Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I flew through the sky with my wings beating hard and a storm brewing all around us which sparked off of my scales and made my skin tingle.

We were less than a mile from the FIB holding cell now and Gabriel’s warning rang in my ears. “Fly hard and fast and don’t waste time being subtle.”

Easily done.

Roxy soared ahead of me, her bronze wings reflecting the first flash of lightning like light glinting off of metal as she raced ahead of me, only half shifted so that her flames wouldn’t give her away.

The Storm Dragon flew above us, so high that I couldn’t see him when I glanced up into the ever darkening sky, providing the cover we needed to pull this off. I cursed the fact that we didn’t have any stardust left at our disposal thanks to the new laws, but we didn’t have far to go. It had been just over fifty miles away from The Burrows which with the speed we were travelling had gone past in under twenty minutes.

Barely a mile lay between us and them now, and there was no chance in hell that I would fail in this task.

Thunder boomed overhead and the rain burst free of the clouds like the sound had been heralding its arrival. I resisted the urge to roar as I flew as fast as I could, chasing after the girl the stars had chosen for me and who I had stolen back from them after they cursed us.

“I see it!” Roxy called above the sound of the storm, pointing towards the ground and tucking her wings in tight to her sides as she plummeted out of the sky at a ferocious pace.

I followed her lead, snapping my wings shut and diving down after her, allowing myself that roar at last as I spotted the FIB compound below, the building squat and constructed from grey brick.

“Which way is west?” Roxy called, making me snort a laugh and I pointed it out with one clawed foot, indicating the wall closest to us which Gabriel had said held the cells where they were being detained. 

She grinned in that Savage Princess way of hers which got my blood pumping like nothing else on this earth, and threw her hands out with a furious cry, a bird of red and blue flames bursting from her palms as she directed her power at the wards surrounding the building.

I didn’t slow as I passed her, chasing after her Phoenix fire and scrunching my eyes up as it crashed into the barriers with an echoing boom which short circuited them and blasted them clean out of existence.

I roared loudly, hoping Lance and Darcy would understand the warning as I turned at the last second and slammed straight into the side of the building, taking out the wall and sending bricks flying in every direction.

Roxy flew at my back, her hands raised as she used her earth magic to grab the falling wall, directing every last brick to the outside of the building and making sure we didn’t accidentally crush the people we’d come here to rescue.

“Holy shit,” Lance gasped and I spotted him and Darcy scrambling to get up from the floor inside. Darcy pulled down a nearly transparent blue nightgown while Lance yanked up his pants, his chest bare and his shirt discarded somewhere beyond them.

Were they fucking kidding me right now? Had they been going at it while my father was on his way here to execute them?

“Hurry!” Roxy called to them as I wheeled away from the wreckage and I spotted Lance clambering out over the heaped bricks, his hand locked in Darcy’s as he tugged her up beside him, the rain sheeting down on them.

Their magic was blocked off with cuffs as we’d known it would be and Roxy dropped to her feet as I was forced to fly back up into the air again, circling around to grab them on my second fly by as FIB agents rushed out of the building with shouts of alarm and guns in hand.

“Don’t fight us and you won’t be harmed,” Roxy called loudly as she threw a solid air shield up between us and the agents.

“Lance!” one of the agents yelled and my gaze caught on Francesca as she came running up behind her colleagues.

As I looked at her, her eyes began to merge and she shifted into her Cyclops form, a shockwave of psychic power blasting from her so suddenly that I barely had a chance to flinch before it struck.

But in place of the attack I had expected, I watched as the rest of the FIB agents all fell like dominos, crashing to the ground in a heap and twitching there beneath the force of her attack.

I landed heavily on the ground, a snarl tearing from my lips as Roxy continued to shield all of us and Lance and Darcy made it out of the wreckage to my side.

“I have the map of espial you asked for!” Francesca called as she came to a halt beyond Roxy’s shield and my girl looked back over her shoulder towards Lance in a question as she continued to keep her back.

“Let her through,” he commanded and Roxy dropped the shield, backing up to stand at my side as Francesca ran forward, pulling a long metal tube from her back pocket and holding it out.

“You really think you can end the war with this?” she asked, her eyes shifting apart once more as she looked at her Nebula Ally with hope in her gaze that made my heart twist with emotion.

“Yes,” Lance said firmly. “This will let us destroy Lavinia and once she’s cut off from the shadows, we will be on an even playing field once more. The false king will die and the true queens will rise.”

I growled at the conviction in his voice, but I wasn’t even certain I disagreed with that assessment anymore, my gaze on the woman I loved as she stood before me like the royalty I knew she was. But it didn’t really matter what I thought anymore anyway. I had a few months left on this earth at best, so I wouldn’t be here to see the world which would rise after my father’s downfall. My only desire now was to watch him die before I succumbed to the deal I’d struck with the stars.

“Then take it,” Francesca said in a growl. “And make it hurt when you end him.”

Lance accepted the container which held the map of espial, throwing his arms around her and squeezing her tight as Darcy stepped closer to them too.

“Here,” Francesca said as she stepped back, taking two syringes from her pocket. “It’s the Order Suppressant antidote.” Lance stabbed one into his own arm like a savage and depressed the plunger before doing it more gently for Darcy.

“Come with us,” Lance begged but Francesca shook her head.

“They won’t remember that I was the one to attack them, I’ll forge new memories in their heads to cover for what I did,” she said. “And I can do more good here. I’ve already thwarted countless wrongful arrests. I need to stay.”

“Thank you,” Darcy breathed, wrapping her arms around Francesca too and making the Cyclops gasp in surprise. “This will be the thing that turns the tide of this war.”

“We need to go,” Roxy said firmly, her eyes on the stormy sky and I knew she was thinking of Gabriel’s warning, knowing my father would be here at any second with his shadow whore likely right beside him.

“Stay safe,” Lance commanded, and Francesca quickly unlocked the cuffs on his wrists before offering Darcy the same, the two of them leaping up onto my back as thunder crashed overhead once more.

“You too,” she called and I took off into the sky with Roxy at my side, turning back for The Burrows and speeding away into the storm while Dante kept it raging overhead and flew back with us.

The rain crashed down with furious intent but as we left the FIB precinct far behind, my heart soared with joy because not only had we saved Lance and Darcy from a fate worse than death, we’d just secured the very thing we needed to bring about the end of this war and the downfall of the man who had worked his hardest to ruin my life.