Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

“Don’t think I didn’t see you earlier,” I said softly as Hail moved across the room towards the old oak drink cabinet that he’d had in The Palace of Souls, the thing just the same as it had been in the living realm, chipped corner and all.

“See what?” he growled, pouring himself a measure of tequila which I promptly took from his hand as he raised it to his mouth.

His lips twitched, irritation, amusement, the desire to both punish and praise me. He never had quite figured out which he preferred.

I smiled at him over the rim of the glass, sinking the entire drink in one hit and he took the glass back to refill it for himself. We didn’t need food or drink here, but we could partake when the mood suited us, and old habits died hard.

I looked beyond my brute of a husband, my eyes trailing Darius’s broad frame. He stood silhouetted by the golden light streaming in through the window, his posture rigid, but that hopelessness was gone now that the two of them had returned to the Eternal Palace, determined to continue down the paths we had begun walking, for better or worse. In its place was a fierce resolution which made me both proud and a little wary.

“You know I see everything,” I teased, causing Hail to growl beneath his breath. “You offered an olive branch – you went soft on him.”

“The boy has his faults, but I cannot deny the love he feels for her,” Hail grunted, the words seeming to cause him some pain. “Much as I might have wished for her to find a gentle, kind soul to match with, I suppose a ferocious, passionate one will have to do.”

“Is that so?” I stepped closer to him as he took a sip from his drink, placing a finger on the base of his glass and encouraging him to finish it in one hit as I had.

Hail complied, just as he had all those years ago.

“This path frightens me, Hail,” I breathed, keeping our words between us. “But I fear there’s no turning from it now.”

“No choice has ever been made easy for my bloodline,” he growled in reply. “The curse hounds us so doggedly.”

I sighed, wishing it wasn’t so, wondering what might have been if the curse had been lifted in a time before ours. Then again, Hail likely wouldn’t have ever ventured to Voldrakia if his life had been different. We wouldn’t have met. And there wasn’t any fate that I could ponder where the fire between us didn’t ignite.

“Do you think he might find a way back?” I breathed, my voice even lower as I made utterly certain that Darius wouldn’t overhear. Not that he appeared to be paying any attention to us; his gaze was fixed on the horizon, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. Getting to grips with the reality of your own death was never easy. To have been ripped from the arms of all you loved while in your prime…it had taken me years to accept the fate of missing out on seeing my children grow. I watched from afar while every knee was scraped, every lesson learned, every tear fell, and I could never help with any of it.

But perhaps I could help now.

“If anyone is determined enough to do so, then it would likely be him,” Hail grunted, setting his glass down.

“What happened with the Guild Stones?” I asked, turning my attention from the issue of Darius to the other task which nipped at us.

“I have seen…things,” Hail said, his brow furrowing as he seemed to suppress a shudder. “Azriel led me to Felisia Night who apparently knows where more of the stones are and-”

The floor of the room quaked beneath our feet and I gasped, grabbing Hail’s arm on instinct, my wings flaring to help keep my balance.

“What is that?” Darius demanded, turning to us, but I had no answer for him.

“I’ve never felt anything like-” I gasped as a force rippled through me, a line coiling tight around my core before yanking me away, The Veil snapping around me, my grip on Hail’s arm tightening to the point of pain as he was dragged along with me.

The realm of the living appeared around me, my knees hitting grass as I was tossed at the edge of a group of Fae who stood at the summit of a small hill.

I blinked against the brightness of the light, turning to look at the floating island the rebels had created as a safe haven from Lionel, and I smiled as Hail stepped closer to me.

“What is this?” Darius muttered, moving towards the other Heirs, my daughter and Geraldine Grus who were gathered at the peak of the hill.

“Something important,” Hail replied, and I followed him as he moved closer to the group.

“Are you really sure about messing with this stuff, Tory?” Max asked, eyeing her cautiously as she flicked her fingers at the ground and burned a perfect pentagram through the grass right at the apex of the hill. “I don’t think Darius would have wanted you to risk-”

“That’s the thing about dying,” Roxanya hissed venomously. “You give up the chance to want anything at all.”

“What are they doing?” I asked, worry itching at me as I felt the taint of dark magic colouring the air.

“This is my fault,” Darius said, his face paling as he moved closer to Roxanya though none of them noticed us at all.

“We could just stop you from doing this,” Seth said firmly, moving to join Max and I could feel the tension growing between the group, the building storm as each of them rallied their power.

“Do you really think so?” Roxanya challenged, a slight shimmer igniting in the air between them, making it clear that she’d placed a shield there with lightning speed.

“I’d like to see them try,” Hail chuckled darkly, but worry built in my gut as I stepped right up to the edge of the pentagram where Roxanya stood. I tried to move into it, but my foot couldn’t pass that barrier, even from beyond The Veil. It wasn’t her shield that was keeping us back, but something in the magic she was casting which crossed the lines between realms.

“I don’t like this,” I breathed.

“Yeah,” Seth growled, rising to the challenge, and taking a step closer to my daughter. “I think we can. And for another thing-”

“Leave it,” Caleb growled, shooting around to place himself between the other Heirs and Roxanya, his fangs flashing in the light as he bared them.

Darius sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes widening as he watched his brothers lining themselves up on opposite sides of a fight for what had to be the first time, one of them picking a side against the others.

“Caleb, what the fuck?” Max growled, but he didn’t back down.

“She needs to figure out this magic. And I swore an oath to help her do it. I believe she can, and I agree with her on the Darius point. If he’d wanted a say in what she did, he should have stuck around to voice his own opinion,” Caleb spat, and I glanced at Darius who looked like he’d just taken a knife to the chest at hearing those words.

Geraldine casually swung her flail in one hand, moving to stand at Caleb’s side, an eyebrow cocked in challenge as she made it clear that she stood with her queen as always.

“I don’t like this, Hail,” I repeated, wishing I could do more than simply lay witness to whatever was happening while that potent power built around us, a dark cloud closing in at our backs.

“I know,” he replied, his eyes on Roxanya who was ignoring the argument entirely now, dropping down to sit cross-legged on the floor, various herbs sprouting from the ground around her under the guidance of her earth magic.

The others continued to argue, but I ignored them too, moving as close as I could get to my daughter, crouching down and looking at the herbs while she gathered them, trying to figure out what she was doing.

She muttered beneath her breath, her brow furrowing in concentration as she began to twist the herbs together, tying them into place as she formed a roughly fashioned corn doll, something in my heart telling me what it was supposed to look like – or rather who.

“She’s trying to find Gwendalina,” I breathed, looking up at Hail who had come to stand over me. “She’s hunting for her sister.”

“Then let’s see if we can help her find her,” he replied.

We watched as Roxanya carefully picked a sprig of vervain and pushed it into the doll. Next, she added chamomile and then some sweet marjoram before picking up a dagger and cutting off a small lock of her own hair to press into its chest.

The argument between the others came to an end, presumably because it was clear that there was no stopping this now it had begun anyway.

“Vervain for aiding astral workings,” Geraldine breathed as she began to walk in a slow circle around the edge of the pentagram where Roxanya worked, her steps guiding her straight through us as if we weren’t even there. Which I supposed we weren’t. “And to induce the psychic ability to part one’s soul from their flesh. Chamomile to capture the gifts of the sun and borrow its almighty power when it is at its highest peak. Sweet marjoram to call on her one true love – for what greater love is there than that of two sisters?”

“You’re making this whole thing sound very romantic,” Max muttered.

My throat thickened as the power grew all around us, the weight of it cloying, pressing down on my shoulders while The Veil whipped against my spine, but it didn’t try to draw me away.

Next, Roxanya took a lapis lazuli crystal from her bag, the deep blue stone filled with pure golden swirls.

“That’s mine,” Darius hissed as he looked at the priceless stone, smoke spilling between his lips.

“The dead don’t get to keep possession of any treasures, fool,” Hail muttered, and Darius growled like a feral beast.

“Bullshit. That crystal is mine and the rest of my treasure is mine too and I’ll be back to claim it before any other fucker can lay their hands on it,” Darius snapped.

“The lapis lazuli is the epitome of wisdom, intuition and clarity, it will help keep her wandering soul on track to find the answer she seeks,” Geraldine said, her voice eerie as she continued to tread a path around the pentagram like she was guarding the girl who sat within it.

“Stop making this weird, Geraldine,” Seth complained. “I already don’t like it, and you’re making it all kinds of freaky.”

Roxanya took her dagger and lifted it over the stone, her brow furrowing in concentration as she etched two runes into the flawless face of it.

That unholy power pulsed as she worked, lashing at my spine and causing Hail to grip my shoulder.

“We should stop this,” Hail said but Darius shook his head.

“There’s no stopping Roxy when she gets that look in her eyes,” he said, a note of pride mixed with hopelessness of his warning.

“Fehu for luck and Dagaz for awareness,” Geraldine cooed, and Roxanya pushed the lapis lazuli into the corn doll’s chest then pinched the opening closed, sealing everything inside it as she positioned herself in the centre of the pentagram.

The power pulsed faster now, thunder crackling through the air around us, though the sunlight surrounding Roxanya didn’t so much as flicker. Did she feel it too? Did she understand the weight of the magic she was toying with?

I sucked in a sharp breath as Roxanya turned the blade around and slit her finger open on it, her blood spilling onto the doll and sizzling as the magic that had been building all around us rushed toward it, a blazing path of light spilling between our realm and theirs, pouring into that doll before arcing out of it in five blazing ribbons. Each of them struck a corner of the pentagram and the whole thing began to burn, the ground glowing with a ferocity which defied the stars themselves.

Roxanya tipped her head back to the sky and spoke a set of words so thick with power that a flare of it tore from the world of the living and blasted itself across The Veil, slamming into the three of us and hurling us from our feet in an explosion which only seemed to have taken place on our side of the divide.

The corn doll Roxanya held burst into flames, a scream of agony escaping it as everything it contained was consumed by the fire in a flash of heat.

I pushed up onto my elbows to watch in horror, that dark power throbbing all around us, fear for what it might cause consuming me.

A wave of power bloomed from the doll as it fell to nothing but ash, and Roxanya gasped as it hit her, her body lifting from the floor, spine arching backwards unnaturally.

“Tory!” Max yelled while Darius roared in terror, scrambling back to his feet and racing towards her like he might cross back over here and now if that was what it took to get to her.

“It’s working!” Geraldine gasped as Roxanya’s eyes flew open and her unseeing gaze stared up at the sky.

The Veil dragged me back, the world shattering as Roxanya’s body fell limp to the ground at the top of that hill, but her soul lifted straight from the heart of it, rising to balance on the edge of The Veil, teetering between life and death.

The panicked faces of the Heirs and Geraldine faded away as time flashed and twisted in vortex around us, and Roxanya blinked at the shadowy line beneath her feet. Bright sunlight lay on her far side, the realm of the living beckoning her home, while the golden glow of the after pulsed with heady urgency where Hail, Darius and I stared at her in awe.

“Holy shit, it actually worked,” Roxanya muttered, her gaze fixed on the path before her, her posture rigid as she seemed to be fighting the draw of what lay beyond The Veil.

“She mustn’t look this way,” I barked, something in the pull of The Veil telling me that was the truth even if I had no idea how I knew it. “She can’t be tempted into death. Don’t let her see you,” I added, looking to Darius who seemed on the brink of cracking and running for her.

But he stilled. His huge body locked with tension as he held himself in check and nodded.

“Darcy,” he said firmly. “You came looking for Darcy.”

Roxanya lifted her head at those words, either hearing them or feeling the truth of them as determination filled her shadowy posture. She was more solid than those of us who had truly crossed into death, but the edges of her form flickered like candlelight, each second that passed drawing her closer to our side of the divide.

“Follow my lead,” I commanded, reaching out to first take Hail’s hand then Darius’s before closing my eyes and letting my form dissolve, guiding them along with me until the three of us appeared as nothing more than golden orbs which hung in the air.

I could feel their presence close to me as I shot forward, racing up to Roxanya and spinning around her, the hazy glow of my form brushing against her skin and pressing through her hair.

My soul lurched with pain as I felt that contact between us, the closest I had come to truly holding her in my arms in so many years.

Roxanya gasped as the three of us spun around her, greeting her, letting her sense that we were here to help before I focused on the pull of my heart which led to her sister.

I shot away from her, a blazing, golden path spinning out behind me as I led the way between time and space, life and death, shadow, and light, making sure she never wavered from the thin path which divided our realm from hers.

Darius and Hail danced with me as we led her on, the world blurring, fading, then finally brightening again so she could peer back into life and see what it was she’d come here for.

Gwendalina and Lance sat in the night iron cage in The Palace of Souls, the two of them huddled together, looking so close to breaking that it fractured my heart to see it.

Roxanya cursed as she spotted them, understanding filling her, giving her the knowledge she needed.

I lingered there, twisting around her as nothing more than a ball of golden light, willing her to feel my love as Hail and Darius did the same, the essence of our souls caressing hers, offering whatever she might need to take from us and more.

A tear slipped from Roxanya’s eye, and she wiped it from her cheek before setting her jaw with determination.

“I’m coming for you, Darcy,” she swore. “Look for me, because I’m coming.”

The cloying weight of that power pressed closer, and I could feel The Veil tugging on me too. It felt her here, where no living soul should step, and it hungered for her.

I flew at her, pressing into her spine and Hail and Darius joined me, pushing her back, forcing her to turn. Roxanya must have felt it too because she didn’t resist, turning away from her sister and breaking into a run as she raced down that shadowy path, a glowing light in the distance marking the way back to her body.

The air trembled around us, that rolling thunder making fear shoot through me as we chased her back towards life, the seconds dragging out, then stalling, time shifting unnaturally.

“Don’t look back!” I cried, but if she heard me, I didn’t know.

The Veil yawned wide behind us, but Roxanya didn’t once turn to look at it, her focus fixed on that distant glow, her pace increasing as she sprinted for it. She had too much to live for to let death tempt her away, and as she dove into the bright light of the living, a clap of pure power rang out across all the realms.

We were blasted away, our glimmering forms tumbling across the boundary of The Veil, each of us fighting its call just long enough to see her suck in a shuddering breath as she returned to her body.

Geraldine and the Heirs rushed to her, and I smiled as I left her to their care. I might have been lost to the ocean of death, but so long as she and my other children bathed up there in the balmy glow of life, I was at peace.