Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

Chaos was breaking out in The Burrows over the death of another rebel and my heart galloped like thundering hooves as I hurried through the masses looking for my family. My mom came into view, her form hidden by a perfect concealment spell which made her look like a plain woman, her dark hair pulled into a ponytail, but her eyes were just the same deep brown colour as always.

She stood at Hamish’s side as he directed the rebels back to their rooms, a glimmer of panic in his eyes that unsettled me. There were no leads on the murderer, and now they’d struck again, I was starting to fear who would be next.

I made it to my mom and she clasped my hand, pulling me close and her familiar scent coiled around me as I embraced her. I was taller than her these days and she melded against me easily, resting her head against my shoulder.

“Are you alright?” she whispered with worry coating her words.

“I’m fine, what about Darius?”

“He’s okay,” she swore, gripping me tighter for a moment before releasing me, looking up at me like she wanted to draw me away somewhere to safety. But I wasn’t a baby anymore, and I’d spent too many years locked up and unable to fight my own battles. If there was a threat in this place, I’d damn well be facing it alongside the people I loved.

I let out a soft whinny as Hamish clapped a hand to my back and leaned closer.

“Not to worry your Wendy about it, my boy,” he promised, giving me something of a fatherly look – or as close to one as I could imagine anyway. My father had certainly never looked at me like that.

“I just don’t understand how there can be a killer down here,” I said, stamping my foot in anger. “We have some of the most powerful Fae in Solaria in these tunnels hunting for them, why hasn’t Gabriel seen anything? Why aren’t the Cyclopses able to give us answers?”

Hamish shook his head in dismay and I could see the pressure he was under as he ran a hand across his bald head and down over his mutton chops. “It’s quite the carp of a conundrum, dear Xavier. But rest assured, we will find the wicked willy who lurks down here and see that they face the wrath of the stars.”

I nodded, though my gut was still in knots as I stepped back, wishing there was more I could do to help.

“Xavier!” Darius’s booming voice carried over the frantic chatter of the rebels and I spotted him muscling through the crowd to get to us. Mom pulled him into a hug, checking him over as Hamish blocked the crowd’s view to us with his large body, giving them a moment of privacy.

“What’s going on?” I asked, seeing some dark thought in my brother’s eyes.

“I need your help with something.” He gripped my arm, nodding to Mom and Hamish in goodbye as he guided me away through the masses.

“What is it?” I asked, but he didn’t answer, instead quickening his pace until I was forced to trot at his side as he jogged down a narrower tunnel that led towards the exit of The Burrows.

He flicked a silencing bubble up around us, glancing at me as we made it to the clock and slipped out into the farmhouse. “Gabriel’s had a vision,” he said in a low voice.

“What vision?” I demanded anxiously, sensing something was wrong as we hurried out into the freezing air where snow was falling thick and fast upon the guards.

“You need permission from the Vegas to leave the-” one of the guards started, but Darius knocked him to the ground with a blast of water, baring his teeth at the others as they exchanged nervous glances.

We jogged past them as they started to regroup, and Darius pulled a pouch of stardust from his pocket as we headed straight for the boundary. The second we stepped through it, he threw a pinch of it over our heads and I had no more time to ask where we were going as the two of us were dragged into the stars, sending us wheeling through a glittering galaxy of light before we were transported onto soft ground between two thick bushes.

I looked around in surprise as I spotted the outer fence to Zodiac Academy, a glimpse of Earth Territory beyond the bars looking back at me.

“What the hell are we doing here?” I hissed in alarm.

“Listen,” Darius growled, stepping closer to me as a cloud of urgency fell over him. “Gabriel has foreseen your herd being killed today; they’re being denounced as traitors. We have barely any time to get them out. And I have no doubt Father will have made a new boundary around Zodiac to alert him of us returning here. The moment we step past this fence, he’ll know where we are.” A whinny of fear escaped me as I thought of Sofia, even fucking Tyler, and Darius clapped a hand over my mouth to silence it. “Your herd is going to die if we don’t hurry. We don’t have time to waste. Can you do this, brother?”

I nodded, my fear giving way to determination as I thought of the Pegasuses who had welcomed me into their wings, who’d accepted me even though many of them feared my father. And as my mind settled on Sofia with her gentle soul and all the words that had passed between us over the months I’d been stuck at Acrux Manor, I knew I would do anything to save her today. She had been my salvation and so I would be hers.

“Let’s go,” I growled, my voice taking on the roughened edge of a Dragon for a moment and Darius nodded, clapping my shoulder and leading the way to the fence.

He stepped through one of the bars which was nothing but an illusion and I followed him, feeling the magic of a powerful detection spell running over me. I recognised the touch of my father’s power and a shudder ran through me. He’d know. And he’d be coming here right now to claim us. I realised I’d rather die than return to his captivity.

The two of us broke into a sprint, tearing across the grounds as Darius cast powerful concealment spells around us to give us the best chance of evading Father for as long as fucking possible.

“Where would they be?” Darius called to me as we ran down a steep bank and through a cluster of trees. There were no students so far from the centre of campus, but it wouldn’t be long before we came across someone.

I mentally calculated what day it was in my head, trying to remember my school schedule and a gasp snagged in my throat.

“They’ll be at Order Enhancement together,” I said, veering left as the path forked and Darius fell into step with me as I led him towards the hills in the eastern side of Earth Territory.

“No doubt Father has chosen this moment precisely then,” Darius bit out. “If they’re all together then they are more easily destroyed together.”

A snort of rage left me as I quickened my pace, the two of us moving as fast as we could on two legs in the direction of my herd.

A deafening, terrifyingly familiar roar cut through the air like a thunderclap and I caught Darius’s eye in fear. Father was here.

“You get them out of here. I’ll distract him.” Darius tossed me the pouch of stardust and I fumbled the catch as he started pulling his clothes off.

“Wait!” I cried in panic for my brother, but he turned away from me, leaping off of the path and shifting into his enormous golden Dragon form, answering my father’s roar with a roar of his own. “Darius – be careful!” I begged as he took off into the sky with two powerful wing beats, his shadow swallowing me up for a moment before he soared away across campus with a stream of hellfire spilling from his lips.

My breaths came more frantically as I turned down another path and the sight of the eastern hills came into view. I spotted my herd there, pulling off their clothes as they prepared for the shift, though some of them were pointing to the sky, clearly having caught sight of Darius, perhaps my father too. The echo of two roars filled the air and as I started running up the nearest hill, I threw a look back over my shoulder to search the sky for them.

Father was chasing Darius through the clouds, their wing tips carving through the white as my brother pulled up hard and disappeared into the heavens.

The enormous jade beast that was my father followed with fire pouring from his lungs and my heart beat wildly as he disappeared into the clouds too and their silhouettes were lit up in a blaze of orange firelight.

“Sofia!” I yelled, turning to look for her as I ran toward my herd, waving a hand to try and capture their attention.

I couldn’t spot her among them, but Tyler turned, his shirt in his hand and his brown hair messed up from pulling it off.

“Xavier?” he balked, his blue eyes widening in surprise as the rest of my herd spotted me tearing toward them.

“Mr Acrux?” Professor Clippard gasped, jogging down the hill a little to meet me. “What in Solaria are you do-” His voice was cut off as a torrent of fire carved through the clouds above and my father’s monstrous head broke through them, his jaws wide as he burned my professor alive, his wail dying almost instantly as his blackened body crumpled into an ashy pile.

Screams broke out and terror made my heart nearly burst as I forced my legs to keep moving towards my herd.

Father dove from the clouds, his gaze set on me as his jaws widened once more, a furious hate in his gaze that made my stomach lurch. I threw out my hands with a yell of anger, a vortex of fire and water twisting away from me in an impossibly powerful blast that slammed into his face, knocking him off course with a roar of fury.

He was so low, I fell to the ground to avoid the swing of his tail as he sailed over me, but I forced myself back to my feet instantly, racing toward the Pegasuses up on the hill.

Darius plummeted from the clouds, sending a stream of fire towards our father which lit up the whole world in a deep red glow. He forced Father away from us, giving us another chance to run as I made it to the herd.

“Follow me! Lionel has come to kill you all!” I cried as Tyler stared at me in wide eyed shock before he shifted into his large silver form with a neigh that commanded everyone to listen.

They all shifted fast while I frantically looked between them all. I still couldn’t spot Sofia, but she had to be here, where else would she be?

I grabbed Tyler’s clothes in my fist, snatching a handful of his mane and swinging my leg over his back before he could stop me. He reared up in anger, but I locked my knees around his sides, refusing to let go.

“I’ll throw the stardust over the herd the second we get past the boundary,” I barked and he whinnied furiously, but didn’t try and throw me off again.

Tyler cantered forward and took off into the sky as everyone around me flapped their wings, chasing his tail as he flew as fast as he could towards the outer boundary.

A roar of anger told me my father had seen us, but I didn’t look back even when a fireball went flying overhead, tumbling down to the ground and blasting a hole in the grassy mounds of Terra House.

My heart jerked as I looked around at the herd, desperate to find Sofia there but I still couldn’t spot her.

Students were screaming on campus now, running for cover and looking up at us in shock as we flew overhead.

We tore over the boundary so fast that I was nearly knocked from Tyler’s back with the force of the magic which rushed over me.

“Fly above the herd!” I barked at Tyler and he did as I commanded, twisting around and soaring over the Pegasuses as I tossed stardust over them, willing it to take them to The Burrows, and they disappeared in the glittering air with neighs that begged us to follow.

But as the last of them were transported away to safety, I knew for certain that Sofia hadn’t been among them.

“Where is she?!” I cried, yanking on Tyler’s mane to force his head around and I found panic shining in his eyes.

He twisted back towards the boundary and I held on tight as he flew back through it and I took in the furious battle taking place between my brother and father in the sky. Darius outpaced him again and again, but there were deep claw marks along his side and his leg was charred with the mark of a burn. Lionel wasn’t fairing much better, his snout bleeding and his tail cut to ribbons, but neither seemed to be slowing down.

A shadow in my periphery made my head snap around and a gasp got caged in my throat as I spotted the Shadow Princess rising up on a tower of swirling shadow, hunting for prey.

“Land,” I hissed at Tyler and he dropped from the sky like a stone, his hooves hitting the ground in The Wailing Wood and I prayed she hadn’t seen us.

I slipped from his back, gazing up through the trees and pressing a finger to my lips as shadows rippled across the sky and she sailed upon it like the wings of death. Tyler pressed closer to me as we hugged the darkness beneath the trees, and I held my breath as she floated by overhead.

“Shift,” I whispered to Tyler and he did so, pulling on his clothes as I passed them to him and running a hand through his hair.

“What the fuck’s going on?” he hissed as he cast a silencing bubble around us.

“My father’s decided our herd are traitors. He came here to kill you all,” I said, my throat desperately dry. “We have to get Sofia out of here.”

Tyler nodded seriously, pointing off through the trees. “She’s in detention in Jupiter Hall with Highspell.”

“Fuck,” I cursed. “That bitch will hand her straight over to him.”

Tyler took his Atlas out, shooting Sofia a text and I leaned over his shoulder to see what he wrote.

Tyler:

Lionel’s here. I’m coming to get you.

Sofia:

Highspell locked me in Orion’s office. I’m trying to get the door open.

Tyler:

Hang tight, baby.

He stuffed his Atlas back in his pocket and took off through the trees. I kept pace with him, our arms rubbing as our united cause set a fire burning in my veins.

The roar and crash of the Dragon fight above echoed further away in the distance and I prayed my brother was strong enough to hold him off a little longer.

Tyler cast concealment spells around us and I aided him as best I could with my limited magical knowledge, but between Darius and Orion’s lessons, I was getting better and better at them, at least enough to keep the shadows hugging us as we moved and I just had to hope that would be enough.