Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

The tiny bedroom I’d been given in the back corner of the R.U.M.P. Castle was big enough for little more than my bed alone, which seemed extra insulting seeing as I’d given every drop of my magic to Gerry while she created the damn thing.

In all honesty, I had been more caught up in the feeling of power sharing with her than concentrating on what she was doing with her magic, so I was at least a little to blame, but this shit wasn’t going to work for me.

I wrenched my bedroom door open, having every intention of hunting her down and demanding a better room, but the door slammed into the edge of my bed and got itself wedged there with the force I used.

I cursed, tugging on the thing but somehow managing to wedge it further, the wood groaning in protest as I yanked on it again.

I braced a foot against the bed and heaved on it, putting my weight into the motion. The door sprung free, and I flew backwards into the hall, slamming down on my ass with a torrent of cursing.

“Well, that’s one way to peel an onion,” Justin Masters said from somewhere above me, and I swore louder as I shoved to my feet and whirled on him.

“What did you say?” I snarled, my gifts whipping from me and throwing a strong dose of terror his way, but his mental walls were firm and waiting, so the attack did little more than make him flinch.

“It isn’t every day a slop-headed ninny falls at my feet, is all,” he replied with a shrug before turning and striding away from me like this was already over.

“Have you spoken to Gerry?” I demanded as I fell into step with him uninvited.

“What business is that of yours?” Justin asked, glancing at me from the corner of his eye and puffing his chest up a little. I had a good foot on the asswipe and at least fifty pounds of muscle, so it wasn’t exactly intimidating.

“Because me and her have a good thing going and I want to be sure that you’re clear that whatever you thought you had with her is done now.”

Justin scoffed lightly but said nothing as he tried to up his pace, heading towards the banquet hall where the scent of freshly baked bagels was calling to us like a summons.

“Spit it out,” I growled, grabbing him by the collar and forcing him to face me.

Justin set his feet, a canine growl peeling his lips back which I replied to by hissing like a cat. That seemed to make him realise he was losing his grip on his ever-so-carefully controlled persona, and he pressed his mouth closed into a thin line.

“Say it,” I insisted when he seemed inclined towards silence. “I can see the words twisting around inside that skull of yours and I can feel your contempt like the stench of a fart on the air, so there’s no point in holding back.”

“Fine,” Justin said haughtily, knocking my hand from his collar and straightening out the wrinkle I’d left there before raising his chin and looking me dead in the eye. “You, Max Rigel, are simply a dalliance in the water of Geraldine’s youth,” he said and to my utter outrage, I felt a note of pity coming from him as he surveyed me. “You are brash and uncouth, pig-headed, arrogant and utterly unwavering in your self-righteousness. Yet you are tall and muscular and no doubt talented in the ways of pleasuring women, so for now, my sweet flower has allowed her head to be turned from those less desirable traits in favour of using you to those ends. It is abundantly clear to all but you. Every fine member of the A.S.S. watches you pant over her like a dog in heat, and we smile at the power she wields so flippantly over a man who believes himself to be untouchable. She may not wish to fulfil her arrangement to wed me any longer, and though it is a shame, my family have always and will always serve the crown. My marriage will only ever be to the benefit of the Vegas, one way or another, and I am more than content with that, whomever my bride shall be. Geraldine too has dedicated her life into their service, and she may have cut off her betrothal to me, but that doesn’t mean anyone in the entire kingdom believes for one moment that she will now turn to you when she decides she is ready to take a husband. The uncouth water Heir who is clinging to his title and wishy-washy claim to the throne which all but he and his little pals already know will never see the shadow of his pert buttocks descending upon it. It’s sad, really, that you can’t see that too. But amusing, nonetheless.”

My muscles were locked so tightly and my jaw grinding so violently that I did nothing at all as Justin turned and strode away from me, heading into the banquet hall where Geraldine was no doubt leading the newly formed Vega court in all manner of royalist nonsense.

I turned my attention inwards as I closed my eyes, expelling a long breath through my nose and using my own gifts to quell a lot of the rage I was feeling before I ended up hounding after Justin and plastering his well-groomed head to the newly built castle walls.

When I was confident that I could control myself again, I opened my eyes and drifted towards the door to the banquet hall, magic curling around me as I went, hiding me in shadows and concealing my presence from anyone who might turn my way.

I leaned my shoulder against the newly carved wood of the door and peered inside.

The hall had been laid out with five long tables which stretched towards the door where I stood and a top table on a dais presided over all of them at the far end of the huge room. There was a raging fire in the grate behind the two throne-like chairs which had been crafted specifically for the Vegas to sit their royal asses on, but Tory wasn’t there to sit on hers and Darcy was…well, fuck knew where Darcy was. I was worried about her, I knew that much.

Geraldine was standing close to the top table, her shrewd expression combing over the gathered rebels. They were her closest allies, the biggest advocates of the Vega line and the most avid supporters of Tory and Darcy reclaiming the throne. Sofia and Tyler were pointing out something on his Atlas, no doubt another article he was readying to send to the press, reminding Solaria that we were all still here, still fighting, even if it was easy to feel forgotten while we floated across the sea at random, far from the places we had all once called home.

There was no place for me or the other Heirs set aside. Even my father and Seth and Caleb’s moms were left to sit at one of the five tables, though as I watched them, I could tell they were plotting ways to regain their hold on their power. I just didn’t think it mattered what they did here, not surrounded by this group of royalists. None of them would be won away from the Vegas, none of them had any interest in supporting our claim to the throne.

“Chip chop!” Geraldine cried and I trained my attention on her, casting an amplification spell her way and focusing on everything she was saying to the Fae around her. “The army won’t just organise themselves. I need reports on the new barracks and any issues which have arisen since we set sail on this here island of destiny.”

The group of Fae closest to her all began calling out reports on how the relocation for the rebels was going, giving facts and figures about the housing being erected all over the island in strategic positions. More of them started offering reports on the progress being made to shield and ward our new stronghold, others letting her know how work was going with food production, clothing manufacturing etc.

Washer was one of the most vocal amongst them, a pen scratching away before him as he noted down everything that was said and drew out a map of the island. Geraldine looked over his shoulder, giving notes on improvements and telling him that she would bring it to the true queens for approval once everything was ship-shape.

I cast my gifts over the Fae surrounding her, searching for any signs of deception or betrayal, but there was nothing. The search for whoever had given our location to Lionel when he attacked The Burrows had turned up nothing, and now we were all left wondering if there might still be a traitor amongst our ranks or if whoever it was had died or fled during the battle. I didn’t know and the thought haunted me endlessly, but we were taking precautions. The Atlases which were now being handed out more freely between the rebels had all been given hardware which scanned any outgoing messages and restricted access to the outside world. In addition to that, only a very few, specially selected Fae had been allowed to go on trips to the mainland to gather essential supplies, the wards surrounding our hiding place preventing anyone from leaving without permission via both stardust and physically. We were doing all we could to protect ourselves and I just had to hope it would be enough. We needed time to regroup, bolster our numbers and plan our retaliation on Lionel as soon as possible.

When Geraldine seemed satisfied by all she had seen, she moved along to the next table where Justin the asshole now sat prim and proper with a napkin draped across his lap as he cut a bagel into bite sized pieces with a knife and fork like a fucking heathen.

Geraldine began to question the Fae surrounding him about the scouting missions she’d clearly had them all out on, cross-referencing their reports on possible rebel strongholds within the kingdom as well as noting down any Nebular Inquisition Centres and their locations.

Justin chimed in with a bunch of information about the land he’d travelled over while stuck in that parachute and to my disgust, the Fae surrounding him simpered, marvelling at his tenacity while he endured the elements in his legendary plight of escape and daring. It sounded to me like the idiot had just been lucky not to die while he hung around up there in a diaper forged of leaves which Tory had used to save his scrawny ass when he’d gotten in her way on the battlefield. No one was asking him where he’d been shitting all those days, were they? Oh no, no one wondered how many times he’d had to piss himself up there. But now Geraldine was talking about a statue being erected in his honour or a tapestry of his bold escapades being woven for the royal palace.

My irritation with Justin aside, I couldn’t help but realise what was going on here. What me and the other Heirs had so blatantly neglected while licking our wounds and wallowing in our grief over our lost brother.

The war was still raging. And Geraldine and the A.S.S. hadn’t wasted a single moment despite facing their own losses and pain. They were gathering intelligence, rallying for the next strike. It was…humiliating. My whole fucking life I’d been trained to take charge, taught how to lead, and prepared for any eventuality. And yet when our people had needed us most, needed leadership and guidance and someone to stand up tall and tell them that we wouldn’t break, I hadn’t done a damn thing.

Geraldine had orchestrated this, and Tory had stepped up, she’d rallied the rebels after their defeat, and was clearly overseeing all of these plans as Gerry moved them into action. They were no doubt holding more war councils too, plotting, figuring out what Lionel was up to.

Not to mention the fact that Tory had headed out to that library and returned with several books on forgotten magic, more plans burning in her green eyes even as she broke apart over all she’d lost.

Fuck.

I took a step away from the banquet hall, feeling unwelcome there despite the bounty of bagels which made my stomach growl with need. I wasn’t going to just sit on my ass and eat. I needed to do something real. Needed to help with the war effort and stop wallowing like the entitled little bitch Justin clearly thought I was. I needed to step up and show Geraldine that I could be the man she chose long term, that I wasn’t just some fling from her youth, a nothing mistake she’d use and forget.

I turned sharply and strode away from the delicious scent of food, heading for the impressive staircase in the centre of the castle and striding up it at a fast pace.

No one paid me much attention until I turned towards the next staircase which led up to the top floor, the private royal suites which I was willing to bet were about a million times nicer than the room I’d been given down in the dregs of this place. Geraldine hadn’t even had the decency to warn me about the size of my room, simply assigning some low-level Ass member to lead me there and informing me that I was blessed to be welcomed into the abode of the true queens. It was bullshit. And I was going to call it out just as soon as I proved to her that I was worth more than some suit stuffing, napkin-wielding douchebag called Justin.

I made a move to pass the guards standing watch at the foot of the stairs to the royal chambers, but they instantly swarmed into action, a wall of ice blocking my way as the four of them shifted into defensive stances.

“You do not have free access to the true queen,” one of them said firmly, a dare in his eyes which was just begging for me to punch it away, but I held myself in check.

“She’ll want to see me,” I ground out, waiting for one of them to go confirm that claim, but none of them moved.

“As of yet, we have heard no signs to suggest that Her Highness has awoken. You are free to wait here until such a time as she does. Aside from that, we are under strict orders not to disturb her slumber.”

I narrowed my eyes at them, then cast an amplifying spell and tipped my head back as I roared Tory’s name at the top of my lungs. All four of the guards cried out and clapped their hands over their ears, but before any of them could get any dumb ideas about fighting me, a reply called down from above.

“Let him through,” Tory said. “He’ll only start crying a river of tears if you don’t and flood the whole building.”

The guards reluctantly shifted aside, and I stalked past them, offering death glares and a clear challenge for any and all of them to seek me out later if they wanted a real fight. The averted eyes and slight dips to their heads let me know that none of them were going to take me up on that, and I took the minor ego boost in my stride as I headed on up the stairs at last.

I pushed the door open to Tory’s room, arching a brow as I found her there, cross-legged on the floor in nothing but an oversized black t-shirt and her panties, her dark hair tied in a messy knot on top of her head.

There was a plate of untouched food by the door which looked like last night’s dinner and an almost empty bottle of tequila beside it, which I assumed was the option she’d gone for instead.

She had made a kind of nest out of a heap of coins and jewels from Darius’s treasure trove to sit in and there were five ancient-looking books open to various pages around her.

“Well,” I said slowly, taking in the hastily scribbled and crossed out notes on the crumpled bits of paper that littered the floor. “You look like shit.”

“Why thank you,” she replied sarcastically, swigging from the bottle of tequila while holding my eye in a challenge for me to mention it. “You’re looking your own kind of tragically bereft yourself. Wanna sit?”

She indicated the heap of coins beside her and despite the fact that it looked anything but comfortable, I found the reminder of Darius soothing in a way I hadn’t expected and carefully stepped past the books to take the spot she’d offered.

Tory lifted a book out of my way as I got comfortable, the deep blue cover awakening my interest as she turned it over in her hands, then dumped it in my lap.

“Here, give yourself a book boner. It’ll make you think of Orion.”

I arched a brow doubtfully, but as I took in the beautiful decoration on the front of the book which depicted my most powerful Element in all its forms, I had to admit that a chill ran over me.

I opened the book carefully, almost reverently as I sensed the age of the tome and read the introduction with interest.

All things begin and end with the Element of water, it is life just as it is death, power, and purity. It is both ambivalent and altruistic. Beware the power of washing your soul clean in its icy depths, for once you have taken the plunge into the life of aqua, you will never again be the same.

I frowned as I took in the truth of those words, turning a few more pages and finding spells and incantations unlike anything I had ever learned before describing how to harness the power of water. If I was reading it correctly, it didn’t even matter which star sign you possessed. If you wanted to wield the Element and were willing to pay the price of doing so, then there were ways here that could make it happen – even if the effects were short-lived and to serve a sole purpose.

“This is…I’ve heard the odd thing about the way magic was tamed before the Awakening was discovered, but I never knew they could do so much,” I said, turning pages listed with instructions for all forms of water magic, including some I had never even considered before. “To give life…” I read aloud and Tory snatched the book from me before I could go on.

Her eyes scanned the page, a tendril of hope pouring from her and brushing against my senses, feeding my power, but as she skimmed down the page, despair took its place until she finally dropped the book into her lap.

“This is for imbuing land with self-replenishing water so that crops can grow through drought,” she huffed, a flash of anger hitting me before she reined it in again. No…she didn’t rein it in, she hid it from me, letting me feel a touch of pain and despair but shielding that rage, like she knew it was the most potent and powerful emotion she was experiencing right now and didn’t want me stealing that from her.

I reached out and took her hand, the strength of my gifts growing as I maintained that contact and forced her to look at me.

“You’re not coping,” I told her, though it was clear she knew that already.

“There is no coping with this,” she replied, a burst of anger hitting me again, and this time she didn’t bother to conceal it. “All I have is this rage in me. I need to find my sister, kill that Dragon son of a bitch and then…well then there isn’t anything left for me unless…”

Her eyes moved over the ancient books surrounding us, and a hopeless kind of need tainted the air, making me tighten my hold on her hand and offer her some reassurance.

“You’re trying to find a way to bring him back?” I asked softly, wishing with all I had that there was some way to do such a thing while knowing in my soul that it was impossible. “Tory, in the entire history of our world, in all the years that have passed and with all the losses Fae have endured, none have ever found a way to return the dead to us.”

“Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t try to explain it to me like I’m some silly mortal trying to figure out how magic works. I know what you’re saying, I understand it. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him. I can’t give up on him, don’t you get that? He is everything to me, and the stars stole him away. I don’t believe for one second that they couldn’t bring him back if that was what they wanted. But they won’t, because they only interfere with our lives when it amuses them to do so. They only get involved when it comes to love or hate, and all the things they should have no dominion over in the first place. They gifted Fae this magic so that they could use it like puppet masters pulling on our strings, forcing us to worship them in the heavens above, and yet all the while they do nothing to help us when we need it most. They offered him death in exchange for my life. That means they gave me life when their fate had chosen death for me instead. So they can either give him his life back too, or they can find out what I will do to them in payment for that sacrifice.”

Tory reached out for the onyx black book behind her, the cover etched with a word that was at once unfamiliar and yet resounded deep within me like an old friend greeting me from another lifetime. Ether.

“What is that?” I asked.

“This is the power we gave up when the stars began Awakening our kind. Not the power they gifted us. Not the power they can control. This is wild, free, and untouched by them or their ideas of fate. It’s the true fifth Element and they hold no dominion over it. And this is what I will use to destroy everyone and everything who has tried to take so very much from me.”

I almost reached for the book, but something deep within me warned against it, some intuition or knowledge lodged in the depths of my bones.

“I thought the shadows were the fifth Element?” I asked, eyeing her warily as I took in the certainty in her, the promise carved into her hand.

“No,” she scoffed. “More lies passed down through time, either intentionally or through poor translation. The shadows were never meant to be a part of this world, our realm and the shadow realm divided just as we are from the humans you named mortal – another half-truth that alludes to immortality in Fae kind and was only used to scare the humans when the first rifts were created between our realm and theirs, before we used magic to make them forget about us or cast us as characters in fairy tales which they no longer believe in. So if that’s the case, then I’m thinking the shadows never were the fifth element at all and this-” she tapped the title of the book, “-was the true name for it. This was what they used to capture the shadows and bind them to whatever desire they wanted, this was the power that make wielding them possible in the first place.”

“Who told you the shadows were never meant to be a part of this world?” I asked with a frown.

“Queen Avalon told us all kinds of stories like that while we were training with her. She was…well she was a total bitch, if I’m being honest. Stuffed full of just as much Order supremacy bullshit as Lionel is, and pretty much a tyrant in her own time. Of course, she painted herself out to be some benevolent creature, but over time, we saw between the lines of her stories, noticed the prejudices she spoke with. She persecuted anyone she deemed less worthy of life than her, the Nymphs most of all.”

“Our people and the Nymphs have been at war for as long as anyone can remember. Fae are prey to them. There’s no changing that fact, and it makes sense that a Fae queen of old would have wanted to eradicate them,” I pointed out.

Tory chewed on her bottom lip, her fingers trailing over the cover of the book as she considered my words.

“Darcy doesn’t believe they’re simply soulless monsters set on preying on all of us. Miguel claims he’s on our side, though no one has managed to get much more out of him than that since he was captured. And despite the lies and the deceptions, Diego died to save my sister in the end. I know he wasn’t perfect but…”

“But what?” I pressed.

“I don’t know. But I do know that we’re missing something here, something vital, something which Darcy would want me to think about. It’s why I won’t let anyone execute Miguel, there’s too many what ifs. And I think Darcy will want to talk to him too, and I think she might be the one who can figure out the truth in all of this. I don’t want to blindly follow the guidance of the stars and I don’t want to blindly follow a path laid out by past royals either. The past should be where we learn from our mistakes, the future is open to all new possibilities.”

Her attention dropped back to the Book of Ether in her lap and I tensed as I took in the determination in her.

“I don’t think you should be playing with that, Tory,” I murmured, but she just gave a humourless laugh.

“Playing is exactly what I’ve been doing up until now. Playing with the Elements they offered me and toying with the flames of my Order. But this right here is where things will get real. And I won’t back down. So I suggest you don’t get in my way.”

She held my gaze with an unbreakable will, and I could feel her decision to see this through burning in the air as brightly as her Phoenix ever could. She wouldn’t be turned from this path. There was no backing out of it, and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure there was a Fae alive powerful enough to stop her anyway.

“Okay,” I agreed heavily, nodding in acceptance of the vow she was so desperate to keep. “I’m with you. If you think there’s a way to change this fate, then fuck knows I would give anything for that to be true. So whatever you need, whatever it takes, I’m in.”

“Good.”

We spent another hour looking through the books, Tory mainly giving the tome on ether her attention while I tried to get my head around the very different ways that Fae used to wield power. There wasn’t a single spell in any of the books that was simple, all of them requiring various items, sacrifices, incantations, or the like to work at all and even then, the power was short-lived. But despite that, from the numerous warnings and often terrifying depictions accompanying the various magics, there was great power in this form of summoning. The risks seemed to outweigh the benefits to me for the most part though, and even as I continued leafing through the books, reading page after page, helping Tory to make notes on anything that looked like it might be promising, I found myself wanting to avoid that kind of power.

“There are notes here on the shadows, but it’s like they were barely even relevant to dark magic when this kind of power was in use,” Tory said suddenly, snapping the Book of Ether shut. “I don’t get it. Orion used blood and bone magic, but he mostly used the shadows whenever I saw him wielding the dark powers. How could something so prevalent now have been so irrelevant back then?”

“Maybe they hadn’t figured out how to use the shadows when these books were written?” I suggested, closing the air book too.

“If there was no mention of them at all then I’d believe that, but they do come up from time to time, in a way that is practically dismissive. There was one line…” She started hunting through the loose notes littering the floor around us before snatching one out triumphantly and holding it up for me to take.

I read the copied sentence with a frown as I tried to understand its meaning.

Shadows are powerful in their own right, but they are of another realm and are the magic of Unemph, so are wielded best by their kind alone.

“I mean, that word kinda sounds like Nymph to me. You think that’s who they’re talking about? The Nymphs wielding the shadows? Didn’t Diego’s grandma knit herself into a shadow hat or some shit? Seems like it adds up to me.” I shrugged but couldn’t help the smug grin tugging at the corner of my lips when Tory’s irritation at herself reached me alongside her excitement over that possible answer.

Tory got to her feet and found a pair of sweatpants, pulling them on and turning her back to me as she switched the oversized shirt for a white crop top, then kicked on a pair of sneakers. I stood too, watching as she moved to grab a small bag from the desk beside the door, then took a lethal-looking dagger and dropped both things into her pocket.

“You just carry concealed weapons these days, do you?” I teased her and she looked over her shoulder at me, something dark flickering in her green eyes.

For a brief moment, I was in her head, locked up at Lionel’s mercy, her Order suppressed, her magic kept in check by the Guardian bond he’d forced on her. The memories faded as fast as they’d come, my connection to her severing as both of us drew away from it, and she shrugged.

“I have a whole list of reasons for wanting to have plenty of ways to defend myself at all times,” she said. “But this dagger has its own purpose for later.”

She didn’t give me an explanation of what that was, and I had to hurry to match her pace as she headed out the door.

We exited the royal chambers, my stomach rumbling from the breakfast I’d missed out on and my jaw ticking as I thought about fucking Justin and his stupid fucking face. I was going to smack that face the next time I laid my eyes on him. Then we’d see if he was still so star-damned smug.

“Is that my lady?” a cry drew my attention, and I half turned to look around for Geraldine, but Tory caught my arm and yanked on it, forcing me to move faster as we headed for the drawbridge.

“I love Gerry, but if she checks up on my eating habits one more time, I’m going to scream,” she hissed, her pace practically a trot as guards moved aside to let us out and we moved over the drawbridge.

I glanced down at Tory, taking in the sharpness of her cheekbones and the haunted expression in her ferocious gaze. I could tell why Geraldine was fussing.

“Maybe you should eat a bit more,” I suggested. “It’s never a good idea to get too hung-”

“One more word, Max Rigel, and I’ll kick you in the balls and leave you wheezing on the floor while I go talk to Miguel alone,” she said, her fingernails biting into my arm painfully, making me want to snatch it away.

Instead, I aimed soothing magic towards her, subtly weaving a little hunger into the emotions too, but she just clicked her tongue and shut me out, releasing my arm and striding away towards the newly built jail on the far side of the island.

I would have tried to argue further, but I could already tell that it wouldn’t get me anywhere. Besides, the fact that she hadn’t just shifted and flown on ahead of me told me she didn’t actually want to leave me behind at all. Despite the walls she was now maintaining to keep me out of her head, I knew how alone she was feeling.

“Coowee!” Geraldine called from behind us, and I resisted the urge to turn her way as I jogged to catch up to Tory.

“You do realise she isn’t going to give up, don’t you?” I asked as I fell into step with her again, and the corner of Tory’s lips twitched in amusement.

“I know.”

We walked another ten steps or so before a Tarzan yell reached my ears, and I was forced to turn and look at Geraldine who was swinging across the terrain with a vine wrapped around her waist and a platter full of buttery bagels balanced on an outstretched hand.

“My ladyyyy!” Geraldine called and Tory broke a rueful grin as she turned too, folding her arms in some attempt to look irritated while we waited for Geraldine to land.

The vines snapped her skyward before releasing her and she flipped over, somehow keeping every single bagel on that platter before landing solidly in front of us and bowing to Tory.

“Oh good, I caught you,” Geraldine panted, her chest rising and falling heavily, drawing more than a little of my attention. Her crimson hair was plastered to her forehead where beads of perspiration lined her brow from the chase she’d embarked on to catch us.

“Were you looking for me?” Tory asked innocently, and if I hadn’t been with her the entire time, I swear I would have believed she’d had no idea. No wonder that girl had never been charged with anything in the mortal realm.

“Oh, you cheeky cherub, you know I was,” Geraldine laughed, planting her free hand on her hip and offering Tory the platter. “And I know that you do not feel the pangs of hunger while the cloud of grief gathers close around you, but I would be failing in my duties if I did not attempt to tempt you with some buttery goodness on a fine morn such as this. You know you must eat to maintain your strength, and I would be a narry nubby of a friend if I didn’t look out for you in this time of war, strife, and need.”

“Fine,” Tory gave in, reaching for a bagel and taking a big bite which made Geraldine sigh with relief.

“I also haven’t eaten on this nerry morn,” I pointed out, eyeing the bagels while Geraldine gave me little more than a cursory glance.

“What on earth are you gabbering about, you slothsome seabeast?” she asked, frowning at me like I’d just spoke Martian or something.

“I just…would like a bagel. Please,” I said, my stomach punctuating that request by growling loudly enough for all of us to hear.

“These are royal bagels,” Geraldine laughed like I’d been joking, wafting me away. “Baked with royal tums in mind, the fluffiest and butteriest of their kind. Not the flotsam fish stew more suited to one such as you.”

“Gerry,” I ground out, the mountain of bagels whispering to me. “There are about fifty bagels there. Tory couldn’t possibly eat all of them even if she wanted to. What are you planning to do with all the ones she doesn’t eat if no one else can have any?”

Geraldine stared at me with those beguiling blue eyes of hers, blinked once, looked at the bagels, then burst out laughing again.

I assumed that was my cue to take one and reached for it, but she snapped at my fucking fingers like a dog guarding a chew toy, and I was forced to snatch them away again.

Tory barked a laugh as she turned towards the jail once more, striding ahead of us and leaving me to start bickering with Geraldine over the fate of the fucking baked goods she was hoarding like a Dragon with treasure.

By the time we made it to the squat wooden building, I’d been hit over the head with a bagel, called at least eighteen different types of fish-based insults, and was pretty certain I would be getting laid tonight too. It was all fucking confusing, and I was still grumbling about being hungry while Tory hadn’t even bothered to take a second bagel after eating the first.

The guards who were on duty outside the wooden jailhouse all leapt to attention as they spotted Tory, the five of them bowing low even when she forcefully told them not to.

“Geraldine, can you tell them?” Tory asked in exasperation when they refused to rise without her permission. Tory in turn refused to give them permission to rise, based on the fact that she didn’t want to have the power to tell them to do any such thing.

“Well, my lady, it is a bit of a conundrum. They wish to honour you by bowing, and yet you take the bowing as something of an insult, which in turn makes them want to placate and honour you more, so they bow lower, but then you do not appear appeased by that, so then they have no choice but to bow even lower and-”

“I’m just gonna go on in and leave this shit show to play out without me,” Tory interrupted her. “But if we can avoid more of this going forward, then that would be great.”

She rolled her eyes at the guards who were practically laying in the mud at this point, their confusion and desperate desire to please her filling the air. Tory grabbed a couple more bagels from the platter then told Geraldine to offer the rest to the guards once they managed to get themselves up off the floor, jerking her chin to me in a command for me to follow her inside.

“You know you’re not my queen, don’t you?” I growled as I stalked after Tory. “And I wanted some of those bagels you just handed out to the rabble-”

“Shh.” Tory pushed one of the bagels she’d just taken into my mouth, cutting off my rant, then handing me the other. “You’re really bitchy when you’re hangry.”

I would have argued with her about that, but I gave in to the demands of my stomach and chewed instead, the sound of Geraldine consoling the confused rebels following us into the darkness of the small building.

No real effort had been made in here to make it comfortable; it was just a wooden box with a single window allowing a minimal amount of light inside. The only thing within the building was the huge night iron cage containing the one and only Nymph we had taken captive after the attack on the ruins.

Tory created a torch with her earth magic, lighting it with a spark of fire and plunging the other end into the ground beside us, the dirt supporting it as the flickering flames illuminated Miguel in his cage.

My gifts flared as I tried to get a sense of the Nymph, figuring out his motivations and any plots he might be concealing, but all I could perceive from him was this endless kind of relief, a lot of sadness, and a spark of hope which flared brighter as he took in his visitors.

“You came,” he said, pushing to his feet from the dirt where he’d been lying. He brushed off his clothes and tried to flatten the mess of thinning dark hair on his head, embarrassment tumbling from him as he looked from Tory to me.

“We have questions,” Tory said simply, her eyes moving over the cold cage and her lips tightening. “Sit.”

A flick of her fingers had three stools growing from the ground itself, two on our side of the bars for us and one inside for him to use.

Miguel dropped onto the stool with a sigh, wringing his hands in his lap as he fought the desire to speak, respect and humility adding to the mixture of emotions I could feel from him. He was making no attempt to shield any of it from me, and I wasn’t sure if he was even capable of doing so. Either way, I relaxed, sensing no threat or signs of deceit here.

“I’ve been researching dark magic,” Tory said, subtle as a bull, like always. “Old magic. The kind that predates the Awakening of our kind.”

“Si. The Nymphs have been servants of the dark for a long time,” Miguel said, nodding. “Though it was only ever called dark by your kind. At least it was once the shadows were tainted.”

“Tainted how?”

“La Princesa de las Sombras.”

“English, please,” I grunted, and his eyes flicked to me, a flinch of fear coating my tongue as his emotions shifted once more.

“Sorry.” Miguel dipped his head. “They were tainted by the Shadow Princess. Lavinia. When she was banished to their realm and her curse bled into it.”

“So you’re saying that before she entered the shadow realm, things were different? How?” I asked.

Miguel hesitated, fear and uncertainty wrapping around me like a silk glove stroking its way down my cheek.

“I want to be honest with you,” he said. “But…there is more than just my life at stake here. There are others who I need to protect.”

“Others who don’t wish to follow Lavinia?” Tory asked, scooting forward on her stool, and I could tell she’d guessed right by the shift in Miguel’s emotions.

He nodded. “Do you swear you won’t hurt them? They have never hunted Fae, never stolen magic. The few of them who have any of your power were gifted it just as our kind were in the days of old. By willing Fae already at death’s door, those waiting to walk beyond the Veil, ready to part with their power.”

I frowned, wondering why even a dying Fae would ever agree to a Nymph taking their magic from them, but Tory spoke before I could.

“I won’t ever attack anyone who doesn’t first strike at me or this kingdom,” she swore, a ring of authority to those words. “My sister and I have no taste for war or death beyond fighting for the freedom everyone deserves from tyranny.”

Miguel wrung his hands again, his emotions roiling as he came to some decision, and he pushed to his feet, clinging to the night iron bars as if they caused him no discomfort at all. And maybe if his claims about not wielding the shadows were true, then they didn’t.

“My son trusted you. He loved you. You gave him a family when he couldn’t claim one at home,” his voice cracked, and I could sense Tory’s discomfort. She hadn’t been as close to Diego as Darcy had, but I knew their friendship had been real enough, even if it had been a little fraught at times. “And I think he would have wanted me to tell you this. He would have wanted me to trust you too.”

“Trust me with what?” Tory asked, and I leaned closer as I felt the importance of this revelation rising in the room.

“I was born in a secluded part of the kingdom, hidden from all outsiders through years of careful and diligent work. We broke our allegiance with others of our kind when we decided to resist the call of la Princesa de las Sombras. We saw through the lies she was spinning and came to understand the taint she had placed upon the shadows we had once loved and wielded so dearly. So we left them, six entire tribes of Nymphs left and hid ourselves away from those who wished to continue down her path. We worked to cleanse a small portion of the shadows of her vile corruption so that we could use them without her input, so that we wouldn’t be polluted by her desires and become maddened with the need to steal magic from Fae. There are even Fae who live among us peacefully. They have married our kind and live full lives with us, giving up their power only when death comes calling at their door and even then, they only do so if they wish it.”

“I need to learn more about the magic you possess,” Tory said. “I need to use everything that I possibly can to bring Lionel down. Can you teach me?”

“Tory,” I warned her in a low growl, but she shot me a dark look, telling me all too clearly to back off, and I gritted my teeth as I waited for Miguel’s reply.

“I don’t know much of the old magics,” he admitted. “But I could give you some guidance in handling the shadows – though your kind cannot wield them in the ways we can.”

“Is there anyone who would know more about the old Fae way of casting? Anyone who I could ask in your hidden village?” she pushed.

Miguel froze, his eyes moving between the two of us warily. “Their location is a secret which has been guarded for almost a thousand years-”

“But let’s say it wasn’t. Let’s say your people were here with us now. Let’s say they really wanted to deal with Lavinia and reclaim the shadows from her. Would there be someone among them who might have the answers I seek? Would there be a chance that the rest of them might be rallied into an army to fight on our side of this war?”

“Tory,” I barked, shoving to my feet as disgust filled me at the thought of that. “You can’t seriously be suggesting an alliance with some of the Nymphs?”

She turned her dark eyes on me with a warning flaring in them, but I refused to let her push ahead with this madness.

“You’re forgetting that you aren’t actually a queen,” I growled. “You can’t offer up alliances with anyone, let alone our sworn enemies.”

“I’m simply asking a question,” she replied icily, turning back to look at Miguel. “Is there a chance?”

Miguel looked from her to me with hesitation written into every piece of his being. His fear clung to the walls and rolled down them in a thick and cloying fog which was impossible to ignore, but piercing through that terror, a single beam of emotion drew my attention. Hope.

“Perhaps,” he breathed, and I swear the entire world spun on its axis as the stars peered closer to listen to that one, impossible word.

Silence hung between all of us, filled with tension, mistrust, and that aching hope.

“We need to go,” Tory said suddenly, lifting her head to look through the window to the sky beyond.

I followed her gaze to see the sun moving closer to its zenith, the midday light brightening the sky to a stunning shade of blue.

“I’ll leave you to think about that offer and return to discuss it further,” she said to Miguel, a flick of her fingers growing a bed of soft moss with warm blankets for him, then a small, wooden shelter to add some privacy to his shitting bucket. Lastly, she cast a stone bowl filled with heated water for him to wash in and a smaller one with chilled water to drink from.

I’ll make sure someone brings you some food,” she added, and Miguel’s eyes widened in shock and gratitude at the kindness. It didn’t surprise me though; the Vegas had suffered in hunger and coldness. She wouldn’t want anyone else to endure the same, even if they might turn out to be her enemy.

Tory strode from the room without bothering to check if I was actually following her or not, and I trotted along in her wake, the words Justin had tossed at me earlier ringing in my skull.

I wasn’t just some side piece to the ascension of the Vegas. But I had to admit that Tory was stepping into the role of ruler without so much as a flicker of hesitation, her actions strong and decisive, even if they were touched with harshness in the wake of all she’d lost.

We headed out of the jail and across the open plain beyond, ignoring the guards as they bowed again, no sign of Gerry anywhere, much to my disappointment.

My stride lengthened so that we walked together and I was no longer trailing behind, but Tory didn’t show any indication that she had even noticed the difference.

There was a hill to the south of the island, and we headed up its steep sides until we made it to the top where Seth, Caleb, and Geraldine had already gathered.

“Have you got everything?” Caleb asked, looking to her, and Tory nodded, her eyes moving from him to the sun above which was almost at its highest point.

“We need to hurry,” she said.

“Is anyone going to explain this to me?” Seth asked, cocking his head like a pup, and Geraldine sighed like a long-suffering mother.

“At the height of the sun, our dear and magnanimous lady shall use the powers of old to transport her wandering soul to the location of her other half, walking the path between life and death while bound to a single, flickering flame. Once the sun doth wane and the effigy burns out, she shall return to herself here, and lo, we shall at last have the answer to our dearest Darcy’s location.”

“Okay, so eighty percent of that made no sense,” Seth said as Tory took the small bag from her pocket and placed it on the floor beside the dagger. “But I think there were mentions of a wandering soul which sounds a whole lot like death to me.”

The coldness creeping through me had nothing to do with the chilled wind sweeping around us and everything to do with the truth in his words. I couldn’t help but agree with him.

“Are you really sure about messing with this stuff, Tory?” I 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,” Tory hissed venomously. “You give up the chance to want anything at all.”

“We could just stop you from doing this,” Seth piped up, moving closer to me as he seemed to agree with my feelings on the subject. It felt like spitting on Darius’s grave to ignore the risks here and let his mate take part in untested magic which would quite literally involve her soul departing from her body.

“Do you really think so?” Tory challenged, a slight shimmer in the air between us making it clear that she’d placed a shield there so fast I hadn’t even noticed her casting it.

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

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

My heart stilled in shock, then free-fell inside my chest to splatter all over the floor in a bloody mess as I found myself standing off against him like that, my friend standing in defence of a Vega over his brothers.

“Caleb, what the fuck?” I growled, but he didn’t back down, and as I reached for his emotions with my gifts, I found him determined and unyielding, even if standing against us like that was hurting him too.

“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.”

The words struck me like a blow, and if I hadn’t been able to feel how much it hurt him to speak them, I likely would have beat his fucking head in for them.

I looked to Geraldine as she casually swung her flail in one hand, moving to stand at Caleb’s side, a half-raised eyebrow inviting us to press on with this challenge.

“You really think this is the right thing?” Seth asked, a whimper in the back of his throat as he cocked his head towards Tory who was now cross-legged on the floor, various herbs sprouting from the ground around her under the guidance of her earth magic.

“I think it’s the only thing we have right now which might give us an edge. Which might, change our shitty fucking fates,” Caleb said and with those words I felt the truth of him. He had bought into Tory’s way of thinking about this untested power. He believed in her pointless quest to try and shift what had already come to pass, to force a different destiny upon us and the man we’d all lost.

“Caleb,” I said slowly, the aggression falling from my posture as I felt the weight of my own loss crashing down on me. “I don’t believe…”

I shook my head, glancing to Tory again before expelling a breath. She was her own woman. She understood the risks in what she was attempting by wielding this ancient power, and I could feel how deeply determined she was to go through with this insane plan. She was going to immerse herself in the use of ether regardless of anything anyone else had to say on the subject. And she was right, we couldn’t stop her.

Even if we succeeded now, we wouldn’t be able to keep her from this path without restraining her day and night, and I had no intention of doing any such thing to her after all she’d suffered at Lionel’s hands, even if I knew that Darius would have hated this.

“Okay,” I agreed at last. “We won’t stand against you.”

I glanced to Seth for confirmation, and he gave a low growl which voiced his discomfort before nodding firmly in agreement.

“Jolly good.” Geraldine pranced away as if facing off against me meant absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of her day, and I resisted the urge to pout as I gave Tory’s actions my attention.

She now held a roughly fashioned corn doll in her grip, the thing looking weirdly feminine despite its stuffing sticking out all over the place. Its chest remained open, and Tory carefully picked a sprig of vervain and pushed it into the doll. Next, she added chamomile and then some sweet marjoram before taking the dagger and cutting off a small lock of her own hair to press into the chest of the creepy looking thing.

“Vervain for aiding astral workings,” Geraldine breathed as she began to walk in a slow circle around the edge of the pentagram where Tory worked. “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,” I muttered, eyeing Tory warily as she took a lapis lazuli crystal from her bag next, the deep blue stone filled with pure golden swirls which made my breath catch. It was a priceless piece, one she’d no doubt taken from Darius’s treasure, and the thought of him losing his shit over that both amused me and sent a twinge of sadness through my soul.

“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 in that creepy tone, and I found myself glad that this ritual was taking place in full daylight as a shiver ran down my spine.

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

Tory 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.

“Fehu for luck and Dagaz for awareness,” Geraldine cooed mysteriously, and I reached for Seth as he whimpered in protest, offering him some reassuring energy to help combat Geraldine’s insistence on dramatics.

Tory 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.

I held my breath as she turned the blade around and slit her finger open on it, her blood spilling over the doll and sizzling as some magic began to take hold already.

The pentagram burned into the ground started glowing, seeming to suck light from the air itself as Tory tipped her head back to the sky and spoke a set of words which were strange and unruly, the power of them lashing against the air itself and making it hard to breathe.

The moment she stopped, the doll she held burst into flames, a scream escaping it as everything it contained was consumed by the fire in a flash of heat hot enough to scorch my cheeks.

A blast of power exploded from the thing as it fell apart into nothing but ash, and Tory gasped as it hit her, her body lifting from the floor, spine arching backwards unnaturally.

“Tory!” I yelled, trying to move closer to her, but there was a potent energy surrounding the pentagram which I couldn’t cross, the power of it crackling painfully against my skin as I tried.

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

The power that held her vanished suddenly and she fell to the floor with a thump, her body completely still as her wide-open eyes looked at nothing at all and I felt the loss of her in everything around us.

“No,” I begged, trying to force my way past the power of the pentagram but finding it impenetrable even as I threw my magic at it.

Seth howled as he tried to help me, Caleb’s face paling with each second that passed without her so much as breathing.

She was gone. Utterly gone. The only other time I had felt such a lack of someone was in death. Even a Fae who was shielding their emotions from me gave off a signature I could read, a flicker of self that allowed me to know they were there. But not Tory. There was nothing left of her here with us beyond the empty body which was shielded from our help by the pentagram she’d drawn.

“No, no, no, no.” Seth fought to get to her, the idea of losing another member of our group clearly on the brink of breaking him.

Caleb shook his head, refusing it, as if he was still holding onto the vague hope that she could return to us, but what if he was wrong?

“I knew this was a bad idea!” I yelled as I slammed my fist into the wall of power once again, ice shattering across the edge of it before melting then evaporating entirely, my water destroyed as if it were nothing at all.

A shuddering breath forced me to still and the power holding me back disappeared as if it had never been at all.

Geraldine shrieked at a pitch so high I was pretty sure she’d shattered my eardrums. By the time I took my hands from shielding my ears, I found her prostrate on the floor before a dazed-looking Tory who was blinking at all of us like she hardly recognised where she was.

“Did you find her?” Seth begged while Geraldine garbled on about the undeniable power of the true queens.

“Yes,” Tory panted, and the look of horror on her face told me the answer before she even spoke it, her hands tightening to fists and fear dancing in her eyes. “And Orion was with her too. Lionel has them.”