Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

I sprinted down the path towards Ignis House where explosions of fire were bursting from the shattered glass windows as the students gifted with that Element fought against another one of the monsters somewhere within.

Darius ran a few paces behind me, his footsteps shadowing mine just like they had so often when we’d run along this exact path in the past. Though we’d never sprinted down it while blood-drenched, gripping weapons in our fists and hungering for death before.

My whole body was alight with need for it, my pulse seeming to beat purely towards the next swing of my blade, an opportunity to draw blood or to colour the air with screams.

A flash of fire blasted from a window high above us, the glass building rattling from a fight taking place inside. I shot a grin at Darius before leaping skyward and flying straight for it.

My husband growled as I left him behind, sprinting for the main doors rather than shifting and shredding through his clothes – no doubt because his big scaley Dragon form had zero chance of fitting through that hole anyway, and I guessed he didn’t want to end up fighting naked.

Heat flared across my skin as I sped towards the opening the broken window created, and I threw air magic out around myself, banishing my wings at the last moment. My boots hit the floor in the common room, and I skidded on the broken glass that littered it, taking in the scene before me.

Fire flared from all around the circular space, the students gathered there launching it at the monstrous creature in the midst of them.

The thing shrieked as it lunged for a guy I recognised as a senior across the room, and he threw a wave of fire at it with a cry of fear.

The beast didn’t so much as flinch, lunging through the flames which licked harmlessly along its alabaster flesh and diving on its prey with a victorious shriek.

Screams sounded through the room as its serrated mouth latched onto the guy’s chest and I broke into a run, swinging my blade with a battle cry.

The monster had a long body with eight spindly legs that bent back on themselves at the knees, like a cross between some kind of larva and a spider, but five times as mean.

My boot landed on its thick tail, and I ran straight up its spine, my sword swinging in a vicious arc before I plunged it straight down through its back, hoping to strike lucky and hit a vital organ.

“Tory?” Milton Hubert’s voice took me by surprise, and I looked up from my position on the monster’s back.

The creature bucked beneath me, releasing the guy it had been eating and sending him crashing into the wall with a wet crack. He groaned in agony and some of the other students ran to help him while I played rodeo with the vicious creature, trying to keep its attention away from them.

I lost sight of Milton as I fought to keep hold of my sword, and the beast reared up, swinging towards me. Its body coiled back on itself, that pit of endless teeth seeking to devour me, and I was forced to jump away as those gnashing jaws snapped at my face.

I hit the ground and rolled across the broken debris of the common room, bits of chairs and tables digging into me, before I leapt to my feet and created a spear out of earth magic.

“You saw our livestreams?” Milton panted as I found him beside me, a cracked Atlas strapped to his chest and blood staining his clothes.

“I had a call with Geraldine. She said we were needed,” I replied with a shrug before hurling the spear, watching it fly true and pierce the flesh of the beast before us.

That mostly seemed to piss the thing off, and I threw an air shield out in front of us as it turned and ran our way.

Students screamed, sprinting towards us and diving behind the protection of my shield. I dug my heels in and grunted at the impact of the monster’s body colliding with it.

“Fire doesn’t hurt it. We’ve been fighting and fighting, but there are hardly any of us with more than one Element, and it knows exactly who it’s searching for,” Milton breathed fearfully.

“You were rebelling?” I asked, and he nodded proudly, his hand tightening around the fingers of the girl beyond him and I recognised Bernice with a jolt of surprise.

“This isn’t your House,” I blurted, and she looked to Milton with a hint of a smile.

“I was staying the night. But since that thing showed up, we’ve just been trying to survive. But fire only seems to enrage it, and my water doesn’t do much either and the K.U.N.T.s have barred the exit-”

“Well, that would explain what’s keeping Dari-”

The doors at the far side of the common room burst open and flames erupted all around the huge figure who strode across the threshold, his arrogant swagger knowing no bounds as he casually swung his axe in one fist, his dark gaze seeking me out among the chaos with ease.

“Holy shit, I heard he was dead,” Milton gasped in alarm.

I flexed my fingers and tightened my hold on my air magic before wrapping the monster in it, hurling the thing across the room towards my husband.

“He was,” I admitted, a laugh breaking from me as I broke into a run, slipping through my air shield before letting it close at my back where the Ignis students were clamouring to take shelter.

Two more spears formed in my hands and Darius swung his axe with deadly abandon, severing one of the thing’s legs so it toppled to one side.

I hurled my spears at the monster, the need for death pounding through me as blood splattered the walls. Darius severed another leg while the monster thrashed violently.

“Fire doesn’t-” I began but Darius realised that for himself as he hurled a blast of flames at it and the monster leapt straight through them, tackling him to the ground.

I sprang onto the creature’s back again, grabbing the hilt of my sword and ripping it free while Darius fought and punched it from beneath.

The beast bucked and I was almost knocked off, but I managed to grab onto its flubbery hide, keeping my position on its back as I raised my hand and formed a battalion of razor-sharp icicles in the air all around us.

With a swipe of my hand, the icicles shot for the beast, bypassing me and Darius and burying themselves in its flesh with brutal efficiency.

The monster shrieked in agony as my attack finally found something vital and Darius managed to roll out from beneath it as it reared up once more.

I dove away as it tried to snap at me, and the moment its sinewy neck was extended, Darius swung his axe up and over his head before cleaving right through it.

Blood splashed the walls and I scrambled away from the decapitated body, the high of the kill leaving me bouncing on the balls of my feet.

“More,” I gasped as Darius stalked towards me, the dark look in his eyes saying he wanted to devour me, and the entire world could follow right along after us.

The Ignis students were cheering, sobbing and calling out their eternal thanks to us, but I couldn’t look away from the dark soul who was a perfect mirror to my own, my need for him all consuming and our love for one another a force destructive enough to defy death itself.

The twin hammering of our hearts made a tremor run through the core of me, but before he could close that distance, a scream caught my attention from outside in the grounds.

I snapped around so fast that I almost lost my footing, my gaze instantly locking on the distant figure in The Howling Meadow who soared above another two of the gruesome monsters which had been sent to attack the rebels within this school. She was fully shifted, fire coating her body as her Phoenix lit up the sky like a beacon of hope for everyone who could see it.

“Darcy,” I gasped in astonishment, my brain struggling to catch up to the truth of what I was seeing as my sister threw her hands out and blasted the monster beneath her with a flash of water magic so powerful that I felt the aftershocks of it carrying through the space dividing us.

Darius appeared at my side, his blood-slicked fingers tightening around mine for half a heartbeat before he released me.

“Go,” he commanded, and I met his eyes for an all too brief moment, before breaking into a run and diving headfirst out of the shattered window.

My wings burst from my back the second I had room for them, and I let the fire swallow me, fully shifting into my Order form and racing across campus to join with her, to reunite at last. My other half. My eternal love.

The sun was brightening the sky overhead as it made its way closer to cresting the horizon, but its light paled in comparison to the two Phoenixes who dominated the heavens, the stars fading to irrelevance beyond us as all eyes turned our way.

“The true Queens herald the coming morn!” Geraldine cried so loudly that the entire campus could hear her magically enhanced voice, a cheer going up from all around.

I flew towards the battle raging between our friends and the two monsters that bellowed and roiled between them, magic crackling at my fingertips. They were all there, Geraldine, the Heirs, Xavier, Sofia and Tyler, even Orion and Gabriel too. Our family reunited at last. I didn’t know how it was possible that that they’d escaped, that Darcy’s power and Order had returned, and Orion somehow still lived, but I didn’t care, it only mattered that they were here and we were reunited at last.

Before I could release the magic I’d gathered, a glimmer of light drew my gaze and I looked up as if a ghostly hand had caught my chin and forced my head to rise.

In the distance, just beyond the academy fence, the landscape crawled with movement, monsters like the ones below us lumbering closer in terrifying numbers.

“Darcy!” I yelled, drawing her attention just as she unleashed a fistful of ice onto the monsters beneath us and the closest one screamed in pain.

“Tor!” she gasped, beating her wings hard as she flew towards me, our reunion bringing a smile of purest joy to her fire-kissed features.

I pointed beyond her as she approached, drawing her attention to Lionel’s latest weapons which were racing closer with every moment.

“Holy shit,” she murmured, and the sounds of battle from below seemed to fade as I felt the weight of destiny drawing in on us.

The stars glimmered brighter in the sky as if they’d found some surge of confidence once more and were looking forward to seeing this fate come to pass.

“Lionel is going to let those things kill every student in the academy in an attempt to take us out,” I growled, seeing that scaley bastard’s cowardly tactics for precisely what they were. No doubt he’d been hoping for this when he attacked this place, striking at Fae we knew personally and allowing those broadcasts to go out into the world to lure us here. It was a trap. But it wasn’t going to work.

“We should form a solid unit, attack them as one,” Darcy began but I shook my head.

“It won’t work. We need something more powerful. We need to unite our magic against them,” I said firmly, countless spells and incantations from the books on ether and dark magic surging through my mind.

“You want to power share?” Darcy asked, offering her hand instantly.

“We need to do more than that,” I replied darkly, drawing a dagger from my belt before meeting her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“Always,” she replied without hesitation, and we shared a grim look before I took hold of her hand and began to carve a mark into her palm.

Darcy hissed at the bite of the cut, but didn’t try to stop me as I carved the jagged S shape of Eihwaz into her skin, the rune for defence and protection. Next, I cut my own palm open, marking a bloody sideways W onto my flesh. Sowulo for victory.

“Don’t hold back,” I said firmly.

I took her hand in mine, our blood merging and the power of those runes rocketing through us so hard that we were almost torn apart. Darcy cursed, her grip tightening as she looked to me for an explanation I simply couldn’t give her right now.

Caleb and Orion held a chain of ice between them below us and as I watched, they sped in opposite directions around the smaller of the two monstrous creatures, binding it with the chain then yanking it so tight that the thing was cut in two.

I didn’t even wait for it to finish dying, the thrill of its demise washing over me. I sent a whip of air magic towards it and stole a shard of bone from its corpse before holding it up and calling on the ether to take it as an offering.

I began a chant which I’d read in the Book of Fire, the words burning on their way out of my throat, and Darcy gasped as the ether began to build around her too.

“Let it in,” I hissed, watching her.

I continued to chant that ancient, evil spell, my tongue blistering as I forced the words from my mouth.

The moment Darcy gave herself to the ether, it felt like an explosion igniting the core of the earth, the power merging between us so great that we both began to shake with it.

The pain of the chant lessened as she took on half the burden, and I looked into her eyes as I spat the final word from my lips.

Darcy’s pupils dilated as the power between us grew beyond all measure, threatening to consume every piece of us if we didn’t release it. As one, we raised our free hands and let it explode.

It was as if a match had been flicked into a pot of Faesine, the world itself bucking with the aftershock of the explosion as it tore from our bodies, our Phoenix flames merging with that blast of power and flying from us along with everything else.

A wave of pure energy tore away from us like we were a stone dropped into a silent pool and had somehow caused a tsunami.

The wall of fire that spilled from our grasp sent screams up all around us, but the only ones it burned were the monsters who had set themselves against us.

I felt the one our friends had been fighting die first, its existence snuffing out like a candle in a strong wind, the power it had held in life gusting through me and raising euphoria beneath my skin.

One after another, those terrible creatures were consumed by our flames, each death more beautiful than the last, a moan of pleasure catching in my throat as I bathed in the exquisite power I was gifted by their ends.

My gaze met Darcy’s as we hung there, suspended by the force of our own power as it tore through our enemies one by one. But instead of the pure bliss I was experiencing with so much death, I found only fear and uncertainty in her eyes.

The wind returned to the world first of all, my stomach swooping as we plummeted from the sky, our wings flaring on instinct to catch us as we returned to the ground. We landed between a huge circle of our friends, plus the students and staff from the academy.

They stared at us with utter awe staining their features, Geraldine’s jaw hanging slack as the silence stretched.

Until footsteps broke it.

Heavy boots strode between the gathered crowd, making my pulse thunder with recognition as he appeared between the bodies, as gasps of fear, disbelief and utter confusion spilled out around him.

“All hail the true Queens,” Darius growled in a low and powerful voice which rang with a clap of magic that seemed to break the spell that had fallen over everyone who was still staring at us in awe.

Darcy inhaled sharply, incredulous at the sight of his return and in the next second, Geraldine screamed, her voice sailing out among the masses. Then the Heirs and Orion all cried out to Darius at once in shock, delight and disbelief. Countless other voices broke out to him too, but his attention didn’t waver for one single moment.

I met my husband’s eyes as he dropped to one knee before us, placing the head of his axe against the ground and bowing his head low before us.

“I pledge my life to your service.”

His words were like a summoning and suddenly they were all there, Caleb falling to his knees at Darius’s side, his navy eyes wide with amazement as he looked first to his lost brother, then to Darcy and I who stood shell shocked, hand in hand, in the wake of that terrible power we had just summoned to save us all.

“I pledge my life in your service,” Caleb said loudly, silence echoing out once more as the crowd seemed to grow and grow, pressing in on us from all sides as this momentous act unfurled before them.

“I pledge my life in your service,” Max echoed, falling to his knees on Darius’s other side, his head lowering, and the overwhelming feeling of love and respect that flooded from him almost floored me.

Darcy’s hand tightened around mine, the two of us too stunned to do more than just stare at the final Heir as he stepped forward, looking between the two of us and the impossibility of Darius’s return before he fell to his knees on Caleb’s other side.

“I pledge my life in your service,” Seth breathed almost reverently, and I sucked in a sharp breath as heat began to grow in my chest.

The stars flared in defiance overhead as the feeling of that power grew, Geraldine dropping to her knees with a cry of her devotion, followed by Orion who smirked knowingly. Then Gabriel, Xavier, Tyler, Sofia, and the entire school beyond them, every one of them falling to their knees before us.

Only then did I spot our army who had come to fight alongside us, their ranks spreading out beyond us into The Wailing Wood and throughout the entire campus as they dropped to their knees too. The ex-Councillors were among them, hesitating only a fraction of a second before they shared a look of awe and dropped down to their knees as one.

“Long live the true Queens!” Geraldine bayed.

Her words were echoed by everyone just as the sun crested the horizon and we were gilded in the first rays of dawn.

The power surrounding us built further, and I gasped as I felt hands brushing against my cheek, turning to look at Darcy just as a crown of blue flames appeared upon her brow.

The reflection in her green eyes told me a matching crown of red had appeared for me too. We gaped at one another as the truth of our ascension fell over us, our parents’ presence seeming closer than ever before as though they had been the ones to crown us.

A thundering pulse grew against my chest and Darcy looked to my throat suddenly, her hand reaching out to touch the Imperial Star which had begun to glow with untold power.

“We can use it,” I breathed, my eyes widening with the things that impossible power could offer us.

Darcy stared at the amulet in shock before her gaze lifted back to mine and the smile we exchanged was heady and beautiful, quickly becoming a burst of laughter. The endless sea of our people remained on their knees all around us, our reign beginning with that first light of dawn, the stars practically banished by our denial of the fate they’d been counting on.

We looked out over the people who had just sworn their lives to us, preparing to call them to their feet, but before so much as a single word could escape either of us, a flash of light flared across the sky.

I was blinded by it, a yank in my gut tearing me away from the ground, and as a scream ripped from my throat, the only thing I found to hold onto was my sister’s hand in mine.