Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

I wouldn’t have called myself the master of dramatic arrivals by any means, but I had to admit that the sight of me on my knees covered in lake water, blood, and gore, panting through my exhaustion and clinging to a sword as if it was the only thing capable of keeping me upright in this world, was likely an all-time low.

We’d had to get out of the way while the stone zodiac wheel beneath us slid sideways underground, and another stone platform raised in its place.

The people standing on top of it were struggling to contain their expressions as they took me in, and I blew out a breath as I gave in to the inevitability of this not going all that well from the get-go.

With a surge of effort, I forced myself to summon some energy as I pressed the tip of my sword into the wet ground beside me and used it to leverage myself to my feet.

A single glance in Caleb’s direction let me know that the asshole had used his speed and fire magic to not only dry himself off, but to stow his weapons away and straighten out his clothes too, meaning he looked the epitome of unruffled perfection.

“Bastard,” I hissed so low that no one but a Vampire would be able to hear it and the corner of his lips twitched the tiniest amount, just as a lump of monster guts fell from my hair to land on my boot with a wet slap.

“You could have simply knocked,” the girl standing before us said, her head tilting to one side, causing her braids to tumble over one shoulder as she inspected us with rapt interest.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” I quipped, my heart leaping as one of the guys behind her actually did, and I was half blinded by the fucking flash on his camera.

“The Library of the Lost isn’t just some cock-handed vacation destination,” a watery eyed man said in a wavering yet unyielding tone from the back of the group of four. “As head librarian, I wish for you to know that despite your lineage or anything of the sort, the gift of knowledge is not one which can be claimed by birth right alone. You do not get to simply stomp up here willy-nilly and demand access to our tomes. Only the worthy are invited to peruse our pages and so, until a time when you have been deemed such or the stars guide you to our door on the wings of fate, I’m afraid you will have to leave.”

“Leave?” Caleb asked, his entitlement showing in the way he blinked in confusion, like the word held no meaning to him whatsoever and he’d never heard it before.

I sheathed my sword, an act which may have seemed friendly, except for the look of violence that passed across my eyes as I set a heavy gaze on them.

“Look,” I began, picking a lump of tentacle from my arm and tossing it to the floor just in front of the librarians’ feet. “I’ve had one hell of a time recently. I’ve been captured and tortured, brutalised and traumatised. I’ve been married and widowed, fought and defeated. And to top it all off, I have been without the other half of my soul for over a week now. To put it lightly, I’ve reached my limit. So I’ve come a long way in search of this place and the knowledge you hold here. I’ve made that journey – and helped you out with what I would call a considerable monster infestation in your lake by the way – and now I’m standing here before you, covered in fuck knows what, my power depleted and my tether on my temper running dangerously short. I have absolutely no intention of letting you simply shut that door in my motherfucking face. So, I’m posing that you need to think again on the subject of that invitation.”

The librarians all paled, the girl who stood in front of them giving the older a man a pointed look and hissing something which sounded like ‘See?’, though with the amount of water that still resided in my ears, I wasn’t certain on that.

“Those monsters, as you call them, were the three ancient guardians of this place,” the Minotaur in shifted form at the back of the group mooed, stomping his foot angrily.

I arched a brow as I glanced towards the water where the decapitated head of the giant squid was spinning in a slow circle beside the upturned belly of the Long Horned Ergut, whose blood was slowly colouring the water all around it. There weren’t enough bits of the demon crab left to really be called a body, but half a claw was perched on top of the Virgo constellation stone beside me.

“Oh,” Caleb said, exchanging a look with me where we both silently admitted we may have fucked up a little there. “Whoops.”

“They did try to eat us,” I explained with half a shrug. “So, this situation is kinda on them. If they were as well trained as you claim, then-”

“They weren’t trained,” the girl interrupted. “They were simply brought here to act as a further protection surrounding the library from those who were not invited. Bloodthirsty monsters prowling the lake is pretty off-putting… At least to most people.”

“Thank fuck for that. You had me thinking I’d gone and killed your pets for a moment there,” I said, flashing my teeth at them in a way that couldn’t really be called a smile.

“No one can tame the monsters of legend,” Cameraman piped up.

“Good to know you aren’t all as dumb as you look then. Because I just so happen to be one of those so-called monsters, so I guess the question is whether or not you’ll be offering me that invitation, because option B involves me burning my way inside with Phoenix fire.”

“You make a wonderful politician,” Caleb drawled as the librarians all recoiled in horror at my words.

“Miss Vega-” the old librarian began, but I cut him off.

“I tend to go by my royal titles these days. Haven’t you been hearing reports of the war being waged in your kingdom?”

Caleb stepped in. “This might be a good moment for me to interrupt the Savage King’s daughter before she insults every one of you so thoroughly that any sympathy you may have been convinced to feel is long since forgotten. The things she told you are true, we have faced loss and pain beyond what any Fae should have to face in their lifetime and still we fight on, knowing we might face plenty more of that in time. We fight because, as I hope you would agree, the alternative is far worse. Lionel Acrux is determined to rule with tyranny and persecution, destroying all knowledge that doesn’t suit his agenda and forcing the people of this kingdom to submit in all the ways that count. We are on the side of freedom and equality, and we have come here in desperate need, seeking access to your library in the fleeting hope that it may help us win that fight in the end. So we beg you, implore you actually, to open your doors to us and offer us that slim chance.” Caleb pressed a hand to his heart and dammit, I had to admit he had the whole political bullshit down, especially as the enraged faces before us turned thoughtful and pragmatic.

“Very well,” the old man said eventually, though I didn’t miss the unimpressed look he shot me as another lump of fish guts fell out of my hair. “Though I will have to ask you to clean up before you are allowed near the texts. There are volumes here which date back through the millennia, knowledge which has been lost to the modern world resides in parchment and ink, preserved here for fate to serve up again in times of need and searching. What we protect here is precious beyond the realms of any other treasure.”

“Got it,” I agreed, flicking my fingers and sending a flood of water magic over my body, using a combination of that and earth to remove every unsanitary piece of lake muck and dead monster from my body. Another flick of my hand sent fire magic tearing through me, and within moments I was dry and clean, though there was little to be done for the huge tear in the side of my crop top.

My body was bruised and battered, but I didn’t heal myself beyond making sure I wasn’t bleeding on anything, preferring the bit of physical pain to the ever-present emotional void eating away at my insides.

The old man eyed me, hunting for any bit of grime I may have missed, but I was as clean as a whistle, and eventually he nodded to the Minotaur in some form of confirmation because the next second, the island beneath our feet began to descend again.

This time though, the island didn’t sink into the water. Instead, we moved onto the stone zodiac wheel and descended into a magical tube which was crystal clear.

We travelled down through the lake and deeper still, the sight of the library revealed below us, cavernous and stretching out in every direction. I didn’t want to be impressed by it with the group of angry librarians observing my expression, but damn, it was hard not to be.

Each of the four immense walls around us held giant carved effigies of beautiful women’s faces which represented the Elements. The one for earth was covered in moss, stunning flowers and delicate magical butterflies dancing along the grass fronds of her eyelashes; the fire carving had blazing blue eyes and rivers of magma swirling within the rock to highlight her features; the air monument had white clouds floating around it, her hair seeming to move despite it being clearly carved from stone; finally, the water Elemental face had frost glittering across her cheekbones and lips, and a furious waterfall poured all the way down to a river far below. Bridges of glass, stone and wood curved over the winding river, a mish-mash maze of bookshelves standing in nearly every space available below us.

Caleb straightened as he took it in, that arrogant slouch giving way to wonder as his mouth slackened and his eyes roamed over the books which were stacked and laid out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

“This place is… I don’t have words,” he breathed, and the librarians all smiled at the praise while I just stared at the endless rows of tomes and scrolls, wondering how the fuck I was ever supposed to find what I needed in this palace of knowledge.

As if sensing the question consuming me, the girl stepped closer, a hesitant smile on her full lips.

“I’m Laini,” she said softly. “I greeted your sister when she visited us.”

“From what I heard, that one had better manners,” the old man muttered as he turned away from us and headed down a set of golden steps towards a huge desk sitting at the base of the waterfall where it flooded into the river.

“She is better than me in all the ways that matter,” I agreed with him, though he was too far from me to hear.

The flash of the camera went off again and I scowled at the man who had taken the shot, subtly suggesting with flames in my eyes that he fuck the hell off.

“Sorry about Dave,” Laini cringed as she waved him and his camera away. “It’s his duty to record history as it happens. He documents basically everything, but when your sister visited us, he was bed-bound with dick rot, so he missed her.”

“Dick rot?” I choked in surprise and Dave glared at Laini before turning and hurrying away from us.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was dick rot.” She nodded seriously. “Anyway, he hasn’t shut up about missing the chance to document a visit from one of the first Phoenixes to arise in a thousand years, so I think he’s determined not to miss out a second time.”

“Well tell him if he flashes that camera in my face one more time, I’ll be melting it to his nosey chops,” I said, knowing full well that Dick Rot Dave could hear me and not caring.

“Maybe try not threatening the people who just agreed to help us, yeah, sweetheart?” Caleb suggested softly as he took a step closer to me and I banished a harsh breath before nodding.

He got it. Knew how fucked up I was inside and how close to the edge I was all the damn time at the moment. Fury was my preferred method of coping, but the chaos of my inner turmoil was a fickle thing, and I couldn’t be certain of the ways it would lash from me when it got too much to handle.

“If you’re looking for anything specific, Arnold here can help you find it,” Laini went on like I hadn’t just threatened someone’s face with melted plastic, her unflinching disposition easily likeable.

I turned to the Minotaur she’d gestured towards, and he inclined his head proudly, waiting for me to make my request of him. His head was that of a bull’s, with large, curling horns and a wide bovine nose. The rest of his body was more human, though it was covered with brown fur and his legs ended in hooves instead of feet.

“I need a way to track someone using old magic. A way that circumvents any measures that have been taken to protect themselves or shield me from finding them, like mental walls or identity concealing spells. I was told there’s dark magic that can be used that way.”

“Dark magic is a potent thing,” Arnold said in a low, warning tone but I just shrugged.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion on it, just for the spell in question.”

“Messing with the shadows is dangerous-”

“No,” I interrupted. “No shadows. Not a single fucking shadow. I need old magic, the kind that predates shadows and possibly even the harnessing of the Elements. The kind no one uses or protects themselves against anymore. Is there something like that here?”

Laini and Arnold exchanged a cautious look, but I just raised my chin in certainty.

“Before the Awakening was gifted to our kind by the stars, there were types of magic among our ancestors,” Laini said softly. “But they came at a cost. The kind that is paid in blood and portions of your soul. There is a reason why they were cast aside and forgotten in favour of wielding the Elements via the Awakening.”

“I understand that, but I’m still asking for information on that power. Do you hold it here or not?” I glanced at the vast walls of bookshelves stretching out around us, knowing in my soul that if they didn’t have that knowledge here then I wouldn’t find it anywhere.

“I’ll take you to it,” Arnold said simply. “Follow me.”

He took off at a trot, Laini waving goodbye, her eyes dark with caution as we strode after the Minotaur, following him towards a dim passageway which led further into the depths of the library.

We walked across a bridge that spanned a small stream towards a huge door, the colour of it so black that it seemed to suck the light from the rest of the room, pulling every shadow in this place to it and keeping them close.

Arnold ran his hand over what I assumed were magical locks, the dark metal glowing beneath his palm before he drew the door wide.

“We keep everything on dark magic in the labyrinths. They are heavily warded against stardust or outside influence,” he said in a low voice which almost gave way to a moo as his bovine lips curled around the words. “You must stay with me at all times; only the Minotaurs know these paths, anyone else who wanders down here will end up eternally lost in the maze beneath. It is death to leave my side.”

I nodded, already knowing about this from Darcy’s account of her time here, and Caleb moved to walk beside me as we followed Arnold into the dark.

The doors boomed close behind us, stealing the light and Caleb cast a Faelight above our heads to see by. Arnold broke into a fast trot, not bothering to look back and check we were still with him. Apparently, it was up to us to make sure we didn’t lose him down here and he wasn’t going to give any attempt to make that easy for us.

Arnold kept up a punishing pace and after a few minutes, Caleb offered to carry me so we could move with his speed, letting me jump up onto his back while he shot along through the dark and encouraged the Minotaur to move even faster.

Dark passages loomed all around us, so many twists and turns in the tunnels that it was impossible to keep track of where we’d been or where we were going. Sometimes I heard distant bells and once I could have sworn screams echoed back to us from a staircase we passed, but Arnold didn’t react to any of it.

“Are there people lost down here?” I asked him as he ran down yet another passageway, his head lowered while he charged, smoke billowing from his nostrils. “Or prisoners?”

“You can’t trust anything you see or hear in this place,” Arnold replied gravely. “Nothing but the written word, and even then, you should use caution. There are malignant things lurking in these dark passages, cruel and cunning creatures which are always hungry and would like nothing more than to lead you to their door.”

“Sounds cosy,” I muttered, and Caleb snorted in amusement.

Eventually, Arnold turned into a tunnel which widened into a yawning staircase that delved away into the earth, the air rising from it dank and unwelcoming.

“It has been a long time since anyone ventured into those depths,” Arnold said, his hoofed foot scraping at the stone floor. “And for good reason too. The knowledge you seek is down there and down there alone. There is no other way to access it but within the chamber beneath.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Caleb asked as he lowered me to the floor and Arnold shook his head.

“I will remain here until you return. Or until it becomes clear that you have met your end within.”

“Well, that’s just great,” I muttered, calling on my Phoenix as I gazed down those stairs.

There was something unholy about the dark that awaited us there, something that sang to me in an unheard voice and lured me closer with promises of a death so sweet that I might just step into the arms of oblivion willingly if only I was allowed to enter it.

I met Caleb’s navy blue eyes, but neither of us bothered with any pointless sentiments like questioning what the fuck we were doing here. We both knew that we would be crossing that threshold if it was what it took to find Darcy. And now that I was here, I was beginning to wonder if there might be more to this place than just discovering that one forgotten spell. Perhaps there might be other uses for the old magic which we hadn’t considered. And if it came down to a question of cost, then I already knew I would pay whatever it took to see the end of Lionel’s rule. I’d already lost almost everything anyway.

We stepped over the threshold as one, our movements synchronised as we headed down, down, down. The staleness of the air gave way to the scent of something impossibly old the lower we descended, both musty and powerful, ancient beyond words.

The darkness grew around us as we went, the Faelight above us seeming smaller and smaller, its illumination struggling to pierce the utter blackness which tried to press in on all sides. We instinctively moved closer to one another, our arms brushing as we continued without our steps so much as faltering. We were on this path now and there was no question of turning from it.

My boots echoed on the flagstones as I finally reached the base of the stairs, water stirring in a small puddle at my feet and making me frown. What kind of books could survive in the damp for who knew how long?

I squinted into the darkness, a soft call seeming to wrap its tongue around my name and tug. I couldn’t even say for certain if it was real in any sense of the word, but I couldn’t resist the pull of it regardless.

My boots splashed softly through the puddle coating the floor as we let the darkness call us forward, and I couldn’t help but rest my hand on the pommel of my sword, wanting to feel the realness of the steel while surrounded by so much ethereal strangeness.

I stopped sharply, my head turning to the left without me having planned it and I blinked as I found an alcove there, an ancient text hanging beneath a stone archway set into the wall, the words looking like they’d been branded onto the thick material containing them.

I stepped closer and Caleb kept with me, his presence the one thing reminding me that we were still here, flesh and bone and not a part of this unreal space which felt like it lay somewhere between life and death. The words written there were not in any language or alphabet I had ever seen before, and I frowned as I was forced to wonder if everything down here would be written with such words. If so, then this trip was destined to fail because I didn’t have the faintest clue how to read so much as a single symbol in that language.

“Those are runes,” Caleb pointed out, his finger tracing the edge of the brown material where they’d been marked alongside the words.

“Any chance you can read the rest of it?” I asked and he cocked his head as he studied the text.

“I don’t think that’s even a language,” he said unhelpfully. “More like a…code. Something which could only hold meaning to someone with the key.”

I huffed out a frustrated breath, wondering where the hell I was supposed to find the key to a code which was likely written thousands of years ago.

A thin, rectangular, sapphire blue stone was set into the wall beneath the text, something about it making me give it a closer look the moment my attention fell to it.

I wasn’t sure if it was instinct or intuition or just a dumb idea, but I reached for the stone, my fingers brushing against it and feeling the unnatural warmth residing within.

At the touch of my fingers, the stone slipped free of its position on the wall, and I caught it automatically, turning it over in my palm before holding it up to the fabric above, trying to look through it to the coded words there.

Instead of unravelling the text, the warmth in the stone flared and I gasped as visions pierced my skull of long forgotten Fae in some unrecognisable place. They worshipped and sacrificed in the name of dark magic, claiming untold power through unspeakable acts and raw brutality.

A man with a knife piercing his chest.

Three women drinking vials of blood while someone screamed beyond them.

A Medusa cutting the head from one of her own serpents with an agonising cry.

A mother begging for the life of her child.

A flare of blinding power as a Dragon was chained to a stone table, bellowing in fear as its throat was slit, blood spilling into channels carved into the stone beneath it to collect every drop.

A man walking through realms as if the walls between them were nothing but vapour, stealing mortals to sacrifice in the name of claiming more power.

Two Werewolves leaping into a raging fire while a crowd of masked Fae screamed their approval and their howls of agony ripped the air apart.

My grip on the stone loosened, the urge to hurl it away from me a potent thing as I started to think we wouldn’t find anything here but memories of a time best left forgotten. But just before it could tumble from my fingers, the vision changed again, and my breath caught in my throat.

The realm walker, his skin painted in blood which wasn’t his, markings drawn onto his flesh in that deep and scorching red, striding through the passage between realms which no living soul should be able to cross. The Veil parted like oil around him as he stepped through, his jaw gritting and muscles tensing with pain as he forced the unknown realm to allow him entry despite his still beating heart. The power of the stars ate at him as he forced the divide to part for him, ripping at his strength and fighting against his will, but he didn’t falter, determination burning through him until, with one final step and a ring of power which almost knocked me from my feet, he passed beyond.

He was panting, bleeding and had a hollow look in his eyes which made it more than clear that doing so had been anything but easy, the bloody marks now burned into his skin, but still, he’d made it. Waiting for him on the other side were a woman and a child, their faces full of joy as they ran to embrace him, and he collapsed into their arms as he held them again. His family. Reunited by dark magic in spite of the rules the stars had laid out for them.

The blue stone tumbled from my fingers and fell to the floor where it sank into the puddle at my feet, that unholy light within it blinking out.

“Did you see that?” I breathed, unable to lift my eyes to meet Caleb’s in case he hadn’t, and I would be left to question every bit of those memories alone.

“Yeah,” he replied roughly, the back of his hand brushing against mine like he wasn’t sure if he should offer me comfort or not.

“He travelled beyond the Veil,” I whispered, afraid of speaking too loud in case the stars were listening and would see every impossible wish I held in my broken heart and fight even harder to keep me from them.

“It looked like it took almost everything from him to do so,” Caleb replied. “And I doubt he had what it would take to make the journey once again in reverse. Seems like death would have been a simpler way to access his family.”

I nodded slowly, accepting the truth of those words, and wondering what would happen to a living soul who had trapped themselves on the other side like that. I doubted it would be anything pleasant. Yet he’d done it. For some unfathomable reason, that Fae had crossed over without using the bridge of death to do so.

“I would give anything to speak with him one last time, Tory,” Caleb said, knowing my mind was on that one soul in particular who had been dragged to the other side before his time, forced to abandon the life he had only just claimed for himself after suffering through misery at the hands of his father for far too long. “But I don’t think that’s the way to do it. There’s a reason why we can’t access that realm, and I think it’s about more than simply keeping the living and the dead apart. I also doubt that realm walker ever returned.”

He had no way of knowing that, but I nodded because I felt the truth of it too. It had taken so much for him to cross through, his power devoured by whatever it was that divided here and there. I couldn’t imagine any way that he might have returned. But then the question of why he went at all remained, because if his only desire was to reunite with his loved ones, then death would have been a far simpler answer than all he endured to arrive with them while his heart remained beating.

I reached for the brown fabric holding those coded memories, my fingers drifting over the runes marked along its edges as I worked to memorise them. I already knew that runes were among the oldest form of divination and magical tools, and I’d been drawn towards the power of them since I’d cursed the stars, wanting to focus on forms of divination that didn’t wholly rely on their favour to offer clarity. Not that I could say I’d gleaned much from them. My mother’s gifts had clearly skipped me altogether in that regard.

“As a side note,” Caleb added, watching me paint my fingers down the edge of the waxy brown fabric as I studied the next rune. “I’m around ninety percent certain that those markings have been made on skin. Likely the hide of some murdered Fae in their shifted form.”

I yanked my hand away from the waxy fabric with a cry of disgust and turned to him in horror. “Why would you think that?” I hissed.

“Because there’s a plaque just there which says so.” He pointed to the bit of metal which claimed the gross skin scroll was likely over two thousand years old from the time of the Vampire blood ages.

I cut a look at Caleb, my gaze moving to his mouth where his fangs were currently hidden away, his pretty boy looks and polished appearance hard to marry with a race of Fae who had terrorised the entire kingdom and ruled it with fear and bloodshed.

“Did your mom lose her shit about the whole coven thing?” I asked in a low voice as I stepped away from the alcove and turned down the passageway once more. “Is it really so bad?”

“Yes and no,” Caleb said, shrugging one shoulder. “She’s pissed about it. My dad too. But they heard me out and understand that it wasn’t exactly intentional. They think I should stay away from Orion if he returns.”

“For how long?” I asked.

“Forever.” Caleb blew out a breath and shook his head. “I didn’t argue but I also know it isn’t going to happen. Even if his life and mine weren’t so wrapped up with all of yours to make it pretty much impossible, the connection I feel to him wouldn’t be so easily ignored. We’ll have to be careful though, especially when it comes to hunting. So long as we don’t engage in the hunt together there really shouldn’t be any issue. Neither of us are looking to return Solaria to the rule of blood and carnage.”

“I think your mom and the other Councillors need to get used to the idea that they aren’t the ones in charge anymore,” I said, but before Caleb could reply, a rush of wind made us both spin towards a narrow opening on our left, a groan passing through it either from the movement of the air or something…else.

“Why do I get the feeling you want to go in there?” Caleb asked as I took a step closer to the narrow gap.

“Because I’m a fearless badass and you know it,” I suggested but he just snorted.

“More like reckless to the point of idiocy, but sure, let’s squeeze through a creepy gap in a wall where anything could be waiting to drag us into the depths of this place, never to be seen again.”

“That’s the spirit.” I slapped him on the arm then moved closer to the gap, directing a Faelight through it and squinting against the brightness of it while my eyes adjusted.

“I’m just glad we didn’t have to fight any lake monsters on the way in here and end up down here with our magic half depleted,” Caleb added, and I shrugged as I drew my sword and let the flames ignite along the length of it, my Phoenix preening at the heat of them and my power beginning to swell instantly.

“I’m good,” I commented, turning myself sideways as I began to push my body into the gap between the cold stone walls and move through it. “Sucks to suck though.”

“Was that a shitty Vampire joke?” Caleb asked and I almost smiled.

“No.”

We kept going, the walls getting tighter and tighter against both my back and my chest as I shimmied along, claustrophobia making my breaths shallow. I started to wonder if I would even be able to make it through to the other side at all.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and kept going, the fire from my sword guiding me on, giving me strength with every step.

At last, I forced my way out of the gap, stumbling a step as I found myself in another chamber, this one wide and laid out with five ancient tomes on stone pedestals set in a random pattern around the room. I sent several more Faelights up to hang around the room, illuminating the corners of the space as whispering seemed to stir the air and a shiver tracked down my spine.

There was no door here, no official way in, and the crack which I’d forced my way through seemed too unnatural to have been here originally, almost like some huge power had erupted in this place and forced the opening into existence. And if that was the case, then it meant that at some point, long ago, someone had sealed these books and the knowledge within them inside this chamber, intending to keep them hidden away, down here where no one could find them.

I almost leapt out of my damn skin as a grinding noise started at my back and I turned to glare at Caleb. He was using his earth Element to carve the stone of the narrow gap I’d just forced myself through, widening the passageway and then walking through it with a smug look on his face that reminded me of all the times I’d wanted to punch him.

“It seemed kinda dumb to force myself through that tiny crevice when I could just do that,” he explained with an innocent shrug, and I decided not to comment on the fact that I hadn’t even thought to do the same.

I stepped further into the chamber, the floor heavy with dust here, no water making its way through the gap behind us, even after Caleb had widened it.

“This place feels old,” I breathed, unsure if that word could even come close to the enormity of time I felt spreading out around us here.

The Faelights flickered as if affected by some wind I couldn’t feel, and my gaze moved to the walls where carvings sat crumbling along the brickwork, the subjects hard to make out amid the cobwebs covering them.

I stepped forward, a shiver running down my spine as I crossed some invisible threshold, a breath of magic on my skin.

I moved towards the closest book, the cover a deep, blood red, the material thick and carved with runes, flames, and the triangular symbol for fire. Three zodiac constellations were marked with rubies on the front of it. Leo, Aries, and Sagittarius, the fire signs.

Caleb crossed the space behind me, and I turned from looking at the book to see him approaching a similar one bound in a deep forest green material, the Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn signs marked on it in emeralds, along with images of plants and runes too.

“These feel…alive,” Caleb breathed, his hand skimming along the spine of the book as if he could sense some inner pulse calling out to him from within its pages.

“Should we open them?” I asked, knowing it was insane to question doing so after coming all this way in search of knowledge, but there was something about the five books which set my teeth on edge, something about opening their pages which seemed so very final. Once we did it, we would never be able to undo it again.

Caleb didn’t answer, his attention slipping to the dark grey bound book for air, marked with diamonds, then the midnight blue, sapphire inlaid tome for water. “Why are there five?” he asked.

I turned slowly to look at the last book, the one on the pedestal standing at the furthest point of the room, the pitch-black cover which bound it seeming to draw light into it and shroud it in darkness.

“Shadows?” I questioned, taking a step towards it but Caleb shot into my path and halted me with a raised hand.

“Look at the marks on the floor,” he murmured, pointing and drawing my attention to the lines which looked like veins of midnight amid the dust that had gathered there. I blinked at them then sucked in a breath, recognising the shape from countless places, though I had never heard a single teacher at Zodiac Academy refer to it as if it held any true power.

“A pentagram,” I said, toeing the edge of the closest line with my boot. “With a book at each corner. But why?”

“There are legends, the kind of thing mostly forgotten but mentioned in kids’ stories from time to time,” Caleb said. “But I’ve heard people say that long ago, the Elements were always portrayed on a pentagram like this, with one lost power sitting at its helm, a power no one spoke of for fear of waking it again.”

“The kind of power we could use to topple a false king?” I asked, knowing his words had been intended to raise fear in me while finding myself filled with hope instead.

“It could be dangerous, Tory,” Caleb warned but I shrugged.

“Danger doesn’t get to have anything to do with it. My sister needs me; Solaria needs us. I won’t flinch from a creepy book all forgotten in the dark.”

Caleb held my gaze for several seconds, his hesitation melting away at those words and a ferocity taking its place which reminded me that he was one of the most powerful Fae in this entire kingdom.

“Whatever it takes,” he said in a low voice, and I swear the lightning-touched scar on my palm tingled at those words.

“No matter the cost,” I agreed and together we moved towards the final book.

A lump formed in my throat as I approached it, a heaviness filling the air which left a strange taste on the back of my tongue.

The watchful eyes of a thousand lost souls seemed to fall upon my back as I closed that short span of distance, a low clicking noise registering on the edge of my attention. Something moved in the darkness beyond this chamber, but none of it took my attention from the cloying darkness surrounding that fifth book.

The tome seemed to be warning us away, energy buzzing through the air and the echoes of long-dead screams sounding on the edge of my hearing, but I didn’t slow. I couldn’t afford to. Not while my sister was missing, Lionel was on the throne, and our people were on the run, at risk of falling prey to him at any given moment. We had taken too great of a hit in that battle, and we needed a weapon to wield against him so that we might be able to turn the tide of this war.

My fingers brushed against the Imperial Star at my throat, the weight of it taunting me with the endless possibilities it contained, coupled with the fact that no one could currently wield it aside from the monster we were set to destroy.

The deep thump of power contained within the Imperial Star pulsed against my fingertips, summoning me closer, making promises it couldn’t fulfil. I wanted to curse it along with the stars for taunting us with salvation while refusing to hand it to us.

I ground my jaw and moved my grip from the Imperial Star to the heavy weight of the ruby necklace Darius had gifted me, the stone heating with hidden fire, and I drew in a long breath. A breath seemed to brush against my neck, in that curve where it met with my shoulder, precisely where he had taken to kissing me in the mornings when he woke, his body pressing to my spine as he reeled me into the net of him. Not that I had ever tried to escape. Not once we had finally chosen each other. A prickle of sensation rose up the side of my neck, marking my skin with butterfly soft kisses that I could have sworn were trailed with that stubble he never quite shaved off. A sigh escaped me, longing and heartache merging as the ghost of him faded once more, his intention unclear.

He’d tell me not to do this. Tell me not to do anything that could end badly or risk my life. But then the asshole would have just done it himself, taking on the risks regardless of the cost that losing him would place on everyone he left behind if it failed.

“Do you think he knew he’d die on that battlefield?” I asked.

We stopped before the book and Caleb stilled in that unnatural way only Vampires could manage, almost like he had turned to stone at the mention of the man whose death had destroyed us both.

“I don’t think he would have willingly left any of us unless it was the only choice remaining to him. And the one that would save those he loved,” he said slowly.

“This doesn’t feel like he saved me,” I replied, releasing my hold on the ruby pendant bitterly, severing any imagined connection I felt to Darius’s spirit through it and slamming those walls back up around my heart before I could feel any more of the agony which was threatening to consume me. “It feels like he destroyed me one final time. Like this was all some big joke, leading up to the annihilation of everything I was and ever could have been.”

“You’re still you, Tory,” Caleb said, reaching for my hand but I shrugged the contact off and reached for the book instead.

“No. I’m not. I’m just an echo left behind, a malignant spirit set on revenge, and I’m far beyond the point of salvation. Which means there isn’t anything in this book I won’t use if that’s what it takes to right the wrongs which have been done against me and mine. Do you understand?”

There was a threat there, a promise of its own as I drew that line, letting him know that I wasn’t going to back out of anything we found here now. There was no boundary containing me, no leash on my need for revenge. No matter what we found in this book, I wouldn’t be turned from the idea of using it if I could do so to keep the promises I’d made while kneeling in the blood of the man I loved and cursing the stars themselves.

Caleb’s gaze was steady as he looked back at me, and I knew then that I wasn’t the only one who had gone beyond the point of salvation. Losing Darius was a burden neither of us could bear without reparation, and there would be no morality or fear which might hold us back now.

Whatever we found in that book, in this place, we would use it and damn the consequences.

I willed the Faelight above us to shine brighter and brighter, the blaze hurting my eyes before it grew enough to illuminate the single word marking the black leather of the book which stood at the top of the pentagram.

Ether.

“The fifth Element,” I breathed, my eyes moving over dark and twisted runes, the likes of which I hadn’t even seen before. In place of Elemental images, the book was covered in twisting patterns which almost seemed like a path or puzzle, my gaze automatically following one to the next, a never-ending trail that held no heart.

I reached for the book, the sound of something shifting across the rocks at my back almost making me turn, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from the dark power before me. It was hauntingly intoxicating, a wealth of knowledge and power unlike anything I had ever encountered before.

Our answers lay within those pages, I knew it down to the depths of my soul, but they might just have held our damnation too.

I raised my chin and thought of my sister, lost somewhere out there in the wastelands of this world. She needed me and I wouldn’t back down now, so without another thought, I reached for the cover of the Book of Ether and opened it.

A cold wind collided with my spine as the book fell open, a scream rising in my throat then choking out as the power in my veins was ripped away, burning out in a flashfire that left me completely tapped out. It all happened so quickly that I almost fell to my knees from the brutality of its destruction.

I clung to the dais before me, Caleb panting heavily at my side as the same thing happened to him. I couldn’t help but look behind us, scanning the walls and the open passageway at our backs for any signs of something coming for us in our newly vulnerable state.

“What the fuck was that?” Caleb asked, his fangs glinting in the faint light as his Order form was released.

“I don’t know. But if this book can command that much power with something as simple as opening it, then I have to think we’re looking in the right place.”

Caleb nodded slowly, his eyes darting around the room too and I was reassured as he turned back to the book. If his Vampire senses hadn’t revealed anything to worry about, then I was confident I could turn my attention the Book of Ether and unveil its secrets.

The first page held nothing beyond the symbol of the pentagram, the power humming from the ominous shape making a shiver dart through me as I carefully turned the page again.

Ether is the epitome of all magics. It’s power great, and influence vast. Those who dare tap into the call of this purest form of magic should heed this warning:

No prize comes without a cost. Blood shall spill, spirits shall splinter, and all shall behold the one-eyed demon of fate before the end.

“That sounds promising,” I muttered, turning the page again and finding a table of contents which listed things from omens to bloodletting, soul walking to the power of the true name, curses, hexes, bone magic, blood magic, the power of chaos, to the corruption of fate. So many magics, most of which I had never heard of and beyond.

I found a chapter titled ‘to find a lost soul’ and quickly flipped the pages to locate it.

The book fell open but the chapter I’d been seeking wasn’t the one I found. Instead, staring up at me was an image of two Fae standing on either side of what looked like a pane of glass or a mirror, their faces torn with grief as they reached for one another. In the second image, the Fae to the left was cutting their arm open, the blood spilling onto a collection of rune-marked bones and other items which were hard to recognise in the drawing. But in the third image, the thing that had been dividing the two Fae had cracked apart, not broken, not enough for anything more than their voices to pass through, but it was enough for that much and the look of relief on their faces set my heart racing.

I flipped back a page and looked to the title there. Conversing with the dead.

My lips parted as I began to read more, my eyes drinking in each and every word while Caleb fell deathly still at my side.

A strange scraping, rattle stole through the air.

The power of conversing with the dead is one of the more sought-after forms of necromancy, the ability both often one of deepest desire and most potent grief, but it is not an act that many Fae can complete.

Most commonly, a séance is the key to achieving such a gift, but it must be noted that such power should not be wielded lightly.

First off, a spirit board will likely be needed to help translate the words of those beyond the Veil. Such an item is best crafted from the wood of a Necrolis Tree, the power of its wood imbued with ether from the casting Fae to help create a bridge.

My heart thundered like the galloping hooves of a wild stallion as I read on, but it began to sink the further I went, the book explaining the way the board could be used to get simple answers such as yes or no most effectively, needing more power and the addition of blood magic to access full words which would be spelled out letter by letter. The chances of gleaning so much as a full sentence were bleak and there were multiple mentions of the pitfalls of such magic. For one, the Fae wielding it needing to bleed the entire time the connection was in place, and worse than that, malignant spirits took the place of the intended Fae on the other side more often than not. They would play games and send messages of either hope or despair in an attempt to lure the Fae wielding the magic to linger too long and bleed out while casting it.

It became clear that the practice would offer up little more than yes or no answers even if a connection with the departed soul was created. I wouldn’t even be able to hear his voice.

My fist slammed down on the plinth beside the book as frustration and disappointment bit into me, and Caleb sighed as he came to the same conclusion that I had. Spirit boards weren’t the answer to us finding Darius again in any form. If there even was a way to contact him in the beyond, then this wasn’t it.

“Fuck,” I hissed, turning the pages aggressively to find the one I’d been hunting for in the first place.

To Find a Lost Soul.

When encountering this magic for the first time, one must be aware of the pitfalls involved with soul walking. This magic is not for the weak of heart and can be more dangerous than it first seems.

First, to seek out a missing soul, the Fae casting the magic must have a deep and intimate knowledge of the one they seek. A blood relation or mate is the best and only real option, unless one wishes to risk the perils of being cast adrift in the in-between.

I scanned several more paragraphs which gave a more in-depth description of the way the magic would work. First, I was going to have to find a bone of my enemy and carve it with the true name of the Fae I sought. Then there was a whole bit on tethering my lifeforce to a subject of immovable value so that I could find my way back again because to achieve this magic, my soul was literally going to be walking out of my damn body and shifting across the world to search out the one I was hunting for. On top of that, I would need to harness the energy of the sun at its highest point in the day.

It looked complicated and damn difficult, plus there were a ton of warnings about not lingering outside the confines of my flesh and never attempting to soul walk beyond the Veil unless I was seeking the true death.

All in all, it sounded pretty full-on and all kinds of terrifying, but I wasn’t put off in the least. If I could use that power to find my sister, then there was nothing in this world which would keep me from doing so.

Caleb didn’t protest when I said as much to him, only suggesting we should stop by the battlefield on our way back home to gather the bones of our enemies for the spell.

I nodded grimly, knowing I should have left it at that, the book having already given us the knowledge we’d come here for, but I couldn’t help myself as I began to turn more pages, one after another, drinking in the words and twisted magic awaiting me there.

There were other kinds of necromancy beyond the spirit board, almost all aimed at conversing with the dead, though some referred to raising dead bodies. The momentary excitement I felt over those chapters was quickly quelled by the facts as I read more. The things the book talked about raising were nothing beyond shells, no part of the Fae who had once resided within them lingering. They were simply mindless skeletons with some lingering magic in their bones which could be used for simple things like protecting particular items or guarding against unwanted trespassers, much like the dead in The Everhill Graveyard who had been awakened when we had gone there without permission in the dead of night.

Just as I felt like screaming at the whole damn world for teasing me with possibilities which weren’t anywhere close to becoming reality, I turned one more page and my eyes fell on a footnote beneath the description of a spell on the corruption of fate.

Even a destiny mapped out by the stars and drawn into reality by time itself can often be changed. Fate is not the master of this world. Only ether commands the true power, and those who learn to master its call can learn to master the world itself and all those who exist within it.

My lips parted on Caleb’s name as I pointed towards the sentence, but in the next heartbeat, a swell of unnatural power drove into us again and the Faelights all blinked out.

That scraping, clawing noise ground against the stones at our backs, and I whirled towards it, the dark pressing in so thickly that I couldn’t even see my hand before my face, let alone anything else.

The sound of the book slamming shut behind me sent an echo reverberating right down to my core. I worked to summon magic to my command, despite already knowing that it had all been stripped away from me and a pit of dread lodged itself within me as I felt the empty bowels of my power in reply.

“We are the Keepers of the Lost Knowledge,” a voice of nightmares spoke from the dark, a horrible clacking sound punctuating each word. “And you have trespassed where you are not welcome.”