“Okay,” I said slowly. “Show me what to do.”
He reached out and took my hand and my stomach flipped over as he guided it onto the copy of King Arthur, encouraging me to brush my fingers over it. That was definitely not a sexual thing to do and yet heat spread between my thighs and I tried to convince myself it was to do with the buck toothed dude on the cover who was covered in chainmail. Yup, that’s definitely what’s doing it for me. Not the guy who used to fuck me until I couldn’t walk straight and made me come ten times before he even considered being done with me.
“Focus on the image, let your mind relax,” he instructed, releasing my hand. I did as he asked, trying my best to ignore how close he was to me or how my breathing was getting unsteady. “When you think you have it memorised, close your eyes and draw some magic up to the image. Don’t let it take any form, just pull it closer to the picture in your mind until it merges.”
I nodded, drawing on the well of power in me and encouraging some of that magic towards my mind. A light seemed to grow around the image I could see in my head and I sucked in a little breath in surprise.
“Got it?” he asked in a deep tone and I nodded. “Now let it go. Try not to think of it at all.”
I let my mind go dark and the image seemed to snap against my brain like a rubber band. I inhaled as I reached for it again and it came into my mind’s eye as clearly as if I was looking right at it once more. Woah.
“Open your eyes,” Orion growled and I did, immediately falling into the dark well of his irises and realising my fingers were an inch from grazing his on top of King Arthur.
I curled my hand up and tried to wet my desert dry mouth as I looked down at the book of dark magic beside it.
“Try the illusion now,” he encouraged, taking the copy of King Arthur out of sight.
I gazed at the other book and drew on that memory just like I’d been taught in class before rubbing my forefinger and thumb together as I cast the illusion. The cover immediately altered, and the size of the book too, everything shifting to look exactly the way the real copy of King Arthur had.
I released a squeal of excitement, picking it up and examining it for errors. But there weren’t any. It was the most perfect illusion I’d ever cast. Holy shit.
I looked to Orion and found him watching me with an intensity that made my cheeks burn.
“Thank you,” I said earnestly.
“Any time,” he said gruffly, pushing to his feet. “Seriously, just text me or call if you ever need help with anything.”
I didn’t answer that, unsure if I should really open up a line of communication between us. But then again, I was falling behind in Cardinal Magic because of Highspell and I really couldn’t afford to do that with Lionel in power. I had to make sure I passed my exams and more than that, I wanted every advantage I could gain against the Dragon Lord. But it was Orion. If I started talking to him on a regular basis, my head could get messed up. No. I couldn’t do it.
A tap came on the window and I spotted Tory there, beckoning me to come out.
I gave Orion a tight smile and if I wasn’t being totally crazy, I swear he looked kind of dejected. Maybe any company was better than none while he was locked up here twenty four seven.
“Guess I’ll…see you in a bit,” I said with an awkward smile.
“I’ll wait up,” he said, his throat bobbing.
I walked away, ignoring the way my heart throbbed and ached as I slipped quickly out the door. I didn’t look back as Tory took my hand and pulled me along at speed, guiding me onto a path between two tall hedges before she slowed again. Her magic met mine and merged easily as we cast an air shield around us to keep off the rain.
“Did Lionel give you another dose of Order Suppressant?” I asked as I tried to reach her Phoenix with mine and came up against nothing.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “And then we…snuggled. You know, usual fucked up shit.”
I squeezed her fingers tight in mine, trying to get my head around the insanity of that fucking bond he’d placed on her and silently vowing for the millionth time that I’d find a way to free her from it.
I pulled the syringe of antidote from my pocket and Tory smiled at me as she accepted it and quickly injected herself.
She sighed in relief as her Phoenix returned to her and I relaxed as we kept walking.
“Everything okay?” she asked and I shrugged.
“It’s just awkward with him,” I murmured. “Anyway, is Darius okay? Orion said Lionel stabbed him.”
“He’s alright now. Lionel just went full psycho as usual. And I couldn’t help. I had to just stand there and watch,” she said in a choked voice and I gripped her arm.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “That must have been awful.”
She sighed, dropping her gaze. “It just makes me think how precious shit is, you know? How quickly we could lose people we care about. And look, I know this isn’t the time to talk about it, but you and Orion…”
“Don’t, Tor,” I begged.
“But you’re meant for each other, Darcy. And the two of you are so sad, I can’t bear it. I swear I saw you guys for two seconds and it felt like watching a funeral procession.”
A sharp lump formed in my throat and I shook my head. “He made his choice. Now I’ve made mine. There’s no going back.”
She sighed, squeezing my fingers then releasing me. “Come on then, let’s go.”
“Where do you think we should start looking?” I asked as we headed along the path and passed through a rose garden that was being battered by the rain. The flames beneath my skin kept the cold out but my breath still fogged before me in the air.
“Gabriel said we’d know.” Tory frowned and a glimmer caught my eye ahead of us.
My breath hitched and I tugged Tory’s sleeve, pointing out the large footprint shining on the path. It looked like the print of a man’s boot and my heartbeat quickened as I shared a look with Tory. The rainstorm suddenly fell away as if it never was and the clouds parted above to reveal a glittering expanse of stars. The air thickened and a chill swept through me. I knew in my soul they were watching us, and they were hoping to show us something just like they had before.
Tory’s hand slid into mine and we silently released the air shield around us and walked toward the footprint. It faded away as we reached it and another one appeared further ahead, leading us down a path through the gardens I wasn’t sure I’d ever taken before. We moved between the bushes as we were guided across the grounds, passing through an orchard where the grass glistened wetly. Beyond it, a huge stone amphitheatre loomed out of the dark, the path leading right up to two enormous silver doors. The boot prints guided us towards it and my fingers tightened on Tory’s as we made it to the entrance. The immense curved wall towered above us and my skin prickled, something about this place setting me on edge.
Tory pressed her hand to the door and it unlocked at her touch, parting in the middle to allow us access. Shadows waited for us beyond it, the only light cast by another glistening footprint waiting for us in the dark.
“Do you think it’s safe?” I whispered.
“I think so,” she breathed and I shared a look with her that said there was no way either of us were turning back anyway. This was important. Everything in the atmosphere told me that.
I cast a Faelight, sending it out ahead of us as we crept inside. The moment we entered, the doors shut behind us with a loud thud that echoed around the stone corridor we were in and set my heart galloping.
The boot prints headed to our right and we followed them ever on until they led us down several dark stone steps. A door waited open for us at the bottom and the cool night air wafting in told me we were going outside again. We stepped through it together and my feet met sand as we arrived in an enormous circular pit at the centre of the amphitheatre. It looked like something from the Roman empire, but the place was no ruin. Stone benches ringed the whole arena, circling high above us and far ahead of us was a huge
throne set back into the stands with several smaller chairs either side of it. An archway covered them all, carved with each of the four Elemental symbols and the Vega crest at the very top of it. Around the edges of the pit were Nymph cages just like the ones we’d trapped Tory in, and the thought of what they might have been here for made my stomach knot.
The footprints marked a path across the sand to the very centre of the pit where something lay on the ground, waiting for us. We moved cautiously towards it, the air stilling as we walked, the silence pressing in.
We came to a halt in front of a shield made of polished metal, our reflections cast on its surface and we knew what to do. We knelt either side of it, sharing a hopeful look before turning our gaze to the metal. The stars had shown us our mother before, what more did they want us to see?
Our reflections changed, giving way to a scene set in the bright light of day, looking down on this very amphitheatre. A stern and handsome man sat on the throne, his eyes sharp and narrowed on the pit below him. I recognised my father, Hail Vega, looking younger than he had before he met my mother in the previous visions I’d seen of him. To his right was Lionel Acrux and beyond him were the other Councillors, all looking tense as their gazes were set on the pit.
A man was hauled to the centre of the sand in rags, his wrists cuffed so his magic was blocked. Around the edges of the arena, the black metal cages were filled with Nymphs that shrieked and roared at the crowd, the sight making my pulse spike.
“My king!” the man in the pit cried. “I’m innocent.”
The crowd jeered and the guard holding him shoved him to his knees before backing up and bowing to our father.
“Who is he?” the Savage King murmured to Lionel.
“A thief, Your Highness,” he whispered. “The Rat stole a hundred gold coins from my cousin Benjamin.”
Hail scoffed. “Benjamin Acrux is a gambler who has brought plenty of shame on your name, Lionel.”
“Be that as it may, the word of a Dragon is worth more than a Rat’s,” Lionel hissed and my blood burned hotter.
“Nonsense,” Hail said, waving him off before calling out to the man below. “Speak your case!”
The Tiberian Rat ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I won the gold from Mr Acrux fair and square in a game of Minojack,” he said urgently. “Have a Cyclops check my memories.”
“This is an outrage!” cried a man who I assumed was Benjamin Acrux from the way the Rat was glaring at him.
He stood up in the crowd and looked like a squatter, uglier version of Lionel. His eyes were bloodshot and the way he swayed a little suggested he might be drunk.
Lionel leaned closer to Hail and murmured, “You will show no mercy, sire. A Dragon’s word is law. But the decision has come from you, now forget my words.” The power of his Dark Coercion filled his voice in an undertone that made my stomach lurch.
Hail blinked, leaning back in his seat and horror filled me as he called out to the crowd. “You have been found guilty of your crime. You will be given the Fae right to fight for your life. If you live, you will face twelve years in Darkmore Penitentiary.” The King waved his hand in some signal and a sword was thrown into the pit as the guard cast himself out on a gust of air beneath his feet. A wave of the guard’s hand opened one of the cages and a Nymph rushed out with a bellow of rage, the hunger in its eyes clear as it raced towards the Rat shifter. He lunged for the sword, but before he even got close, the Nymph swatted him aside and the cracking of bones filled the air followed by the cheers of the crowd.
Bile rose in my throat as the Nymph stepped down on the Rat’s chest and a lasting scream filled the air as it drove its probes into his heart. The vision shifted abruptly and I couldn’t tear my gaze away as I absorbed the truth laid out before me.
Hail stood on a huge balcony under the light of the stars, holding something in his hand and speaking a strange word to it as a glint of light peeked between his fingers. “End the plague in Maresh,” he asked. “My people are dying.”
Whispers filled my head as if from the stars themselves and I suddenly realised what was in his palm. The Imperial Star. “It is done, father of the flames.”
Hail spoke another word to it which I didn’t understand before speaking to it once more.
“Protect my people from foreign invaders,” he asked and the star’s reply filled my head.
“They shall be protected,” it whispered.
The vision faded away and my breaths came quicker as I found myself on a battlefield with Hail in bloodied armour and hundreds of dead bodies stretching out before him and his army.
Lionel stood at his side as Hail flicked his gaze to a town beyond the dead and turned to walk away. Lionel caught his arm, speaking in his ear and his voice sailed to me on the wind.
“Leave none alive, everyone in the town must die. And they must die at your hand. This is your decision, you shall forget it was ever mine,” he growled, his voice thick with Dark Coercion and I wanted to cry out and stop the power from taking root in my father, but his eyes blackened and he turned to look at the town once more. He ran forward and his huge Order split apart from his skin.
His Hydra form was enormous, as large as a building as he took off into the sky on leathery wings, all the eyes of its many snake-like heads directed at the town. Screams carried from the villagers and magic twisted up into the sky as they tried to defend themselves. Lionel watched with an envious expression as the King blasted the town to ruin with purple fire pouring from his lungs.
Tears wet my cheeks as women and children were destroyed beneath his impossible power and the real monster stood observing it all with a twisted smile on his lips.
The vision shifted and Hail knelt on the huge balcony beyond his bedroom again, clutching the Imperial Star in his hand as he whispered to it in desperation. “Help me, I don’t know my mind anymore. I don’t know who I am. Why do I do the things I do? I need to know what’s wrong with me. Let me see things clearly,” he begged of the star in his palm and my heart twisted painfully as I watched our father break. He spoke words to it that I could barely comprehend, the magic in them clear as they buzzed through the air and the star shone brighter in his palm.
Whispers filled my head from it in answer. “I lie in the palace of the flames. Where the ground is deep and the dead are old. Where the last of them lie. Only there shall you find peace.”
“What does that mean?” Father demanded. “Please, let the madness stop.”
“Keep the broken promise,” the star answered.
“What?” he growled, but the light went out in his palm and as he spoke a strange word to it again, it pulsed with light, but only answered him in riddles.
“Give me back my mind,” he gasped at last, clutching it to his chest in desperation as he stared up at the sky. “No more shall die at my hand.”
“It is not your hands,” the star whispered and Hail groaned because he didn’t understand. And it hurt me, because I did. I knew the truth, and it looked like he’d died without ever knowing it.
The vision fell away and we were suddenly looking at our own reflections once more. I dragged my eyes up to meet Tory’s and found tears tracking down her cheeks too.
“He wasn’t a savage,” she rasped and I moved toward her, the two of us embracing hard.
“It was Lionel, all fucking Lionel,” I growled and she cursed him with every swear word she knew.
“He has to die,” she snarled, even though she looked a little ill at the idea thanks to the bond he’d put on her. “He has to pay for our mother and our father.”
“And he has to pay for what he did to you,” I said in a deadly voice and she winced as she drew back, grappling with the Guardian bond.
“But I also can’t bear the thought of him dying,” she croaked, clutching her heart and it pained me to see her that way.
“When he’s gone, you’ll be free,” I promised and she nodded, though I could see the desire in her to bite back at me over that. And
it killed me. “The stars wanted us to see this,” I went on and her features hardened.
“How can we even trust them after everything?” she hissed as we got to our feet and I gazed around the pit which had once served as an execution ring, a shudder rippling down my spine.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But there must be a reason they showed us this. Maybe they’re on our side in some ways.”
“Gabriel says they don’t pick sides,” she muttered and I nodded. But why would the stars give us this information if they didn’t want us to fight Lionel? Or maybe it was all just part of some bigger, crueller plot I couldn’t see yet. I knew the stars couldn’t lie, but I still never understood why they showed us what they did.
I guessed all we could do was take what we’d been gifted and use it against Lionel as best we could. Because there was one thing we now knew for sure, the Imperial Star held unimaginable power. And if Lionel ever got his hands on it and it granted his wishes, the whole of Solaria was doomed.
I sat in my chair beside the fire in King's Hollow, my elbows on my knees as my hands trailed down towards the wooden floor. I leaned forward, letting my head hang as I just looked at the space between my feet and tried to focus on the positives. But shit, sometimes it was really hard to see any positives in the world right now with Father on the throne and nothing ever seeming to go our way in the fight against him.
It wasn't long since classes had finished, and Roxy had been taking part in them for a few weeks now without anyone seeming to realise she was no longer fully under Father’s thumb. We had to keep giving her the antidote to the Order Suppressant whenever Father or Mildred dosed her, but I was just relieved that the shadows didn’t suck her back in the moment she lost contact with her Phoenix. She was herself again, though she was clearly still a prisoner too. I knew it was endlessly better than it had been before, but I still despised her having to pretend.
It meant she was alone all day, keeping to herself while she sat with the K.U.N.T.s and maintained her cover. I hated that she had to do that. That after months of being cut off from everyone she was still segregated so much. But with the bond between her and my father still linking her to him, we didn't have many other options right now. I just wished I could do more about it. He had me backed into a corner and I was desperate to break free and prove to the world that you couldn’t tame a Dragon.
Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne Page 35