Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

We landed on mossy ground, and I managed to keep my feet, but still bumped headfirst into Orion’s chest, a laugh rumbling through him.

He gripped my arm to steady me, eyes glittering as we shared this moment which was so similar to the first time I’d travelled by stardust.

“Watch it, Vega,” he teased, an echo of a time lost to us now.

I fell against him, grabbing Gabriel’s arm and yanking him into the fold too as we panted heavily and hugged each other tight. All the fractured pieces of my heart found a way back together after so long in imprisonment, and I didn’t even care where we were, only that we weren’t under Lavinia’s control anymore, and Lionel was far, far away.

“We did it!” I cried, sunlight bursting through my chest and making me almost choke up with it. I looked around at the foggy marsh we’d arrived at, a large stone hut standing to our right which looked long abandoned, but I lost sight of it as Orion scooped me up, spinning me around so fast it was like I was in a tornado.

When we stopped spinning, he kissed me hard, crushing his mouth to mine again and again, speaking between every touch of our mouths. “You. Phenomenal. Fucking. Girl.”

Gabriel snatched me from Orion’s grip, putting me in a headlock and scrubbing his knuckles against my hair. “You little hellion,” he laughed.

I fought to get free with a growl, but when he let me go, I just shoved his chest playfully unable to stop smiling.

“What about you two? You came bounding up that hill riding the freaking Shadow Beast,” I said, shaking my head at them and the ghostly grey shadow at my back danced around my shoulders, giving off an aura of excitement.

“Noxy’s idea.” Orion folded his arms and Gabriel chuckled.

“We didn’t have much choice considering the Nymphs were about to fucking annihilate us,” Gabriel said then grabbed Orion roughly and clapped him on the back as they embraced.

I looked between them with a dumbass grin on my face and the feeling of an eagle soaring through the centre of me, like my heart had sprouted wings and taken off.

“What is this place?” I looked around again, the fog drawing closer over the wetland.

“It just popped into my head,” Orion said. “My father used to bring me here sometimes to collect old bones. It’s the site of a long-forgotten battle, so the bones aren’t guarded. Though believe me they have sunk deep into the bog and are mostly lost.”

“You and your dad had a creepy kind of fun together, didn’t you?” I said with a teasing smirk.

“We really did,” Orion said wistfully. “We can take shelter in there for a bit.” He pointed to the hut, and I led the way into it, casting a fire in the wide hearth. Grass had sprouted between the cracks in the floor and the charred walls spoke of the war that had been fought here long ago, but it was a sanctuary for us now.

An owl hooted indignantly somewhere up in the rafters, clearly annoyed we’d come here and disturbed its nesting spot.

I used earth magic to cast a wooden sofa with a soft bed of moss to cushion it, and I dropped onto it with a sigh of relief. Orion sat beside me, but Gabriel seemed distracted by something, picking up a stick that was resting against the wall by the fireplace.

“Oooh, look at that,” he cooed, cocking his head to one side as he examined it. “That’s a real nice stick. The grain is just perfect. And look at those nodules…” He ran his fingers over them then tucked the thing into his waistband possessively before moving to sit on my other side.

“Got yourself a nice little stick, did ya?” I questioned teasingly.

“Yes, and I’m going to give it to my wife when we get back to the rebels,” he announced, puffing out his chest.

“She’ll love that, brother,” Orion said encouragingly, neither of them seeming to think Gabriel’s stick was amusing. Or cute. And it was definitely cute.

The Shadow Beast materialised, taking up the rest of the space in the hut. It laid down and folded its front paws together, panting furiously and washing hot air over us.

“You did great, boy,” I praised. “Or…girl.”

The Shadow Beast got up, heading outside and cocking a leg to pee on a tree while Orion frowned at it.

“Definitely a boy,” I said. “And he’s housetrained – yay!”

I smiled at Orion who gave me a cool look.

“You’re free now,” he said, wafting the Shadow Beast away as he padded back inside. “Off you go.”

I elbowed Orion in the ribs. “He’s staying.”

“He is not,” he insisted.

“Hush, I need to focus. I’ll try and find a way to reach our family,” Gabriel said, and we fell quiet, looking to him intently as his eyes glazed with visions. But he didn’t come back from them after several minutes, and I guessed it wasn’t going to be easy. Maybe not even possible. The rebels had to be hiding their movements well or Lionel would have found them long ago, but I trusted Gabriel to find us a path somehow.

I cast a silencing bubble around me and Orion to give Gabriel some quiet, bathing in the heat of my fire as my magic recharged, the feel of doing so after so long without having access to my power giving me a headrush. Everything about this night was impossible, and yet somehow it was real. And my mind couldn’t quite catch up with this reality we’d found our way to.

Orion slid his fingers between mine, bringing my hand to his mouth and kissing the back of it. “We really made it, Blue.”

I smiled big at him, emotion welling in my chest and nearly overwhelming me. “Now we just need to find the others.”

The Shadow Beast shuffled closer, lifting its beautiful umber eyes to mine, its bear-like face kind of adorable now that it wasn’t fixed in a snarl.

“Hey there…” I leaned forward, holding out my hand in an offering to pet it, but letting it come to me first.

“Blue,” Orion warned, but I ignored him as the beast raised its head, pressing its face to my hand in encouragement.

My heart beat a little harder as I brushed my fingers through its fur, now greyish instead of darkest black.

“You’re just a big teddy bear, aren’t you?” I said and it let out a little huff of pleasure as I scratched one of its ears.

“It’s a dangerous, bloodthirsty creature, and we should leave it here in this marsh the moment we have a route to follow,” Orion said, taking hold of my wrist to try and pull my hand away from it.

I gave him a look that could have melted iron and his jaw ticked as he held my gaze, his fingers still tight on me. “Darcy Vega-”

“Lance Orion,” I countered. “I’m keeping him, and you’re not going to tell me otherwise.”

“You’re crazy. That thing killed countless people. It almost killed Tory,” he said, shaking his head and looking to the huge animal which had caused so much bloodshed in this war. My heart tugged over the memory of Tory broken and dying beneath me, the guilt flooding into the cavity beneath my ribs and stealing my breath.

“Do you blame me for that too?” I whispered, knowing he didn’t, but this was exactly why he was a hypocrite if he believed I was innocent, but the Shadow Beast wasn’t.

“Of course not,” he said passionately. “But we don’t know this creature’s intentions. It could be working for Lavinia, feeding our location back to her this instant.”

“Then why did he help us escape?” I said fiercely. “He wouldn’t have done that if he was working for her. And when I broke the collar around his neck, I felt that connection shatter. I burned it away with my Phoenix. There’s nothing left of her taint on him.”

The animal licked my hand, giving Orion a sidelong glance that seemed to imply it understood what was going on here.

“So how do you plan to walk that thing back among the rebels? They’re going to fear it. They’ll hate it for what it did at the battle,” Orion said, and my smile dropped.

“They’ll need time to come around to him. But for now…maybe I can keep him hidden.” I thought on how I might do that then willed my earth Element to create a silver ring in my palm, getting a little carried away over being able to wield this power again and growing two beautiful black metal Shadow Beast heads either side of a large, clear gemstone which was hollow inside, with a tiny hole in the centre of it.

“Do you think you can fit in here in your smoke form?” I asked the beast and intelligence brightened his eyes.

He turned to smoke and rushed into the space I’d created for him, turning the clear gemstone grey inside. I turned to Orion triumphantly and he gave me a dry look that said he wasn’t pleased I’d just found a solution to a problem he didn’t want me to solve.

“Looks like he’s coming with us,” I said brightly.

“Joy,” Orion said sarcastically.

I shifted nearer to him and hissed as the dagger I’d slid through the material of my shorts dug into me. I tugged it free, studying it in the firelight, and scoring my thumb over the crimson garnet stone in its hilt. I wondered if my mother or father’s hand had held this dagger once, had admired this very stone that decorated it. Power seemed to vibrate within the beautiful stone, and I bit down on my lip, hope fluttering inside me.

“What do you think?” I whispered, holding it out to Orion and he raised his right arm, sensing what I was wondering. The Guild Mark on his forearm flared to life, the intricate design of the sword glittering beneath his skin, all of the zodiac constellations shining along it like starlight.

“Garnet for Capricorn,” he announced with a smile, then he took the blade, placing it down on the wall beside him and tugging me closer by the thigh, hooking my knee over his legs. “Now let me look at you.”

He captured my chin, angling my face up towards his as he gazed deep into my eyes, studying them with an air of euphoria about him. I didn’t have to ask to know that he was looking at my Elysian rings, and I bathed in the feeling of bliss expanding from him. He was bloody from battle, clothes torn and muscles still tight from fighting, looking like a warrior from some old folklore, woven into existence and given life.

But he wasn’t a knight with deeds of virtue to his name. He was my devoted, ruthless Vampire. And he was finally safe. Free at last.