Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess

“They’re not coming,” I spat and something broke in Darcy’s gaze as she realised I was right. Even if they were on their way, they weren’t going to make it in time.

Fuck Darius for doing this to me. I’d given everything of myself to him. My whole life was bound to his, but the one time I needed him, he couldn’t show up.

“We can do it alone,” Darcy’s voice called me out of the dark place I was descending into.

I looked to her, finding a fire in her eyes so fierce, I knew she was right. She was all I needed, but placing the weight of this task solely on me and her made my chest tight.

“Do it Lance,” she demanded. “Our magic is enough. We’ve fought battles together, we can take on the shadows too.”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, fearing how much pressure this would put on her body and soul.

“We can’t wait any longer,” she demanded. “Do it now.”

I finally gave in, praying she was right and grunted in agreement. My anger at Darius snaked through me, devouring everything in its path, but I forced it back to focus on what had to be done.

I snared her in my gaze, preparing to give her an order that I would force her to obey. “When we go into the dark, follow me, Blue. And don’t ever let go of my hand.”

“I will,” she breathed, firelight flickering over her face.

“Swear it,” I growled.

“I swear.”

I crushed the silver leaf with the dried Withermore seedlings, the sun-baked Nightshade and the charred Starweed, scattering them on the cave floor before me and Blue. My heart thundered in my ears as I picked up the draining dagger and turned to the girl I loved.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said gently. I hated practising blood magic with her. Every training session had been torture, but she had to do it. It was the most powerful way to learn to retreat from the shadows when they coaxed her into their arms.

I locked my fingers around her tighter as she plucked the knife from my hand and cut a line up the centre of her palm without a moment’s hesitation. She shuddered, passing it back as blood dripped from her skin and made my spine prickle at the sight.

Once we went into the shadows, I wasn’t going to let go of her. And I knew in the depths of my soul that I’d keep her safe before anything else. I would have done this alone if I could have, but I needed her magic combined with my own to be capable of this. And even then, I couldn’t be entirely sure it would be enough. I couldn’t believe Darius had let me down like this and I would have expected more from Tory. My heart started knotting up again and a furious snarl fell from my lips.

I snatched the dagger from Blue, cutting my own palm and holding my hand out over the herbs, squeezing to let the blood flow. Darcy lifted her fist beside mine and blood seeped between her fingers, dripping down onto the dry mixture. Ecstasy rolled along my limbs and Blue sighed as the same pleasure invaded her veins.

I took a pinch of the dark stardust from the jar and tossed it on top of the herbs, battling to keep my thoughts straight as darkness trickled into my mind. The pieces of the silver leaf caught light, a blackish fire crackling across the ground and devouring every piece of the seedlings, the Nightshade and the Starweed with it. All that remained was our blood, and my heart thumped solidly in my chest as the fire caught on that too, growing brighter and brighter until I winced against the light of it.

I snatched hold of Blue’s hand as the shadows washed over us, crashing into my veins more fiercely than they ever had before. I kept her near, her presence grounding me and keeping my mind sharp amongst the shadows. Her magic tumbled through my veins like a force of nature and kept the shadows from climbing too deep inside me. I pressed my own strength into her body, willing the darkness away from her with everything I had.

I was falling, whirling through an abyss so vast I could feel it weighing on my very soul.

After an endless moment, my feet collided with hard ground and I dragged in a breath of air that felt too thick, too heavy, too stale.

Darcy materialised beside me and I took in the desolate world around us. My lungs laboured in this place and with a feeling of horror, I realised we weren’t in the dark between worlds anymore. We were standing in the Shadow Realm.

I stepped forward, searching the deserted horizon. This world was bleak and barren, the sky an empty grey thing with nothing but a pale light glowing beyond a smog of clouds. No wind stirred my hair or brushed my skin. I wondered if we were entirely here at all. The only thing that felt real was Blue’s hand clutched in my own and I had the feeling it was more important than ever not to let go.

Whispers rushed into my ears and sang lullabies to me, drawing me into their arms. I turned to look at Darcy and struggled to push the shadows out as they clawed into my veins and filled my chest with an agonising pleasure.

My gaze snared on someone beyond her and my lungs weighed down like lead as I looked upon the face of my sister.

She looked different than the last day I’d seen her in the Fae world, her body slim and clad in a dark cloak made of shadow. Her skin was pale and she’d lost weight but it was her. Really her.

“Lance?” she breathed, the word close and far away at once. She reached out to me and I ran toward her, tugging Blue after me in my desperation to close the gap between us.

My heart hollowed out as Clara reached up to caress my face, the warmth of her skin opening up a wound inside me that had never truly healed.

“Is it really you?” Tears slid down her cheeks and I dragged her against my chest, still holding onto Darcy in an iron grip.

Clara’s arms wrapped around me as she fell against me, her tears sliding onto my neck. She was so painfully real it hurt. She’d been here during all the years I’d mourned her. But how?

“How are you alive?” I begged as she pulled me closer in desperation. How alone she must have been here. She must have craved the touch of another Fae, wasting away in the shadows. It was enough to break me apart.

Darcy kept hold of my hand but gave us as much room as she could, gazing around the desolate land with wide eyes.

“I don’t know,” Clara breathed. “I don’t know how real I am, Lance. I don’t know if I’ll survive coming back to Solaria. But I’d rather die trying than stay here another second.”

I gripped her tighter, terror coating my insides as I considered the possibility that I’d gotten my sister back only to lose her all over again.

“The spell will work,” I growled, pouring my heart into the words. Because it had to work.

“If it doesn’t…” Clara looked up at me and I rubbed away her tears with my thumb, my body hurting at finding her here like this. So small, so lost. She had always been so strong, now she looked weak, broken.

“It will,” I said through my teeth. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Just in case,” she whispered, tip-toeing up to press her lips to my cheek. “I love you with all my heart, dear brother. I’ve thought about you all these years. I’ve missed you. But sometimes darkness has to have its way and its owned me for such a long time…”

“Lance,” Darcy said cautiously. “We should go.” She gave me an anxious look, then turned to Clara hesitantly. “I’ll help you get back.”

“It’s going to take a lot of magic,” I said as the whispers called to me again.

The three of us released soft sighs as the shadows wrapped around us and sang our names. I took Clara’s hand, holding the two of them close and vowing not to let go until we were standing in the cave at Zodiac Academy.

“Now, Blue,” I encouraged and she let her eyes fall closed. Her magic washed into mine alongside the power of the shadows that lived in her and she let it all run formlessly into my veins to lend me strength.

I started to pull us through the dark, forming a bridge with my mind and visualising it as clearly as I could, wielding the shadows around us.

Starlight danced beneath my eyelids and feathers seemed to brush over my skin as I called on the power of the heavens to help us.

I spoke the words I’d memorised from the old texts I’d studied, guiding all of mine and Blue’s power into my voice. “Nocturnae sidera nobis dirige nos. Quid opus aedificare. Ut quod oportet.”

The power of the spell drained our magic fast, eating it up and spitting it out in the form of a white hot light around us. The shadows drank it away as quickly as it came and I knew it needed more fuel.

I tugged on Clara’s magic but only a hollowness answered. She hadn’t fed in all these years, she had nothing to offer, her power long since diminished. Darcy’s magic flooded into me with more force and I gasped, realising she’d been holding back. Her strength was intoxicating, rolling through my veins and gifting me everything I needed to continue the spell.

“Stellae de zodiaci, accipere virtutem meam: da mihi virtutem quoque partum a ponte inter mundos!” I called to the sky, the stars blinding me as they twisted to my will, bowing under the immense power pouring from Darcy into me.

A weightless sensation spilled through me and the shadows curled around my hands, trying to break my grip on my sister and Blue. I roared in effort, practically crushing their fingers in my grip as I refused to let go. The darkness couldn’t steal them from me, I’d die before I released them into its clutches. They were two of the most precious Fae to me in the entire world and I’d give anything to bring them home.

Their nails dug into my skin as they held onto me and my vision swum with a mixture of dark and light as we careered into the void between worlds.

I never stopped speaking with the stars, fearing they’d turn away for one moment and leave us here, casting us into an eternal chasm of black.

“Post velamentum autem amo ducere. Tolle eas Solaria, tolle eas in domum suam. Detrahet me in eos!” My voice echoed back to me over and over and light flared beneath my feet.

A million stars seemed to bind together and I walked over the galaxy as it guided me forward, the immense power of the bridge humming in the air around me. I couldn’t see Darcy or Clara beside me, but I felt them there as I clung onto them, moving along the bridge built for us by the stars.

My feet hit solid ground and I was blinded as the light fell away, branding a mark onto my retinas. I still had two hands in my grip and relief hit me so hard, I couldn’t breathe. I blinked away the ghosts floating before my eyes, looking from Darcy to Clara to make sure they were okay.

My sister’s lips formed a perfect O as she took in the cave she stood in. The cloak of shadows was still wrapped around her and I guessed she’d learned to wield them during all the years she’d spent alone in the Shadow Realm.

She dropped to her knees suddenly and I released Blue, falling down beside her as terror crashed through my chest.

“Are you alright?” I pulled her into my arms and she tilted her head back, her face ashen, but her eyes alight with joy.

“I’m free,” she gasped, her chest rising and falling as she drew deep breaths into her lungs. “I forgot how good the air tastes here.” Tears washed over her skin and I clutched her against me.

Darcy stumbled down beside us and I looked to her in alarm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said unsteadily. “My magic is gone…I can’t even reach my Phoenix. It’s like it’s sleeping.”

“It’ll come back, you need to rest. I’ll start a fire to replenish you,” I added, looking to where her last one had gone out, leaving a blackened mark beneath it. “Thank you,” I said earnestly and Darcy nodded, blinking back her own tears as she looked to Clara where she was cradled against my chest.

So long as her heart continued to beat, I knew my sister would be okay. And as I listened to the familiar thrum of it in my ears, nearly five years of grief lifted from my shoulders, bringing a part of me back to life which had long since been lost.