Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

“We’ll cause a distraction.”

I looked up at the sound of Gabriel’s voice as it drew me out of my nap where I lay on the edge of the lounger in the bathhouse. It was so warm and steamy in here that I couldn’t help but try to recover a few minutes of rest to catch up on the sleep Darius was so insistent on stealing from me – and even the frizzy hair was going to be worth the nap time.

“Why do we need a distraction?” Darcy asked from her position lounging at the edge of the warm water where she was watching Geraldine float across the surface in a giant mermaid shell she’d fashioned for herself out of earth magic. Sofia was lazing in the pool beyond her, her eyes closed as she relaxed.

“I don’t know – whatever it is, is hidden from me by the shadows so I won’t be much help with it, but I’ve already seen me and my family hitting a Nebular Inquisition Centre tonight so Lionel and his shadow bitch will be after us instead of you.” Gabriel tipped us a salute as he turned and left as quickly as he’d appeared, clearly decided on his fate and knowing that it wouldn’t involve us.

“Be careful!” I called after him and he chuckled as he headed back out into the corridor before calling back to us.

“You should head back to see Orion – the Heirs will return at any moment and Darius is all worked up wanting to go kill things,” he said.

“So what’s new?” I replied.

His laughter carried away from us and I forced my sleepy ass to sit up as the others got out of the pool, Geraldine paddling her seashell to shore while singing a ditty about a salacious salmon.

They got dressed and dried off and we headed back to Orion and Darcy’s room, Sofia peeling away to go find Xavier and Tyler as they had plans to fly with the herd in the clouds this afternoon.

I followed Darcy inside with Geraldine and found Orion sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, his hair looking like he’d run his fingers through it a hundred times and his nose so deep in the pages of that book on rocks that he could probably taste the glue that bound it.

“Shit dude, you look like you’ve been cheating on my sister with that hardback,” I teased and he looked up at us with a grin as he laid the book down in front of him.

“Do I need to break her spine?” Darcy teased as he shoved his messed up hair out of his eyes with a deep laugh.

“I think I’ve found something,” he said, beckoning us closer and pointing to a piece of text which was absolutely not written in English. “Look here, it talks about the twelve Zodiac Guild stones.”

“Golly gosh nuts,” Geraldine breathed.

“Oooh,” Darcy cooed, moving to sit on the bed with him as I dropped into a chair. “What does it say about them?”

“Not a lot,” Orion sighed. “It’s only this small passage really. But it implies that the stones were once held by the heads of twelve powerful families, each of which represented a single star sign. Then I remembered a passage I’d read in this book-” He turned and grabbed one of the many books which lay on the bed behind him and flipped through the pages of the dusty tome as carefully as he could before holding a handwritten page out for us to see. “This is an account of prophecies which were foretold in the last few hundred years which may or may not have come to pass – basically any prophecy that a Seer of note was gifted from the stars which wasn’t about events in their lifetime. I went through a stage of being obsessed with finding old prophecies and figuring out what they’d been referring to and whether or not it came to pass as a boy, so-”

“We get it, you had books for friends as a kid. But why does that equal you looking like you might make a mess of your pants at any moment?” I interrupted, seeing a whole series of reminiscence about his childhood reading habits in my future if I didn’t get him back on track. Darcy looked like she was into his lust for books, and I was kinda wanting to step out of the room before they descended into some sort of book orgy that I seriously didn’t want to have any awareness of.

“Right, yeah, so this is a prophecy which is almost four hundred years old and it says; ‘Reuniting the stones of the Zodiac Guild will mark the dawn of a new reign.’”

Orion looked between my sister and I with a wide grin and Geraldine shrieked before throwing a hand to her forehead and collapsing in a heap.

“Holy shit, Geraldine!” I cried, diving out of my chair and rolling her over as I pushed healing magic into her body, wondering what the hell had just happened.

“Are you okay?” Darcy asked in concern as she leaned in close too and Geraldine began to murmur something beneath her breath.

“The time is nigh, the time is nigh, the time is nigh…”

“What?” I asked, looking to Orion in alarm as he stood over us. But before I could freak out and start wondering if she was having a vision of her own, Geraldine leapt to her feet and thrust her arms into the air, an explosion of noise bursting from her throat as she cast that voice amplification spell thing on herself and made her words echo throughout the entire Burrows.

“THE TIME IS NIGH!”

“Jesus!” I clapped my hands over my ears and Darcy winced violently as Geraldine burst into tears, thankfully ending the spell before dropping to her knees before us.

“We must reunite the stones and mark the dawn of your reign, my queens,” she gasped between sobs and my frantic heartbeat finally began to calm as I realised she was just having an A.S.S. episode.

“You scared the crap out of us, Geraldine,” Darcy scolded as Orion shook his head and moved back to his precious books.

“So where are the rest of the stones?” I asked, looking to him and wondering if there could be any merit to a prophecy from hundreds of years ago.

“Lost. Have been for generations,” Orion sighed. “I found records in some other books which refer to them by various names and I’m almost certain that they are in fact all referring to the same set of twelve stones. The most well known being The Gems of Lariom which were rumoured to be the prized possession of a Dragon called Hermiod hundreds of years ago. He loved them more than life itself and the stars cursed him to lose them for prizing them above all else. It’s a children’s story which I never really gave much credit to, but if there are some tendrils of truth in it then maybe we could track them down…”

“Has anyone ever tried to find them before now?” Darcy asked, drifting closer to him to get a better look at the book of rocks while I dropped into my seat once more.

“Oh, countless Fae have tried, your highness,” Geraldine said, managing to peel herself off of the floor as she moved to look at the books as well. “The Gems of Lariom are a much sought after treasure which no Fae has ever proven really exist at all. And yet many still have taken up the hunt. It is said to be the most hopeless endeavour ever to be undertaken in Solaria. The hunt for the stones is called the endless expanse, the pointless quest, the life of the fool, the most idiotic of journeys, the hope of the madman, the-”

“We get it, Geraldine,” Orion growled. “But maybe it just wasn’t the right time until now – we found six of them already after all.”

The door opened behind us before she could respond and the Heirs strode into the room, Max sporting a bloody nose while Darius’s lip was split open.

“What happened?” I asked, shoving to my feet as my gaze locked on the sight of those injuries and the blood which was splattered over all of them too.

“Don’t worry, babe,” Seth said casually. “Darius just decapitated a Nymph then Max started a fight with him after we got back because he didn’t appreciate the way he handled it. No biggie.”

“Oh.” I dropped back into my seat again and Darius scowled at me for how quickly my concern fell away, but he was clearly fine so I wasn’t going to fuss over him like some mother hen.

“You killed it?” Darcy breathed.

“It was evil, little Vega,” Max promised. “We saw what it had done to our kind.”

Darcy’s shoulders dropped in relief and I had to admit I was relieved too. If there were happy little Nymph friends out there, I didn’t want Darius going around decapitating them, but if he killed one or two who liked to spend their free time murdering innocent Fae then who was I to judge?

“Aren’t you gonna come running over to heal me, baby?” Darius taunted me.

“Fat chance of that. Don’t get into fights with your friends if you can’t handle the fallout,” I scoffed. “Besides, I wanna hear what you guys found out from the Nymph.”

“Yeah, tell us what you discovered,” Orion encouraged, moving to sit on the bed before leaping up again as he almost placed his ass on one of the books.

“Are you okay, man?” Caleb asked him, cocking his head to one side. “Is that ball rash still causing you problems?”

“What? No,” Orion snapped, shooting a death glare a Seth who just shrugged innocently.

“Oh dear, not a rash on your John Ronalds!” Geraldine cried. “I can make you a special ointment for that. Allow me to ask my papa if he still has a store of wartslime and-”

“I have it under control, thank you, Geraldine,” Orion snarled and I sniggered as he shot Seth another look that promised him a slow and brutal death. Darcy and I glanced at each other, nearly cracking up further before Orion’s gaze slid onto us, and his demon professor eyes had the eerie effect of making our laughs die in our throats. Dude was gifted at the bossy teaching shit even if he never had liked his old job. “Let’s just hear what the four of you found out.”

“There’s a rift between the Fae and Shadow Realms which is feeding Lavinia power and the Nymphs have been helping her bolster it with those dark artifacts,” Darius explained, picking up an Atlas from the table and opening up a map of Solaria before zooming in on a section of deep forest to the far east of the kingdom and pointing at it. “There’s a temple or something there containing it and it looked like the place was crawling with Nymphs.”

“Question is, how do we close a rift between the realms?” Seth asked as he dropped into a seat opposite me.

“With dark magic,” Orion replied in a serious tone. “But it won’t be simple to achieve.”

“Who cares about simple?” I asked. “I wanna know if it’s doable or not.”

“I think it will weaken Lavinia if we can manage it,” Darius added. “We definitely got the impression that the artifacts alongside the rift were increasing her power. That was before she crossed into our realm, but it makes sense that it would be helping her draw the shadows through to our realm too.”

“The vision we saw of Lavinia showed the Vega queen banishing her to the Shadow Realm and closing the rift to cut off the remaining Nymphs from the power of it,” Darcy added thoughtfully. “So maybe closing this one would weaken them again.”

“There are bound to be countless Nymphs there,” Orion protested, leaning in close to look at the map which Darius had pulled up on his Atlas. “Fuck knows how many they’d leave guarding something that important, but it’s not going to be easy.”

“Well nothing ever is for us, is it?” I shrugged, earning myself one of those blazing looks from my Dragon which spelled out just how much he hated the way we’d begun with each other.

The corner of my lips twitched in amusement as he frowned at me though, because I might have fucking hated him once and it might have been a whole lot easier on the two of us if we’d just been upfront over our feelings and attraction to one another to begin with, or even if he’d gone against his father’s wishes when it came to me, but that wasn’t our story. And I wasn’t certain I would love him this desperately if it had been. The way we came together might not have been a pretty little fairy tale filled with sonnets and roses, but it was raw, brutal, real. Ours. And I’d felt every damn moment of it along the way.

“Maybe we should just hit them hard,” Darcy suggested. “We have an entire army here waiting to strike – why not bring them out in force and show Lionel what we’re capable of?”

“We don’t have the stardust for that,” Max pointed out. “With Lionel restricting access to it, we’re going to be hard pressed to even make sure we have enough to keep using it ourselves.”

“We can handle it,” Caleb said with a cocky shrug. “We can take out a few Nymphs.”

“Hell yeah we can,” Seth agreed. “We’re the Phoen Dream, Bitchy Flame Eyes, Wolfman, Bitey C, Fish Fury, Dragzilla, Professor Shame and Batty Betty.”

“Don’t start with that shit again,” Darius groaned as Geraldine chuckled loudly at the name he’d gifted her and my smile widened at mine. I still kept getting caught off guard by seeing him acting so damn normal around his friends, that utter asshole facade slipping just enough to let the light in when he was surrounded by people he trusted.

“Oh fuck off,” Orion growled. “If I have to have a shit nickname, at least don’t bring my damn shame into it.”

“Aw, look at you wanting a cute nickname from Seth,” Darcy teased him and Orion sighed as Seth immediately dove on the opportunity to play with him.

“It’s hard not to bring your shame into when it’s looking me right in the eye, Lance,” Seth said airily. “You should just own it, make a shame club with shamed friends who go on shameful adventures.”

“Or I could cut your hair off and strangle you with it, how about that?” Orion tossed back.

“Wow, Professor Shame is grumpy today,” Seth muttered and Darcy flicked a finger, casting a perfect shot of water right up his nose.

“Ah!” he yelped.

“Don’t bring shame into it,” Darcy insisted.

“Fine,” Seth sighed. “I’ll think up something else, but we’ll use Professor Shame as a placeholder for now.”

“We should consult with Gabriel about this altar,” Darius said, steering us back to the task at hand.

“Gabriel can’t help us with this,” I said, pursing my lips. “But he said him and his family are going to keep Lionel and Lavinia distracted for us. So I think the best thing we can do is strike at them out of the blue and hit as hard as we can.”

“Her majesty is right,” Geraldine agreed with a solemn nod. “We must drive ourselves deep within their darkest recesses, slam down hard upon whatever cranny and crevice we can thrust through, pound them down beneath us and leave them begging for absolution.”

“Yeah, what Gerry said, let’s pound them until they can’t take no more,” Max agreed with a grin as Geraldine gasped.

“Do not be so vulgar you stupendous sea urchin!” Geraldine cried, back handing him around the head so hard that he almost head butted the table in front of him.

“If this rift is feeding Lavinia more control over their shadows, they will be guarding it furiously,” Orion warned. “I seriously doubt we will be able to just force our way in there. Besides, if we linger too long Lionel will likely show up and we still aren’t ready to take him down.”

“And he’ll probably bring the Dragon Guild with him,” Darius muttered.

“Well if Gabriel is busting into one of his Inquisition Centres that should buy us some time at least,” I said and Orion nodded as he thought on that.

“Why don’t we just play to our strengths then?” Seth suggested.

“Which are?” Darcy asked curiously.

“Well, you may not have noticed, babe, but I can be a bit of a showboater when the occasion calls for it.”

“The occasion never calls for it and yet you do it incessantly,” Orion pointed out and Darius snorted in amusement.

“I beg to differ,” Seth said, raising his chin. “Like right now for instance, the occasion most certainly calls. If we were to attack them outwardly, maybe snatch a few of their friends and tie them to stakes, leave them screaming for their little buddies to hear, then the Nymphs would all come running to help them.”

“Then what?” I asked, trying to understand how us drawing the lot of them to us would make getting to that rift any easier.

“Then Cal shoots round the back while they’re distracted and blows their rift to smithereens before they even realise he’s there,” Seth said simply, grinning at Caleb who seemed to like the sound of that idea.

“Yeah, I could play hero if you need me to,” Caleb agreed, pushing his fingers through his blonde curls in that flirtatious way he always did as his gaze lingered on Seth’s.

“You can’t blow the rift up,” Orion growled, shaking his head. “It is a tear in the fabric which separates our realms and unlike the bridge we leave open to the mortal realm, this one is dangerous. We need it sealed so that the shadows can’t slip through anymore. If we do it wrong then we could end up making it bigger and gifting Lavinia and the Nymphs more power instead of taking it from them.”

“And you’re saying I can’t manage that?” Caleb asked, quirking a brow at him.

“I’m saying it will take dark magic and a whole lot of concentration and even then, I’m not certain it can be done. The rift will be incredibly volatile, one wrong move and we could tear it wider, releasing more shadows upon our realm instead of sealing them away. And fuck knows what will happen to all of us then,” Orion replied tersely.

“Well if anyone can manage it, it’s you, Lance,” Darius pointed out and we all turned to look at our former professor as he frowned.

“It will be dangerous,” he said and Darcy’s throat bobbed as she looked at him.

“Everything is dangerous these days, dude,” I pointed out and he nodded in reluctant agreement.

“I’m guessing it will require the use of a binding needle to do it which is a seriously dark artifact which none of you have been trained to handle,” Orion added thoughtfully.

“This is the kind of blow we need to strike against them,” Darius said firmly. “So I say we do it. I can lead the charge to distract the Nymphs and draw them out of the temple. But if you’re going to need to concentrate while you work to mend the rift then you can’t go alone. You’ll need to bring someone you can trust to watch your back.”

“I’ll go with you,” Darcy offered instantly, but Orion shook his head.

“I’m guessing getting in there without being noticed will be seriously difficult. I’m going to need to move at my top speed and I can’t do that while carrying someone. It’s better if I go alone, Blue.”

“Or bring the strongest Vampire in Solaria with you,” Caleb interjected, his chin tilted up in a challenge as the two of them faced off. “I can watch your ass and deal with any threats that might come at us while barely breaking a sweat.”

“Fuck yeah you can,” Seth chuckled, his eyes alight as Orion simmered, a refusal brewing in his gaze. 

Darcy reached out to grasp Orion’s arm, giving him a stern look. “If you can’t risk carrying someone then Caleb is your only choice. He’s powerful and you can trust him. So what’s the problem?”

“Yeah, all you have to do is ask me nicely and I’ll come protect you for sure, Lance,” Caleb said, smiling sweetly, though the effect was ruined by the sight of his fangs peeking out.

Orion growled, clearly unimpressed by the idea and I arched a brow at the two of them, feeling weirdly like I was watching a wildlife show where two predators had just stumbled upon each other at the edge of their territories and were about to fight to the death to claim pissing rights on the closest tree.

“Oo-ee, is it me or is it getting all kinds of hot in here?” Geraldine asked loudly, fanning her face as the two Vampires glared at one another in clear dislike. “I swear all of this testosterone is going to impregnate one of the ladies here present if you boys don’t find a way to dial it down a notch.”

“Yeah, suck it up, boys. The plan is already decided,” I said, flexing my fingers and letting Phoenix flames ignite along the surface of them as the thought of the fight got my veins buzzing. “Me and Darcy are gonna lead the group as we distract the Nymphs and draw them out of the temple. You two just need to sneak in while we keep them busy and fix the shadow hole with that fancy needle thingamabob. Simple.”

“You’re not leading shit, Roxy,” Darius growled, reaching out to grip my arm and tugging me closer to him as his pupils shifted to reptilian slits in warning. “You’ve only been on a handful of Nymph raids before. So I’m not gonna let you risk your neck trying to prove you can do something which you clearly haven’t got the first idea about.”

“Oh, there he is,” I said, leaning down and placing my hands on the arms of Darius’s chair as I looked at the darkness in him and prepared to stoke it with flames. “The asshole who still thinks he’s more deserving of our throne than the Heirs who were born to sit on it.”

“And there she is,” he replied in a low voice, our unending argument making the air crackle between us as we poked it awake once more. “The little girl who thinks placing a crown upon her head will make her capable of running a kingdom she knows nothing about.”

“Shall we do rock, paper, scissors to decide who will lead the charge?” Seth stage whispered. “It just seems like that stare off will go on all day if not and we have Nymphs to kill…”

Caleb barked a laugh and Max snorted too, but I just held Darius’s gaze and waited to see if I would find any flicker of doubt in his big ego, but all that looked back at me was a Dragon who was once again certain he knew best. Gah, sometimes I wanted to kick him in the dick even more than I wanted to use it for the fun things.

“Darius is right,” Orion said behind me and I forced my gaze around to look at him. “He is the most experienced among you when it comes to fighting the Nymphs. He should lead you.”

“Oh should he now?” Darcy asked with narrowed eyes, but before our argument could escalate, Geraldine leapt to her feet and upended the table, forcing all of us to scramble away from it – though Darius just stayed right there in his seat with his legs spread in his big balls pose without even fucking flinching.

“Ladies, let us prepare to leave – I have a gift for you to wear into battle and we have no time to waste on flimflamming with these uncouth ruffians. I suggest we all meet up in the barn post haste and the rest of you go and retrieve your weapons from your rooms – we cannot just sit around here lollygagging while Nymphs await their deaths at our fair and star bound hands.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Geraldine snatched hold of mine and Darcy’s wrists and promptly dragged us from the room, leaving the Heirs and Orion staring after us in shock.

Damn that girl knew how to make an exit.

“I wasn’t done telling Darius where to get off,” I grumbled as I was towed along at what was arguably a run.

“I know, my lady,” Geraldine said, casting a look over her shoulder before hurrying on, not once loosening her grip on me or my sister. “But that is the problem. Your dear Dragoon is blinded by his unfortunate upbringing, a need to prove himself worthy of his position and your love, his Leo pride, the stubbornness of Mars itself and not to mention the most desperate desire of his heart to keep you safe. There will be no reasoning with him, and I thought it prudent to save you the wasted breath. Big men like to talk the talk and bluster on about how powerful and right they are – but you gals and I know the truth.”

“What truth?” Darcy asked as we were pulled into Geraldine’s room.

“That a woman holds so much more power than any man could ever hope to. We are stalwart and true of heart, we love fiercely and protect ferociously, we are kind when kindness is due and stubborn when the right thing must be done and best of all – we are not blinded by the whims of a Long Sherman flapping between our thighs. And though Lady Petunia and her counterparts may have their attentions turned every now and again, we still hold the power that men can never hope to. So let the Dragoon believe he is in charge if it makes his manhood feel bigger-”

“It doesn’t need to be any damn bigger,” I muttered and Darcy laughed.

“TMI, Tor.”

“I’m just saying.” I shrugged and Geraldine giggled girlishly.

“Oh do tell, my lady – I must say I have had my curiosities over the size of a Dragon’s dongle berry – they are so very large after all. And I may have perused its impressive size once or twice when he has been in the nip from Shifting, but I haven’t ever seen it in its fullest, most excited glory if you catch my meaning. So is it in proportion to his impressive physique?”

I smirked and shrugged. “For Darius it sure as fuck is – but not for all Dragons.”

“Oh sweet mercy, you don’t mean to say-”

“Relax, Lionel never put his stumpy cock near me, but I saw him slamming it into Clara enough times while I was all shadow freak to understand why he’s got so much damn rage in him. It looks like a mushroom that got half decapitated.”

Darcy burst out laughing and Geraldine howled so loud I was pretty sure some dust dislodged from the roof to scatter down on us.

“Well I shall have to get you to regale me with tales of being jolly rodgered by your scaly side piece later, my lady. Not to mention an account or two of how bossy your chompy blood badger gets in the rose bush too, Darcy dear. I’ve heard a rumour or ten about how a Vampire’s speed may be wielded within the rutting sack, and those fitted slacks he wore for classes told quite the story of his colossal man bulge. I will even give you an account of my latest soiree with the slippery seabass himself-”

“Wait,” Darcy interrupted. “You and Max hooked up again?”

I perked up at that little titbit and Geraldine sighed dramatically as she opened a chest at the foot of her bed. “Yes…well I do seem to be developing a taste for his dingberry, I will admit. Alas, I fear it will only end in heartache though.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, wondering if she really believed Hamish would hold her to the dumb arranged marriage thing if she decided she didn’t want to go through with it. He certainly didn’t seem like the type to want to do anything that would make his daughter unhappy.

“Never mind that now,” Geraldine said dismissively, standing suddenly and whirling towards us with a grin so big it was damn near blinding as she held out two large bundles wrapped in cloth. “The queen herself, your mother, left these in the possession of my father and asked him to keep them safe until the day came when they were needed. It has been many years, but he never once questioned that she knew what she had been doing when she entrusted him with their safety and this very morn, he told me that he felt it in his waters. And his waters are never wrong. It is time. They are yours.”

I frowned a little as I felt the weight of the bundle and moved to place it on her bed, exchanging a look with Darcy as we both untied the ribbons securing the white cloth in place. The knots were firm and the thing was bound tightly but when I finally unwrapped the fabric, I gasped as my gaze fell on the gift from our mother.

My lips parted as I stared at the beautiful armour that awaited me within the package. The metal was a bronze colour which looked as if it had been dipped in oil, swirls of red and blue imbued in every inch of it and a pulse seemed to emanate from the metal itself before I even laid a hand on it.

“This armour was crafted for the queens of old. Your ancestors from times gone past who shared your heritage and held your Order forms,” Geraldine breathed reverently. “It has the fire of the Phoenix living within it, utterly unbreakable and untarnishable.”

A small note lay on top of the stunning breastplate and I swallowed a lump in my throat as I reached for it with shaking fingers, the name Roxanya written in the swirling script I’d come to recognise as my mother’s handwriting.

Fly fast and true, sweet girl. Secrets wait beneath the ground, search fearlessly and they shall be found.

I arched a brow at what I had to assume was some kind of prophecy, holding my note out for Darcy to read as she showed me hers.

When darkness steps closer, lean into the light. The strongest of weapons is forged in the flame, hold your breath and fight through the pain.

“That sounds about as uplifting as ever,” I muttered, wondering why the damn stars had to be so freaking cryptic all the time.

“I guess we just have to remember what it says and pay attention to any clues which might help us understand it,” Darcy replied with a shrug, biting her lip nervously.

“I’ll give it a try but honestly, none of these things ever make a blind bit of sense to me until it’s too damn late.”

“Get dressed, my queens, it is no time to dilly dally,” Geraldine barked suddenly as she leapt to her feet, flapping her arms at us and making me jump half out of my freaking skin.

“Jesus, Geraldine, don’t do that,” I growled, giving in to her demands and changing into the admittedly badass looking armour.

The breastplate which was clearly designed to be worn by a woman, laced together at my sides with a material which almost seemed like leather but was somehow tougher and more supple, creating a layer of softness against my skin within the metal. The pants were made with a mixture of the leathery fabric and metal panels which slid over each other to allow my legs to move freely while still protecting them and I couldn’t help but admit how comfortable the armour was despite its weight.

There were boots which were made of the same supple material and there were braces for my arms, though the upper part of my back was left bare, my shoulder blades free to allow my wings room to materialise.

Thankfully there wasn’t a helmet, because I was pretty certain I would have had to draw the line there. I was already feeling kinda weird putting this shit on and was wondering how offended Geraldine might be if I just switched back into my own clothes, though as I caught sight of us in the mirror, I quickly dismissed that idea.

“Well shit,” I muttered, looking between Darcy and myself in the reflection as my heart paced and my palms grew slick. “We look like we’re doing one hell of a cosplay.”

Darcy snorted in amusement, tilting her head and nodding. “Comic Con here we come,” she agreed, grinning with me as I turned around to look at the back of it.

“Nonsense!” Geraldine cried. “This is no costume you have donned to play dress up! This is the armour of your kind, forged in the fire of the Phoenixes themselves – they are the garments worn by the warrior queens who sired your line many a moon ago. So hold your head high in preparation for wearing your crowns because the day will soon come for you to finish this attire with those shining tiaras and when you sit upon the throne, all in Solaria will rejoice and know that the true queens have finally returned!”

Geraldine dropped to her knees with a sob, prostrating herself before us and murmuring about what a joyous day this was as I gave the armour another look in the mirror, wondering if it really would be able to withstand the full force of our flames when we shifted. 

“We do look kinda regal,” I admitted, a smirk on my lips as Darcy grinned.

“And our mom wanted us to wear it,” she said with an ache in her eyes, her fingers trailing over the beautiful armour. “Do you think she saw us wearing this?”

“Maybe,” I whispered.

“I definitely won’t complain about being able to fully shift without having to focus on not burning my clothes off,” she said in realisation.

“There is that,” I agreed, pinching the leathery material of the undershirt between my fingers and wondering if it really would survive my Phoenix flames. It seemed unlikely, but if this had belonged to our ancestors then I guessed it must have been put to the test more than once.

We were so distracted looking at our own outfits that we hardly even noticed Geraldine pulling on her own armour which gleamed like freaking sunlight and covered her from head to toe, making her look like a knight due at King Arthur’s table and suddenly our own outfits didn’t seem that ridiculous at all. Her breastplate was moulded to accommodate her large chest and narrowed to triangular points on both boobs.

“Oh I feel better now,” I said, looking to her and exchanging a grin with Darcy.

“Yeah, no one will notice us while you’re dressed up like that,” Darcy agreed, as Geraldine lifted her flail into her hand and gave it a few test swings.

“Balderdash. I am but a lowly worm beneath the notice of a crow. But I am a worm who will stand firm between you and death my ladies, no matter the cost.”

“Err, thanks?” Darcy said and I shrugged, unsure what the response to a proclamation like that should be either. 

“Let’s have less death talk, yeah?” I suggested. “We’re just gonna go there, barbecue a bunch of Nymphs while Orion and Caleb fix the rift and be right back here in time for buttery bagels at dawn.”

“And they shall be the butteriest of bagels indeed,” Geraldine crowed. “The Flail of Unending Celestial Karma shall see it so.”

We headed for the door and Geraldine rushed forward, casting a concealment spell around us so that shadows clung to us as we headed out into the corridor, and she muttered something about this mission staying between the eight of us until it was completed.

I didn’t complain. I was all for keeping my new look under wraps for now because no matter what Geraldine insisted about it being ‘all the rage’ for Phoenixes back in the day, I wasn’t convinced that thousand-year-old fashion ensembles really met with today’s standards. 

My plan of keeping the sight of us in our armour on the down low ended spectacularly though when we stepped out of the farmhouse above The Burrows and found Tyler Corbin waiting for us with a camera which flashed in our faces.

“Your choice, princesses,” he said, backing up quickly as I cut him a glare. “I can use that candid shot or you can go pose over there by that set Geraldine created for you.”

I looked over to the far side of the barn where he was pointing and found a huge boulder standing amongst a field of blood red flowers with petals which kept coming loose in an unnatural breeze and fluttering all around the area above the rock. I was glad to see a hint of light back in his eyes again. He had hardly left his room for two weeks after his mom had been murdered, but eventually he’d braved the world again and I could see a hardness in him now that hadn’t been there before.

“When did you even do this?” Darcy asked as Geraldine squealed in excitement and ushered us over to her stage.

I was seriously tempted to let Tyler run with his candid crap but one look at the god awful face I was pulling in it as he let me see it set my mind against that. I also considered just blasting his camera apart so that he couldn’t take any more photos but as I caught a glimmer of defiance in his gaze, I realised that this was about a whole lot more for him than just posting some FaeBook post.

“You’re taking over The Daily Solaria?” I asked, realisation dawning as he nodded.

“My mom died determined to get the truth into the hands of the people of Solaria. She didn’t back down no matter how much Lionel threatened her and she remained brave and true to her beliefs until her dying breath. That paper was more than just her job. It’s her legacy. And no matter how hard Lionel may try and block me from continuing, he won’t be able to stop me. There are tech guys here who know how to circumvent every block he has in place and can make sure our articles still get out into the hands of the public. I want to do it for her. I want to prove that he can’t stop the truth from getting out there.”

I sighed, unable to deny the truth to his words and acknowledged the fact that I would be a total asshole if I denied his request now as I nodded.

“Then we wanna help however we can,” Darcy said firmly, looking at him with flames dancing in her eyes.

“Okay, let’s take a few quick shots and you can run a story on us taking out a bunch of Nymphs just as soon as we’re all back here safe and out of Lionel’s reach again,” I agreed.

Geraldine let out her pterodactyl screech, damn near giving me a heart attack as we moved to stand on the rock, posing for a few overly dramatic shots while I tried not to roll my eyes at the posturing crap and made myself remember that we needed to get our side of this out there. Lionel was working hard to discredit us at every turn. We needed the people of Solaria to know that we were still fighting and that we fully planned to reclaim our kingdom from that beast of a man.

The Heirs and Orion arrived as we were finishing up, Seth wolf whistling at us while Max made a joke about us looking hot before Geraldine sucker punched him in the gut and told him to put his tongue away.

Darius seemed to have forgotten that we were in the middle of an argument as he came to stand before me where we still stood on our posing rock, his hand reaching out to brush my thigh as he looked up at me.

“You look ready for battle,” he murmured, his gaze trailing over the armour and his brow furrowing with concern.

“Yeah?” I asked, my gaze slipping down the leather jacket he wore, taking note of the russet colour and the scent of smoke which clung to his skin. His muscles were tight with tension and the Dragon in his eyes was peering back out at me keenly. His battle axe was held tight in his free hand and I could feel the call of the flames which lived in it like they were hungry for this too. “Well you look ready to kill.”

“Damn straight I am,” he growled, his grip on me tightening protectively. “Are you going to be good and do as you’re told while we’re out there?”

I stepped forward, dropping down from the rock so that we were chest to chest and I was looking up at him as usual. I might have liked the idea of making Darius Acrux bow for me, but I was quite happy pitting my shadow against his too. He might have been bigger than me, but that didn’t mean shit when it came down to our strength. And I was just as strong as him plus some.

“Oh, silly boy,” I said, tiptoeing up to speak in his ear. “You wouldn’t like me if I was a good girl.”

Darius growled, making a move to grab me but finding his arms bound to his sides by the vines I’d cast while he was distracted by my closeness, and I smirked at him as I sidestepped and headed after the others who were waiting to exit through the barrier.

I looked over at my sister, finding Orion circling her like a wolf as he examined her armour with a heated look in his eyes. She bit her lip as he came back around to stand before her and I snapped my fingers to gain their attention before he could pounce on her.

“Promise me you’ll make sure your sister behaves, Blue,” Orion muttered to Darcy as I closed in on them. “Just do what Darius says and stay safe while we’re out there.”

“Don’t worry,” Darcy agreed easily, glancing at me and twinunicating the fact that neither of us would be blindly taking orders from my boyfriend tonight. “I won’t let Tory out of my sight,” she promised and Orion nodded in relief, taking her hand and squeezing her fingers as we stepped through the barrier and into the dark field beyond it.

“As soon as we get there, we move,” Orion said, looking between our group as we gathered close to each other, and we all nodded our agreement. 

“Let us raise our batons to the stars and fight in the name of justice for the prosperity of our great kingdom and the true queens who are destined to rule over it!” Geraldine cried as she took the stardust from a pouch she had stashed in her cleavage.

“I don’t think we all agreed to fight for-” Seth began but Geraldine threw the stardust in his face to stop his protests and we were whipped away into the grip of the heavens as the sound of my laughter spilled out around us.

We landed somewhere deep in a forest where huge evergreen trees towered over our heads and rain rushed down to soak us the moment we landed. My feet sank a good inch into the mud and the cold of the place met with the sound of falling rain as it lashed against me.

“Nice,” I muttered, glancing up at the clouds which I could barely see above the thick canopy of trees just as thunder crashed overhead.

“It should give us some good cover at least,” Max said, shifting just as I looked his way so that his navy scales crept over his skin and a shiver of pleasure danced along his flesh from the kiss of the rain.

“Of course the Siren is loving the weather,” Caleb scoffed and a smile touched my lips as we all took off into the trees.

“It’s this way,” Darius said, jerking his chin. “I can practically taste their foul scent on the wind.”

He strode to the front of the group, walking with such purpose that I had to assume he really did know what he was talking about. I moved forward to walk beside him, sniffing the air and smelling nothing but rain and moss.

“Did you just shift your nose or something, dude?” I asked him and he shot me a look which confirmed he’d tapped into his Dragon gifts.

“Don’t call me dude,” he growled and dammit if I didn’t like it when he growled.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not your fucking dude. I’m the guy who makes you come so hard you can hardly breathe, let alone see straight. I’m the one who makes your heart race every damn time you look at me because you know I’ll never stop hungering for you the way I do, and I’ll never get enough of you or be able to love you with any more passion than I possess right now. And I’m the guy who you’ll have to answer to if you do anything against my orders tonight – which believe me will hurt at least as much as you’ll enjoy it. Got it?”

“Got it. Not my fucking dude,” I teased and he growled again.

Yeah, he’d pretty much just given me every excuse I needed to misbehave even if I hadn’t been fully planning on it just for the fact that I wasn’t his to control anyway.

I felt a silencing bubble slip over my skin and looked around to find Orion and Caleb both staring out into the trees to our right where the ground sloped upwards.

“I think there’s two of them coming this way – probably a patrol or something,” Orion said and all of us tensed.

“Three actually,” Caleb disagreed and after another brief pause, Orion nodded. 

“Sounds like the perfect number to use for our bait,” Seth said excitedly.

“Then I think it’s time we got to work,” Geraldine said darkly and I found myself smiling as the need for a fight surged through my veins.

It had been too damn long since we’d struck a real blow in this war, and I was ready to get back to the fight.