Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne

by Caroline Peckham

  “I had no choice,” he snarled and I wheeled around to face him.

  “If you say that one more time, I’m going to blast your head off with Phoenix fire.”

  His eyes darkened, narrowing to slits. “You don’t understand,” he hissed.

  “I understand perfectly actually. I understand that you betrayed me, that you broke my trust. The one thing you knew was nearly impossible for me to give you. But I did, because I thought I could rely on you, that you would always be there. But you stopped fighting for me and I was the idiot who was actually surprised.”

  “I never stopped fighting for you, Blue,” he growled, boxing me in against the wall and my heart clenched at the use of that name. “I just stopped fighting for us.”

  “Same difference,” I said icily as fire blazed in my palms in warning, but he didn’t back down.

  “Wrong,” he snapped in his damn professor tone and I held my breath, wondering if he was actually going to give me an explanation at last. “Everything I did was for you. And I would do it again and again, because despite how much this fucking kills me, you’re still on the right path to become a queen of Solaria. And if I’d done anything different, you would have lost your place at Zodiac Academy, your name would be ruined by your relationship to me. I was going to prison either way, and I saw one way that wouldn’t drag you down with me. So I took it. And if that makes me an asshole then I don’t give a fuck. If you hate me for the rest of my life, I will swallow it because I will not be the reason you lost your chance to claim the throne.”

  Tears blurred my vision but I blinked them back as anger welled up in me. “You had no right to make that choice for me.”

  “I know,” he said in a grim tone. “I didn’t take pleasure in it. But I’d still make it every time.”

  I shook my head at him, my heart thundering furiously against my ribs. “And didn’t you even consider what you going to prison would do to me? How much it hurt knowing you were in that fucking place, that you could have died in there, and that everyone in the kingdom thinks of you as some goddamn predator who manipulated me?” I shoved him to try and get by, to get some air, but he didn’t step back, refusing to let me go. And I was one second from forcing him to.

  He gripped my chin, his chest crushing me back against the wall and suddenly the air was thick and hot and another pulse was pounding in time with mine again somewhere in the tomb. But I couldn’t focus on it through the fog of my mind, my hands sliding up to grip his biceps and squeeze as anger gripped me in an iron fist.

  “I don’t care,” he said, his breath warm and enticing against my mouth. “I knew I could never keep you, Blue. I knew it from the first time we kissed, I just fooled myself into believing it for a while. So when it came to us or you, I chose you. Because I woke up to reality. And real life isn’t nice or easy, it’s fucking quicksand that tries to drag you down the more you fight it. Love doesn’t conquer all this time, because we’re on two different paths. You’re heading to the stars, beautiful, and I’m staying down here in the dirt. That’s just the way it is.”

  “It didn’t have to be,” I hissed, hating him, loving him.

  “Well it’s too late for regrets,” he said darkly. “And I’m sure you’ll enjoy the view of the sky up there with Seth Capella beside you.”

  “What?” I balked, my thoughts totally derailed by that comment. “What’s Seth got to do with it?”

  “Oh, come on,” he scoffed, his fangs on show as he leaned down into my face and my hands grew scoldingly hot against his arms in a threat. “Are you going to deny it right to my face?”

  “Deny what, asshole?” I snapped, my hands blazing hot now, but he still didn’t move, taking the burns rather than letting me go.

  “That you’re together. He likes to send me the updates to rub my face in it,” he spat and the heat slid away from my hands as I saw the hurt in his eyes. “To be honest, you being with anyone else would have broken me, but did you really have to choose the one guy who tried to rip us apart?”

  I reached up to brush my fingers across his cheek, hating the raw pain I saw in his eyes. It cut into me like a knife. “I’m not with Seth, Lance. Never have been, never will be. He’s a friend. That’s all.”

  He tsked like he didn’t believe me and I scowled, my anger rising again. So my word just meant nothing now?

  “You think I’d screw him after what he did to me? We might have resolved our differences, but I wouldn’t just forget that he cut off my hair or that he tried to ruin me at every chance he got. That he messed with us and made it so much harder for us to be together. Do you really think that little of me, Lance Orion?”

  His brow creased, his eyes scouring my face, pausing on my mouth. “No…I think the world of you, Darcy Vega.”

  He grabbed a fistful of my shirt, yanking me forward and suddenly pressed a demanding kiss to my lips. He surrounded me, consumed me. My heart was fit to burst as I tasted the man I’d pined for for so long and I was frozen in shock, torn between wanting him and needing to pull away. But I gave in, falling into temptation as I took a bite of the juiciest apple ever presented to me. I clawed at him as he pinned me back against the wall, a low groan of desperation in his throat making an earthquake roll through to the centre of my being. He tasted like broken promises, but of purest sunlight too. The shattered pieces of my heart sat like broken glass against my tongue, and the longer I kissed him, the more those pieces seemed to draw back together. But it was too late for that. We’d had our shot. He’d hurt me. And he hadn’t once even apologised for it.

  I broke the kiss, furious at myself for giving in and his face was cast in shadow as I looked up at him, my lips bruised and tingling.

  “We can’t,” I breathed.

  “Fuck,” he rasped, stumbling back a step. “No.”

  I didn’t know what to say, but I knew this was the last thing on earth we should even be doing right now. The drumming pulse of magic sounded in my head again and Orion took another step back, his hand going to his throat.

  “Darcy,” he begged and I shook my head.

  “We have to figure out how to get out of here,” I said, my cheeks still burning and my lips stinging.

  “No, Blue,” he said, a fierce warning in his tone and I frowned as I realised his fangs were glinting at me in the dark. The power of this place closed in on me on all sides and I twisted around as I realised he was looking at something over my head. Words lit up across the door in glowing blue letters and my heart juddered in fear as I felt the spell they cast, spilling through the air.

  Royal Vega blood tastes the sweetest.

  Does the monster or the man in you run deepest?

  “Get out of here!” Orion roared, his pupils dilating and fear ran through me as I raised my hands. His upper lip peeled back, the bloodlust in his eyes making his face seem wholly animal. “Darcy - run!”

  "C ome and get me you rambunctious heathens!" I cried, glaring around at the hoard of undead scallywags set to drag me to the netherworld where I'd fallen.

  The Flail of Unending Celestial Karma, as I'd christened it, had fallen from my grasp when the stone sarcophagus I'd been standing upon had crumbled like an underbaked scone and I'd tumbled down here like a fish on a Ferris wheel only to find myself alone in this dark chamber.

  The corpses raced at me while I held firm, my chin high and my water magic keeping them at bay as they tried to swarm me. But I was no floundering Florence, and I wouldn't fall prey to these scoundrels.

  With a battle cry loud enough to set the heavens ablaze, I raced for my glorious flail, diving into a roly-poly and snatching it into my grasp before swinging it at the noggin of the closest devil who’d come to try and taste my flesh.

  "Not today, good sir!" I bellowed. "For I fight with the fire of justice beneath my wings and the shining light of my ladies leading me to success. I will never be vanquished by the likes of you!"

  I swung the heavy spiked ball of my flail overhead and smashed the skull clean
off of one of the braggards before another leapt upon my back.

  "Geraldine?!" Max bellowed, his voice echoing down to me from above.

  "Fight on, you slippery eel!" I called to him. "Take your place defending my lady Tory in this hour of need and turn your mind from my endeavours."

  "I'm coming down to you - just hold on!" he shouted as if he was unable to hear the clear and guiding sound of my voice.

  But I had no time to chastise him as more of the soulless hooligans came for a taste of Grus.

  "No you don’t, you skeletal scoundrels!" I cried, swinging my flail over my head, the flames of glory pouring from it as it blazed with the power of my ladies and I knew that the luck attuned to such a treasure would never fail me.

  I fought with the fluidity of my water Element and the strength of my earth just as my dear papa had always taught me, channelling the pure will of the stars through my every movement while knowing I fought the good fight.

  If I died today in defence of my ladies, then I would go on to join the stars knowing that my sacrifice had been worthy. And yet I had no plans to leave them now. I would be there, watching their ascent to the throne and bathing in the glow of their eternal reign over our kingdom.

  Bone splintered, magic flared and rotting bodies fell apart around me as I fought with the fury of the warriors of old and a fierce determination to get back to my lady and stand firm at her side.

  Just as the final upstart met his doom at the end of my heavy ball of wrath, a salacious salamander dropped down into my cave with a look of relief filling his deep brown eyes.

  "Holy fuck, Gerry, I thought-"

  "There is no time for lollygagging!" I cried, placing a flat palm to his puckered lips as he leaned towards me like he thought a moment such as this was the time for smooching. "We must get back to my lady."

  I raised a hand, wielding the earth to my command and creating a platform which rose us back up towards the graveyard where the battle raged on.

  "I was really worried about you, you know," Maxy boy growled as he moved closer, cupping my jaw in his grasp and causing an earthquake that raced right down to my nether regions.

  "I follow the true and just path of the Almighty Sovereign Society," I said lightly as we rose ever higher. "There is no need to worry for my wellbeing."

  He shook his head like he couldn't understand me and crushed his mouth to mine before I could protest again.

  I gave him a moment of surrender as we rose up to ground level and tore away from him as the moonlight touched our skin again.

  "In the name of the true queens!" I bellowed as I raced back into the melee with my flail swinging in wide arcs around my head. "May the stars shine ever upon them!"

  O rion rushed at me again and again while I used my Phoenix fire to try and keep him back. But I didn’t want to hurt him, so I cast flash fires at his feet, trying to slow him down enough to just keep him away. I could feel the power of the spell he was under, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  There was no way out. Nowhere to run.

  I backed up against the far wall, casting an arc of fire in front of me to try and hold him off.

  “Lance, stop!” I screamed as he lunged through it and I extinguished the flames fast so I didn’t kill him. The only thing worse than ending up dead myself, was him dying instead.

  His hand wrapped around my throat and he pinned me to the wall, his fangs bared and his eyes swirling with nothing but hunger. He wasn’t there. He was a vessel starving for blood and I was terrified that there was only one way this would end.

  He lurched forward, shifting his hand to try and get his teeth into me, but suddenly I was falling, the wall behind me spinning backwards. I stumbled into a hidden passage and managed to kick him hard enough to knock him off of me.

  I twisted around and sprinted away down a steep set of stairs that spiralled off into the pitch darkness.

  Orion shot after me and I released a flash of fire behind me with a cry of fright, making him growl like a beast and fall back. My feet hit the bottom of the stairway and I ran, finding myself in a winding maze, the corners tight and pressing in closely either side of me. The flames in my hands were the only light as I took turns at random, hearing a rush of air as he raced after me with the speed of his Order and I threw fire in different directions to throw him off the hunt. He growled in fury as he took wrong turns, but he was so close, his heavy breaths reaching me from just beyond the wall to my right. The only thing keeping me alive was pure luck, but it was going to run out. It had to.

  I ran faster, left, right, left, right, my mind spinning as I got lost in the endless passages. I moved as quietly as possible, but every footfall I made sounded like a thunderclap in my ears. Terror bled through me and clouded my thoughts. Just keep going. Don’t stop.

  I raced around a final corner as the rush of air behind me drew nearer. I had a second to act as I sprinted out into the centre of the maze, finding rows and rows of statues ringing a large sarcophagus. The statues were made of stone, standing tall and imposing in the shape of warriors.

  The sound of the pulsing, pounding magic filled my head again, louder than my own heartbeat and I knew in my soul the Imperial Star was close.

  I dove behind one of the statues and held my breath, making myself as small as possible as I tried to hide. I extinguished my flames and was plunged into darkness just before Orion shot into the space.

  I heard him moving through the statues, hunting me down and fear rippled through me. The only thing keeping me safe was the thundering magic from the Imperial Star which must have been veiling the sound of my heartbeat. But if I couldn’t find a way to stop this spell he was under; he was going to find me. And I was surely going to fall prey to his fangs, because I’d rather die than kill the man I loved.

  I hadn't felt this alive in months. The pure, unadulterated power of my Phoenix was burning through my limbs with such intensity that my freaking veins were humming with it.

  Molten fire burst from my hands in a mixture of red and blue and I revelled in the heat of the flames as they stoked my magic and filled me to the point of bursting.

  Darius fought like a warrior beside me, swinging his axe with a two handed grip and carving through the bodies of the dead like he was felling trees. His muscular frame flexed with the power of the blows and my gaze kept travelling to him over and over again.

  A ferocious howl caught my ear from the direction of the gates and I froze as I whirled around to look down the hill in that direction. That wasn’t Seth.

  My blood chilled as I spotted the figures racing up the path towards us, the sound of the pack of hounds baying for our blood making fear wash through me in droves.

  "The Reaper Hounds just broke down the gate!" I yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear me as I pointed in their direction.

  They were too far from us for me to have to worry about looking them in the eyes yet. But their mountainous black bodies stood out as darker shadows within the graveyard, their monstrously large size impossible to miss as they looked more like horses than dogs.

  "We need to run for the tomb!" Darius commanded in a tone that brokered no arguments. "We can make a stand there if we have to and I'll fly us out of here the moment Orion and Darcy return with the Imperial Star."

  The others were still fighting the undead who continued to crawl up out of the ground and I urged my wings to burst free of my flesh as I took to the sky.

  "What are you doing?" Darius demanded, reaching for me as I swept over him and I pointed towards the pack of dogs charging this way.

  "I'm going to make it as hard for them to follow us as I can," I said, ignoring the way he was shaking his head in refusal as I swept away from him over the heads of our friends and further down the path with fire burning in my limbs.

  The moment I was past Max and Geraldine, I swept my hands out either side of me and cast a blazing wall of Phoenix fire across the path to slow the hounds.

  As soon as it was in place
, I dove back to the ground, casting a sword made of nothing but Phoenix fire into my hands as I banished my wings before swinging it at the head of the closest corpse and barking at the others to start running.

  Seth raced up the path ahead of us in his white Wolf form and Caleb shot between the headstones, stabbing corpses with his twin daggers and sending them tumbling to the ground before they even knew he was upon them.

  Geraldine and Max came to run with me and we charged through the crowd of undead, with our weapons swinging and power blazing through the air which made it crackle around us.

  I'd lost sight of Darius and I hunted for him through the throng of corpses as we fought our way up the hill, my heart racing as I looked left and right with fear taking me captive.

  The sound of the Reaper Hounds reaching the wall of fire behind me made my pulse skip as they howled their fury at the sky and I looked back over my shoulder, my gut lurching as one of them leapt right through the flames and landed on the path at the foot of the hill.

  "Oh fuck," I gasped, putting on a burst of speed and dropping my hold on the sword I'd created as I wielded air instead.

  I created a shield around myself, Max and Geraldine then threw it out from my body with the full strength of my power so that the corpses surrounding us were blasted back and we were gifted a free run up the path.

  "Have heart, my lady!" Geraldine cried. "We are true of honour and have the stars at our backs. We cannot fail."

  "The stars are never at my back, Geraldine," I grunted as I ran on. "Those sparkly motherfuckers only ever send me bad luck."

  Geraldine didn't get a chance to answer as we crested the hill and found ourselves surrounded by the undead once more.

  "Brace yourselves!" Darius bellowed and relief filled me as I spotted him standing on top of a stone Dragon that was guarding the entrance to a tomb.