Zodiac Academy: The Awakening As Told By The Boys

An explosion of wayward fire magic crashed into the wall above my head and I ducked down as Lance threw up an air shield to protect us.

The unearthly shriek that followed the attack was enough to make my limbs shiver with the force of the creature’s power, the Nymph using its gifts to try and block our access to our magic.

“I’ll take the right,” I ground out the order and Lance nodded, holding his bright silver sword in his hand and preparing to dart out from behind the tree we were using for cover.

We were in the middle of nowhere up here in the far northern reaches of the kingdom and the cold air bit at my skin with a merciless savagery that I wasn’t used to.

The Nymph shrieked again, its power washing over us in a wave and the beast beneath my flesh shifted uneasily, begging to come out and play. But I wasn’t going to be freeing my Dragon unless I had to. It was too damn easy for some nosey fucker to recognise me in that form and we needed to stay unnoticed if we could.

I shoved away from the tree, racing to the right while Lance shot left with a burst of his Vampire speed, sword raised in hand and a snarl on his lips which revealed the sharp points of his fangs.

My boots crunched across hard packed snow, the frost threatening to make me slip and I pushed some of my fire magic into my flesh so the heat of it melted the snow around me and shored up my footing.

The Nymph shrieked again, rearing up to its full height of well over three meters and my heart pounded as I took in its gruesome silhouette which was painted against the backdrop of the full moon beyond it.

Its limbs were long and sinewy, coated in a hard, bark-like flesh which almost made it seem like a demon which had sprouted life within the depths of a tree. But despite its cumbersome-looking build, I knew full well that those things could be plenty fast enough when they needed to be.

The shockwaves of its power collided with me and I staggered as I lost my grip on my magic, the fire in my veins guttering out as it took my Element hostage.

I gritted my teeth and snatched the silver bladed hatchet from my belt made from purest sun steel, the weapon weighing heavily in my hand as my muscles bunched and I hefted it aloft. My pace faltered as I raced towards the creature, its power stealing the strength from my limbs and causing me to slip on the icy ground.

‘Come at me then!’ I roared at it, still charging towards the beast even as every instinct in my body urged me to run in the opposite direction.

The Nymph turned the full attention of its gleaming red eyes on me, an excited smile breaking across its twisted mouth as it swept its arms wide and that rattle sounded again.

The potency of it hit me full on that time and a Dragon’s growl escaped me as I crashed to my knees in the snow from the force of it.

White, snowy powder exploded up around me as I hit the ground, the sting of the ice biting through my jeans as my racing heart seemed to slow and I found myself fully caught in the grasp of the creature’s magic.

A juddering breath racked through my chest as my limbs lost even more of their strength, my bicep bulging as I fought to maintain my hold on the hatchet even as it slipped from my fingers and thumped down into the snow at my side.

A cloud of vapour spilled from my lips as the dull pounding of my heart banged in my chest and echoed on in my ears.

That was it. I was caught, held captive by my own flesh as the monster’s power took hold of me completely and the enormous beast stepped up in front of me, one arm drawn back with sharpened probes for fingers aiming right at the centre of my chest.

My heart thumped in a dull, endlessly raging way as I looked up at the creature which would be my death and the cold bit at my cheeks.

Another breath fluttered past my lips, billowing before me as the freezing temperature seemed to dig its way beneath my bones and even the Dragon inside me seemed to fall away, leaving me here alone. Just me and my death, waiting beneath the moonlit sky to meet one another.

I tipped my head back, looking up at the creature as it reared over me with a look of glee in its blood red eyes.

How much easier my life would be if this really was just the end of me.

No more pressure to be the best. No more fighting day and night to appease a man who would never be appeased. No more living beneath the shadow of a monster so much more beastly than this creature could ever claim to be.

It was a shame I wasn’t more accepting of that fate. Of the freedom death could provide me from the man who fought to make me the very worst version of myself by all means available to him.

But I hadn’t been built to bow. And I had people who relied on me. Which meant I wasn’t going to be giving in to this fate.

The stars seemed to whisper similar thoughts in my ears as my gaze shifted beyond the Nymph to take in the clear, bright sky. Almost as if they were paying full attention to us here. And I swear they were saying not yet. Not now. We have so much more in store for you, son of the Dragon Lord.

A roar met my ears which was neither beastly nor terrifying – at least not for me, though for the creature before me I was willing to bet that sounded a whole lot like death on the wings of the wind.

A sword slammed through the chest of the Nymph, streaks of black blood coating the blade as its probes brushed against my flesh and the sharp prick of them cut into my skin just enough to break it.

‘Die you motherfucker!’ Lance roared, yanking the blade free again as a scream escaped the Nymph’s lips which was caught by the wind and sent echoing away down the valley beyond us, even as its form fell apart and its body was turned back into the dark and festering shadows of the realm which it belonged to.

Lance fell to the ground as the Nymph disappeared beneath him and I slumped back onto my knees, sucking in a breath coated with ice as relief tangled with the adrenaline in my limbs and I choked out a laugh.

‘Took your fucking time on that one,’ I grunted, my fingers swiping over the rips in my shirt as the warmth of my own blood met them, letting me know just how close a call that had been.

‘There was a little one hiding over there,’ Lance grumbled, jerking his thumb towards a small copse of trees in the direction he’d come from. ‘Damn things had figured out our manoeuvre and tried to get the jump on me.’

‘Well fuck them,’ I said, a laugh falling from my lips as I located my hatchet in the snow and pushed myself back to my feet, letting my fire magic run loose down my limbs again as my grasp on it returned.

‘Fuck them up the ass with one of their own probes,’ Lance agreed, shoving himself upright again before tugging me into a one-armed hug.

The ache in my chest which always bound me to him was appeased by the move, the brand on my arm which held the symbol of his star sign almost seeming to hum with satisfaction as he held me there for a moment and his hand slid up my chest.

‘Fuck me, you’re forward tonight, baby,’ I teased him as his fingers landed on the wounds on my chest and healing magic flared beneath his palm.

‘Oh you know me, big boy, any excuse to cop a feel. But you might have to keep that Dragon dick tucked away for now because it doesn’t look like this one had it.’

I stepped away from him, ignoring the stupid bond which pined like a little bitch, wanting me to stay there in his arms like we were in some epic romance novel instead of a fucked up tragedy with a whole dollop of life threatening bullshit thrown in.

I moved to the spot where the Nymph had died, kicking at the trampled snow before lifting a hand and sweeping it across the ground to expel a wave of heat which melted the snow all around us and made it easier to search.

‘Fuck,’ I cursed, having to agree with Lance’s assessment as there was clearly nothing here. ‘Can you sense anything?’ I asked him, turning to look at my best friend as he carved a hand through his dark hair and looked out over the snow filled valley.

‘Watch my back,’ he muttered, sheathing his sword and taking the draining dagger from his belt instead.

I glanced around us, pulling the shadows closer as I made an effort to conceal us just in case. It was damn unlikely that anyone would have eyes on us out here in the middle of fucking nowhere on the edge of the kingdom, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. No one could find out what we were doing here. And more than that – no one could ever catch so much as a whiff of what Lance was about to do now.

I may have been a Celestial Heir, but even I wasn’t above the laws regarding the use of dark magic and we couldn’t risk getting caught casting it, no matter our reasons for it.

Lance lifted the blade and cut into his hand, his body going still as the shadows swirled around him and he tapped into them, bending them to his will and using them to try and trace the dark artifact we’d come here to retrieve.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek, my gaze shifting over the valley which spread out below us as I drew on the gifts of my Dragon and my eyes shifted into reptilian slits. My vision sharpened as I saw through my Dragon’s eyes and I managed to pick out several trails across the snow which cut between patches of woodland like several sets of feet had run that way since the last snowfall.

Lance drew in a rattling breath at my side and I looked to him, already fairly certain of what he was going to say as he fought against the pull of the shadows and his eyes pooled with darkness for a moment. He pushed them back with well practiced moves, resisting the call of them and returning to me, his near black eyes meeting mine as his jaw set in a stern expression.

‘In the valley,’ he said, jerking his bearded chin towards it. ‘Moving north.’

‘I guess it’s time we fly then,’ I said, gripping the back of my shirt and yanking it off without waiting for his agreement.

I may have wanted to avoid unleashing my Dragon if I could, but we both knew it was more important for us to make sure that the Nymphs didn’t manage to keep hold of that thing.

Lance raised a hand and tugged on the air around him with his magic, making the pack he’d brought with us hurtle through the air as he picked it up from wherever he’d abandoned it and carried it to our feet.

I kicked my boots off, taking no time to drop my pants and quickly stuff everything I was wearing inside the bag while Lance built on the concealment spells I’d started, drawing more magic to him as he created a cloud with his water magic to hang in the air around us too.

The moment I was butt naked with my tattooed flesh gilded silver by the light of the moon, I turned away from him and let the beast in me free. A snarl sounded from me as the ripping of my flesh and expansion of my bones gave way to the golden Dragon that tore from my Fae body and burst to life before him.

Lance shouldered the pack of my things and shot up onto my back with a spurt of his Vampire speed.

My scales tingled beneath his touch, my heart lightening with the childish thrill I got from denying my father like this and flouting his laws. No Dragon should ever be ridden like some common mule. His words echoed in my mind and if I could grin in this form then I would have been doing so. Ee-or asshole.

‘Due north,’ Lance called and my wings snapped out either side of me a moment before I leapt into the air and I took off with a whoosh of power that had an exhilarated laugh escaping Lance’s lips.

No matter how many times we did this, it never got old. There was a thrill here, a freedom and a joy which transcended the brutal reality of what we were doing and made me feel alive in a way I craved so fucking much. I needed this. This one thing that my father knew nothing about, which he couldn’t taint or soil or force his hand into. This was mine. Ours. Our quiet defiance against the tyrannical rein he held over our fates and our way of saying fuck you to the things in our life which he controlled all too often.

With a few flaps of my powerful wings, we soared out over the frozen landscape below, the clouds of Lance’s creation clinging to us and keeping us hidden from the possibility of prying eyes as we raced after our prey.

With my Dragon eyesight, it was so easy to pick out trails along the ground, see the tracks of the creatures which had fled while we fought their brethren. There were three of them, the trails only occasionally coming into view in a small clearing between the trees, but that was more than enough for me to keep up the hunt.

‘Come on, Darius, move your ass. I know you can fly faster than this,’ Lance taunted from my back and I snarled as I beat my wings harder, rising to his challenge and tearing through the sky while he called out directions to keep me on track.

‘I hear them!’ Lance called, clearly using his gifts to track them too. ‘In that copse to the right.’

My gaze zeroed in on the trees he’d pointed out and fire built in my chest with so much power that I could feel my scales almost rattling and my skin heating.

I circled once, dropping low and bellowing a roar which unleashed my fire on the trees and burned through them in a glorious blaze which ate through everything in its path in an instant.

The screams of the Nymphs hiding below us were like music to my ears as my fire consumed them and I roared again as I circled once more, waiting for the flames to die out.

We landed hard amid smouldering branches and falling ash, my claws tearing into the dirt at our feet as I came to a halt. We stayed like that for a moment, listening to the sounds of crackling branches and melting snow, but there was nothing remaining in the trees to jump out at us. The Nymphs had died beneath the power of my gifts and we were alone out here in the wastelands once again.

‘Subtle, man.’ Orion leapt from my back, his boots sinking into the mud as he strode away from me and I shifted back into my Fae form in the centre of the burned ring within the trees.

My bare feet sank into the mud and I grimaced at the sensation, glancing up at the still burning embers which were trying to gain purchase in the trees that surrounded us as a mixture of ash and snow fell from the sky to taint my skin.

‘You got it?’ I asked as Lance ducked down, picking something up and looking at it before striding back to meet me.

‘I got it,’ he affirmed, tossing me the pack so that I could get dressed once more.

‘What is it?’ I asked as I tugged my jeans on, shivering as the cold air caressed my heated flesh.

‘An amulet of some kind,’ he said, turning the golden object over in his hands and holding it out for me to assess.

The Dragon in me raised its head at the prospect of treasure, but instead of the heady need to claim it which would have been my usual gut reaction to any shiny, valuable item like that, the beast in me recoiled instead.

‘It’s old,’ I grunted, forcing myself to take it and turning it over to reveal the faded glyphs etched into the back of it. ‘Seven or eight centuries at least.’ The gold was tarnished and smoothed by the touch of many hands over all those years, but there was something more to it. Something festering at its core which spoke of the darkness within it and the shadows which Lance had been able to sense clinging to it. ‘Any idea why they wanted it?’

‘Maybe it helped them tap into more of the shadows?’ Lance suggested though he didn’t seem sure. ‘In any case, I imagine it would be best off destroyed.’

‘Agreed.’ I held it out before me and pushed away the desire to hurl the damn thing as far as I could throw it as the cloying darkness of its power washed over me. ‘Stand back.’

Lance did as I commanded, backing up several paces and casting an air shield around himself in anticipation of my power.

When I was certain he was safe from it, I held the amulet out in my fist and began to pour Dragon fire from my palm in a concentrated ball of energy.

My fingers clenched around the gold as it heated in my hand, my teeth gritting against the foul feeling of the shadows as they fought and writhed against the might of my gifts. But I didn’t let go, snarling as I funnelled more and more of my power into heating it, my teeth grinding with determination as it fought against my will like the thing had desires of its own.

A shrill scream sounded entirely within my own skull and the shadows began to bite at my arm, my flesh breaking and splitting beneath the ghosts of fangs as I continued to burn them with all I had.

I dropped to one knee as exhaustion tugged at me and I fought with all I had to keep pouring the Dragon fire into the cloying darkness that pooled in my hand.

With a snarl of effort, the gold finally melted, the molten liquid pooling in my hand as the fire battled to destroy it and all that had been contained within it.

The shadows screamed louder as they tried to escape my fire, but I had them in my grasp and there was nowhere for them to go.

Just as the last of them were about to be consumed, my fire burnt out and I cursed as the heat fell from my flesh and one, lone slither of darkness pushed its way into the cuts on my hand and dove beneath my skin.

A pained sound brushed past my lips a moment before a groan of pleasure tumbled after it and I was dragged into the dark where the shadows lingered and their realm seemed so much closer than it ever had before.

Pleasure washed down my spine, making my flesh spark and tingle as the darkness called to me like an old friend. I’d been down this path before, but only ever with Lance at my side and the draining dagger leading me here. 

Whispers sounded in the dark as I struggled to find something to anchor me in the Fae realm, something to cling to and help me turn back.

More, the voices seemed to urge and I knew they wanted my blood, my all, my everything.

My heart pounded furiously as I tried to maintain the peace of mind to resist their pull, to fight against the pleasure they promised and keep myself out of the dark.

A voice was calling my name in the distance. A voice I knew and loved. But it wasn’t enough. I was falling, drifting, succumbing to the pull of the dark.

But then there were more voices whispering in my ears, these filled with light and promises of fates untold, their caress gentle and probing as they pushed images into my mind of things that had yet to come to pass.

Green eyes peering into my soul and the brush of lips against mine so hot and powerful that I could taste that kiss right down to my core. A name in the dark which sounded like a plea or a promise and words which hung in my mind like they’d been spoken from the stars themselves.

Choose wisely, Dragon born. The greatest treasure is the hardest won.

A hand crashed against my face and I sucked in a sharp breath as the cold pierced right through me and I found myself lying in the mud beneath a taunting sky while Lance knelt over me and snarled a demand for me to come back to him.

I blinked groggily, the words and visions of the stars fading from my mind as I fought to hold onto them with a desperation that told me in no uncertain terms that only bad would come of it if I didn’t.

But it was impossible. Harder than trying to hold back the tide, and as I looked into the concerned face of my best friend, they fell from my grasp and drifted away from me like the seeds of a dandelion caught on an ill wind.

‘What happened?’ I slurred, exhaustion biting into my limbs as I fought to summon my magic and found it floundering at the edges of my reach.

‘You’re tapped out,’ Lance grunted. ‘After the shadows drew you under you started convulsing, haemorrhaging magic until the whole forest was at risk of both burning to nothing and being flooded all at once. It was all I could do to contain it with my own power before you burned through it all, but I managed to tear the darkness from your veins once you did.”

I glanced down at my forearm as I felt a slice of pain there and Lance’s hand clamped down on the jagged wound that he’d cut into my flesh with the draining dagger. He had a matching wound of his own on his arm, but he healed me without paying it any attention.

‘You pulled me out?’ I asked groggily, managing to push myself to sit up and ignoring the way my head spun from the effort.

‘Yeah,’ he grunted. ‘Don’t ever fucking do that to me again.’

He punched my bicep which only served to make my head rattle more and I groaned as I fought to try and piece what had happened back together.

‘Did you see anything in the dark?’ Lance asked, his hand moving to cup my cheek, his rough palm grazing against the stubble on my jaw as he drove more healing magic into me to banish the headache which was damn near blinding me.

I tried to think back on what I’d seen in the shadows, but it was nothing more than a blur of darkness and the promise of pleasure I knew they’d never truly offer me.

‘Nothing,’ I sighed, wishing I’d at least gotten something from my trip into the dark beyond this pounding in my skull.

‘Well at least you destroyed that thing,’ Lance said with a shrug, healing himself at last before standing and offering me a hand to pull me to my feet too.

I let him, my body sagging with fatigue the moment I was upright and he wound a hand around the back of my neck, pulling my head down so that my forehead pressed to his for a moment and we gave the bond that hung between us a little reprieve.

He tossed stardust over us without releasing me and we were yanked into the stars a moment later, travelling through the world in the blink of an eye before landing in the centre of my room at the academy. The warmer air pressed against us as I sighed in relief.

‘Another good night hunting,’ I said, managing a grin as I stood upright again.

‘I’d call it successful,’ Lance muttered. ‘I don’t know about good.’

I grunted an agreement to that on account of me feeling like utter shit right about now and dropped my jeans again as I headed straight for my bed, snagging a fresh set of boxers on the way.

I dropped down onto the golden bedspread without bothering to crawl beneath it and cursed the empty feeling in my bones which signalled my lack of magic. I hated feeling like this and I basically never let myself get tapped out the way I was now. It fucking sucked.

‘Here,’ Lance muttered, moving to the chest at the foot of my bed and using his air magic to scoop a pile of treasure from it which he promptly dropped all over my chest.

I wheezed out a breath as the weight of it almost winded me and cursed him out as I shoved the coins and jewels out around me to get more comfortable. But I wasn’t really mad because I could already feel the heat of the gold pressing against my skin, replenishing my magic and easing some of the tension in my exhausted limbs. By the time I woke, I’d be well on my way to restored again.

‘So this is it,’ I murmured, letting my eyes fall shut as Lance dropped down on the bed beside me and threaded his fingers behind his head.

‘Yep,’ he replied gravely, the reality of what he was set to do now pushing in on both of us. It was the last day of term and in the morning he was due to set off on a mission at my father’s command which might just change everything.

Neither of us knew what was going to happen when he went to the Mortal Realm, but if he found what he was being sent to search for then our entire world was likely to fall into a tailspin.

‘It’ll all work out,’ Lance said as the seconds dragged on and I nodded. 

‘I know. I trust you,’ I said and it was true. I trusted him more than any other Fae I knew. Even the other Heirs, even my own brother. Because Lance knew all of me, every dark, damaged, fractured piece. The good and the bad. He knew the full extent of what my father was and what I had to endure daily to appease him. He knew the struggles I faced and he’d been by my side throughout them all. 

‘Just keep your eyes on the end goal,’ he said and I cracked my eyes open as I felt him setting something on my head, the weight of a golden crown from my treasure falling heavily on my brow.

‘Always do,’ I assured him, straightening the crown as it began to slip. 

We locked eyes, that unending bond hanging in the air between us, that one intrinsic goal laying there like it always did. I needed to keep working tirelessly to achieve it. I needed to continue to grow in strength in every way I possibly could. I needed to harness my power with everything I had so that I could rise up and challenge my father. It was all that mattered. All we worked for. The only chance either of us would ever get at any real semblance of freedom in our lives. I needed to take Lionel Acrux’s place on the Celestial Council and there was nothing I wouldn’t do to achieve that. Nothing.

Lance relaxed against the pillows as he saw that steely determination burning brightly within me. Because that was all that counted. All we aimed for. And no matter what it might take, we were going to achieve it. 

We fell silent as sleep drew in on us and my eyes drifted shut once more. Tomorrow, term would end and he would leave for the Mortal Realm to seek out the Vega twins. Just another fucking speed bump placed between us and the man I needed to conquer. Just another thing we were going to need to push aside if we wanted any hope of reclaiming our own lives and building something for ourselves which wasn’t overshadowed by the monster who’d made me. 

So I’d do what it took to get them out of our way. Because nothing was going to stand between us and the freedom we were owed so bitterly. Nothing. Not even the daughters of the Savage King himself.