Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

The clink of chains and a bite of cold metal brought my awareness into keen focus, the sleep spell tugged from my mind violently enough to make me snarl.

My eyes snapped open, and I found Stella walking away from me in a stone chamber I didn’t recognise, nothing but a huge, cylindrical glass tank of blood standing in the centre of the darkened room. The tank stood in an intricate silver base which formed two bird-like talons that grasped the sides of it, a tarnish to it that made me think it had to be old.

I was chained to an upright metal rack, my arms yanked tight above me, and my ankles tethered too.

My pulse thumped a dark tune in my ears and I glanced to my right, finding Darcy there on a rack of her own, her head hanging forward as she remained asleep, her hair inky and swirling about her as the shadows hugged her body, slithering like a python around her form.

I yanked at the chains holding me in place, sensing I still had access to my Order form, but they were made of sun steel, and I couldn’t break through them despite my strength.

“What is this?” I rasped at Stella, my heart starting a war in my chest, battle cries spilling through the centre of my being.

My mother moved towards Darcy and panic sharpened inside me, a bane of terror binding my limbs.

“Get the fuck away from her,” I snapped, the animal in me rising as my pulse drummed even louder inside my head. I couldn’t control anything in this situation, I couldn’t protect my mate, and it was driving me mad with fear for her already.

Stella lifted a hand in the direction of a table where a steaming cauldron lay beside a range of bottles and a curved silver dagger shaped like a Vampire fang. She cast air, and the blade shot into her grip, her fingers winding tightly around it. There was something about that blade which called to my Order, my fangs prickling and my instincts flaring.

“Don’t touch her!” I roared, terror making it impossible to breathe as that bitch raised a weapon toward Blue. “You stay the fuck away from her or I’ll make you pay. I’ll rip every organ from your worthless body and keep you alive until I claim the last one.”

“Royal blood is so very powerful,” Stella whispered, ignoring me entirely and carving a long slit down Darcy’s forearm where it was bound in place above her.

“No!” I yelled, jerking harder against my restraints.

Stella lifted another hand, summoning a vial to her from the table and capturing every drop of Darcy’s blood inside it before turning towards the tank. My girl didn’t stir, and I spat insults at Stella who continued to act as if she couldn’t hear me.

My mother cast air beneath her feet, rising up to look down into the huge vessel of blood, pouring the contents of the vial into its depths, and the blood sizzled and hissed with some unknown magic. The air grew somehow colder, my breath rising before me in a cloud of vapour as that magic took root in this chamber. It was dark, forbidden, and cut to the root of me and my Order. It was an ancient, intangible power that seemed to whisper death through the heart of me.

“It’s taken me such a long time to gather this blood, Lance,” my mother said solemnly. “I would have done this sooner if I could have.”

Stella let the black robe slip from her body, her naked back to me before she lowered herself slowly into the tank with her magic, making the deep, red liquid swirl within the glass container.

“The blood of a hundred sinning Fae,” she purred, her fangs glinting before she was submerged completely.

“Blue,” I called to Darcy, my muscles straining as I tried harder to get free. “Wake up!”

She didn’t rouse, still captured in Stella’s magic, and I cursed, thrashing against the chains to no avail.

Stella eventually emerged from the blood, rising out of it with her head tipped back, a groan of delight leaving her as she swallowed a mouthful of it, crimson pouring down every inch of her body and dripping from her feet as she hung suspended above it by her air magic.

She lowered herself down to the floor, drenched in the blood of a hundred Fae as she fixed her gaze on me. Magic crackled around her in the air and my heart beat with a fury that would surely equal its end.

My mother raised a hand, flicking a finger at the table, picking up a vial with her air Element and sinking it into the potion. She filled it to the brim before carrying it towards me on a breeze, the liquid deepest magenta and glittering with whatever power was imbued within it.

Stella shot towards me in a blur, her other hand rising to clasp my chin and force my head back.

“Drink,” she commanded, and I locked my lips tight together, trying to keep this from happening through sheer force of will. But without my magic or freedom from these chains, I had no chance of stopping her.

She peeled my jaws apart with her gifted strength, the potion tipping directly into my mouth and making me choke as I tried to stop myself from swallowing. But Stella snapped my mouth shut and pinched my nose, making my reflexes kick in so I had to swallow. It burned along my insides and left an acrid taste on my tongue like decay and certain death.

“Fuck. You,” I panted as she released me.

She gazed at me woefully through the blood staining her face. “It’s the only way.”

“The only way for what?” I demanded.

She cast the vial away from us and let it smash against the wall before shifting closer to me.

“Long ago, our kind ruled the world,” she breathed. “Blood holds untold power, Lance. But these powers cannot be fully unlocked unless we embrace the Vampire ways of our ancestors.”

“Get your filthy fucking hand off of me,” I hissed, but a sudden rush of hunger hit me, and I jolted as the power of the potion kicked in, the burning in my throat building and building. My thoughts began to scatter, and my eyes sharpened, seeing one thing before me and one thing only. Blood.

“Here, baby.” Stella raised her wrist, offering it to my mouth and my fangs snapped out.

Some voice in the back of my head told me not to do it, but the potion had hollowed out my insides and I was so very, very hungry. The scent of blood drove me to insanity, and I lost what little restraint I had left to the magic in that concoction, rearing forward and sinking my fangs into her wrist.

“Yes,” she gasped, reaching up to clasp the back of my neck while her blood rushed into my mouth, and I swallowed greedily.

I could taste the blood on her skin too like it was somehow a part of her now, and I tasted my mate’s blood among it all, that heady mixture of sunshine and fire rolling through me.

I could feel myself reaching the point of fullness, my magic reserves swelling and giving me an unwanted high. But as I tried to retract my fangs, I couldn’t do so, forced to keep feeding while Stella took my other arm in her grip and suddenly drove her own fangs into my wrist.

No!

I roared inside my head, trying to stop, knowing what this would lead to. It went against everything the Vampire Code taught me, and more than that, I had done it before. Bound myself to Caleb Altair and formed a coven with him, a coven Stella was now on the path to binding herself to as well.

I desperately tried to pull free of her skin, but I kept feeding despite my own internal demands, and Stella drank from me in turn. We were forming a circle, exchanging something vital between us, and with it, I could feel her magic flowing into me, and mine flowing right back into her.

Power built between us like a living, writhing creature that howled and begged for more. I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t break away as this wicked fate fell upon me like a dagger in my soul.

The bond was forming, my rivalry with her lessening, slipping away further and further until I was free of it entirely. But it didn’t make me love her, no power on earth could do that. If it was her intention to try and form some connection with me, then fuck her. I would never embrace her as I had Caleb.

The magic echoed in my chest with a finality that promised it could never be broken, and Stella tugged her wrist away from my mouth, releasing me from her fangs in the same moment.

“Why?” I begged of her. “You had no right,” I gritted out as she smiled at me sadly.

“I love you so much,” she said, her eyes watery. “Trust me, baby, it’s for your own good.”

She pressed a palm to the bare skin over my heart, marking a bloody handprint there and feeling the furious pounding of the muscle beneath my ribs.

“Nothing you’ve ever done has been for my own good,” I said heavily, my mind sifting through every sin she had committed against me and the people I loved.

“Wake,” she commanded, turning to Darcy, and retracting the sleep spell from her at last.

“Lance?” Darcy gasped, looking for me, her eyes widening as she took in the bloody, naked form of my mother, then she turned to me and faced whatever heartbreak she could see in my eyes. “What has she done to you?”

“Coven bonded us,” I spat.

“What?” Darcy’s expression twisted in horror, vengeance shifting across her features as her gaze moved to my mother.

Stella retreated, moving towards my mate and I was glad this coven connection didn’t have any effect on how fiercely I wished to protect Darcy against my mother’s advance.

“Move. Back,” I commanded, but Stella continued to gaze up at Darcy, sucking a line of blood from her own lips.

“A lover’s promise made in solemn silence,” my mother murmured to herself like she was reciting some instructions, then she cast a silencing bubble around herself and Darcy so I couldn’t hear her next words, a curse leaving me in anger.

Darcy’s eyes widened and her gaze flicked my way, some knowledge flashing in her expression that sent a wave of terror through me. What the fuck was Stella saying to her?

“Don’t listen to her,” I called. “She’s a liar, a fucking manipulator. Anything that comes out of her mouth is dirt.”

Stella gripped Darcy’s face, forcing her to look back at her, her mouth moving but an illusion fluttering over it kept me from reading the movements of her lips.

I snarled again, tugging forcefully on the chains holding me down and swear words spewed from my tongue, all aimed at the bitch who had brought me into this world.

Stella dropped the silencing bubble at last and suddenly released Darcy from her chains.

“What did she say to you?” I cried, but Darcy didn’t look at me, her lips pressed tight together and a decision weighting her gaze.

My girl nodded to Stella and my mother smiled, her shoulders dropping in relief as they seemed to make some agreement between them.

“Stop,” I begged, dread racing through me as Stella drew Darcy towards the tank of blood. “Don’t do anything she says, Blue. Whatever she’s promised you, she’s lying.”

Darcy glanced back at me, a burning fear shining in her eyes before Stella raised her skyward with air magic and starting lowering her into the pool of blood.

“I love you,” Darcy breathed, and I shook my head in refusal of this situation as she sank into the murky depths of darkest red.

“Blue!”

Stella shot up into the air, releasing a noise of satisfaction and using her earth Element to cast a silver lid over the tank, fusing it shut.

“No!” I cried, my pulse hammering, panic spewing.

There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t get free. Couldn’t get to my Elysian Mate as she drowned in that vessel of death.

“I’ll do anything, Stella – anything you want! Just let her go, don’t hurt her. Please don’t hurt her.”

Stella moved to stand on top of the sealed tank as Darcy made it to the edge of the glass, her hands pressing to it and her eyes sparking with alarm. She started bashing her fist against the glass and my mind snapped, sinking into a dark place where only barbarity existed.

The Death bond began to rise, my heart ricocheting off the walls of my chest, thump, thump, thumping its way towards annihilation. Her death equalled mine because of the deal I’d made with Lavinia, and Darcy was closing in on it, her fists bashing harder against the glass and shadows spilling from her skin, driving against the tank too. But it didn’t even crack. She was locked in there and Stella’s expression told me she was not going to let her out.

I thrashed with all the power in my body, veins straining along the lines of my muscles, the metal not giving even a little.

“Death will release you,” my mother whispered, eyes on me, full of love and I bellowed in anguish.

My Elysian Mate bond was far stronger than any coven. It was built from the magic of the heavens, woven from starlight and the unending, destructive power of love. I would kill Stella for this. I would crush her soul in my fist and turn it to dust before it could slip away beyond the Veil. She would not pass on. I would not allow it.

Stella swept towards me on a gust of air, slicing her palm open and slamming it against my right hand with ancient words streaming from her lips.

“Matrem consanguinitate religatam et ultra. Filii mei vinculis mortis suscipio,” she whispered.

Magic crashed against me, binding with the terror of losing my mate and setting the Death bond working faster. It was burning through my flesh, tearing a line from my soul right to that place where my palm connected with my mother’s.

“I am his blood, his kin, his coven!” She tipped her head back, the words pouring from her into the air and tainting the chamber with an almighty power. “Eius vinculum meum est!”

A sound like thunder tore through the air and all at once, the room went dark. I was certain death had come for me as Stella’s brutal magic took me hostage, and I called out for Blue in my final moments on this plane, but no reply came.

“Ab ipso peto nunc et semper – his bond is mine,” Stella panted, and a flash of red light exploded between our palms, throwing her away from me as power poured from my body into hers.

It was so forceful that it shattered the glass tank and Darcy was washed out of it on a tide of blood. She coughed and spluttered, pushing to her hands and knees and a desperate relief ran over me at finding her alive.

Stella caught herself with air magic before she could hit the floor, rising above me as her entire body began to glow with the crimson light of the Death bond. But it was no longer tied to me, that almighty, wicked power impossibly absent from my body. And somehow, in my bones, I knew that Stella had taken it from me and bound it to herself instead, but I couldn’t fathom why she’d do such a thing.

She lifted a hand, tears running down her cheeks and carving lines through the blood staining her face. She flicked her fingers and brought the fang-like dagger flying towards her across the room, catching it in her grip.

“Why?” I gasped as she angled it towards her own heart.

“Because I am your mother. And I love you more than life itself,” she exhaled then drove the dagger into her chest, a scream leaving her as she used the strength of her Order to carve her heart from the cavity of her ribs and yanked it out of her own body, skewered on the blade as she held it before her.

A single moment of life remained in her eyes, and she offered that moment to me, her fingers flicking so the chains released me from the rack, and I fell to the floor.

In the next second, she was dead, collapsing in the pool of blood, her body broken and the bloody knife sitting upright beside her where it was sunk deep into a still-twitching heart.

Darcy scrambled to my side, wrapping her arms around me and I knelt there in shock, unsure what to think, what to do. My heart hurt in a way I would never have expected from witnessing my mother’s demise, and I didn’t know if it was the coven bond she’d forced on me or some long lost love for her stirring in my bones. Deep down, I knew coven bonds couldn’t forge feelings as powerful as these, and I hated the way my emotions fragmented and confusion rattled my mind. I felt the collar of shadow dissolve around my throat, liberating me from the Shadow Princess’s control once and for all. My mother’s sacrifice had freed me.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said. “I had to. She said the Death bond had to be heightened for the spell to work, on the verges of killing you. She promised she’d save you, and that it was best you truly feared you were going to lose me. I just had to take the chance because as much as I hate her, I’ve seen her love for you over these past weeks, Lance, and I trusted the depths of it in the end. She said we’ll have a chance to run tonight because Lionel is at the Court of Solaria with his Dragon Guild.”

I managed to look at her, a lump in my throat burning deep, but the words on my lips fizzled out of existence as I found her silver rings glinting at me from green, green eyes.

“Darcy,” I gasped, looking down at her body, no sign of the shadows clinging to her at all. She was naked, drenched in blood, but wholly Fae.

But then she screamed a horrible fucking scream, clutching her chest and crumpling beneath me. The shadows rushed out of her skin, snaring her limbs and she arched against the bloodied floor, not seeming to see me at all as some terrible pain took hold of her.

Her screams were all I could hear, her agony the only thing in existence. And I was helpless to stop it.