“Stop,” I said but it came out husky, more like a plea for him to continue than anything else. After coming so close to losing him again, all I wanted to do was pull him nearer and never let go. But there was still an abyss parting us that couldn’t be crossed. “It wasn’t your fault.”
He pushed to his feet, not letting go of my hand as he towed me after him with a harsh and distant expression dawning on his face. I eyed his wrists, noticing the shadow cuffs were gone and it made me feel so fucking good that I’d finally been able to free someone else from Clara’s dark control. And maybe I’d be able to do it again.
We walked through the large, empty halls of Gabriel’s house and I peeked into the beautiful nursery with light blue walls and an array of stuffed toys in the cot from a giant snake to a fluffy lion with a dark mane. Orion was quiet and brooding, his jaw continually flexing as if he was struggling with some demon inside him. We made it downstairs to a large kitchen built of beautiful honey wood and cream fixtures. He led me to a stool at the island with five seats, picking me up and planting me on it before heading to the fridge. I frowned in surprise, gazing at the taut muscles of his back as he started taking out food and piling it on the counter.
“I’m not hungry,” I said, taking Diego’s hat from my pocket and laying my Atlas on the island. “We need to-”
“You’re gonna eat,” he growled in his bossy professor tone and my lips pursed.
“No… I’m going to try and find out what Diego wanted us to see through his hat.” I moved to put it on but he shot toward me, snatching it away and shoving it into the back of his waistband.
“You’re gonna eat first,” he reiterated, placing his hands on my thighs to keep me in my seat, making anger and lust wash together inside me. He was intoxicating when he was up this close, his breath on my skin making me heady. But I wasn’t going to give in to the raging emotions in me because if I fell for his allure tonight, I’d never stop falling.
I pushed his hands away, slipping out of my seat, but he didn’t move a single inch so I was caged in by his arms and trapped in the delicious cinnamon scent of his bare chest.
“Give it back,” I growled, fighting to keep my voice level. I was not in the mood for an argument after all the shit we’d just been through.
“No,” he said simply, grabbing my hips, lifting me up and planting my ass back on the seat, crowding in even closer to me. Dammit, I didn’t want a fight but he was asking for one.
“Lance,” I warned, holding out my hand. “Give it back.”
He leaned near to my face, his breath brushing against my lips and tasting like a cardinal sin. “Not. Until. You. Eat.”
I reached around his back to try and grab the hat and he shot away with his Vampire speed. The second he stopped running, I used a whip of air magic to pluck it from his waistband.
I caught it and cast a dome of air around myself as he sprinted forward to try and grab it again. I smirked as he crashed into my shield and he growled. He opened his mouth, no doubt to try and boss me about so I lifted the hat, defiantly tugging it on.
Everything went dark and I was half aware of falling off of my chair before my mind drifted into the pitch. Someone’s hand was gripping mine as the power of the shadows drew me into them and something in my soul told me it was Diego. Emotion clutched my chest and I was caught between sadness and joy at feeling his presence again. My friend. A boy who’d given his life for me, for the whole kingdom really. He’d tried to stop Clara and shown what his soul was truly made of.
The shadows wound around me but couldn’t get beneath my skin as they carried me down, down, down into an eternal darkness. Orion’s presence drifted closer and I felt him pulling on my consciousness demandingly. But I wasn’t going anywhere. I exerted my will, forcing him to come with me as I fell into the black and suddenly a cloud of white opened up ahead of us, flashing with the memories of the past.
I felt the weight of it in the atmosphere, a thousand lives, a string of ancestors stretching back hundreds of years. The hand slipped from mine and I glimpsed two dark eyes among the mist a moment later, my heart tugging with recognition.
“Diego,” I said, but the name only sounded in my head. I reached for the cloud of memories, a deep need filling me as I searched for my friend.
I felt his hand wrapping around mine once more, pulling me in and I sensed his need to show me what waited in the fog.
I tumbled into a memory, seeing through the eyes of someone who was playing with shadows in their palms, sitting in front of a large fire. There were Fae sitting around it on logs and an old woman perched on her left, adjusting the girl’s palms as the shadows danced along her skin.
“That’s it, Lavinia,” she said, tugging a fur tighter around her shoulders. “You have such a talent for it.”
“I still can’t wield them like, Nisar,” I complained, my voice Lavinia’s as I relived the memory from her point of view.
I scowled over at the boy who always held everyone’s attention with his gifts and a bitter jealousy filled me.
“You’re only fourteen, in time you will wield them better than anyone in our tribe,” the old woman said. “You’re destined for greatness.”
“Do you really think so?” I asked.
“I know so. It’s written in the stars.”
“Don’t tell her stories,” a large, bearded man called over with a scowl. “My daughter is destined to produce babies and take care of her future husband. Just like all the women in our tribe.”
“I don’t want that, father,” I growled coldly. “I will be a warrior.”
“You will be whatever I tell you to be,” he answered, drinking his ale and an icy hatred ran through me. A hatred I’d felt for a long time for a man who had always favoured my brothers. Always thought of me as nothing.
The vision changed and I sensed that a few years had passed as I watched through the eyes of Lavinia again.
I snuck through the tents of the tribe with a knife in my grip, slipping into one where my father was passed out drunk in a bed with two women. I crept up to the bed of furs and wielded the shadows as I’d been practising day and night. My power over them had grown immensely and as I felt them out in my father and the whores, I locked them down tight. Father jerked awake, but couldn’t move as I held onto that power in him, a thrill buzzing through me at how easy it was. I smiled viciously, climbing onto the bed and toying with the blade in my hand as Father’s eyes flashed with fear.
“You never should have underestimated me, Father.” I leaned down, holding the tip of the blade of his chest.
He jerked against the power of the shadows but I was immensely gifted. More gifted than anyone in the tribe. I stabbed him hard in the chest, then again and again before striking at the women too, relishing their pain. Blood coated my flesh and I licked it from my lips as I destroyed the man who’d kept me down, who refused to acknowledge my greatness. And I whispered my deepest desire in his ear as he died, “I will be a queen.”
The vision changed once more and sickness filled me as I could still taste the iron tang of blood in my mouth. I felt myself slipping into Lavinia’s memory once more.
I rode a horse, charging across a battlefield with my hands raised and shadows tearing around me, ripping through the hearts of other Fae who wielded their Elemental magic against me. I turned my head and my heart swelled at the sight of the huge army of magnificent beasts running behind me, smashing through our enemies.
Shock ran through me. The tribe weren’t Fae at all, they were Nymphs. And so was Lavinia.
I cast the shadows at the Fae ahead of me, cutting through their bodies. They looked poor, their clothes worn and their faces gaunt. Though they tried to fight, nothing could stop my power and they were soon bleeding and screaming for mercy. A mercy I would not give. I was the ultimate power in this land, and I would do whatever it took to claim my rightful place as Queen.
The Fae were forced to surrender and the Nymphs declared victory before the v
ision changed once more, showing Lavinia and her tribe moving into their new territory, claiming the town as theirs and killing any survivors. I watched through Lavinia’s eyes as she callously murdered a family hiding in a barn and my stomach turned as I wished I didn’t have to see it.
The bodies fell into the mud and a cold laugh left my throat as the Nymphs around me gazed on in fear and respect. I thrived on it, death and power feeding the darkest piece of my soul and making me hunger for more.
The vision changed once more and I sat on a throne made from the curving bow of a tree, placed at the top of a large hill with an ornate stone gazebo standing over it.
A man was escorted toward me, flanked by two Nymphs in their shifted forms while other guards stood watching closely. The man was tall and blonde, his eyes deepest green and I recognised him as the Dragon Master, Octavius Acrux. He was handsome. A man I respected and had quietly coveted from afar.
“Princess Lavinia.” He bowed lowed. “I bring a gift from my family. An offering of peace from the Dragon Guild.” He stepped aside and a large, rectangular object came floating forward on a gust of air he cast. He placed it upright in front of me and moved to tug the silk free from it.
A beautiful gilded mirror was revealed, the frame silver, twisting like vines around its edges, covered in delicate roses. I stood from my throne and gazed at my reflection.
The girl staring back at me was stunning, her hair long and raven, her eyes two purest marbles of blue. She was beautiful, her lips full and wide and her features strong. She looked like a warrior, her body clad in armour, scars marking her arms.
“We want to offer you an alliance,” Octavius said, moving to stand beside the mirror as I admired it. “I know you are seeking to claim the throne from the Vegas, but you haven’t got the numbers behind you to face them. Uniting with the Dragons would make us all strong enough to achieve it together.”
Hope stirred in my chest as I looked to him, but suspicion too. “And how am I to trust you?”
The man dropped down to one knee with a smile, taking out a wooden box and offering me a ring. “Marry me and make a promise on the stars. Our families will be bound by the powers of the heavens. Acrux and Umbra. Our Seer has had a great prophesy. Gaze into the mirror so you can see for yourself.” He gestured for me to step forward and I did so cautiously. I needed this, I wanted to be a queen more than anything else in the world. But I had never wanted to share my throne…
I stepped in front of the mirror and the image twisted, showing me sitting on a large throne in a room full of burning sconces. The throne was made of a deep, ruby red glass, glinting in the firelight. The place was beautiful, the high walls towering and seemingly built from the earth itself. Beside me in another throne of deepest sapphire was Octavius Acrux, his robes crimson and his eyes shifted into reptilian slits, gazing at me adoringly. Across my lap was a beautiful silver sword with a glittering stone in the hilt. I looked happy, in love. So maybe sharing my throne wasn’t unfathomable. If ever a man were to capture my heart, it wouldn’t be so bad if it were this one.
The vision in the mirror faded and I looked at Octavius in awe. “I’ll have the Imperial Star?”
“It will be ours,” he growled. “The Vegas will fall, we’ll claim the Palace of Flames and destroy the last of the Phoenixes.”
“But how will we defeat the Queen?” I asked.
“I know of a dark curse that even her power cannot overcome,” he said with a twisted smile. “Once her army is defeated, you can use the power of the shadows to ensure we can destroy her at last.”
Excitement swelled in my chest and I nodded keenly, accepting the ring from him and the vision changed once more.
I was on a bloody battlefield and Nymphs were falling all around me, Phoenix fire tearing through their bodies and casting them to ash. They raced through the sky on flaming wings, raining down hellfire on their enemies. I fought against Fae on the ground with everything I had. They weren’t just using their Elements to counter my attacks, they were using dark magic, fighting the shadows of my Nymphs with power wielded through bones to enhance their natural magic.
Hatred spilled through me as my gaze fell on the Phoenix Queen hovering above her army, her dark hair spinning around her in the breeze, her face fixed in a snarl. She wore a silver crown on her head and in her hand was the huge sword which held the Imperial Star and had all the constellations of the sky etched into its surface. She held it up, speaking a word to it which I couldn’t hear, but which made the air pulse with shockwaves of power.
A Dragon soared toward her, but a Phoenix man swept past his queen to hold it off, fighting it with huge blasts of fire from his palms.
Though it was day, the stars suddenly shone in the sky, glittering brightly down on the world as blood and chaos reigned.
I panicked as a huge wave of power blasted out from the Imperial Star, sweeping over the entire battlefield. The Nymphs fell prey to its power, crashing to their knees and I fell too, grasping at my chest as some fierce magic took root in me.
A huge fissure opened up in the sky at the command of the Phoenix Queen and the shadows started pouring into it from my army as the dark power was drawn from them, stolen away and cast into the abyss. I screamed in anguish as the shadows were taken from me too, ripped from the centre of my soul and leaving an empty hollowness in my chest which I feared would never be filled again.
When the last of them were drawn into the hole in the sky, it closed up and the Imperial Star stopped shining in the hilt of the sword.
“There will be no more war!” the Queen cried, her voice carrying across the quiet field, desperation in her tone. “And there shall be no more dark magic and no more shadows in our land ever again. From this day forward, it is outlawed. And those who call upon it will face my wrath.”
“No!” I screamed, pushing to my feet. “We need the shadows to survive, we’re not like your kind!”
“You will find a way,” the Queen sneered, calling a retreat to her people, leaving the Nymphs powerless on the ground.
A huge red Dragon swept towards us and my heart lifted as I saw Octavius coming to aid me like he’d promised, backing me to the end and offering one final chance for us to turn this around.
But instead of charging in with tooth and claw to save me, he roared an Order to his army and they turned on my Nymphs, burning them to soot with huge billows of fire from their lungs.
“Octavius!” I cried in horror as the Dragons decimated my army, betraying me and his promise, breaking my heart in two.
How could he do this? He’d promised me the world, made love to me, spoken endlessly of all the things we would have together. How could he betray me after telling me he loved me? Was it all a lie? Some great deceit to lure me here and destroy my kind?
The Dragon Master led his beasts to land beneath the Phoenix Queen, bowing to her as they all roared. She nodded to them and my heart shattered as I watched the world fall around me. My chance at true power stolen away.
The Queen landed before me in her golden armour, her flaming wings folding behind her as she gazed down her nose at me. “This is the end of your reign of terror, Lavinia.”
“You can’t just kill me,” I gasped. “I’m a princess of my kind. There is no other left to lead them.”
“You are nothing but a princess of the shadows now, so you will die with them,” the Queen growled, clutching the Imperial Star in her hand and murmuring something to it.
I pushed to my feet, raising a knife from my hip, but the Queen melted it with nothing but a flick of her hand. Another twist of her fingers sent a blast of air magic crashing into me and I flew back, thrown through a rift between worlds opened up by the Imperial Star once more, dragged away into nothing but shadow.
The dark Element wrapped around my body and consumed me whole, tearing through my flesh until I became one with it. I didn’t die as I expected, as that vile queen expected.
And through the fog and haze of all that pain and
power, I hungered for vengeance and the king I’d been promised in an empty, endless land of darkness, swearing that one day I’d return to claim it.
I was pulled out of the vision, torn from the cloud of memory and suddenly I was wide awake, laying on my back with Orion panting beside me.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “That’s her. The Shadow Princess.”
“Somehow she’s bound to my sister,” Orion said, clawing a hand over his face.
My heart was still racing like crazy as I pushed myself upright, taking the hat off, the power of it quiet now. I pushed it into my pocket and turned to look at Orion, his chest rising and falling frantically.
“She’s trying to fulfil her prophesy, even after all this time,” I said in shock and he nodded, looking to me with a crease between his eyes.
“I have so many questions,” he said, his gaze alight with all the information we’d been fed.
That dark magic had once been used by all those Fae. That the Nymph Princess and the Acrux Dragons had been aligned once before.
I got to my feet and started pacing as excitement ran through me.
Orion sat up, watching me pace with a hopeful smile and my gaze snagged on the dimple in his right cheek. “This proves my sister is still in there. She’s being controlled by the princess.”
“We’ll save her,” I swore to him as I had once before. “We’ll find a way. Maybe the hat will show us more.”
“Blue,” Orion said as I continued pacing, but I couldn’t stop.
“Maybe there’s some answer here, something that can help us. Did you see all those Phoenixes? They must be my ancestors-”
“Blue…”
“But what happened to them? Did the Dragons eventually destroy them? But how?” My mind ran through everything at a hundred miles an hour. I felt excited, like we were on the cusp of knowing something life changing but I didn’t know what.
“Blue,” Orion shot in front of me, gripping my crop top in his fist.
“What?” I demanded, looking up at him in surprise as my heart juddered.
“You’re going to be a queen,” he growled. “Just like your ancestor. I can feel it, I fucking know it.”
Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne Page 67