Beyond the Veil (Zodiac Academy, #8.5)

by Caroline Peckham

“Never think that you are not enough,” Hamish growled, his grip on me tightening, and he took my jaw in his hand, locking his gaze with mine as he seemed to peer directly into my soul. “You fought with all you had, unflinchingly and without fear, giving yourself entirely to a fight that could have righted the world. You fought for love and justice, and you should have won. I am endlessly proud of you, dear boy. Endlessly, utterly proud of the man you proved yourself to be.”

“Roxanya Vega was right to deny your bond when it was offered,” my mom added. “Because it was the push you needed to find yourself, to become the man I had always known you could be. You set out to prove yourself worthy of her love, but in finding what was needed to do so, you became so much more. I have been proud of you from the first moment I held you in my arms, but I am honoured to have been there to watch you step into your destiny as fully as you did.”

“I will tear the heavens apart for this,” Roxanya Vega snarled, the curse of a true queen lashing across the heavens and scoring them with her conviction. “I will shred your world to pieces and rip your hold on destiny from your fucking fists with blood and fire and vengeance for this,” she screamed at the stars, her power making the ground beneath me tremble, magic unlike any I’d ever felt before burning its way between the realms as she forced the stars to take note. “On my life, I curse you. On his life, I curse you. And for our fate, I’ll end you!”

If she refused our fate, then I would too. I would fight with whatever power remained to me and use whatever I could to see an end to this injustice. If there was any way for us to reunite our souls once more, then I would give all I had to do so. There was only her. My one, my only, my wife.

“You can do this. You were born to wear the crown, and you can bear the weight of it no matter how heavy it becomes,” I swore to her.

“Defy the stars,” I said fiercely, willing her to do so with all I was and all I had.

“Merissa,” I growled. “Have you forgotten what he did?” “He offered up his life for those he loves, including our children.” She whirled on me, gaze full of fire. “He has redeemed himself in my eyes.” “I believe he has balanced out the scales, returning him to ground zero,” I said.

“When one falls to the dark, the other shall be their guiding light,” Merissa murmured with a frown, those words familiar to me.

In all honesty, I had no further interest in my Acrux heritage. I was happy to leave all claims to it behind in the taking of my wife’s name. I was a Vega now.

“He saw the Savage King dead, boy,” Radcliff growled. “Hail Vega was the most powerful Fae of our time-” “That time is done,” I replied firmly. “But the time of the Phoenixes is beginning now. They will rise to power. And I will be there to help see it come to pass.”

“The one where I swore to love and protect your daughter with all that I was for all the time I had in that world and the next. The one that I joined her in when she vowed to change our fate at the cost of the stars if that was what it required. She has sworn to defy destiny in the matter of my death, and I have sworn to do all I can to defy it too. So will you help me, or would you rather allow your distaste for me to leave her grieving and alone for the rest of her life?” I demanded. Hail sighed heavily. “I preferred the blonde one,” he grunted.

“You mean the Vampire who threw Roxanya off of a roof and broke her spine in a blood frenzy?” she asked sweetly. “Honestly, Hail, next you’ll be saying you preferred the mortal who drove her off of a bridge and left her to drown.” Hail straightened at the reproach, his attention shifting from his wife to me once more. “I did rather enjoy watching you beating the shit out of that son-of-a-bitch,” he said to me, and my lips lifted in a grim smile.

“I’m here,” I promised her again. “And I’m not giving up. We’ll rip The Veil to shreds if that’s what’s required for us to be together again. I’m yours Roxy. There is only you,” I swore, holding her tighter while the world fell to ruin in her flames surrounding us. “I’ll burn it all if that’s what it takes,” she breathed and I could have sworn her words were for me, that she’d felt me there, knew I wasn’t giving up. “Then burn it all, beautiful. Every fucking piece of it,” I growled, because whatever the price of our reunion cost, I’d pay it. Anything it took to return to her. Everything it might cost me.

“We are bound now, dear friends.” Wilbur looked between us ominously. “This here hollow is ours to protect. A fortress built of courage and gallantry.” He raised his hands, wielding the wood in the wall opposite and marking down four letters. “K for Kipling, I for Imai, N for Night, and G for Grus.” Wilbur jutted up his chin. “King’s Hollow this shall be, now and forevermore.”

Roxanya Vega taught me to defy the stars in all things and I have never once regretted it when I followed her advice.

When all hope hinges on a promise forged of lies, Beware the threaded minds of blood and chaos. Unlikely friends and broken bonds may shift the tide, Cleave open the walls of the lost in the depths of the unholy night. Unleash the souls tethered in the tainted dark, Unite the rising twelve and toll the bells of fate.