Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

Lavinia dragged me through the vast halls of The Palace of Souls, the shadow collar around my neck tethered to her by a leash of darkness. It was glacial and unforgiving against my skin, like the noose of a hangman.

My teeth ground together, and my heart thumped to a painful beat as I started to process everything that had happened tonight. The loss of Darius was suffocating me, the memory of him laying so still on the ground tearing a rift through my chest. He was my best friend, and I loved him more deeply than he had ever really known. We were brothers, raised together and meant to live life side by side. Even when he’d told me about the deal he’d made with the stars for a year of life, I’d been determined to believe there was a way for him to avoid death. But it had come for him even sooner than he’d planned, and now I was left without him, and it was like I’d had a piece of my lifeforce stolen away forever. They’d given him a year, but that didn’t grant him immortality for that time and he’d known it. Now even that short span of time had been cut off early, leaving him with so much less than he deserved from fate.

Beyond that, my fear over Blue left me with an anchor weighing down my heart. She was alone out there, and though I knew she would be fighting the grip of the beast with every scrap of power she possessed, I couldn’t be sure it was enough. Not when the curse ran so deep and was nourished by all the strength of Lavinia’s shadows.

All of that tangled with my fear for everyone else I’d lost sight of during the battle, and I was breaking with every step I took, wondering if I’d just made the gravest mistake of my life by offering myself up to the Shadow Princess.

Darcy would be destroyed by my decision, and I’d abandoned everyone who remained to pick up the pieces of Lionel’s destruction. Had Tory survived? And what about Gabriel and his family?

I was sick with the anxiety of it all, but as I followed the Shadow Princess deeper into the palace that had once belonged to the Savage King, numbness began to set in. The kind of emptiness that came after intense trauma. I remembered falling into this very same pit of despair after I lost Clara the first time. It was a void that sucked away all hope in the world and chipped away at the last glimmers of light in my soul, devouring them one by one until all that remained was a desolate space where nothing could grow.

As my thoughts found Blue again, I held onto the single thing that remained to me; paying this debt to Lavinia to break my mate’s curse.

I had to make it through this for her. My final light. The girl who was worth a thousand years in hell. I’d wait that long and more if I could be sure I would one day return to her, and that she would be safe, protected from all the darkness of the world. She may have been capable of fighting in battles and destroying those who opposed her, but she deserved a life of peace and endless smiles. Our happiness was a flower that had bloomed and withered before I’d barely had a moment to breathe in its sweet scent. I had to find a way to buy her an eternal summer where it could bloom once again.

“You’re very quiet back there, little hunter,” Lavinia called. “Are you trying to mourn your friends in peace? Because I assure you there will be no peace between these walls.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” I growled, and she twisted her head to look back at me, the angle of her neck unnatural. Her eyes were two sunken pits of black, and dark veins rippled and shifted beneath her skin as the shadows writhed within her. My neck prickled just looking at her, my hatred for her a venomous creature that spat poison in my chest.

“I knew the taste of love once, a very long time ago. Love exposes you; it makes you a fool,” she hissed.

“Then I am a fool,” I said hollowly.

“My fool,” she said, a smile gripping her mouth before she turned away again and led me on.

There was a din of noise in the palace which I couldn’t ignore, my Vampire hearing not allowing me to turn my attention from it. The closer we got, the worse it became and dread filled me as I recognised it for what it was. Rebels had been captured and were being tortured somewhere deep within this place, their screams colouring the inside of my skull red.

It was hard to believe this was the same palace I’d visited when Darcy and Tory had stayed here, a sanctuary where I’d known joy for a time, though those days seemed so fleeting now. I wished I’d held onto them tighter, but more than that, I wished I’d taken all those I loved and run somewhere far beyond Solaria to a haven where Lionel could never touch us. The other kingdoms were not all welcoming though. To the south, Voldrakia was a savage kingdom, and across the ocean to the east, The Waning Land was a war-torn world where Elementals were divided, and dictators controlled their people. No, on reflection, I never really would have run; Solaria was my home, and I would fight for it until there was nothing left to fight for.

As I drew nearer to the sounds of screams, a voice caught my ear which set my heart thrashing.

“I’ll never give you what you want,” Gabriel spat. “No pain in this world will force me to reveal a single vision of mine.”

“We shall see,” Lionel answered, and I acted on instinct, shooting forward with the speed of my Order.

“Gabriel!” I bellowed in terror for him as Lavinia yanked me back with the shadows so ferociously that I was thrown to the floor.

My throat burned as the shadows choked me, squeezing tight so blood pounded in my ears before finally loosening enough for me to breathe again.

“The Seer?” She gasped excitedly, clapping her hands before dragging me to my feet and towing me along after her. “Daddy has done well.”

By the stars, no. How could this night get any worse?

Panic warred through me as she led me up a flight of stairs and I found Gabriel there on his knees before Lionel as he choked the air out of his lungs.

“Stop!” I shouted as Lavinia held me close with the shadows, preventing me from going to my Nebula Ally. It physically pained me that I was helpless to this, and it felt like the final blow of an already devastating defeat.

Lionel looked over at me with intrigue, his eyebrows arching as he took in his queen’s captive. Two glittering, lilac Pegasus wings with a rainbow sheen were lying on the floor behind him and my stomach knotted in horror as I recognised them as Xavier’s.

My hands shook as I wondered who was even left alive after the battle, and violence made my muscles tighten with the need for vengeance.

“Lance Orion.” Lionel smiled cruelly, stalking closer and I bared my teeth at him, my fangs extending in a threat of death I wished I could deliver. “Well done, Lavinia. Hand him to me. I shall have Vard extract his memories then execute him myself.”

I could barely feel the strike of those words, death seeming so small a threat when aimed at me. It was the people I loved who mattered. Like Gabriel who continued to thrash on the floor, clawing at his throat as he fought to get in a breath of air, but Lionel held it all within his control.

“Release him,” I commanded, my words measured and rippling with power, but Lionel took no interest in me.

“Come, Lavinia. Hand him to me.” Lionel waved a hand impatiently. He was still flecked with blood, painted in the deaths he’d delivered tonight, and it was clear his appetite wasn’t close to sated.

“No,” Lavinia said simply just as Lionel’s hand fell on my arm, gripping tight, the monster in his eyes growing hungry for more blood.

Lionel frowned, turning to the wraith at my side in confusion. “No?” he questioned like he had never heard the word in his life.

“This one is mine. He made a deal with me.” She yanked on my collar with the gifts of her dark power, and I was pulled from Lionel’s grip into hers. A chew toy for two rabid dogs to snarl over.

Lavinia tiptoed up to run her tongue along my cheek and I winced from the icy touch of it, though I didn’t resist it either. I couldn’t now that I was bound to her. It was the price of the deal I’d made. My body was hers, and I was only just starting to truly appreciate how horrifying that reality was.

The words of the Death bond rang inside my head like the toll of fate itself. “Your body will be willingly mine for three moon cycles, and when that time is up, I shall release Darcy Vega from her curse.’

Keyword, fucking ‘willingly’.

I looked to my Nebula Ally as his face turned blue and my pulse pounded more furiously.

“Let him go,” I snarled but again Lionel acted as if I hadn’t spoken, his gaze set on Lavinia.

“What deal? That was not part of the plan,” he hissed.

“I tied the Vega’s curse to her one true love,” Lavinia said, amusement lacing her tone. “Now he’s agreed to pay the price with three months of torture. Isn’t it perfect, Daddy?”

“Why would you agree to such a thing when you could kill him instead?” Lionel demanded in a thunderous voice, his lack of control over the situation clearly irking him. His eyes flashed green, his irises transforming into two reptilian slits as heat radiated from him.

“Because the torment of the Vega girl’s Elysian Mate is a far greater punishment than any other I could offer her. He has agreed that he is mine, body and soul.” She smiled that wild, unhinged smile of hers and there was no humanity in it at all.

“Lionel,” I snapped, jerking forward to try and go to Gabriel who was twitching as he started to pass out.

Lionel’s eyes whipped onto me, and he struck me in the gut with a punch of air magic that sent me doubling over and wheezing for breath. “Do not address me so informally. I am your king. The ruler of Solaria and you are nothing but dirt muddying my palace floors.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I gritted out, emotion filling my words as my heart ripped open and bled. “You killed Darius.”

The pain of his loss came crashing in on me like stormy waves hitting the shore, and I didn’t know how I would ever recover from it. He was my pillar of certainty when the rest of the world was crumbling, the man who had stood by me after I’d lost everything. He had been one of the few things in this world worth waking up for after I lost Clara, and it had nothing to do with Lionel’s Guardian bond, it was because Darius was a brother chosen for me by fate. He was one of the only good things in this forsaken world the stars had offered me, and now they’d taken him away without even offering me a chance to say goodbye.

Lionel’s lips slid into a mocking slant. “Yes. My worthless, traitor son is dead. And now we know who the greatest Dragon who ever lived is. Though there was hardly any doubt bef-”

I was on him in the next heartbeat, my fists slamming into his ribs and my fangs tearing into the skin of his shoulder as I sought out the magic I needed to kill him, but before I could taste a drop of blood, Lavinia yanked my leash tight, forcing me back behind her where I crashed to the floor on my knees.

“Down, boy,” she scalded teasingly as the empty well in my chest was left pining for magic and my need for that bastard’s demise went abhorrently unanswered.

Lionel staggered back a step, lifting a hand to heal the torn flesh of his shoulder and running a palm over his ribs where a satisfying crunch had marked a break I felt only mildly appeased by. The moment he was healed, he lunged for me, but Lavinia stepped into his way with a wild laugh, and the Dragon King bore down on her with a snarl lighting his features in a blood red death.

“Move. Aside. The boy is overdue his end at my hand. He has defied me one too many times, and I will make him suffer before I cast him to ash,” he spat. “He is as useless as his father was.”

“My father was not useless,” I hissed, getting to my feet, and Lionel scoffed.

“The man destroyed himself with dark magic. He had little purpose in this life, and what he had to offer, I took willingly whenever I wanted. Just like I took your mother whenever I wanted her.”

I didn’t care what he said about Stella, but my father was another matter. “He was ten times the Fae you are,” I hurled at him, holding the truth back about his death, and the steppingstones he’d laid for the Zodiac Guild. I wasn’t going to give Lionel any reason to sift through my memories and hunt out that knowledge. I couldn’t be sure Lavinia would protect me from that if her king insisted on it.

“There is no Fae greater than I. I am the greatest Dragon who ever lived,” he said in a voice that quavered with the determination behind those words.

“I will grant my pet all the suffering he is owed, my King,” Lavinia said in a sultry voice, stepping forward to caress his arm. “Let me handle it. I will make him scream and scream for you.”

A tense beat of silence passed, and smoke plumed from Lionel’s nostrils, but he finally backed down, clearly liking the idea of what Lavinia was offering.

“Very well,” he muttered, turning away from us, and hatred spewed through me.

“Darius Vega is the greatest Dragon who ever lived,” I spoke loud and clear, making Lionel fall deathly still.

“What did you just call him?” he asked venomously, danger thick in the air.

“He married Tory. She is more powerful than him, so that made him a Vega,” I said, relishing this final blow I could land to him, feeling Darius’s defiance humming through the air and knowing Lionel could feel it too.

His shoulders tightened and he looked back at Lavinia with fury making his lower lip quiver. “Do as you will to him, Lavinia. Peel the flesh from his bones and carve his heart from his chest, but ensure that I am there to watch when it is time for him to die.”

“Of course, my King,” Lavinia said, looking to me and pressing a finger to her lips that spoke of a secret I hadn’t realised we were sharing. It seemed that Lionel wouldn’t be finding out about the details of our deal, and that my death was not on the cards once it played out.

Relief rushed through me as Lionel finally released Gabriel from his magic and my friend gasped down a lungful of oxygen from his position on the floor. Lionel dragged him to his feet by his hair and threw him into the hands of two Dragon cronies waiting obediently down the hall, their bulky frames wrapped in the navy robes of his pathetic Dragon Guild. “Take him to the Royal Seer’s chamber.”

They dragged my friend away and Gabriel looked back at me, our eyes locking and fear tangling with my blood as I saw a thousand terrible fates shining in his irises. He shook his head as if in apology, and I wished I could convince him he had nothing to be sorry for.

“There’s hope yet, Orio,” he called. “Have faith in the flames!”

One of the Dragons punched him to silence him, then he was dragged around a corner, and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again. I didn’t know if he’d spoken those words just to comfort me, or if there was really truth in them. The flames? Did he mean the twins?

I wanted to believe he could see a way out of this, but after everything, it was hard to take any solace in a word like hope.

“My King,” a man appeared running along the hall, bowing low. He had bright red hair and large teeth, his eyes downcast as he approached Lionel. “Can I assist you at all? Are you well after battle? How can I be of service?”

“Stop blabbering and pick up my disgusting second son’s wings, Horace.” Lionel pointed to the severed Pegasus wings on the floor and Horace’s eyes widened before he hauled them into his arms.

“Praise the king and all his might,” he stammered as he struggled to keep his hold on their awkward weight.

“Hang them in the dining hall,” Lionel commanded, smiling smugly to himself, and walking off down the corridor. “I want them displayed as a trophy. A reminder to all of what I do to rebels and lesser Fae scum alike.”

“As you wish, sire,” Horace said before hurrying away with them, a trail of blood which sparkled with glitter marking the tiles as he dragged the wings along in his king’s wake.

I was left shaking, thinking of Gabriel, and not knowing what to do. Because there was nothing I could do, no path in front of me but the one I’d bound myself to now. I was helpless to a callous destiny, and I could hardly breathe for how stifling the world suddenly was. There was too much loss, too many people I loved torn away from me, and now I was alone with nothing but blood and suffering awaiting me.

Remember Blue. Stay strong for her.

Lavinia drew me back down the corridor, humming an eerie tune to herself as her shadowy hair danced around her shoulders.

My ears were already adjusting to the distant din of screams deep in the palace and I felt the hopelessness of this place closing in on me on all sides. The Palace of Souls was living up to its name tonight, for there were countless souls trapped here, and I had no idea how many would be released to the stars by dawn. I thought of Gabriel’s family, of Catalina, Hamish, Geraldine…and then my mind turned to the Heirs and how they had never shown up at the battle. Were they safe? Would they return to The Burrows and find themselves drowning in the grief of all those who’d been killed?

The Shadow Princess led me down the beautiful corridors of the palace until we entered the huge throne room with its vaulted ceiling and unwelcoming ambience. The blue stained-glass windows sat high up above, letting in an icy light in vertical shafts.

The Hydra throne took centre stage at the heart of it, the tall back of the seat splitting into a monstrous bouquet of Hydra heads, their scaly necks twisting together like serpents. It was a towering reminder of the king who had once been housed within these walls. And as I thought of all the bad feeling I’d once held towards him, regret weighed heavily on my soul. Lionel had been the shadow hanging over the Vegas all this time, a snake lurking in plain sight who had injected its poison in secret, one drip at a time until the whole kingdom had been polluted. If only someone had discovered his treason and stopped him sooner.

Lavinia guided me past a cage of black night iron that stood against one wall, leading me along a corridor and into a chamber through a heavy metal door. It swung shut behind me, and I took in the room full of torture devices set in a circle around a raised stone platform where two metal manacles hung on chains attached to the ceiling.

“Do you like it, pet? Lionel gifted me this space and I feel I’ve done beautiful work,” Lavinia crooned like she was showing me a playhouse.

Dread slithered down my spine as I sensed a familiar, cloying energy from each of the torture devices, from blades to whips and saws, all held the oppressive aura of the shadows about them.

Lavinia placed a hand against my back, encouraging me towards the platform where my fate awaited. “Kneel up there for me, pet. Hands in the air.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, raising my chin and walking willingly forward, though my legs weighed me down like they were made of lead. As I stepped onto the platform and knelt, I thought of Blue and held her there in my mind before raising my hands above my head. She was the greatest gift I’d ever received, but all gifts had a price. I should have known my debt to the stars wasn’t yet paid. But if anyone deserved this sacrifice from me, it was Blue. She loved me with the fury of a night storm, and I was going to honour that love down to every last raindrop.

Lavinia slinked up behind me, pulling my shirt off and tossing it aside. My fangs were still out, my need for blood already making my mind sink into the more animal part of my nature. Though I had no idea when I’d be getting my next feed or if she would allow me to feed at all. It was probably the least of my concerns, but without magic, I would be driven to insanity. I not only had to recharge it, I had to use it or else succumb to madness. Was that to be my destiny too?

Lavinia locked the manacles over my wrists and yanked the chain taut in a winch that forced me to stand again. I felt the power of the metal around my wrists shutting me off from using magic even if I’d had any to cast.

Lavinia trailed a sharp fingernail down the length of my spine before circling around the platform, examining me. “Pretty, pretty.”

I turned my mind to the girl who was worth a thousand bloody deaths. Three moon cycles, that was all, and the clock was already ticking down. I’d return to her soon, and she would be free of the curse when I did so. That was enough to dip my will in molten iron and harden it into an unbreakable thing.

I stared at my possessor, anxious to start so that I could move closer to the end. “Do your worst.”

“Such big words from a lonely man on the losing side of my king’s war,” she purred, moving to pick up a blade that glinted with dark magic. “But I will not do my worst, Lance Orion. No, I will do my absolute best.”

She threw the blade at me, and it drove deep into my side, making me cry out in agony. I felt the kiss of some wicked power, but it didn’t call to me like it had when I was cut with a draining dagger. This time, the souls trapped within the shadows were screaming, and it seemed as though they were being tortured too, all of their pain amplifying mine tenfold.

Lavinia rushed toward me in a blur of shadow, yanking the blade out and making blood rush hot and fast down my side. Before I could recover, she’d stabbed me again, then again, choosing her targets carefully so death didn’t come for me.

I gritted my teeth through the torture for all the good it did me, my mind spiralling deep down into the shadows with every strike she made, and each visit there was worse than the reality I was facing. For all I could hear were screams, and all I could feel were knives carving me up from the inside out.

Through all the darkness and the pain, I started losing my grip on Blue, like she was being wrenched away from me with every burning cut of Lavinia’s knife. The shadows were taking me, laying a claim that spoke of Lavinia’s deal, owning me completely and marking me as hers.

For the first time since I’d offered myself to Darcy Vega under the stars, I feared that I really could be taken from her, that I could be twisted and carved up, altered irreversibly by this torment. Because it wasn’t just my flesh it damaged, the dark power imbued in Lavinia’s weapon was severing the chords that tied me to my soul. The part of me that made me who I was.

If that was destroyed, then would my mate even want me anymore? If I became a shell of a man with nothing to offer the girl who deserved the universe, what would happen to us? Would I even be a match for her in the eyes of the stars?

I pushed those fears aside, knowing there was only one reason I was here, and that whatever was lost in the process was out of my control now. Through this suffering I might be destroyed, but she would be saved. So I would be a willing sacrifice on the altar of our love.