Beyond the Veil (Zodiac Academy, #8.5)

by Caroline Peckham

I leapt to my feet, my fist colliding with the closed gate which had trapped me here, and I bellowed Roxy’s name as my path to her was cut off eternally.

Hate it

“Darius?” My blood chilled as I took in that voice, the soft, gentle embrace of it wrapping around my name as I realised what must have happened if she was here too.

Aww no

“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.”

God hes alive again and this still hurts

“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.

My wife had been a vision in life, and death had immortalised that beauty, the stars always seeming close to her, like she was their prized possession beneath their eternal roof. Though even they could not lay a claim to her that was deeper than mine. They could admire her all they wanted, but they could only envy the king who she had chosen as her keeper.

Dang hail

Them, I could face. I could handle it, but it was the other man who was moving this way that I could not stand to greet. The one who should have remained in the realm of the living with my daughter, bound to her, protecting and loving her.

Im so sad

I may have been long dead, but my wrath was as robust a thing as it had been in the Fae realm. “I will not stand for these fates,” I snarled, moving closer to Merissa. “Keep watching over them, I will go to the stars.”

He deserved that, but far more besides. I would see him through the boundary of The Veil myself, I would walk him on his final path and lay him at the feet of the one they called Crucia.

I hope he can

“Father of the flames,” they spoke, but they did not open the fucking door. “We know what it is you seek. But fate lies not in our hands.” “You are the stars!” I boomed. “If it does not lie with you, then what are you worth? Are you nothing but false gold? Gleaming prettily with no true value at your core?” “You know well that we cannot intervene. Clydinius holds their fates in his grip.” “He is but one star!” I roared, my voice echoing out into the strange clouds around this door. “How can you not have the might to take on just one of your brethren? What greatness do you truly possess if you cannot do this?”

“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.

I moved to take a seat in the ring of stands which circled this room, swiping a hand over my face before settling my gaze on the shimmering orb and seeking out my daughters and son.

AND SON!!! x

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

“It must mean they balance one another. A harmony forged of fire and ice. Between is where they find true peace.”

And Marcel’s of course.

Who?

Irritation stirred within me at the sight of his handsome face, his resemblance to my son too stark to ignore.

Oh.... Gabes father

“I shall do everything in my power to protect my son,” I said fiercely. “As will I,” Marcel said, nodding to me. “I foresaw his life long ago, and I know him intimately.” “Not so intimately as the man who raised him,” I said coolly. “You may have had pretty visions of his life, but I know his truth.”

Ok you can both love him

“I can take it from here,” I told him, but he brushed past me, his wing slapping me in the face, causing me to stumble a step so that he reached Azriel before I did.

Thats def gabes daddy

“Don’t you recognise your own uncle?” the man asked, rolling his shoulders back and lifting his chin.

Omg!

Power blasted from her, and I threw myself and all the power I had into the wards from below just as her magic struck it from above, colliding with it so hard that I broke apart in the explosion that followed.

Hes doing so much im sad

“My daughters have been forged in a fire far hotter than any a Dragon might hope to tame.”

“Which vow was that?” Hail asked. “The one where you swore to chase my daughters out of their academy?

Oh daddy talk time

Hail sighed heavily. “I preferred the blonde one,” he grunted.

Oh lol

“I meant what I said before,” she said softly. “You made up for your poor choices in my eyes as well as in the eyes of my daughter. Besides, I always knew you’d be the one for her. I held you as a baby when I was pregnant, and I saw it.”

Awwwww

“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.

“If you’d stop storming off like a petulant child it would make this conversation pass more swiftly,” Hail ground out. I folded my arms, meeting his scowl dead on, not flinching at what I assumed was an attempt to intimidate me with that whole old, dead asshole glare thing he had going on. “Spit it out then,” I urged.

Aww the are getting along so well

I gave in to the tug, letting Hail and Merissa fade away and finding myself kneeling at my own grave alongside the other Heirs.

Fuck

Vard stood at his side, cupping a jar of lightning to the centre of Gabriel’s chest and unleashing the power of the storm within upon our son.

Its so fucked up they use dantes lightning against gabe

“This is important beyond all bounds,” Merissa breathed, a touch of prophecy to her voice that spoke of the gifts she had once possessed in their fullest. Even now, she could sense fate changing, could pull on the right strings and find paths that were not meant for us. For the dead held no paths.

Ooo

I held baby Roxanya in my arms, my sweet daughter cooing softly and blinking up at me with the biggest, brightest green eyes I had ever seen. Matched only by her twin who Merissa was bouncing on her knee. Little Gabriel was waving a white bunny toy in front of her, and Gwendalina giggled at the sight until he hid it behind her back, and she cracked a sob like she believed it was gone forever. Gabriel brought it back again and Gwendalina’s face immediately lit up while Merissa laughed.

My heart

Merissa arched a brow at me and mouthed, “Stop being an asshole.” I sighed. Though that request was rather late in the game of existence. “Fine,” I exhaled, returning to Marcel’s side and he gave me a hopeful look. “Maybe a birthday? Or, wait, maybe a Christmas. Or, hang on, what about the first time he held a Pitball?” he asked, anxiously bouncing on his toes and fuck I had to pity the man.

Aww omg

I shot him a glare then continued on, leaving them to their mystical fucking connection that they shared without me. Not that I gave a damn.

Lmao hes so jealous

“You know, most men find it in their interest to win the favour of their father in laws,” I said icily. “Was I meant to hold a seance every night to try and contact you? To sing you songs and offer you little trinkets?” Darius asked dryly. “And by the way, how’s your relationship going with Merissa’s father? I hear you had to bribe him and his entire kingdom to let you keep his daughter after you stole her.” “Her father was an arrogant piece of shit who had no time for me whatsoever,” I snapped. “Wow. Sounds familiar,” Darius drawled, and I pressed my lips into a tight line.

Plus I-” He gasped, swiping his hand by his ear and looking left and right in a panic. “Did you hear that? A buzzing sound. Like a bzzz bzzz. A wasp perhaps?” His throat bobbed and he took a step away from the nearest open window.

Same dude

“Just waiting for the dead king to move and I’ll be on my way,” Darius said. “Just waiting for my daughter’s poor choice to move aside, and I’ll be on my way,” I gritted out.

Lmao these two

“They don’t have much time,” Azriel said frantically, clutching something in his hand that looked suspiciously like a crystal. He should have access to no such thing beyond The Veil, but Azriel had often broken rules and found ways to defy the stars that I had always admired.

Just like his son

What horrors was my daughter going to have to endure because of the deeds of our ancestor Queen Avalon?

Stupid bitch

“Useless,” I growled at myself, pacing forward in desperation. There had to be more I could do, had to be a way I could protect her. I could not fail her.

Hes such a good dad

“Stay away from her!” I roared, my fist slamming into the centre of his face and passing through as if he was nothing. But it was me who was nothing, all because of this heinous Fae.

Ugh!

“No, it’s not your time,” I whispered to her. “Stay here in your mate’s arms, stay here where the world will one day be kind to you again.” I pulled my hand away, pressing it to Lance’s shoulder and offering him all the power I possessed, even if it was nothing but the wasted dregs of a lost king. “Save her, bring her back. Don’t let her go,” I demanded of him. His face pinched in terror at the thought of losing his mate, the silver rings in his eyes glowing with their bond. “Protect her like you swore you would!”

This book is so sad

“This is…cosy,” Azriel said, turning slowly to take in the blank walls and blanker floor. “Your taste is very…minimal.” “My taste is fire and ruin tempered by the kiss of a woman who has always and will always be out of my league,” I growled, and the room promptly provided an enormous fireplace with a roaring fire, my battle axe hanging on the mantle above it. No Roxy though.

“Those were platonic sleepovers,” I said, rolling my eyes. “And I was never fucking naked for them-”

Lmao!

It was rather disappointing when I realised the two of you hadn’t actually done the deed.” “By the stars.” I turned away from him, swiping a hand down my face. “Anyway, now I see that he was always meant to be with Gwendalina, er, I mean, Darcy. I think the two of you would have been a little too…well, never mind all that.” Azriel cleared his throat, and I shook my head, wondering how the fuck I’d even ended up having this conversation with him.

Amazing

“Stop,” Merissa snapped, flicking Hail between the eyes and making him curse as he batted her hand away from him. “This is getting us nowhere. Hail, I told you, go with Marcel, he can help you with the stones-”

I love her

“I don’t chill,” I growled.

And lance doesnt snuggle

“See?” I said. “I’m forever drawn to the dark.” “Some would say that makes it more impressive when you continue to find the light.”

Momma Vega is amazing

I frowned, wondering what magic had been used to create such a place where no Elemental power seemed to exist beyond The Veil.

Ether

The spaces between those spots were littered with small objects which glimmered in the pale blue light, buttons, pins, hair clips, cufflinks, jewels, small scraps of cloth in every colour and fabric, each of them stuffed into a crack in the rock, peeking out just a little.

Ariels cove?