Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

Roxy shattered the spells my father had placed on the door to the throne room, throwing up a silencing bubble to hide all sound of what she was doing and capturing the Fae my father had left there to guard Darcy and Lance.

I narrowed my eyes at the Dragon Shifter as he whirled toward the door. He was a distant cousin, ugly bastard with a fondness for bait games where he pitted magical creatures against one another for the amusement of assholes like him. He had a taste for inflicting suffering. My father had taken me to watch one once when I was around fourteen and I’d openly sneered at the whole thing, calling the men who took pleasure from gambling on such cruelty pathetic and questioning their so-called manhood.

Father had predictably punished me, and this motherfucker had offered up his training cane for the lesson. I’d taken every strike of it without flinching then broken the cages of all the poor beasts in the place and set them free the moment it was done, ignoring my own wounds in favour of their freedom.

Father had smiled then, using stardust to spirit me away from this piece of shit while he’d started raging and screaming about his lost profits. I’d expected a worse punishment on our return to the manor, but I’d gotten praise instead.

A man of substance won’t ever retract his word.

Father’s proud smile still lingered in my memory. Blood had dripped from the wounds he’d given me to stain the rug, pain throbbing through my flesh, but in that moment, my chest had swelled at gaining his approval.

What a poor, broken creature I’d been. Whipped and kicked and still desperate for his validation. Shame coloured my memory of that day now. I’d been starting to fight back, to hold my own and show my grit and yet he’d claimed that as his achievement too. Even in defiance I’d been his pet, his prize, his protégé. The Heir with the crooked crown.

I watched as the Dragon threw an air shield up around himself, trying to recall his name.

It had been something like Trevor. Or Terrance. Or-

Roxy hurled her power at him, a bird of blue and red phoenix fire erupting from her outstretched palms, tearing across the throne room and shattering his shield in the blink of an eye.

Tony maybe?

Roxy charged for him, sword raised, lips parted in a feral challenge.

Tim. Tim the Dragon…no, that didn’t seem right, it was more like Tilbert, or-

The Dragon threw his arm out to cast at my wife and a snarl escaped me, but she was too fast for him, her sword striking with savage precision, his arm severed before he could even call on the magic he needed.

Tommy screamed at the wound, the pain slowing him, stealing his last chance to fight back before she whipped around and slit his throat wide open.

Blood sprayed and I stared at that beautiful, wild creature of mine as she stepped away from the falling Dragon Shifter, his eyes wide with the panic of death.

The Veil whipped and thrashed around me, and I stumbled as I fought to maintain my place in it, a violent ricochet snapping through it as Toto’s soul was wrenched through and hurled onto this side of death.

The Palace of Souls faded, that golden glow taking its place as we were transported deeper within the grasp of The Veil, and I cursed as I lost sight of Roxy.

The river appeared before me, Turnip standing between it and me, blinking in alarm, looking all around and grasping at his throat as though searching for the wound that had killed him.

“D…Darius?” he stuttered, taking me in as I loomed over him, smoke trailing from my lips. “Am I dead? Is this the promised beauty of the beyond?”

“No, Tiger,” I growled, my hand curling into a fist as I narrowed my eyes at the piece of shit who had been standing watch over my best friend and sweet little Gwen while they rotted in that cage. Who had tried to throw magic at my fucking wife. “This, is the river of the damned.”

I punched him so hard that he was thrown clean off of his feet, his scream echoing all throughout The Veil as he tumbled towards that rushing water, the arms of other cursed and desperate souls reaching for him greedily as his final words rang out for all to hear.

“My name is Toooooodd!”

“Oh, right.” I shrugged, figuring I’d been close enough and turned away the moment the river swallowed him in a ferocious splash, fixing my attention back on my wife whose pain was slicing into me.

Roxy must have been reuniting with her sister and Lance, and my chest ached with the truth they were breaking to her, the reality that Lance was trapped there thanks to the deal he’d made with Lavinia.

I forced my way back to them, their pain like an anchor that drove me on, Lance’s grief for me sharp as he took in what the loss of me had done to my wife.

I stumbled as I made it back to the throne room, moving to stand with them even though they couldn’t see me there.

The Death Bond clung to Lance like a wraith sitting on his back, the stench of it choking me, the weight of it pressing in around me and making panic rise sharply within me. So many of the people I loved were caught on this line, dancing with death, The Veil whispering their names as it felt them edging closer.

I slipped out into the corridors surrounding the throne room, hunting for signs of more guards, but the palace was oddly quiet. No doubt most of them had been summoned outside to take part in my father’s ritual, the knowledge of what he planned to do out there itching at me. I hated the Guardian Bond magic with a passion, and I could only hope that there was some cost involved in using it on such a scale. Maybe being linked to so many would drive him mad with need for all of them and it would turn out to be a good thing after all. Though somehow I doubted fate would be so kind.

I moved back into the throne room, pausing as I noticed the tension in Roxy’s posture, her pain biting into me as her grief sharpened. One look at Lance and Gwen let me know that they’d told her, the defiant set of Gwen’s shoulders making it clear she wasn’t going to leave Lance here either.

“I’m dangerous,” Gwen breathed, looking to Roxy with sorrow in her eyes. “The beast inside of me is volatile, and I can’t always control it. I’m no good to you or the rebels, I’d just be putting you in danger.”

“Fuck danger,” Roxy spat, her hand curling into a fist so tight that it had to hurt. “All I want is you.”

Her words were fierce, defiant, but I knew her well enough to see the pain in them, the utter agony of what this rejection was doing to her. She had come all this way to reclaim the other half of her soul, the one person who might be able to help her find her way back to herself from the pit of grief that had consumed her since my death. She needed her twin more than she needed air to breathe and if Gwen didn’t go with her now, then I knew it was going to break her more thoroughly than she could ever recover from.

She wasn’t the savage princess who stood before them, bloodstained and ready for war, she was a broken girl in desperate need and if Gwen turned her back on her now then I knew there would be no undoing the damage it caused.

“Don’t do this to her,” I breathed, imploring, hating myself for the words, knowing Lance needed her too. But Roxy was already on the edge, she had been fighting to hold herself together for nothing other than the girl standing before her and if she lost her too then I feared what would come of it.

But as my fear for what this would do to Roxy grew, I noticed a look which passed between her and Lance, a decision they made which Gwen missed, one that would only cause more pain and hurt, but might be their only choice.

“You need to leave, Tory,” Gwen started, but before she could go on, Orion snapped his hand out and struck her in the temple.

He caught her as she sagged to the floor, her eyes widening at the betrayal as she passed out.

I cursed, seeing nothing but more devastation coming from that choice, but it was already done.

A pained sob escaped Roxy as she dropped to her knees, brushing the shadowy strands of hair from her sister’s face.

“I’ll keep her safe,” she swore to Lance, her hand squeezing his in both thanks and apology.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Lance snarled, and Roxy threw her arms around his neck, pinning Gwen between them as the weight of this reality fell over them, both of them accepting what had to be done while hating it at once. She’d come all this way to rescue him, only to have to leave him behind.

“I’m sorry,” Roxy breathed.

“Don’t be,” Lance growled. “Never be sorry for protecting her. That’s something the two of us will always put above everything else.”

I stilled as a rumble moved throughout the room, something deep and dark shifting within the air, the sensation putting me on edge, though neither Roxy nor Lance seemed to notice it.

A pounding sounded wildly within my skull as I hunted for the source of the gathering dark and my attention fell to Gwen in horror as she began to fall apart in her sister’s arms, shadows stealing her away, transforming her and waking her from the forced slumber Orion had inflicted.

The two of them scrambled away from one another as Gwen shifted, a beast out of legend appearing in her place, feral eyes swinging towards the girl she loved above all others, no hint of recognition forming as she bared sharp teeth and growled ferociously.

“Run!” Lance roared, his word echoing mine, but Roxy didn’t move, her eyes widening in horror at what she was seeing and her feet remaining stubbornly in place as she stood to face the monster that had been born of her sister’s flesh.

Of course she didn’t run. That woman had been created without the capability to flee. She didn’t back down from a fight and certainly not from one which involved her sister. I loved her, but in that moment all of the fire and raw fury which held her spine so rigidly in defiance of the world was the most terrifying thing I’d ever encountered.

Darcy swiped at her with an enormous paw, claws slamming into her air shield and flinging her across the room, making me curse. Roxy used her control over the air magic to whirl out of the way before landing on her feet behind the throne, but one look at the monstrous creature which had taken her sister’s place made it clear that this fight wouldn’t be won easily. And that was assuming Roxy would fight.

“Darcy,” she barked, irritation in her tone where there should have been terror. “You know me, you hairy asshole.”

If Gwen understood her at all it didn’t show and she roared, charging again, forcing Roxy to retreat around the throne, using it as a barrier between them.

“I don’t think insulting her is helping,” Lance called from the cage where he was still chained to the wall by the shadows, and Roxy flipped him off as she darted away again.

I looked to my best friend, my own uselessness carving its way through me as I ran to him, leaving Roxy to play cat and mouse with a monster as she used her air magic to keep out of reach of the Shadow Beast’s claws.

“Lance,” I barked, punching him in the bicep when he didn’t so much as blink in my direction, willing him to see me, uncertain if he could even do anything to help, but I had to hope he could.

I wrapped my hands around the chains of shadow which bound him in place, an icy cold washing into me with a spike of agony which stole my breath away.

The Veil cracked like thunder around me, darkness rushing in, screams filling my ears as the weight of the tainted shadows bucked and thrashed against my hold, the touch of death an unwelcome intrusion into their realm.

But I couldn’t let go.

The throne room, Lance, the Shadow Beast and Roxy all fell away as I crumbled from the force of the vibrations which tore into me, my soul becoming little more than a bridge between two places which should never collide.

I felt the souls of the Nymphs who had been consumed by that darkness, the desperation they felt at being trapped within it for so, so long.

Terror dug its claws into me, my fists locked tight around the chain of shadows, my feet anchored beyond The Veil and those empty, desperate souls all rushing for me as one, an army of the lost and ruined victims of the shadow realm.

If there had been enough left of me to scream then I would have, the weight of them charging for me so horrifying that there was nothing which could possibly stop them. They’d devour me in their passage to that brighter realm and from there they’d continue in their destruction, ripping through The Veil, destroying the souls who were harboured within it, stealing their essence, and changing the path of the stars beyond all hopes of repair.

I fought with all I had, trying to release my hold on that darkness, my soul full of sorrow and love for those I was failing, the frantic lashing of what power I could still claim seeming like nothing more than a teardrop splashing into an ocean.

But just as I found myself staring into the empty eyes of those screaming souls, a hand found me in the darkness, fingernails biting into my skin, pain blossoming through my flesh as they ripped me away, freeing me and closing that door, stopping the passage of those desperate souls before they could destroy everything in their path.

I fell at the foot of the large rock which sat in the centre of Mordra’s cavern, panting and shaking, the dim light hurting my eyes. I tried to take in where I was, what was happening and-

“The shadows won’t help you, boy,” she sneered, her voice echoing around the chamber, no body visible to accompany it.

I was staring up at the river from beneath once more, screaming souls tearing past, the flood thicker than it had been the last time I’d looked upon it.

“How did you break me free of their hold?” I asked, unable to summon the energy to rise, the panic which had chained me sluggish to fall away.

“Your mind is warped by the way of the stars, the path of the zodiac colouring your outlook on the world. But what if we weren’t all travelling down pathways which lead in a single direction from birth to death? What if our choices affected far more than our simple lives and who or what we become? Perhaps instead of pathways we are simply tethered to strings which are tangled like a ball of yarn. Perhaps those strings need cutting from time to time if we are to have any hope of removing the knots?”

I pushed myself upright, hunting the shadows for some sign of her and finding a shimmering silhouette perched at the very top of the boulder, looking down at me with what I could have sworn was pity.

“The stars are the knots?” I guessed and her smile appeared in full, a laugh hissing off the walls which surrounded me.

“Do you really think so?”

Mordra cocked her head at me, eyes with yellow shot through the whites blinking slowly.

“Do you hear that?” she breathed before I could answer her.

I could hear it. A rushing, thundering beat which sounded strangely like…

“Wings,” I muttered, my head snapping up to look at a large shape as it passed overhead, blotting out the light, moving over the river. “Is that a boat?” I asked the beating of those wings growing fiercer, the pounding echoing through my chest. I knew that sound, I knew it…

“A raft,” Mordra replied simply. “He feels a death oncoming. One worthy of his attention for the passage.”

“Roxy,” I gasped, realising whose wings I could hear beating, whose soul was moving too close to this place, whose power would rouse the interest of the ferryman.

Mordra grinned at me, but she was already fading, Roxy’s screams ripping into me as I rushed towards the realm of the living. I felt her agony, the Shadow Beast’s teeth and claws ripping through her flesh, her power locked down, her deepest love destroying her from within a cursed body.

I crashed into the throne room in The Palace of Souls, a cry of utter despair escaping me as I found her beneath the Shadow Beast, so much blood spilled that it was hard to believe she could still be alive. But she was thrashing beneath her attacker, trying to push at the monster with nothing but her own physical strength. It was no good; her power was locked down by its bite and the shadows were racing for her thundering heart.

“Roxy!” I bellowed, charging for her, throwing myself between her and the Shadow Beast, my body falling apart until nothing but the essence of my soul remained so that I could hurl every drop of my remaining power into her.

Her pain pierced my flesh, every slice and bite and break resounding through me so I could feel all of it too and I latched onto it, drawing it away from her, offering what help I could while The Veil still held me in its clutches.

“The crystal!” I roared, my hand locking around hers as it fell limp to the flagstones, willing her to find the strength she needed to keep fighting, just a little longer, just long enough.

Roxy blinked and for a moment I could have sworn she saw me, that she felt that surge of power as she thrust her hand into her pocket and ripped the crystal free.

Jenkins was screaming from within the tigers eye, howling for a freedom he would never again possess.

“That’s it, baby, fight it. Fight this fucked up fate and choose your own destiny,” I snarled, willing her to do it.

More blood spilled across the flagstones, too much fucking blood. No one could survive this. Not for much longer. The space between her heartbeats was thick with the weight of The Veil, and I knew she was almost out of time. If she crossed over, she’d be with me again. But there wasn’t even a selfish part of me that could wish for that. Not for her. She was so full of life that I refused to even consider the option of death stealing her away.

I gave her all I had, and she took that strength, binding it to her own and shoving the crystal into her side with a grunt of pain, the cold stone sinking beneath flesh.

“Vivere,” Roxy choked out.

Ether stirred the air around her and relief practically suffocated me as I felt it answering her call.

Jenkins screamed as he watched the memories Roxy sacrificed for the magic. Two little girls shivering in a bed together, wondering if their foster parents would come home tonight.

I watched with a festering hatred, feeling the fear of those small children. They were hungry because there were locks on the kitchen cupboards and their foster parents had left them alone all day, not specifying when they’d be back. The house was cold, and darkness had fallen beyond the curtains. Roxy’s jaw was locked tight with a fury I knew all too well, that stubborn determination to survive so bright in her even then.

She had been a princess lost to a world that didn’t understand her but now she was back, and I knew there would be no stopping her again.

The memory was devoured in payment for the magic, the ether swallowing it whole and locking Jenkins’s soul into the crystal, his dark taint shadowing her bright glow, shielding her from the eyes of death itself.

The Veil fluttered around her, uncertain now of where the lines between life and death fell, unable to reach out for her soul while the rotting stench of Jenkins covered it. To The Veil she appeared dead already, but I could feel her there, her heart still beating but only weakly.

The Shadow Beast continued to savage her, and I cried out, knowing this magic could only work for so long, seeking help in whatever form I could find it.

There were so many points of light rushing closer, so many of my loved ones fighting. Lance was roaring his defiance of this act and somewhere, and further away I felt another soul who was so in tune with my own that he felt like an extension of myself.

Caleb was coming. Caleb was almost here.

“Hold on, baby,” I growled, the words a command as I gave her all I had, my hand tightening around hers, willing her to feel me there.

The ruby necklace she still wore for me heated between us as our souls reached for one another and I pushed everything I had into it, offering it to her, willing her to keep fighting even after she fell from consciousness.

“Just a little longer,” I demanded, looking to the door, feeling that piece of my soul rushing to us.

The doors crashed open and there Caleb was, Lance crying out to him as his wild eyes took in what was happening.

Caleb launched himself onto the Shadow Beast’s back, yanking its fur hard enough to draw its full focus.

I couldn’t afford to give the fight my attention as I continued to pour my strength into the love of my life, the pauses between her heartbeats a terrifying reality which took up all of my focus.

“Get her out of here,” Lance growled and suddenly Caleb was there, drawing her up and into his arms, healing magic flooding from him into her while he struggled to combat the work of the shadows. Each beat of her heart was stronger than the one before it, each breath she heaved in a little fuller than the last.

“Run, Caleb,” Lance urged. “Please, you can’t stay. And I won’t leave Darcy.” He looked to the dome of earth which Caleb had used to contain the Shadow Beast. It shuddered and cracked, its power almost breaking through it already.

“I’m not leaving you,” Caleb replied. “You’re my sanguis frater. I can’t walk away from you now that I’ve found you.”

“I made a Death Bond with Lavinia, Caleb,” Lance revealed and the pain I felt over the failure that had befallen my loved ones this night almost consumed me, the call of The Veil beckoning me back, but I refused it. I couldn’t leave her until I knew she was safe. I wouldn’t.

Their words grew distant, the light around me flickering but I stayed with her, pouring all that there was of me into the ruby at her throat, offering up anything she might be able to grasp as she teetered too close to death.

Caleb finally accepted the truth of the situation and raced for freedom, and I went with him, stealing through The Palace of Souls and escaping into the dark of the night. Roxy needed to heal from the venom in her blood, but I knew they had what she required back at R.U.M.P. castle so that was all I could hope for.

Failure may have claimed this night, but Roxy’s heart was still beating.