Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

“No!” I shouted so loud it burned my lungs, panic exploding through my body as Francesca’s life was lost to Lionel’s fire.

She was gone, already fallen still, her soul departed from this world. But I didn’t stop fighting to get free of the ice Horace had trapped me in, still trying to refuse the truth that was painted starkly before my eyes. I managed to use a burst of Vampire strength to break it apart, but Lionel’s gaze shifted to me, and I collided with the bars Francesca had bent open as he snapped them back into shape.

“Monster,” I spat at him, clawing my hands over my head, trying to tear out the image of what I’d just witnessed.

Darcy reached for me, but the ice was still holding her legs down, and I shattered it around her with a sharp kick, yanking her out of it and pulling her against me. She held me tight as anger and grief wove themselves deep into my heart, nestling there alongside all the other losses I’d faced.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy breathed. “I’m so sorry.”

It wasn’t her fault, none of this was. It was the fault of the fucking asshole king and his bitch queen.

I turned to Lionel as I clutched Blue protectively against my chest, pointing a finger at him as he shed his jacket and tossed it onto the throne, heat radiating from his body so furiously that it made the air shimmer around him.

“Your death is coming, I swear that to you. It will be so bloody and terrible that it will be imprinted on the minds of all who are there to witness it forevermore. And I pray, I fucking pray, I am one of them.” My voice echoed with a hint of power which I hoped to the stars meant they were laced in prophecy.

Lionel wetted his lips, striding forward, his pupils turning to Dragon slits and smoke spewing from his nostrils.

“Lavinia is not here. Perhaps I shall make a massacre in this room tonight.”

Horace shuddered, backing up like he feared Lionel’s rage might spill in his direction, and I threw a murderous glare his way for his part in Francesca’s death. I would not forget that.

“Get away from us,” Darcy snarled, trying to fight her way free of my arms, but I held on tight, fearing he might come for her next.

“Daaaaddy,” Lavinia’s ethereal voice floated from the doorway, and Lionel stilled before turning reluctantly towards her.

I hated to be relieved at her presence, but it was impossible not to be. That horrid creature was the only thing stopping Lionel from killing Darcy and I, and so long as she was here, he couldn’t touch us.

“Yes, my Queen?” Lionel muttered, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath. “You are back earlier than I expected.”

Lavinia swept forward on a gust of shadow, hovering before him and peering down at Francesca’s body as the flames crackled out of existence around her blackened skull.

Bile rose in my throat, and the loss of my Nebula Ally stamped permanent damage into my heart. Why did she have to come here?

Guilt swept over me at the realisation that she had done this for me, and I didn’t know what to do with all those final memories she’d gifted me, the truth of her love for me clear as day. How had I never seen it before? Was I so fucking blind?

“Who’s that?” Lavinia sniped, hurrying over to Francesca’s body and leaning down at an unnatural angle, sniffing deeply.

“A traitor, that’s all,” Lionel said quickly. “She is dead now. I will have Horace deal with her body.”

He snapped his fingers at his butler and the man rushed forward to do as he was bid.

“Yes, sire,” Horace said tightly, glancing at Lavinia with fear in his eyes, then back to the corpse.

Lavinia blocked his path forward, smiling creepily.

“She’s still warm,” she whispered. “No need to waste the flesh.”

She dove on Francesca’s body, biting and tearing into her skin with savagery, making me roar in anguish.

Horace let out a noise of horror, stumbling away and looking at the wall, fixing his gaze there and pretending nothing was happening.

“Get away from her,” I demanded, but Lavinia started wrapping Francesca up in a web of shadow, binding her body until I could no longer see my friend within it.

Even Lionel looked disgusted by the display, and Darcy gripped my arm so tightly that her nails dug deep into my arm.

Lavinia left Francesca’s body there on the floor as she dropped onto all fours and scuttled her way over to Lionel, raising herself up again and sniffing all the way along the length of his body, lingering by his mouth. She screeched like a banshee, and Lionel grabbed her throat with a fistful of flames, trying to get her under control before she attacked. But Lavinia was stronger, huge whips of shadow spilling from her and yanking him away. She threw him to the floor and his own shadow hand lifted, punching himself in the face.

“Ah!” he cried, lifting his Fae hand and casting an air shield to hold her back, but her dark power tore through it in moments, latching onto him and dragging him back across the floor towards her. Horace stared after his king in shock, looking lost as to whether he should try and help.

“You fucked that whore!” Lavinia screamed. “You betrayed the sanctity of our marriage!”

“No – wait – please!” Lionel cried, trying to get a hold of his power to stop her, but his shadow hand twisted the fingers of his Fae hand, breaking them all. He wailed again, his shadow hand slamming into his face with a bone-crunching blow, and my breathing stalled as I watched, basking in his pain.

“Horace!” Lionel barked, and his butler stumbled towards him, raising his hands with wide eyes. Before he could do anything more than clumsily splash water on the floor and almost fall over it onto his ass, Lavinia caught him in a net of shadow.

“Stars, have mercy!” Horace broke down immediately, sobbing like a child, and Lavinia threw him out of the throne room, sending him tumbling away along the corridor out of sight.

She turned her attention back to Lionel, a twisted look of rage on her face. “How dare you insult me like this?”

“Wait,” Lionel begged. “Just listen to me for a mo-”

Lavinia sent Lionel flying into a wall and flames burst from his broken fingers as he tried to fight. A wave of shadow snuffed them out and then snaked up his body, tearing his shirt open and slashing a great gouge across his chest.

“Ahhh!” he screamed.

“Kill him,” Darcy growled under her breath, hope lacing those words.

“Yes, fucking kill him, you psycho,” I urged.

Lavinia closed in on her prey, lifting Lionel up on a swirl of shadow. She raked her blackened, sharp nails down his stomach, spilling blood and making him cry out once more. His shadow hand grasped between his own legs, squeezing and squeezing while his eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth opened in a pitchy wail.

More shadows poured from Lavinia, diving down into his throat and making his body spasm and jerk beneath her tremendous power.

“You are my king,” she spat. “My Acrux king. And you will not touch any other woman but your queen. I have waited long enough for you to give me my promised heir. The last was stolen from us, but this one shall be the mightiest creature I can bring into this world. It shall be our legacy.”

She threw him to the floor and his head cracked against it with a thwack that made my heart jolt hopefully.

“End the motherfucker. Come on,” I hissed.

Lavinia floated from the room, humming an eerie, joyful tune as she dragged Lionel after her across the floor, the cuts on his chest leaving a trail of blood across the tiles as he went, his shadow hand locked tight around his other wrist at the base of his spine, immobilising him.

Lionel’s eyes fell on Darcy and I, a look of utter shame falling over him as he found us watching his downfall with rapt attention.

“Look away,” he commanded in a ferocious growl.

I didn’t and Darcy didn’t either, staring at his shame and drinking it all in.

“We see you, Lionel Acrux,” Blue said icily. “We see your weakness.”

Francesca’s body was dragged along by shadow binds too, and Lavinia stole them away through the cavernous doorway.

Lionel’s screams carried off into the palace, and Horace came scurrying back into the room with his eyes bugging out of his head. He cleared his throat, then used a blast of water magic to clean up the blood before hurrying off again and shutting the doors, muttering, “Oh my stars. Oh my fucking stars. Wait ‘til Jim hears about this.”

“Lionel’s not the power in this place anymore,” Darcy said, and I looked at her, finding so much strength in her eyes that it helped ground me in the wake of everything that had happened.

I backed up, sinking down against the wall, and cupping my head in my hands. “By the sun, Francesca, why did you have to come here?”

Darcy knelt at my side, laying a hand on my shoulder. “She loved you.”

“I know,” I whispered, guilt drowning me. “I never realised. Was I a fucking idiot?”

I glanced up at Blue and found a heavy sadness in her eyes. “Sometimes feelings are only obvious to the people experiencing them. You couldn’t have known if she didn’t want you to know.”

I nodded, releasing a long breath, and Darcy moved forward, wrapping her arms tightly around me. I leaned into her, closing my eyes and just sitting in the pain of losing my friend. Why did everyone around me keep dying?

“I’m the reason she came here,” I said, horrified by the cards that had been dealt tonight.

“She didn’t know you couldn’t leave,” Darcy said, and though I knew that was true, it didn’t make me feel any less shitty about what had happened. All the memories she’d offered me in death kept cycling through my head, and I swiped a hand down my face in despair. I didn’t want to see myself like that, through the eyes of a friend I thought I knew. But I hadn’t known her, because she’d kept this secret all those years. I would never have slept with her if I’d known. I wouldn’t have tortured her like that.

“I feel like such an asshole,” I said, and Darcy pushed her fingers into my hair, stroking soothingly.

“You didn’t know,” she repeated, but now I knew…now I fucking knew.

I turned my arm over, examining the place where the tracking spell had been hidden. Some fucking asshole must have cast them on us while we were sleeping. My bet was on that snake, Horace.

A clink sounded as my foot shifted, and I looked down beyond my foot, spotting a simple silver ring there. I leaned forward, a sense of urgency filling me as I picked it up, rolling it between my fingers, and Darcy sat back to look at it too.

“What is that?” she asked.

“It must be Francesca’s,” I said on a breath, glancing up at the open door to make sure no one was spying on us.

“Maybe she meant for you to have it,” Darcy breathed, and I nodded, turning the silver band over and feeling a weight of power humming within it. It was familiar, like the scent of a time long lost, days at Zodiac Academy working on assignments together in the library and joking together in The Orb. It was her.

“I know what this is,” I said quietly. “It’s a memory loop. Cyclopses use them to record what they see, and the memories locked within it can then be played for others to view.”

“Like a window into her mind?” Darcy asked curiously and I nodded.

“Or a window into the mind of anyone she used her gifts to see into.”

“How does it work?” Darcy asked.

In answer, I slipped it onto my pinky finger, the slim silver band only reaching the first knuckle before it lodged there. I took Darcy’s hand in mine, bringing her along with me as I drew in a breath and delved into the power locked inside that ring.

At first there was nothing but darkness, then a room seemed to open up around us, the walls pale blue and lined with doors. Each of the doors had a date embossed into the wood and as I cracked open the closest one, I spied the memories within.

“Is that an FIB raid?” Darcy asked as we peered through Francesca’s eyes while she ran beneath a half moon, ten other agents all in their official uniforms running in formation around her. I only nodded in answer to Darcy’s question as we watched the raid play out, the family of Sphinxes wrenched from sleep as the FIB agents stormed their home.

I had to fight the urge to turn away as I saw agents brutalising the man who I assumed owned the home, five of them laying into him while he screamed in pain beneath the blows of their boots. Francesca’s feelings of horror laced the memory, and we watched as she turned from the room, heading further into the house as the agents began hunting for more family members. She took the stairs two at a time, casting her awareness out from her body with her Cyclops gifts until she sensed a cluster of minds hiding in the attic above.

Francesca broke into a run, her heart thundering as she sent a wave of mental images to her partner Lyla, the agreed signal making Lyla call out to the other agents to follow her into the lower level of the house, keeping them away a little longer.

Francesca burst through a hidden door which led into the eves of the house, hiding the sound within a silencing bubble before ripping apart the concealment spells which had been cast to hide the old woman and four kids hiding there. The frail lady stepped forward, water magic coiling around her gnarled fists as she placed herself between the children and death, but Francesca raised her hands in a gesture of peace.

“You need to run,” she hissed, opening her fist to reveal a tiny pouch of stardust, just enough to transport them far from here. “Right now.” She tossed the old lady the bag of stardust, her Cyclops gifts working to wipe the memory of her face from the woman and children, just before the woman threw the stardust over their heads and they were whipped away into the safety of the stars.

Francesca let out a shaky breath, her mental gifts reaching out around her to make certain that none of the other agents had detected anything amiss, before returning to the raid as if nothing had happened. But it had. She’d saved those Sphinxes, and as Darcy and I glimpsed the memories locked behind more of the doors, we found further evidence of her rebellion against the crown.

Sometimes she had only been able to bear witness to the atrocities taking place, other times she managed to free some of the terrified Fae the FIB had been hunting. Her memories showed the insides of the Nebular Inquisition Centres and the disgusting living conditions there, alongside the barbarities taking place. She had even gone so far as to log memories of herself reading secret documents which detailed the upcoming plans of the king and where he was aiming his wrath next.

I marvelled at the risks she’d taken, her braveness overwhelming me until we reached the door holding tonight’s date.

Almost a month had passed since my deal had been made with Lavinia. Time had become so fluid here, the days merging into one another, my time spent lost between the agony of my torture and the numbness of the shadows she threaded into my veins. Such a long time, and yet not even a third of what I owed her had passed.

My heart raced as we watched Francesca preparing herself to come to The Palace of Souls, the lengths she had gone to in a bid to try and free me from this place. It hurt to see how broken she had felt over my plight, how much she had been willing to risk as well as the understanding of what it had cost her in the end, all the while knowing I was unable to cast my bonds aside and escape.

The moment when she managed to breech the walls of Lionel’s mind had a gasp parting my lips, his truth spilling out all around us as she carved his most shameful secrets from his head, the years of cunning plots and underhand tactics utterly overwhelming. He had dreamed of the throne for such a long time, manipulating and scheming to steal it for his own, and it destroyed a piece of me to know how well he had managed to execute those plans.

As the memories faded and we drew ourselves out of them, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by all of it, by my grief over losing the friend I had known since I was a kid, and my guilt for never realising what she’d felt for me.

“She didn’t die for nothing,” Darcy murmured softly, her hand curling around mine where I still wore the ring that contained so much evidence, the precious legacy of a woman who had deserved so much better than she’d received. “The memories she gathered and the truth she uncovered can be unleashed as a weapon against him, Lance. She could change everything in this war if we can get these memories out to the public.”

I nodded vaguely, feeling that dark numbness washing over me again. Stella’s magic may have driven the shadows out last time, but Lavinia had tortured me again since, and they were starting to play havoc with my soul. I fell a little deeper into them, not letting them take me away entirely, but finding a place where the sharpness of my grief was dulled.

I turned, taking Darcy’s wrist and guiding her hand to the wall where that faint mark of the Hydra was, and the stone door rolled open. Eugene squeaked in greeting, hurrying forward and brushing his little face against my hand. I held out the ring and leaned down close to him, whispering, “Keep it safe with everything else.”

Darcy took the piece of bread we’d saved him from our last meal, holding it out for him and he fell on it ravenously, eating every bite, then squeaking again and carrying the ring into the gloom beyond the passage door. He lay on a nest containing the Memoriae crystal, the opal Guild Stone and the feather- bound book, protecting them all.

A tiny little Tiberian Rat for a guard didn’t seem like much, but Eugene was powerful, and we’d find a way to get him out of here yet. Maybe then he could reach Tory and the rebels. It was a lot to hope for, but at least it was something outside of blood and torture to focus on while we were stuck here day after day.

The first month with Lavinia had almost passed. We were a third of our way through this nightmare, so I held tighter than ever to that glimmer of a possible future with Blue. And I wouldn’t be letting go.