Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

My arms shook with the power that was pouring out of me, feeding the sphere of Phoenix fire I had Lavinia trapped inside. Every direction was covered this time so she couldn’t escape, and as she threw herself at the flames with screams of pain, I let the spell spill from my flesh into the air.

My burning wings beat at my back as I gazed down at my prey from above, the heat emanating from me making the air shimmer. The palace beyond me was lit up by my flames, its towering walls coloured in red and blue light.

“Adiuro te. Fores claudo. Adiuro te. Fores claudo,” I chanted the words I’d memorised from the feather-bound book Orion and I had discovered, power snapping through the atmosphere and making Lavinia lament. “I bind you. I close the doors!”

I tugged the ice crystal from the pouch on my wrist which contained Stella’s blood, adrenaline setting my pulse skipping.

The Nymphs were far enough away from me that their rattles couldn’t reach me here to steal my magic, and I cast a gust of air in my hand, carrying the crystal upon it and guiding it along to hover above the sphere of Phoenix fire where I held Lavinia captive. I urged the flames to part, just enough to let the crystal through and dropped it down towards the shadow bitch, letting my fire melt it as it fell so the burning hot blood splashed over her.

“Ahhhh!” she cried in agony and a twisted pleasure ran through me from the sound. She had tortured Orion, and I was more than willing to return the favour, to watch my flames eat away at her body so slowly that she felt every bite.

Her hand shot out through the hole I’d made in the flames, and I willed the fire to close, her fingers flexing and shadows dancing in her palm, but my Order gifts snuffed them out and she yanked her hand back with a wail.

“Adiuro te. Fores claudo. Adiuro te. Fores claudo,” I spoke faster, the power building around me, sending my blue hair dancing in the wind.

The magic tearing from my body was colossal, the atmosphere droning with the energy that swept out of me. I was containing almost the entirety of the shadows in that single sphere of fire, burning away her access to them, scraping them from her soul and casting them back into the shadow realm where she could never reach them again. It was a force like no other, the flames so hot they rivalled the molten core of the earth, melting the ground to a pit.

The spell suddenly locked in place, binding to the entirety of who she was. The wind fell still, and a weighted breath left my lungs, the entire universe seeming to hush in the face of this power.

“No,” she sobbed, and a rush of victory flooded through me.

She could no longer summon any shadow outside of those I’d trapped in her body. She was weakened so deeply that she should be killable. And killable creatures could burn.

The sound of Nymphs screaming in the distance echoed out of the woodland, their pain the pain of Lavinia. But there was another sound among their cries too, shrieks that almost sounded joyful, but I didn’t know why.

I flew a little nearer to Lavinia, closing the fire around her and hearing the sweet sizzle of skin burning in my flames. She might not have been mortal, but the spell should have slowed her ability to heal, and certainly rejuvenate. Then the magic of my Phoenix would be enough to finish her, and I revelled in the opportunity.

A Dragon’s roar sounded off in the distance and my spine prickled, but I didn’t turn my gaze from Lavinia in my trap. Nothing would turn my focus from this task. Her death was mine; I’d declared it so and was making good on that vow at last. She would pay for what she’d done with every drop of pain I could wring from her flesh.

I was so close, I had her, and I wasn’t letting go this time. Fire flared so hot from my skin that the grass was withering on the bank and my power was making the air ring like the tolling bells of destruction.

“Darcy!” Orion’s voice broke through the dark cloud of vengeance in my head.

I turned to find the Shadow Beast bounding up the hill with Orion and Gabriel on its back, and my lips parted in surprise.

I gasped as Tharix came tearing along behind them in Dragon form, his jaws spread wide and shadows flourishing from his mouth. I raised a hand in defiance, protectiveness charging the fiery atoms in my blood as I created the form of a Phoenix bird from my flames, sending it away from me. It flew with a heartfelt cry leaving its beak, soaring over the Shadow Beast, and aiming for Tharix.

The bird collided with the shadows pouring from the dragon’s mouth, guttering them before they could sweep down on Orion and Gabriel, and giving them a chance to get to me while I worked to keep Lavinia trapped inside my sphere of power.

Tharix bellowed to the sky, turning to evade the flames I sent chasing after him, keeping him at bay for as long as I could. But as he climbed into the sky, he wheeled over the tips of my fire and came for us once again.

Shadows poured from his mouth and I swore, willing flames out everywhere to stop them. I cast a shield of Phoenix fire above the Shadow Beast to keep Orion and Gabriel safe as the beast carried them to where I hovered in the air.

A line of shadow shot through the sky, and I shielded myself, realising too late that the attack wasn’t meant for me. The plume of darkness crashed into the sphere of fire holding Lavinia and I turned my attention back to it in desperation, trying to hold it in place under Tharix’s strike. But the shadows managed to carve a hole in my flames and Tharix swept down from above, scooping Lavinia’s smouldering body out of it with his talons and taking off into the sky.

“No!” I screamed, sending my flames after them, giving all of my passion and hatred to the cast.

I extinguished every other fire burning around me, sending all my power into forming a giant Phoenix bird that was ready to rain death down on their heads, but Tharix was climbing ever higher, fleeing as fast as he could to save his heinous mother. He was getting away and my teeth bared, my wings stretching out as I climbed higher, planning to go after them myself.

“Darcy!” Gabriel cried, and I turned towards him with my heart in my throat. “We have to go. The fates are turning against us. None of us will survive this night if we don’t leave this instant.”

My soul cracked at that reality, and I glanced back in the direction Tharix had taken, his dark scales lost among the sky. My flaming Phoenix bird circled above, hunting for him, but finding no trail to follow.

I had to go after them, had to finish off the monster who had tortured my mate and forced me to watch.

“You go,” I called to them, and Orion’s eyes darkened in refusal of that.

Gabriel shook his head, telling me that he wasn’t going to leave either, and the terrifying possibility of their deaths stared back at me. If I stayed, they would stay. And my brother’s prediction would come true. I couldn’t allow that, and as unbearable as it was to turn away from this fight, I knew I had to. There was a chance for escape here, and they needed that more than they needed avenging.

A shriek made my eyes whip to the trees, finding the Nymphs coming at us fast, though many of them were slowing in their battle charge and blinking heavily. I frowned in confusion as I realised shadows were lifting from their bodies, coiling up and away into nothing in the sky, a heavy spell seeming to snap and shatter.

Those very same Nymphs turned on their brethren, probes stabbing, yowls of purest hatred leaving them, and a brawl braking out that shook the hillside.

I landed in front of my brother, and the Shadow Beast roared excitedly, sprinting towards the palace.

“What’s happening?” I glanced back at the Nymphs and Orion called out in answer.

“Whatever you did to Lavinia, it must have caused this,” he said.

“Some of them were under her control unwillingly,” I breathed in realisation, thinking of Diego and how he’d had to use his hat to fight the will of the shadows. “My spell must have broken her power over them.” A phrase from the prophecy circled in my head and I wondered if this could be its meaning. Free the enslaved.

“The Dragons are here,” Gabriel gasped, his grip tightening on my waist. “Go!”

A glimmer caught my eye, and I spotted the dagger Lavinia had taken possession of, laying in the smouldering pit where I’d had her trapped. I used a whip of air to bring it to my hand, my thumb brushing the crimson garnet gemstone in its hilt as I tucked it into my waistband, cutting a hole in my shorts so the blade stuck through.

“Get to the perimeter, turn the Shadow Beast around,” Orion demanded.

“There’s no time,” I said decisively, a plan firmly in mind as the Shadow Beast charged towards the palace where two ornate silver doors stood.

They flew open for us without me having to cast a single drop of magic, and the moment we made it inside, they slammed shut behind us and locked tight.

We charged down the hallways and the shutters over the windows began whipping closed, blocking out the light and locking themselves down to keep our enemies at bay. The palace was groaning, the echo of doors, shutters and windows closing all around the entirety of the building, and the magic in this place fizzled deep into my veins.

Gabriel held onto me as I tugged on the Shadow Beast’s fur to guide it through the halls, taking the quickest passage I could think of through the palace towards Lionel’s bedchamber.

As we left the rattles of the Nymphs behind, I glanced back to find Gabriel and Orion healing the last of their injuries away and Gabriel’s wing cracked as it snapped back into position, making my heart flinch as it did so. My brother offered me a flood of healing magic next, seeking out any injury that might lay on my skin, though I was too high on adrenaline to be sure if there were any at all. I thanked him, squeezing his hand, determination filling me at getting him and Orion out of here.

“You have a plan, right?” Orion called.

“She’s got a good one,” Gabriel replied, clearly seeing the path I was on.

A clamour of Dragon roars sounded beyond the building, setting my nerves on edge at how close they were already. We hurried up a silver carpeted stairway and as we reached the landing, a flash of green scales beyond the vast window ahead made me cast an air shield around us. I got it in place half a second before Lionel’s sharp green talons slammed into the glass, sending jagged shards raining down everywhere, tearing the curtains to shreds and bouncing off of my shield.

The palace shutters slammed shut before he could get inside, and I threw out a hand, casting vines to keep them closed while Orion and Gabriel froze the rest of the shutters along the hall.

We veered around, taking the stairs onto another landing and urging the Shadow Beast on. We ran past another wall of windows, and a beady green dragon eye stared in at us, chasing after us and swinging its enormous head against the glass. It broke into a thousand lethal shards and Dragon fire bloomed from Lionel’s jaws.

I raised my hands to attack him, but the palace shutters slammed in his face before I could and all three of us sprayed water over them before turning them to solid ice to put out the flames.

The Shadow Beast skidded as I tugged on its fur to urge it down another hall, the doors to Lionel’s quarters just up ahead, the doorknobs changed for golden Dragon heads. My upper lip curled back at the tacky, egotistical decorations he’d brought into my family home.

The palace opened the doors wide for us and the Shadow Beast was moving so fast that it crashed into Lionel’s four poster bed, the wood breaking as we all went tumbling from the animal’s back. I threw out air magic to toss the debris away from us and cushion our fall, scrambling upright as my heart beat furiously against my ribs.

I ripped open Lionel’s drawers, searching for what we needed in frantic movements, tearing the place apart to find it.

“Stardust,” I called to the others and Orion nodded, shooting around the room with his speed and throwing every drawer out until he stopped before me with a pouch in his hand and a grin on his lips.

“Why didn’t you say so sooner, beautiful?”

I cracked a laugh, but it was lost as Lionel collided with the side of the building, his talons tearing through the stone wall as the whole structure shuddered.

I raised my hands, casting an air shield in place to stop the bricks from falling and throwing my power into sealing every hole he carved into the place. This was mine and Tory’s home, and I wasn’t going to let him destroy it. The damage wasn’t permanent, it could be fixed, at least that was what I kept telling myself.

More Dragons were throwing themselves against the walls to try and gain entry, and one glimpse out the window showed Lionel’s servants and prisoners alike being tossed out of windows here, there and everywhere by the magic of the palace. The prisoners ran for their lives, some of them pausing long enough to fight Lionel’s followers while others simply raced for freedom.

“Here!” Gabriel called, and I turned, finding him pointing to the wall. “There’s a hidden passage, it will lead us to the roof,” he said, a lock of raven hair fluttering into his eyes. “We have a chance to get to the wards above. But we have to go now.”

I ran with Orion hot on my heels, opening the passage Gabriel had seen there and looking back at the Shadow Beast.

“Come on, beastie. Do the smoke thing.” I looked at the huge creature sitting on the wreckage of Lionel’s bed, chewing its way through Lionel’s expensive suits from a toppled wardrobe.

The beast grunted happily, turning to shadow, and Orion and I ran after my brother into the passage with its ghostly form chasing after us.

We followed Gabriel up a tight stairwell and as he made it to a hatch in the ceiling above us, he swung it wide, letting a violent wind into the passage. A huge, snarling green Dragon face loomed down, blotting out the moonlight, and Gabriel released a blast of water so great that it sent Lionel spinning away from us like a lizard caught in a spin cycle. It covered him all over and Gabriel turned it to ice in the next breath, making Lionel’s wings freeze too so he started tumbling from the sky like a dead weight, his roar trapped in his throat.

He hit the ground hard, the ice smashing around him as he fought to get up, crying out to the other Dragons as they swept forward to avenge him.

“Fly!” I yelled.

Gabriel took hold of Orion and took off, racing for the moon while I flew after them, higher and higher as we sought to break through the wards. My gaze lowered to the fleeing rebels far below, Nymphs and Dragons moving to try and intercept them as mayhem broke out.

I cast a silver blade in my hand, slitting my palm open and sending the blood away from me on a tempestuous wind. I sent it to every entrance to the secret passages in the grounds that I knew existed, and the palace answered my plea, opening the doors for the fleeing rebels, only to snap shut in the faces of their enemies.

An elated laugh left me, though it wasn’t over yet as a hoard of Dragons turned our way, flying hard in a frantic bid to catch us.

The wind made my eyes water, and I raised my hand above me, desperate to feel the kiss of the wards, Phoenix fire licking my fingertips in case we met any kind of resistance.

Magic tingled in my hands, the kind that was steeped in power, but wasn’t a match for my Order. I tore through the wards with a boom that splintered through the sky and Orion tossed the stardust over our heads thinking of fuck knew where, as Lionel roared in utter fury below us.

Just before the stars stole us away, I saw the palace locking itself up tight once and for all and I cast a flaming Phoenix bird out of my fire, sending it out to fly above the palace, singing our victory and perching on the roof in a mark of defiance.

Then all went dark, and I was lost to a galaxy of swirling light, feeling the souls of my brother and mate hugging close to me on either side.