

“I don’t know how to put it any clearer, my little pink Pegafriend,” Geraldine said in frustration.

“Are they both good for your heart?” I translated, pretty sure that was what Geraldine was getting at.

“I think they could be,” Sofia said forlornly. “But I’m so torn between them. How will I ever pick?”

“Maybe you could toss a coin?” Angelica suggested and Geraldine splashed her.

“Hobgoblins,” she admonished her. “The fate of Sofia’s dear petunia and cockles cannot rest upon the flip of a hapless coin. No, she must forge through the black and stormy night of these emotions, ride the waves like a unicorn from the nevermore and come to the shores of her chosen Ron Johnson with a stout heart and her choice solidified in iron.”

“Hi everyone.”

We turned at the gentle voice and I spotted Catalina walking into the room with a plate of cookies in her hand. She was dressed in a high necked black swimsuit and Hamish came lumbering in after her in a pair of bright pink trunks, his large body as hairy as a wolverine.

“Don’t mind if we join you for a bit, do you? I brought snacks,” Catalina said and we all scooted over in the pool as the two of them got in.

Catalina sat to my left and Hamish sat beyond her as they handed out cookies and I groaned at the delicious food as I took a big bite out of one.

“These are my sister Brenda’s recipe,” Hamish said as he placed the tray down on the side of the pool. “She taught my Gerrykins how to make her bagels when she was just a pup, didn’t she poppet?”

My heart tugged with longing at the thought of growing up with a family like Geraldine’s, the warmth of such love surrounding our home.

“That she did, Papa. Every Christmas we would make themed bagels too. Cinnamon and eggnog, brandy and spice, oh – I cannot wait to do it again, I shall bake us up a bagel bounty.”

“Do you have any Christmas traditions, Angelica?” Hamish asked her and she nodded.

“My mom always gets us to lay out on the roof and stargaze. We cuddle up in blankets at midnight on Christmas Eve each year with a glass of mulled wine. It’s my favourite thing in the world,” she cooed and my heart tugged even sharper as I shared a glance with Tory, seeing the same ache in her eyes.

“Me and my family always go Carol singing,” Sofia said, her face lighting up. “We put on these massive silly Christmas pyjamas in our Pegasus forms. Half the fun is trying to get into them while we’re shifted, and all of us fall about laughing our asses off. The one who gets into them last has to wear a silly hat too which has the word Pegadunce on it,” she giggled. “We fly from house to house in our neighbourhood, shift back into our Fae forms with these baggy clothes hanging off of us and sing to all our neighbours.”

“Oh what fun! I shall have to join you in this merriment one year,” Geraldine cried.

“Do you have any family traditions?” Angelica looked to Tory and I and quiet fell as we glanced at each other.

“Um…” I chewed my lip awkwardly.

“Christmas isn’t really our thing,” Tory said, trying to deflect.

“Halibut! You must have some tradition,” Geraldine pressed and they all looked to us eagerly while my stomach knotted and heat rose in my skin.

“Well we have a snowball fight,” I said.

“Of course you do!” Geraldine cried. “And what else, do you snuggle around the fire afterwards and cosy up with a cup of hot nosh and open your presents?”

“We didn’t really have presents,” I said awkwardly.

“No presents?” Sofia gasped and Tory became overly interested in her nails as everyone kept staring at us.

“We had each other,” I tried, but then they just all looked a whole lot sadder for us.

“But you must have had a kind and bubbly foster mother? And a sweet-toothed foster sister with a fondness for warm hugs?” Geraldine asked, looking desperate for that to be true and I realised why we’d never brought these things up with her before. We’d told her a few bits and pieces of our past, but she’d be devastated to know how bad it had really been.

“We didn’t have anyone,” Tory said bluntly and I felt those words ringing around the empty space inside my chest.

“It was us. Just us,” I said, sharing a look with Tory and she smiled half-heartedly back at me.

Catalina suddenly touched my arm and I looked to her, finding her face taut with emotion. “You deserved better.”

My heart turned to mush at the way she was looking at me lately. She was so naturally motherly that she pulled us all beneath her wings with barely any effort at all. And I yearned so deeply for that part of me to be fulfilled that it was easy to let her, and to allow myself to bathe in the affection from her that we had never known from our own mom.

“Maybe this year we could create some new traditions?” Catalina suggested, her eyes brightening as she looked between me and Tory hopefully. “There were so many I wanted to have with my boys over the years, but Lionel never allowed it…” She blew out a harsh breath. “The point is, that both of you as well as my boys, Lance and me missed out on a lot of things, but that’s no reason to keep missing them. Can you think of anything you might like to do?”

“I wouldn’t hate a Christmas Eve drag race,” Tory said, her lips quirking in amusement. “I could get Darius a new bike every year and give it to him early just to beat his ass in a race right in time for the festivities.”

“Oh and we could all attend!” Catalina said enthusiastically. “We could knit family sweaters each year and wear them to the race and bake festive goodies to eat while we watch.”

“I’ve always wondered how you make mince pies,” I said with a shrug, kinda liking the idea of learning.

“And I’ve always liked eating mince pies,” Tory added, making me laugh.

“We could go for a flight on New Year’s Day?” I suggested. “Lance could ride Darius and we could invite Gabriel’s family too?”

“Gerry and I could run beneath you, howling you on,” Hamish added enthusiastically but Catalina shook her head.

“No. You should ride on me,” she said, her cheeks colouring as she voiced the idea.

“Upon the back of a Dragon?” Hamish gasped. “My lady, what a scandal we shall cause.”

“Lionel will roll in his grave,” Catalina replied wickedly, and we all laughed hopefully at the idea of him being dead.

“What else?” I asked excitedly, my grin widening at the thought of taking part in some huge family Christmas like that.

“We could grow our own tree and garlands,” Catalina added, her excitement clear too.

“And deck the halls with all the festive fangles!” Geraldine added. “Bake flamberbam cookies, hang naffly mistletoe, build gingerbread igloos, lay traps for elves, pickle a gherkin, wash some homeless fellows, dance upon a gooseberry, do the naked jive, place a prickly pinecone between our fanny cheeks in a Christmas Pine Cleansing, befriend a bad-tempered owl, tie bows in the shoelaces of Fae who have forgotten how and-”

“Take it down a notch, poppet, you’re losing your noggin again,” Hamish interrupted as Geraldine kept going without drawing breath, her face reddening more and more as she went on. “You don’t want me to tell Santa’s elves you got too exuberant again now, do you?”

“No Papa,” she agreed, slapping a hand to her mouth and sagging back in the water.

Ohmagod, she still believes in Santa.

“That all sounds great,” Tory said, breathing a laugh. “It would be really nice to be able to just enjoy a Christmas like the ones we might have had if Lionel hadn’t stolen our family from us.”

“I would be honoured if you considered me a part of your family,” Catalina said, tears shining in her eyes and my heart swelled at the thought of that. Of how much we might all be able to claim with one another once we were done fighting this war.

“I would love that,” I murmured and Tory took my hand beneath the water, letting me know that she agreed with that too.

“You deserved to know your sweet mother and your gallant father,” Hamish said brusquely, rage colouring his cheeks. “Oh what I would give to see them again. Your father and I studied together at Zodiac Academy, you know? He was a pioneer of a man, always shooting for the moon. I was a senior when he started, but good golly, he wowed me like a candy to a crow. We bonded when we were on the Pitball team together, see?”

“You were friends?” I breathed, latching onto the connection to my flesh and blood keenly.

“Indeed we were,” Hamish confirmed, smiling at some memory I wish I could pluck from his head and see for myself.

“What was he like?” Tory asked, shifting closer to me and Hamish rested his arms back on the sides of the tub.

“Oh he was a cad of course, every Lilith and June swooned at his feet. But he had the mark of a true king even then. His power was unlike anything I had ever seen, his casts so beautiful, it often brought a tear to my eye. And though his popularity was faultless, he was always humble. He liked his private time, he liked to draw too. His art was more wonderful than a lambent moon on a hillside.”

My breath caught at that fact. I hadn’t drawn in a long time now, but it was something I used to love, and hearing that my father had loved it too made me want to start another piece. It was something I’d always done in the past to escape reality, but since coming to Solaria, I hadn’t exactly needed that outlet when the whole world was constantly exciting.

“What else?” Tory pushed and Hamish started regaling us with stories of our dad on the Pitball team, the Earthbacker, which made Geraldine squeal as that was her position. I got lost in the sea of stories that painted a picture of the man I’d never know in my mind, my longing to meet him so fierce, it opened an old wound in my chest.

I had always wondered what it would be like to have a father, the concept so alien to me it was hard to even picture Hail as being that to me. And as I laid my head back against the side and new images were built up in my mind of him, I felt a little closer to the man I’d never really know. And hoped one day when I walked beyond the Veil, he’d be waiting there for me with the same passion and love in his heart that Hamish described him to have. I just wished death didn’t have to be the first time we’d meet.

After a while, Hamish and Catalina left and Angelica headed off to go and see her boyfriend, a heavy sort of silence falling over the rest of us.

Geraldine dabbed at her eyes. “Your dear father would have been blazing with pride like the sun in the height of summer for you, my queens.”

Before I could answer that, a head popped up from the water that made us all scream in terror.

“Cooweee! Only me,” Washer said as he stood fully out of the water to reveal his waxed chest as his cyan Siren scales shifted from his skin and vanished. “I’ve been taking a dip down in the depths of the pool in my Siren form. Nothing to get your panties in a twist about.”

“Have you been down there this whole time?” Tory gasped as I kicked away from him, his leg brushing mine and making my insides writhe.

“Yes, it goes much, much deeper than you’d think down there. I lay right on the bottom and did my hip thrusts,” he chuckled, looking between us and I dropped lower under the water as his gaze dripped over me.

“Get out of here,” I snarled.

“Yes, you crusty old crabbit, this is the royal quarters!” Geraldine snapped. “How did you even get into the true queens’ bathhouse?”

“I have my ways,” Washer purred, climbing up out of the pool and starting to do some lunges in the tiny speedos he was wearing. “I just gave the wards a little thrust and a hip drive and they came loose for me. It’s much wetter in here. And I like it wet.”

“Get. Out,” Tory growled, pointing at the door.

“Fine, fine,” he sighed, lunging his way out the door as his speedos slid up his asscrack and I shuddered.

“I shall reinforce the wards, my ladies. Forgive me,” Geraldine said, her head falling forward. “I have failed you.”

“It’s not your fault he’s a total creep,” I said and Geraldine nodded sadly.

“Alas, creeps will be creeps. But I shall reinforce it all the same, never fear.” She leapt from the water, hurrying to the door and starting to cast the wards that only allowed certain people through them. “Be gone foul blaggard! And keep your crack of dawn for a faraway sunrise!”