Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

I caved in tunnel after tunnel, bottlenecking the rebels and sending them after my family who were far deeper into the network, carving an escape route away beneath the mountains. The relief at knowing they were safe wasn’t nearly enough though, because the rest of the people I loved were still here, and it was all I could do to stay in the present moment and fight instead of falling into visions of the peril that surrounded every one of them.

I closed another empty tunnel, sealing it up tight with earth magic, trying to use it as sparingly as possible now to make sure I didn’t run out.

“This way!” I called to a group of rebels as they came charging down the tunnel to my right and as they ran past me, I spotted Tyler in his Pegasus form, cantering towards me with three people on his back.

Geraldine was draped over his neck while Sofia clutched onto Xavier in front of her, his head drooping as healing magic flashed from her into him. Both of them were naked and I hurried forward to greet them, anxiety blazing in my chest at the paleness of Xavier’s face and the stillness of Geraldine’s body. I hurriedly cast a blanket of moss around them and Sofia shivered as she gripped it with a word of thanks.

Tyler snorted, rubbing his nose against me for a moment as I laid a hand to Geraldine’s cool forehead and tried to cast healing magic into her flesh, concern rippling through me when it did little to help.

Xavier looked distraught and pain crushed my heart because I knew why, I had seen Catalina and Hamish stay behind, I knew what they had done for us. And I could not let their sacrifice be for nothing.

“What’s wrong with Geraldine?” I asked in fear.

“Same thing that’s wrong with me, I think,” Xavier said, his voice dry as he lifted the blanket to show me blackish claw marks on his side.

I tried to see how these wounds could heal, if either of them would survive them, but they were made of shadow and it was hard to see anything about tomorrow when so much death hung around us.

“Keep going,” I urged, pointing them down the tunnel behind me. “Leon will meet you at the far end, go as fast as you can.” I gave them an intent look and Xavier frowned at me, catching my arm before I could hurry away.

“Tell me how this ends,” he demanded and I swallowed thickly. “Tell me everyone I love survives.” He said it like he already knew they wouldn’t, and I couldn’t bear to reveal the truth to him.

“Xavier,” I sighed, squeezing his arm as I gently pulled his hand off of me. “War is too chaotic to predict. I’ve seen everyone die this night, and many survive it. I can’t see which of us will make it, but I swear I’ll do everything within my power to save as many of us as I can.”

Xavier groaned, his eyes fluttering closed then opening again, weakness clouding over him as Sofia offered him more healing magic and kissed his cheek.

“Stay together, and go as fast as you can,” I urged and Tyler took off, cantering down the tunnel as I kept moving back in the direction of the battle, closing up the tunnels around me so only this one path remained.

I let myself fall into The Sight, fearing what I would see but knowing I had to look, to see who of my loved ones were still up there in that battle.

My mind moved towards Darcy first, because ever since the battle had started, I’d lost sight of her fate, darkness clouding it and making me terrified of what that meant. But even now, I couldn’t reach her and I tried to still the panic in my heart as I turned my vision to Orion next, but his fate was equally dark, only glimpses of him offered to me, so much blood and pain surrounding his destiny that it made it hard to breathe. But he did live. I just couldn’t see where he was.

Next, I looked for Tory and my heart juddered as I watched her fate play out. I saw Darius on the ground with a dagger in his chest and Tory’s sobs filling the air. Pain slashed through my chest, because I knew Darius’s death had already come to pass and it took all I had to keep pushing on with the vision, allowing it to unfold. I watched Lionel finding Tory buckled over in her grief, then I saw him bind her hands in air magic and drive a knife into her back.

I jerked out of the vision, panic flaring in my flesh as I took off running.

The air was thick with smoke as I climbed higher through the tunnels and I realised a section of The Burrows was burning. I blocked the tunnels where the flames licked the walls, keeping them from spreading into this final section that offered a chance at freedom. But as I used my vision to see how many more survivors were left, I knew this was it. No one else was going to make it down here and suddenly I couldn’t breathe at all because I hadn’t seen either of my sisters, I hadn’t seen Orion.

I could not lose them.

I turned, my hands shaking as I followed the guidance of the stars, knowing my actions would save Tory but unable to see why.

I shattered the entrance to the tunnel, bringing it all down and sealing it with an ice and earth wall so thick it stole away the last of my magic. But it was done. The tunnels were closed and all who’d made it through were safe. At least for now.

A deep and surprised laugh filled the air and cold water seemed to spill down my spine as I turned, finding Lionel Acrux there clad in a red cloak.

“The dead queen’s bastard son,” he said through a smirk. “And it looks like he’s all out of magic.”

My stomach clenched and the stars offered me a vision of my fate, a fate which would save Tory from death. And I shook my head at them and their devious ways, because I was the sacrificial lamb.

“I’m in need of a new Seer,” he announced as he strode towards me, taking a pouch of stardust from his pocket.

I swung a punch at his face and he cursed as he stumbled back, blood spilling from his mouth. He raised a hand, stealing away the oxygen in my lungs and pressing a weight down on me with air magic that had me buckling to my knees before him.

He spat a wad of blood in my face, sneering at me as he bound me to him by ropes of air. “You will regret that, oh mighty fucking Seer.”

He threw the stardust over me and I was torn away into its embrace with Lionel, my heart hammering as I called upon the whispering stars around me for a glimpse of the future. But they had nothing to offer but a vision of a future so desolate it crushed me.

So I turned my attention to those I loved who were left to fight this war, drawing on the power of the stars around me and forcing them to offer me a prophecy, an answer to this terrible destiny, a way for them to win. And as they answered my call, I sent the prophecy into the ether, gifting it to the one girl who I knew still stood back at that battle and who may find a way to unravel the stars’ guidance. Then I prayed on everything I held dear, that she and her sister would one day find a way to cast a light through the dark and guide their people to victory.