It is unlikely that Gwendalina will ever fulfil her dreams of taking over the kingdom, but it cannot be ruled out. We must simply pray that she wouldn’t follow in the violent footsteps of her ruthless father if she ever-
I stopped reading, my blood pumping hot and fast through my veins as I stuffed my Atlas away and released an honest to shit growl. I stalked my way to The Orb, fuming at what Lionel had made Tory do. He was twisting everything, making out that she wanted him, that she’d chosen him over me. It was sick. I wanted to tear his goddamn head off for it.
Fire flared hotter under my skin as my Phoenix reared its head, desperate to be unleashed. A flash of movement in my periphery made me flinch and fire burst to life in my palms as Caleb slowed to a halt beside me.
“Woah, chill sweetheart. I guess you saw the article?” he asked and I put out the flames.
“Yeah,” I snarled. “How dare that asshole do that to her, he had no right.”
He frowned sadly. “We’ll fix it. We’ll get her back.”
“We’ve been saying that for months,” I said, my breaths coming heavily and I cast a quick silencing bubble around us. “Even if I could burn the shadows out of her, how are we supposed to get near her?”
Caleb pushed his fingers into his curly blonde hair with a sigh. “Darius can get us inside his house.”
“So what? She’s locked somewhere we can’t reach her. And even if we knew where she was being kept, I doubt we could get near her without setting off a ward or – or-” I shook my head in dismay.
We’d been over it all before anyway. We weren’t getting near her unless Lionel chose it. And that truth was unbearable.
Caleb knocked his arm against mine and I looked up at him with a sad smile.
“We won’t give up on her,” I breathed and he nodded seriously.
“Never.”
“Maybe Gabriel will see more?” Caleb said, his voice heavy. Gabriel had come to me over the summer after inviting all of the Heirs and Geraldine to the palace, announcing it was time to tell them the truth. They’d proved their friendship to the Vegas, and we’d entrusted them with our secret. That Gabriel was mine and Tory’s brother. And he was the son of the greatest Seer of the century.
“I hope so,” I sighed and he gave me an encouraging smile, though there was a darkness in his eyes that spoke of his doubts too. With Clara and the Nymphs keeping Lionel’s movements hidden, it was impossible for Gabriel to see anything tangible that might help us save Tory. Especially with her so far away, lost to the shadows. Darius said we couldn’t use the shadows to spy on Lionel anymore either because Clara could sense it. It was infuriating.
I disbanded my silencing bubble as we walked up to The Orb and Caleb opened the door, letting me head inside first. The place was packed and freshmen were clustering together in groups, looking wide-eyed and unprepared - which I imagined was exactly how I’d looked when I’d started here too. Plenty of them glanced our way, nudging each other and whispering. My gaze snagged on the group of the Heirs’ siblings holding court at a table beyond the Heirs’ red couch. Xavier wasn’t among them though and I frowned as I hunted for him before my view was blocked by Geraldine climbing onto the A.S.S. table with two bagels clutched in her hands.
“My lady!” She strode over the table, sending bagels flying everywhere as she used Justin Masters’ head to help her climb down on this side then ran towards me like a runaway train.
I laughed as she collided with me, hugging her tight, the scent of butter and fresh coffee hanging around her.
“See you later, Darcy.” Caleb shot off to get some coffee as I was crushed into Geraldine’s large breasts, wheezing as she squeezed the air out of me.
“It’s good to see you too, Geraldine,” I rasped.
She pressed me back, looking me over then burst into tears, covering her eyes and turning away from me with a wail. “Oh mangos on a merry-go-round you’re so broken, I can’t bear it. Your homologous half, your synonymous sibling, your tantamount twin – gone! There has never been such woe as this. To see you here alone, walking through the door of destiny which leads you down a separate path to hers. It is a travesty!”
“Shh.” I patted her back, feeling eyes on us from all around. “We’ll work it out.”
Geraldine wailed, spinning on her heels to look at me again, her eyes red and her face blotchy. “That diabolical, dastard of a Dragoon! I would give him what for alright. I’d pluck his eyes out and fry them up in a funnel cake!”
I steered her back toward our table where the A.S.S. all looked concerned. Justin rose from his seat, wrapping her in a hug and she sobbed loudly against his shoulder.
“It’s alright, Grussy,” he cooed.
I looked to Sofia and Tyler across the table, their brows pinched in worry as I mouthed a hey to them.
“The fuck?” Max appeared, shoving Justin away from Geraldine and gripping her cheeks in a punishing hold. “Why are you crying?”
“Get off of me, you heinous halibut,” she demanded, pushing him away and sniffling as she pulled herself together. “Now go back to your salmon pond and leave me be.” She shooed him away then walked off around the table with her chin held high before dropping back into her seat.
Justin dusted off his shoulders like Max had left a mark on his clothes, pushing his fingers into his blonde hair and puffing his chest up as he tried to appear as big as the Heir he was foolishly facing off with. “Don’t you tell Grussy what to do,” he said firmly, planting his hands on his hips. “I won’t stand for it.”
“Oh yeah?” Max snarled, squaring up to him. “And what are you gonna do about it?” He lifted his chin, emphasising his several inches of height on Justin and to his credit, Justin didn’t flinch.
“Perhaps I’ll write a strongly worded letter to your father,” Justin said haughtily.
“Oh do sit down you valiant woodlouse!” Geraldine cried to Justin. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I am quite capable of sending strong words directly to this cantankerous cuttlefish myself.”
Justin dropped into his seat with a pout, but Geraldine patted his hand and his expression softened a little.
Max grumbled something under his breath and walked away to the Heirs’ couch. I slipped into my seat as chatter broke out around the room again. Plenty of silencing bubbles went up and it wasn’t hard to guess what they were all talking about.
“Did you see the article?” I asked Sofia and she nodded sadly while Tyler looked pissed as hell. He’d put on about twenty pounds of muscle over the summer and his hair was now dirty blonde all over, floppy and glinting with silver glitter.
“My mom will run something in The Daily Solaria to counter it,” Tyler promised. “We can do another interview.”
I nodded as I picked at a bagel. I’d been putting out as many interviews as I could to try and counter the damage Lionel was doing with Tory, but the plain fact was, all signs pointed to his version of the truth. If we could only expose him for using dark magic and harbouring the shadows then maybe my efforts would be worthwhile, but doing that could possibly mean dragging Darius, Tory and Orion down with them, which I was never going to risk.
I pushed a piece of the bagel into my mouth as I sighed. I was on strict orders to eat three meals a day from Darius after he’d figured out I’d been using healing magic to skip meals back in August. Food just didn’t taste of anything these days, but I also knew there was no sense in depriving myself either. I needed to be strong enough to keep fighting the Nymphs, to go after my enemies.
I’d put back on the weight I’d lost when Orion went to prison, but I was all defined abs and muscle tone now considering half my time was spent either training for combat or in combat.
There was nothing quite like destroying members of Lionel’s Nymph army to ease some of the tension living in me. It was kind of frightening how easy killing them came to me these days. After Diego’s death, I knew they weren’t all soulless monsters. But the ones we faced were wholly team Lionel. An
d I didn’t feel guilty about burning them up in my Phoenix flames or watching as the Heirs destroyed them with the weapons I’d gifted them. Combining Dragon and Phoenix fire caused one helluva pretty bonfire too.
There were stories being told about the Nymph hunters in the news. The FIB were looking for information on them i.e. us. Some people whispered excitedly about the vigilantes out to save the world, others claimed they were a secret division of the FIB and others claimed we were a bunch of foolish idiots who would end up dead on the end of a Nymph probe one of these days and would only end up making the Nymphs more powerful when they stole our magic. It was illegal as shit what we were doing. But I didn’t care. None of us did. We had to kill as many of them as we could to try and land a hit on Lionel that really mattered before it was too late. The FIB weren’t doing nearly enough to strike back against the Nymphs whenever they attacked and we all suspected they were being fed false information by Lionel and Stella as they secretly aided them. We’d even put in several anonymous tips to the FIB suggesting Nymphs had been sighted near Stella’s house and it hadn’t once been raided. Fucking Lionel.
So we took our job to go up against them seriously and took out whatever small groups of them that we could find. Barely a night had slipped by over the summer that we hadn’t gone after them, but now we were back at school I didn’t think it was going to be as easy. I had to concentrate on my studies, advance my magic. It was crucial.
Tyler suddenly tensed up and released an aggressive, horse-like snort and I frowned at him in surprise.
“You okay, Ty?” I asked and he lifted an arm, dropping it around Sofia’s shoulders and yanking her closer.
“Hey,” Sofia snapped as she lost her grip on a bagel and it went bouncing back onto her plate, but Tyler didn’t look at her.
I followed his gaze to the door. Xavier Acrux had just walked in, his dark hair messy and his expression saying he was out of his depth. A group of girls dove from their seats nearby, crowding around him asking for autographs and his eyes widened before he nodded and started signing anything they thrust under his nose.
“He got three Elements, did you hear?” Angelica said as she dropped down beside Geraldine with a cup of coffee.
“Yeah and he chose Ignis House,” Sofia said, her cheeks turning rosy.
“He’s in your house?” Tyler balked and she shrugged, making him snort angrily again.
“Um, Tyler, what’s going on with the snorting?” I asked before pushing another piece of bagel into my mouth.
He tore his eyes off of Xavier and looked to me with a pout. “I hoofed down Davros and Brutus yesterday. They arrived on campus early and I beat their asses in Pegasus form. I’m officially the Dom of our herd now.” He lifted his chin, holding Sofia tighter.
“Which means I’m his now,” she explained, looking at him with a proud smile that said she didn’t mind that so much, but then her eyes flitted back across the room to Xavier and I suspected there was something else going on here. “But Xavier Acrux is like…serious Dom material.”
“He’s gonna fucking challenge me, I just know it. And I only just became Dom. I got one day and now mini-Acrux is gonna try and take it from me.” Tyler stamped his foot under the table and I bit my lip to hold a laugh back. I swear I was never going to get used to the ways of all the Orders.
I glanced back over my shoulder just as Xavier broke free of his fan club and his eyes met mine. I waved and his expression brightened as he started heading toward us.
“Oh my stars, he’s looking at Sofia,” Angelica squeaked.
“Quiet Angelica, we mustn’t interfere with the ways of their magnificent kind,” Geraldine whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, holding her breath as she gazed from Xavier to Sofia then Tyler.
Xavier reached our table and no one said anything which was super awkward so I smiled at him encouragingly. “Congratulations on your Elements, Xavier. How’s it going so far?”
“It’s pretty fucking sweet,” he said, his eyes flicking from Sofia to Tyler and the tension in the air almost made my ears pop.
“Hey Sofia,” he said, smiling awkwardly then nodding to Tyler. “Hey man, I’m Xavier.”
“Tyler,” he replied, assessing him. “You’ll be looking for a herd, I suppose?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Xavier shrugged, scratching the back of his head. “Anyways um…see you around?” He was looking directly at Sofia again and I couldn’t help but smile as she turned scarlet.
“Yeah, we’ll catch up soon,” she promised.
“Great.” He nodded to me and headed away to join the other Heirs’ siblings.
Max and Caleb were sitting on the back of their couch as they spoke to them and I suddenly realised how absent the place was of key H.O.R.E.S like Mildred and Marguerite. It was pretty damn nice actually.
“Do you know him or something?” Tyler asked Sofia with a frown and Sofia cast a silencing bubble before the two of them started having a tense discussion.
I shared a look with Geraldine who cleared her throat loudly, waving her hand and casting a fog of water that surrounded them too, cutting them off from sight. Subtle.
My gaze drifted to where Diego used to sit, his spot now filled by some new A.S.S. member. My heart rose into my throat and I quietly cursed the stars over his death. I didn’t have his hat which he’d told me to take; it was almost certainly somewhere in the woods at Stella Orion’s house, but getting in there would be all but impossible now with the Nymphs guarding it. And whatever secrets lay with it were lost unless we could figure out how to reach it.
It had been hard to focus on anything else but Tory over the summer and how Orion was rotting in a jail cell. It was like the stars had cast all of our fates to ruin in one fell swoop and laughed as they watched the shattered pieces fall. Now all the Heirs and I could do was try to pick up the pieces and find a way to fix what had been broken. But sometimes that seemed like an insurmountable task. And it weighed on my heart like a tonne of lead.
As always, when my mind drifted, I started spiralling into the pit of despair that lived inside me. So I cut myself off from it once more and forced the pain away. If there was one thing this whole shit storm had taught me, it was that tears saved nobody and dwelling on regrets was as useful as cutting my own hands off. Darius was the only one who understood fully, and together we’d found a way to keep moving, because giving up wasn’t an option and talking over and over our woes did nothing but bring us down. One small mercy I’d been gifted was that I’d found a bond with him I’d never expected to have. And though trust was something I doubted I’d ever feel again for anyone besides family, Darius Acrux came surprisingly close. And so did the other Heirs sometimes.
Geraldine suddenly dropped a bagel that was halfway to her mouth, her eyes stretched wide. She released a noise like a strangled peacock then flew out of her seat. Another bagel shot out of her grip as she brought a hand to her forehead and it smacked Justin in the face, the cream cheese making it stick. “Grapefruits in a snowstorm, it cannot be!”
I twisted around, my gaze falling on the girl who’d just walked in the door, my heart lurching, my breath catching, a ringing filling my ears. Her face was pale and everything about her seemed endlessly dark, but it was her. Tory was here.
I sprang out of my seat, rushing toward her as my heart pounded right up into my skull. I couldn’t think or breathe, no rational thought entered my head as I collided with her, crushing her against me in a fierce hug while she just stood there.
I half noticed Mildred and Marguerite trailing behind her among more of the H.O.R.E.S and grimaced as I dragged her away from them.
I leaned back to look at her, tears burning the backs of my eyes as I tried to form a question, absorbing the fact that she was really in my arms.
The door opened again behind her and Darius appeared, halting dead in his tracks, his lips parting and suddenly he was upon us, wrenching Tory from my arms and twisting her around to face him.
“You�
�re back,” he rasped.
“How did you escape?” I managed to get out, pushing one of Darius’s hands off her so I could get close again. I realised The Orb was utterly silent and one look to my left told me Max, Caleb and Geraldine were closing in on us and the rest of the students in The Orb were watching intently.
“Come on, let’s go somewhere private.” Darius tugged Tory’s arm but she yanked her hand free, straightening her sleeve where he’d ruffled it with a pinched look of disgust.
“No thanks,” she said, brushing past us and leaving us there in her wake.
I ran after her, pulling her around to face me again, holding onto her when she tried to continue walking. “Tory, it’s me, it’s Darcy. Look at me,” I demanded, desperation clawing at my insides.
Muttering broke out but I didn’t care, my heart was trying to climb out of my chest. I’d never expected this. Why would Lionel let her come back?
Tory’s cool gaze moved to my face, her expression bored. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
Marguerite shrieked a laugh and Mildred sniggered somewhere behind me, making my hackles rise dangerously.
“Tory,” I growled, shaking her, drawing my Phoenix flames under my skin, trying to urge them into her to burn out the shadows keeping my sister prisoner. “Hold still.” The flames reached the very edges of my flesh and a deep, burning creature in me called for the Phoenix that lived in her, but no answer came in return. I gasped, realising what that meant, my grip on her firming.
“Let go of me.” Tory tugged her arm away, a swirl of darkness in her eyes making determination storm through me. I will set you free.
I reached for her again and Tory raised her hands as if she was about to fight me. But I didn’t care. I’d fight through every force in this world to save her.
“Darcy,” Caleb shot to my side, pulling me back. “Not here.”
Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne Page 6