Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

Dante swooped overhead, electrocuting a whole line of Nymphs as they ran to intercept the escaping rebels. He’d taken down half the fence with his lightning powers and we’d done the rest of the work, slicing through the magical boundaries beyond it just before Lionel and Lavinia had shown up to rain down death on as many people as they could.

The rebels’ magic was locked down, their hands in glowing blue cuffs, but Caleb had shot between the guards, stealing their keys and freeing as many rebels as he could get to. The more of them that reclaimed their magic, the more the tide turned in our favour, but the Nymphs were arriving in droves following their queen and I didn’t know how long we’d have the upper hand.

Washer and Max stood by the broken fence behind me, using their Siren allure to draw all the rebels towards them, feeding them a sense of freedom which I felt humming in my own chest. They cast shields and ice barriers around them to protect themselves from any enemy strikes too.

Xavier swooped low over the escaping Fae, kicking his hooves at the FIB agents who raised their weapons against the fleeing rebels, whinnying loudly in encouragement. There was a sharp metal spike encasing his horn that the twins had made for him and it was alight with Phoenix flames. He neighed in delight every time he shook his mane and the glitter from his hair made the flames burn with the colour of a rainbow. He’d looked pretty ridiculous when he’d strapped that thing to his head in his Fae form, but I could admit it looked kinda badass now. Especially as he worked to hold the FIB off as he’d been tasked. But me? I had the most important job of all.

“Awoo!” I howled in my Fae form, cupping my hands around my mouth as I stood on top of one of the muddy huts the imprisoned Fae had been forced to sleep in. And as Nymphs turned their attention towards me instead of the rebels trying to break past them, I created a powerful illusion of those very people, splitting away from the real path they were taking and leading the Nymphs in several directions, their huge probes swiping through the air and slashing through nothing but my illusions. Far beyond them on the other side of the compound Lavinia and Lionel were chasing more of my illusions in circles, carving through nothing but sweeping droves of magical casts instead of the Fae we were all working to rescue.

I laughed at the chaos, catching sight of Cal as he moved like the wind between the real rebels, freeing their magic so they could defend themselves. Clouds of smoke and flashing light exploded across the huge compound as the Fae took revenge for their treatment in this hellish place and I grinned at their efforts.

My gaze hooked on a couple of little kids running hand in hand towards Max and Washer, nearly falling time and again as the crowd stampeded past them, my smile falling away.

“This way! That’s it, move your hineys!” Washer encouraged as he beckoned the rebels past him to where Leon and his family were working to disguise them with spells and hide them from view altogether.

I growled as a man’s knee smashed into the back of one of the kid’s heads and the two of them fell sprawling into mud.

I howled, but this time it was a real Wolf’s howl as I pulled my clothes from my body and dove forward into the fray, my gigantic paws slamming into the mud as I ran against the tide of fleeing Fae to reach the kids. The Phoenix fire gauntlets on my hands had shifted to accommodate my paws, but I kept the flames unlit as I ran through the sea of our allies to ensure I didn’t hurt anybody.

Screams rang out ahead of me and a huge shadow blotted out the moon as a massive Nymph stormed through the crowd, knocking Fae down and ramming its probes into their chests.

People fell against me, terror everywhere and magical casts going up into the air which only caused more danger as explosions of fire and ice blasted over the crowd.

I barked loudly to try and tell them to stop, ducking my head as an ice ball fell from the sky and took out a guy beside me. I leapt over two women in front of me, landing right over the huddled bodies of the two children as the Nymph reared above them and its branch like arm smashed into my head.

I stumbled sideways with a yelp, but I didn’t fall, leaping up and slashing my claws down its chest with a savage snarl, the fire igniting across my gauntlets and burrowing into its body.

The Nymph shrieked in pain, stumbling back and I pressed my advantage, jumping up and biting its throat while tearing at its body with my claws. Something snapped beneath the pressure of my jaws and the Nymph exploded into ash, my paws hitting the ground as I turned back towards the kids amidst a cloud of dust and embers, nudging them with my nose to get them up.

The boy was a little older and tugged his younger sister up by the hand, their tiny fingers knotting in my fur as I helped them climb onto my back.

Then I stood up to my fullest height and charged along with the crowd towards the shattered fence, Max and Washer’s powers falling over me and making my heart sing. Freedom was close, we were so near.

Max’s eyes fell on me within the surging rebels and he ran forward to meet me, pulling the kids from my back and holding them to his chest.

“I’ll get them out of here. Cal needs help,” he said urgently, turning and running beyond the fence.

His final words left me with a sense of terror in my chest as I leapt up on top of one of the sheds to see across the compound to find him.

Caleb was fighting three Nymphs, moving fast and slashing at them with his twin blades, but he couldn’t hold all of them off, even with his speed. And as one of them smashed a fist against his head which knocked him clean off his feet onto his back, I howled loudly, hoping he’d hear, that he’d know I was coming. Then I leapt off the roof of the shed, my paws thumping to the ground. I was already running, tearing towards my best friend and the guy I loved so deeply that the thought of losing him completely terrified me.

I howled again, promising I was close, then sprang into the battle to help, colliding with the Nymph closest to him and taking the monster to the ground. I slashed my claws so hard across its face that I saw bone. The beast died on my next strike, ash exploding out around my feet as I turned back, finding a Nymph with its probes pressed to Cal’s chest who was lying still on his back, his eyes shut, his lips pale.

I howled my desperate fear as I ran towards him, seeing absolute murderous red as I collided with the Nymph before it could get its probes into Cal’s chest, biting down on its whole head until a vile crunch sounded and my victim burst to ash.

The final Nymph turned tail and ran, but I didn’t let it go, charging it down with its friends’ blood on my lips and my teeth bared for the kill.

I sprang into the air, landing on its back and knocking it to the ground with a heavy crash. I shifted back into my Fae form, unleashing my gauntlets on the back of its head as I punched and punched with all the fury of a man’s soul who’d been ripped from his body. And if Cal was dead, then it might as well have been.

The Nymph died with a pained wail and I fell into the mud, shoving myself up, covered in filth and blood and grime. I ran back to my friend, wiping the ash from my eyes as I dropped down beside him, ripping his shirt open and placing my hands to his chest as Xavier swooped overhead with a furious whinny, slamming his horn into the chest of another Nymph as it ran at us, killing it with a fatal blow and dropping glitter over us as he passed by.

Healing magic swept out of me as my magic connected to Caleb’s and I released a groan of complete relief at knowing he was still with me.

“Cal, come back. Wake up,” I croaked, offering him wave after wave of healing magic and feeling a head injury healing over as his eyes flickered and opened.

“I knew it’d be you,” he said, his voice dry as a sideways smile hooked up his lips. “It’s always you.” Then his eyes widened in fear as they moved to look over my shoulder and he grabbed hold of me, rolling us over so he was on top of me and a gasp got stuck in my throat as I saw Lionel Acrux bearing down upon us in the sky, his jade green scales glinting as fire bloomed from his open jaws, aimed directly at us.

A dome of thick soil shot up around us, turning to stone just before the blast collided with it and Caleb gritted his teeth as he fought to hold it in place. I pressed a hand to his arm, offering him my magic and his barrier came down in an instant, a moan of pleasure leaving me as our power washed together and I tasted the strength of him on my tongue.

The stone turned to an impenetrable metal, flashing silver with the power of our combined earth Elements as we kept Lionel’s fire from touching us and a few of Caleb’s golden curls fell forward to brush against my forehead, our breaths shared within the same small space as we fought to protect each other.

An angry roar carried from beyond our barrier and the two of us laughed headily.

“Let’s tunnel out and let him waste his power trying to get in here,” Caleb suggested and I grinned, nodding my agreement. But neither of us moved and suddenly the space felt so small and his body weighing me down was making it harder for me to breathe.

“Cal,” I whispered. “I’ve been meaning to tell you- I mean, Darcy thinks I should. And Orion too actually, and Tory now I mention it. And anyway, well now might not be the best time, but-”

The dome was suddenly ripped off of us and Lionel appeared with his claws wrapped around it, a Dragon’s grin on his scaly face as he found us exposed beneath it. Caleb threw one of his twin daggers with a yell of rage and it lodged in Lionel’s cheek, making him roar in anger as he stumbled back, swiping at his face to dislodge it.

“We gotta get underground!” I grabbed hold of Caleb’s shirt and made the earth drop away beneath us, burying us from sight and the soil heated around us as Lionel’s flames tried to follow.

But we sank deeper and deeper until the two of us were carving out a tunnel, on our feet and running hard and fast to try and get some distance between us and that psycho lizard.

“We need to lead him away from the rebels,” I said urgently and Caleb nodded, a look passing between us that said we definitely might die today, but both of us started tunnelling upwards at the same time, knowing neither of us were never going to just hide away underground.

“You’re the best Fae I know, Cal,” I told him earnestly. “And I fucking love you with all my heart.”

“I’m gonna make you repeat that once we get out of this, Seth,” he said, giving me one of his cocky grins, but it fell away as we closed in on the surface, and he gave me an intense look. “But just in case, I want you to know that I wouldn’t pick anyone else in this world to die beside. You’re my ride or die, you know that? I fucking love Darius and Max, but you and me? We’ve got something special that I can’t even explain sometimes.”

“You think so?” I asked, wondering if he was saying what I thought he was saying.

“I know so,” he growled. “You’re like my Nebula Ally on fucking speed, man.”

My throat thickened as I accepted what he was implying. Ally equalled friend. And I didn’t know why I’d expected him to say something different. I realised I didn’t really care in that moment though. I was fucking privileged to be Caleb Altair’s friend, and if that was all we were ever destined to be then that was enough for me. Because I’d spent most of my life loving the moon without ever resting a paw on its surface. So Caleb would be my new moon, my unreachable love hanging over me in the sky. And I would show up to watch it night after night with no resentment in my heart, just a lone Wolf on a mountain, trying to get close enough to bathe in its light.