Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

Rage spewed through my mind like acid and a wave of it drove me forward as I stared between the Fae on the ground, tearing through their ranks, the taste of so much blood sending me into a frenzy.

I wanted more. I needed to fill this dark and ceaseless need in me to destroy, ravage, and scourge the land.

The fangs in my mouth tasted of venom, the sharp and bitter tang rolling over my tongue and causing endless pain and suffering to whoever was lucky enough to live on after my bite. But they wouldn’t live for long. Not when the black and tainted poison slid through their veins and claimed them as another victim of mine. Of hers.

Lavinia’s whispers carried in my ears, her voice urging me on and my soul was so deeply tethered to hers even when some part of me reared up and fought against listening to her commands. But it was impossible to refuse them, her words making a fire burn in me that could never be put out, but it wasn’t the fire I knew, it was a wicked thing that devoured every good piece of me whole.

A man appeared before me, his arms outstretched and a plea in his silver ringed eyes. I swiped at him, my claws slashing against a fierce air shield which I fought to tear through, driving him back as I snapped and snarled, trying to break through his defences as he battled to keep them in place.

“Blue!” he shouted, the word pulling on something deep inside my chest, but then Lavinia’s whispers grew louder and my hatred thickened.

“Kill him. Kill them all,” she urged inside my head. My mistress. The guider of my being, the one who had me chained and bound to her in ways that felt so deep I could never get them out.

I tore through his air shield and he shot away with a burst of speed so my paw crashed against the ground instead of striking him. I growled, turning my gaze on a silver Pegasus as he cantered along the ground, rounding up the rebels and pausing to let several of them climb onto his back. Beyond him was a pink Pegasus doing the same, already taking flight and I swiped at her as she flew towards the clouds, catching hold of her hoof and dragging her back out of the sky.

I threw her to the ground and dove forward to finish the kill but the silver Pegasus charged at me, driving a horn into my arm and making me roar as I backed up. The pink Pegasus scrambled upright, turning tail and running while the silver one galloped after her.

I chased after them, gaining on them as they stretched their wings and took off towards the sky, but I was faster, leaping forward to drag them back into my paws and finish them for good. But something grabbed hold of my fur from behind, yanking me down and throwing me to the ground.

The silver-eyed man appeared again as I shoved myself to my feet, snarling at him as he lashed ropes of air around me, trying to chain me to his will.

A girl with a flail appeared, casting vines of earth magic, binding me and bringing me to the ground as I fought their magic, anger rippling up my spine as the girl built a muzzle to close my jaws tight and yanked my head down to the ground.

The man rushed forward, kneeling in front of me and placing a hand to my head as I battled to get myself free. I needed to feed, to draw as much blood as I possibly could and sate the shadow queen who owned me.

I growled as the man spoke to me, not caring to hear, but it was impossible to ignore.

“Come back to me, Blue,” he commanded. “Look at me. You know me.”

He leaned close so all I could see was his eyes and for a moment I was sure I knew him. The anger inside me started to recede and the growl in my throat died as I tried to place him, unsure why it felt like this man owned me as deeply as Lavinia did.

But then my mistress spoke once more, her voice filling my head and drowning him out.

“He is your enemy. Bite, rip, kill. Spill the blood of the rebels and you will be rewarded.”

I reared up as energy burst through my veins, shadow and darkness spreading inside me like oil pouring through my blood. I broke out of my binds, snapping them all at once and lunging towards the man before me.

My claws ripped into his sides as I trapped him in my paws, making him roar in pain for me as I dragged him close and opened my jaws, tearing the muzzle apart as I went to rip his head from his shoulders.

Something sharp slammed into my upper leg, again and again and I howled in anger, dropping my prey and rounding on the girl with the flail.

“Forgive me, lady Darcy,” she half sobbed as she turned and ran. “I cannot let you hurt the man chosen for you by the stars!”

I leapt after her, a snarl on my lips as she cast walls of ice behind her to slow me down, but I rammed through them all, shards flying everywhere and cutting into my legs as I kept charging after her, only to find myself tumbling into a huge chasm in the ground.

I howled in anger, slamming to the bottom of it and looking up at the girl as she stood at the top of the hole, working to cast a magical net over the chasm to keep me held. But I was a creature of the shadows, a monster of the night. And I would not be held.

I sprang up, climbing the dirt walls and clawing my way higher as she hurried to trap me. But I got there before she could, slicing through her cage with my sharp claws and catching hold of her leg as I scrambled my way out of the hole. I knocked her down beneath me as the flail slipped from her grip and I saw the whites of her eyes as realisation filled them.

“I do not die in vain! I love you, my lady!” she cried as I closed my teeth around her body, ripping and tearing until her screams were cut off, tossing her away from me like a ragdoll as she left a trail of blood through the dirt then fell into the hole she’d cast to trap me, tumbling away into the dark.

I lifted my head and howled to the night over my kill. And when I finally looked down again, I found the silver-eyed man holding a flaming sword above his head to gain my attention, waving it left and right.

I took off through the battlefield, leaving the other rebels behind as the voice in my mind urged me to finish this one off and feast on his blood.

And I was a slave to that command.