Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

My fangs snapped out as I squinted into the darkness, my gifted vision barely managing to pick apart the shadows at all in this place of endless night, but there was something there in the dark, something shifting across the wall with a body that writhed unnaturally.

“What is it?” Tory hissed at my side, drawing her sword even though she couldn’t see shit either, but as the Phoenix fire burst to life along the length of it, the room flared into sudden and all too real focus.

The thing on the wall wasn’t alone, more and more of them creeping out of cracks which had seemed like nothing but dark shadows around the edges of this forgotten chamber but now proved themselves to be doorways designed for things unlike any creature I had ever known to walk this earth.

Their bodies were a matte black, overlapping armoured plates coating their length, the things moving like centipedes while clinging to walls and ceilings with overly long legs that bent at unnatural angles, knees turning back on themselves. But their faces weren’t like any insect, their deep green eyes blazing with intelligence and seeming almost Fae. Their jaws were something born of a twisted fantasy, a gaping mouth of sharp and rotting teeth that hung slack, saliva dripping onto the dark floor as they surveyed their meals.

“What do you want?” I demanded, drawing my twin daggers, and igniting the flames on them at my command while trying to keep my eyes on the monsters circling us.

Without our magic, we were at one hell of a disadvantage, but if we could keep them distracted for just a little longer then Tory would be able to use the fire from our weapons to recharge at least some of her power.

“To fulfil the task left to us by the Mother,” one hissed from my left and I fought to hide my repulsion as drool slid from its fangs to the floor. “To protect the knowledge here from Fae who would seek to abuse it for selfish gains.”

“We aren’t looking to abuse anything,” Tory said firmly, her chin held high as she met the monstrous eyes of the one directly in front of us. “I am a Vega princess and Caleb is an Heir to the Celestial Council. Solaria is in desperate need of the magic hidden inside these books.”

The creatures all began to clack their teeth, and it took me a moment to realise they were speaking to one another, their movements growing faster as they riled themselves up. I glanced between them where they continued to crawl across the walls surrounding us.

A faint glow drew my attention to the pentagram we stood within, the lines of it coming alive with some ancient power while the beasts circled us.

“They can’t cross those lines,” I breathed for Tory’s ears alone and she nodded in understanding as one of the creatures came close to a glimmering line then skuttled away again with a hiss of pain.

“The Mother hid this knowledge from your kind,” one of the monsters said suddenly, making me turn towards it on our right. “Hid it from those who abused it time and again. It is to remain lost.”

“And if we refuse to leave it here?” Tory demanded, causing those rotting teeth to clatter together as the creatures hissed and snapped in rage.

“Then we will show you how very hungry we are,” one rasped.

“I get the feeling you intend to show us that regardless of our choices concerning the books,” I pointed out and something akin to laughter filled the air.

“You know of the books’ existence,” one breathed from the ceiling directly above our heads. “That knowledge cannot leave this place.”

“Well, that makes this conversation somewhat pointless,” Tory muttered, her fingers twisting subtly to throw a silencing bubble over the two of us. “How fast are you feeling?” she asked, her focus locked on the monsters as they swarmed around us.

“Lightning,” I replied, eyeing the creatures as they circled us, knowing as well as they did that we couldn’t hide within the confines of the pentagram for long. The magic which pulsed along the lines of it was already flickering and I was willing to bet that after a few thousand years, its power was burning low. “We probably have another minute at best before the pentagram falls.”

“I’ll make a bag for the books then jump on your back, you throw them all into it and I’ll blast them with fire to create a path to the exit for you to shoot us through,” Tory said, her hand already moving as she cast a large bag from thick leaves, the monsters clacking and yowling as they saw what she was doing.

“I hope that Minotaur can run fast,” I muttered, knowing we were going to need his help to find our way back out of the Labyrinth once we made it to the upper level again.

“Let’s focus on not dying in this chamber first then worry about the speed his hooves can move if we don’t die before we get back to him,” Tory suggested, and I swear the thought of us dying down here in this pit had her dark eyes glimmering with excitement.

“You’re a fucking psychopath, you know that?” I muttered and she flashed me a grin that was all bloodlust for a fight.

“Says the apex predator.”

Tory tossed me the bag and I stowed one of my daggers before snatching it from mid-air as she sheathed her sword then leapt onto my back.

I shot into motion as the creatures screamed in horror, realising what we were doing while still powerless to stop us from beyond the magical barrier created by the pentagram.

I grabbed the book on ether first, the weight of it notable beyond what I would have expected even with how big the fucking thing was. I tossed it into the bag, cringing a little at how roughly I was handling it and knowing that somewhere in the world, Orion had just shuddered in horror. The book on fire went in next, then water and air, the bag feeling like it was weighted with fucking rocks and the leaves which had gone into its creation groaning at the strain of holding them.

My fingers brushed the edge of the earth book just as a shudder of power rumbled through the room and the light gleaming from the pentagram fell apart on a breath of unnatural wind.

The creatures screamed as they lunged at us, shadows of deepest black dancing across the walls in their wake as the light from my lone dagger was all we had left to see by.

I was forced to dart aside as they lunged for me, hopping over one then almost tripping on another before a hot slice of pain cut into my thigh as one of them managed to swipe at me with its razor-sharp pincers.

I swore loudly and a blast of flame erupted over my shoulder as Tory unleashed her magic, the creature screaming as it was caught in the fire, its body curling in on itself while the armoured plates of its back locked together to protect it from the flames.

The other monsters lurched away, shielding their eyes with their grossly bent limbs as the flare of light momentarily blinded them.

I lunged for the earth book, hurling it into the bag and shooting towards the exit as the creatures recovered and came for us again.

Tory cried out in pain as one of them swung a pincer at us and the hot splatter of her blood on my cheek told me it had found flesh.

“Fuck, that hurts,” she hissed, letting me know that she wasn’t mortally wounded as I shot for the exit with her still clinging on tight to my back.

Fire tore from her palm as she aimed for the passage leading back out into the underground library, the creatures throwing themselves aside or curling in on their own bodies in defence to the flames.

I shot between them and hurtled out into the damp chamber, a flash of dizziness making me stumble as I turned a corner, and I swore as I almost crashed into a wall at breakneck speed.

The creatures howled behind us as they took chase and my pulse hammered wildly in chest as my feet began to slow.

“My Phoenix is fading!” Tory cried as I ran on, my gifted speed coming and going so that one moment we raced through the passages and the next I was stumbling at Fae speed.

“They must have had some kind of Order suppressant in their pincers,” I cursed, spotting the stairs we needed ahead of us and staggering on, managing another flash of speed which hurled us up several flights before I almost fell face first against the wall as my gifts slipped away again.

“Let me down,” Tory commanded, but I shook my head and forced myself to focus, baring my fangs and shooting us on once more.

The sound of those things chasing us wasn’t nearly far enough away and I knew if we had to run at our normal Fae speed, they’d catch us in no time.

“I can hold on a little longer,” I gritted out even as pain radiated through my mouth and my fangs began to retract.

We shot up the stairs once more, but I tripped over the final one, the two of us crashing to the ground and tumbling across the stone floor where we re-joined the Labyrinth, my dagger and the bag of books sliding away across the stone floor.

“That motherfucking bovine cunt!” I roared as I shoved myself to my feet and hunted the dark passageway for any sign of Arnold, the asshole who had promised to wait right here for us and had apparently given up on that promise at the earliest opportunity.

Tory got up too, her eyes whipping left and right in search of the Minotaur, but it was clear that he had been gone a while. I didn’t know if the shrieks of those monsters down in the dark had scared him off or if the motherfucker had abandoned us the second we’d descended those stairs, but it didn’t matter now. We were fucked.

“There’s no escaping a Minotaur’s labyrinth, Tory,” I said as she threw a hand out towards the stairs and blocked them off with a wall of rock, the screams of the monsters beyond it cutting off abruptly.

“You need to bite me,” she snapped, whirling towards me and ignoring what I’d said entirely.

“No,” I barked, a flash of memory spearing through me as I remembered what I’d done to her the last time I’d bitten her. The sound of her spine breaking as she fell from the roof of King’s Hollow, the utter fury and betrayal in Darius’s eyes as he realised what I’d done and had commanded me never to come near her with my fangs again. I couldn’t bite her. I wouldn’t.

“Stop giving me that fucking look and bite me before you lose contact with your Vampire entirely. You’re no use to either of us if you have no access to your Order form and no magic to fight with.”

“Tory, I can’t. I swore an oath to Darius after I hurt you before. You know I can’t-”

She punched me so hard, my fucking head wheeled to one side, and I tasted my own blood.

“Don’t throw his fucking name at me and talk about promises you made to him. He promised me he’d fight for me. He promised he wouldn’t fucking leave. And look what he did. So don’t go keeping promises to that asshole which will end up getting the both of us killed, when he broke every oath he ever swore by dying on that fucking battlefield and leaving me all on my own.”

The raw pain and heartache in her green eyes ripped at something deep inside of me, but as the weight of several huge bodies collided with the wall of rock beside me, I knew this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. And even if I didn’t believe in half the things she’d just said or even believe that she meant them herself, I did know one thing. Darius had made me swear that oath to protect the woman who stood before me. And he would want me to do anything I could to protect her now too. Which meant I needed to be able to fight.

My fangs throbbed with pain again and I knew we were almost out of time, my Vampire retreating into the dark recesses of my mind as the venom from those fucking pincers delved under my skin and banished it.

With a snarl of frustration, I lunged for her, my fingers knotting in her hair as her head fell back in submission and my teeth broke the soft skin of her throat with a violence that I should have subdued.

Tory hissed as I drank from her, this bite nothing like the ones we’d once shared, a gap of space dividing our bodies which neither of us felt any urge to close. The power of her blood still overwhelmed me the way it always had, but the intoxication I’d once felt at the taste of her was missing, an ache for something dipped in moonlight burning in my chest as I took what I needed to replenish my power.

My fangs throbbed as I fought against the venom which was trying to force them to retract and I gulped her blood down greedily, taking as much as I could before the suppressant won out and my fangs were banished.

I released her instantly and Tory raised a hand to pile more rocks against the wall beside us as it rattled violently once again.

“This way,” she commanded, breaking into a sprint while I threw the bag full of books onto my back, retrieved my dagger and chased after her, already uncertain of the way in this maze of tunnels.

Flames coated Tory’s hands as she sprinted on ahead of me, both lighting the way and regenerating her power as we raced down tunnel after tunnel.

A resounding boom in the distance made it clear that the creatures had forced their way through the barricade and my pulse raced as I glanced back in that direction, magic building in my palms.

We took a set of stairs up a level before a few more turns revealed a dead end, and we were forced to double back again.

The clacking, grinding sound of the creatures racing over the stone walls was so much closer when we reached the bottom of the stairs again that I expected them to be on us at any moment.

Tory threw another wall of stone up at our backs and I added my power to hers, reinforcing it before we charged on, but no matter how many twists and turns we took, no exit revealed itself.

“I can’t believe we survived all we have only to end up lost in a fucking labyrinth and eaten by a bunch of mutated centipedes,” I swore, and the sounds of pursuit grew closer again, our end closing in on us no matter how fast we ran.

“Fuck that,” Tory growled, sprinting around another bend before cursing so loudly that I knew it was a dead end before I even turned it myself.

“Shit,” I agreed, putting my back to the wall at her side and casting spears of wood and stone to grow from every wall of the tunnel just as the first of the beasts launched themselves around the corner.

I glanced at Tory as she bared her teeth at the monsters, whips cast from thorny vines coiling from her fists as she prepared to fight to the death at my side, a fire lit behind us making the blood from the bite on her throat gleam deepest red.

“We don’t die here,” she said, a queen’s command and for once, I had no problem following it.

“Agreed.”

Chaos erupted all around us as the Guardians of the Lost Knowledge attacked us at full force, countless insectile bodies leaping for us, those grotesque teeth bared for our throats as they screamed out in desire for our deaths.

Tory flicked her whips, the vines binding two of the beasts tightly, the thorns digging into scaled flesh before bursting alight and making them scream in agony.

I threw the spears I’d cast from the walls at them, dark blue blood spraying the brickwork as they were impaled upon them, their screams of pain colouring the air and making my ears ring in the confined space.

Tory threw her hands out and sent a tornado of fire and air magic at them, their wails of agony letting us know how much they hated the flames, and I turned my power to fire too.

The monsters screamed louder as they tried to run from us, but I curled my fist and slammed it against the wall sending earth magic ricocheting through the walls themselves, seeking out the monsters as they raced away before throwing a wall of steel into place to trap them in this tunnel.

“Let’s end this,” I snarled, pouring all of my power into the flames again, filling the entire passageway with them as the heat threatened to burn us alive too.

Tory gritted her teeth and ice grew at our backs, air swirling up and over us, circling past the ice over and over again as she protected us from the flames and we set the entire world on fire before us, not relenting for even the briefest of moments until the screams of those monsters fell to nothing.

My power guttered out as the last of the screams sounded and the flames fell away, revealing the charred, skeletal bodies of the beasts in a tunnel lined with nothing but soot.

The two of us stood there for several long minutes, panting and staring at the bodies of the dead creatures from our position lost in a fucking Minotaur’s labyrinth, which we were likely to stay lost in for a long fucking time.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked, glancing up at the stone roof which curved above our heads, towards the world which awaited us up there.

“Well, I’m not staying down in some fucking tunnel for god knows how long,” Tory replied, and I snorted in amusement as she raised her hands and started breaking the damn roof apart right above our heads.

The entire world seemed to shake and rattle around us as she gritted her teeth, the flames burning hotter to stoke her power as she built it to greater heights, the magic of the labyrinth fighting against her in an attempt to stop what she was trying to do. This place was built to withstand the force of any Fae fool enough to try and carve their way free of it. But Tory wasn’t just any Fae. She was a Vega, the most powerful bloodline in known history and a Phoenix too, her magic endless while that fire burned at her back and her will iron as she forced the laws of magic and nature to bend to her will.

The roof above our heads cracked apart with an almighty boom, debris tumbling down onto us and colliding with a shield she’d already thrown up to protect us.

I adjusted the weight of the bag on my back as she lifted us with air magic and we rose into the tunnel she was carving above us, heading higher and higher until finally some light spilled down to reveal the golden halls of the pristine library.

The world continued to groan and shudder in protest to her power, and I tried to hide my awe at the incredible magic as she forced a labyrinth built of ancient magic to crumble at her will.

A scream of purest horror greeted us as Tory shot us up through the library and deposited us, bloodstained, filthy and dripping fuck knew what onto a beautiful cream carpet in the middle of a huge chamber filled with golden bookshelves.

The librarian who hadn’t wanted to let us into this place stood there, a hand on his chest and a silent scream on his lips as he sagged against a shame-faced Minotaur called Arnold.

“Thanks so much for your hospitality,” Tory said brightly, striding past them towards the exit where she gave a gobsmacked Laini a salute and struck the call button for the elevator which would return us to ground level at last. “We’ll be sure to visit again soon.”

“By the light of the ever-waning moon,” the librarian breathed, and I tossed him a wicked grin as Arnold continued to try and hold him upright.

“Oh, and Arnold?” Tory added, backing into the elevator which had arrived behind us. “If I ever see your cowardly, abandoning face again, I’m gonna cut your horns off and shove them up your ass. Got it?”

Arnold mooed weakly and I gnashed my teeth at him to back up that promise right as the doors closed to the sound of the librarian protesting us leaving with a bag full of books.

“Bite me,” I called in challenge but if he replied again, the answer was lost as the elevator soared up through the lake towards the fresh air above.

“Tell me you kept hold of your Atlas in that madness so we can get back to the rebels,” I begged of Tory as we stepped out of the elevator and found ourselves on the island sat in the middle of the lake, bits of dead lake monster still floating in the dark water surrounding us. “Because we still haven’t got use of our Order forms and I seem to have lost mine somewhere when you attacked those monsters-”

“Don’t blame me for that dude, that was fully the crab thing’s fault.”

“Either way, we’re looking a hell of a lot like a pair of mortals on a camping trip in the near future, unless you still have yours?” We needed someone to give us the current location of the floating island or we’d be stranded here with countless hours having passed since we’d left.

“We could start walking?” she suggested half-heartedly and I sighed, the idea of camping out in the middle of nowhere about as appealing as taking a bath in that lake as I glanced at those monster lumps floating in the water once more. “Or we could call for a location?” Tory flashed her Atlas at me with a taunting look and I cursed her as she hit dial on Geraldine’s number.

“Don’t forget we need to stop for a bone of your enemy on the way back,” I said, grimacing at that lovely idea.

“Your dating game has really picked up recently, you know that?” she said sweetly and the memory of our utter failure of a date flashed through my mind, making my grimace deepen.

“You really would have preferred grave robbing and fighting those monsters to karaoke and sushi, wouldn’t you?” I asked and her eyes flashed with what looked like amusement for a moment as she shrugged.

“Definitely.”

I rolled my eyes just as Geraldine answered the call, her gushing voice spilling from the speaker as the truth of that statement settled in me, and I found nothing but amusement in it. Tory Vega was one hell of a friend to take on a night out, but our destiny had never been meant to merge in the way I had once thought it might, and I found that there was no sting left to that truth anymore, no lingering hurt or resentment. Me and her were a train wreck waiting to happen as a couple, but as friends we worked out pretty damn well.

Tory managed to end her call with Geraldine fairly quickly, and I looked to her in expectation as she took the stardust from her pocket.

“They’re just doing something with Xavier that apparently can’t wait. She’ll let us know once she’s carved out a landing spot for us between the wards,” she explained, and I nodded, my eyes moving over the silent, picturesque landscape that surrounded us.

“Wanna sit and enjoy the view?” I offered.

Tory’s eyes tracked across the vibrantly green landscape, but she shook her head.

“Silence isn’t good for me right now.”

I resisted the urge to hug her, knowing she didn’t want that, not here, not while she was fighting so hard to remain unbroken through all of this.

“Wanna go find some bones of your enemies then instead?”

Her lips twitched with amusement, but she just pulled a shard of bone from her pocket, holding it out to me.

“I took it from those things that tried to kill us down there. They certainly seemed to think we were their enemies, so…”

“Savage,” I snorted, and she returned the bone to her pocket with a shrug.

“I’m not wasting any more time.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, we can’t head back until we hear from Geraldine, so either sit your ass down and enjoy the view with me while we wait or start walking if you need to keep moving. Lady’s choice.”

Tory looked inclined to start walking, but I had to assume she saw the pointlessness in that and dropped down to sit on the damp grass instead, her chin raised as she looked out over the stunning view.

I joined her on the ground, the bag of stolen books sitting between us with an air of power radiating from them that neither of us spoke on.

Silence stretched and a cool wind blew between the mountains, giving our grief a moment to rise up and have its way once more.

“It feels like I’ve lost a limb,” I murmured, my throat thickening as I looked across the mountainous landscape, imagining a golden Dragon tearing across that sky, tumbling through the clouds.

Tory didn’t reply but she shifted closer to me, her head falling against my shoulder as she took my hand in hers. I could feel the ridge of the scar cut into her palm where her skin pressed to mine, and I could have sworn a note of power radiated from the oath she’d carved into her skin.

“I made a promise to the stars to end them for this failure,” she said in a low voice, the cold certainty in her words making the hairs along the back of my neck stand on end. “And I intend to keep it.”

Silence fell away from us once more and I could feel the echoes of her words spilling out over the sky and beyond, the certainty and power of that oath she’d made, and the knowledge that she wouldn’t stop until she saw it fulfilled. If there was a single Fae in Solaria capable of making the stars themselves tremble with their wrath, then I knew it was Tory Vega. And not even the might of the heavens would save them when that time came.