Restless Stars (Zodiac Academy, #9)

by Caroline Peckham

Death couldn’t have me now or ever, because I belonged to her. I would lay in no grave until our life was well-worn and her smile had brightened thousands of glorious days. We were meant to rise with tomorrow’s sun, and I would see that dawn in with my love by my side come what fucking may.

Damn straight you are forbidden to die

“I have been ordered to join the battle,” Tharix replied. “I’m just trying to decide which side to fight on.”

Yeess

“I’m headed for the Jade Castle,” I told him. “And when I get there, I plan on decapitating our father. Do you have any issue with that?” Tharix grinned. “Do you know, just this morning, I was thinking how much better he would look without a head. It will match with his missing hand.” I held out for all of a few seconds before barking a laugh and grinning back at the brother who I hadn’t asked for but now found myself lumped with. “Well, maybe we are related after all.”

I bounced, flipped over and then cursed as sparks of lightning bit into my blood-slicked palms where I slid down the long slope of the Dragon’s wing. “Dante?” I called through a laugh of surprise and endless gratitude. The enormous Storm Dragon grunted in confirmation before jerking his wing and tossing me up onto his back. My laughter fell into a whoop of excitement as Dante dropped out of the clouds at speed and I was almost hurled right off of him again.

Thank god

“For the True Queens,” I rasped, raising my flail high before my arm went limp at my side, Justin’s dead weight stealing the last of my breath. My eyes became hooded as I clung to consciousness, wishing for one more glimpse of my salamander before I stepped into the nevermore where my sweet Mama and dear Daddy awaited me. I could feel them close by, guiding me away, but oh, if only I could stay. If only, if only.

I hate this book

“From mountain tops to sandy dunes, my love will live for you everywhere,” I promised, trying to reach for him, but there were no more dandyhops in me now. No more kinkypunks or dangadongs. I was done for. “I love you, Gerry, just don’t say goodbye. I can fix this,” he said in desperation, tears caressing his beautiful face, and oh how this man should never know such pain. If only I could take it away, and not be the source of such misery. “Tell me I made them proud,” I begged. “You did, of course you did.

Literally sobbing

“You gave them the good what-for and the best of the Grus name,” Daddy boomed, and panic rose in me over that crushing truth. I was exiting the land of the living. I’d leave them all behind, and I shuddered, shaking off the call of that misty path, reaching for life instead, seeking my Maxy, my treasured Tory and darling Darcy, but I couldn’t find a way back.

SHut up hamish?!

“Come to us, dandybug,” Daddy encouraged,

Ni

“Her soul is teetering like a tally two-whacker,” Mama gasped, and then she was fading, my guiding star drawing me back to him with the lulling rhythm of his Siren song. “Our love goes with you like the tinkling wind at your back! Keep it as close as a dingy stick in the face of the devildust!” Mama called and I tried to speak with her, but that path of death was closing to me now, one of life gushing closer instead.

And when his song was done, his eyes cracked open, and there he found me healed and whole, returned from the brink of doom. “Gerry,” he gasped, leaning down to kiss me, his taste so sweet upon my lips. I kissed him back, stealing but a single moment of impossible hope upon his mouth before he pulled me upright and I found myself standing in his air shield on a field of devastation. A quarter of my Starfall Legion had been torn to smithereens, but those who had survived were regrouping, reforming, crying out in glee when they saw me rise among them.

“It’s getting deeper. Too deep,” I gasped. “I never thought it could get too deep.” Elaine slapped me, jolting my emotions back into focus, the bite of pain making me think of only my own body for a moment and I offered her a weak smile of apology. This was the woman I had fallen in love with. The strict principal who was as rough with me as I needed her to be.

Least she tames him

our dear queen Darcy who had flown down from the clouds to clash with a tangle of enemy Elementals, her youthful body no doubt wrung out and heaving with exhaustion, but still she drove on towards the climax she yearned for, her stamina knowing no bounds.

Wow hate that

Elaine screamed as the Nymph drove its probes into her heart and I screamed too, wailing at the stars for her sacrifice and the end of all I had loved in this world. She had suffered so much in the months before this fight, caught in the web of the False King’s penetrating mind, and now she was gone.

Wha....wtf

I thrust myself against the cannon, ice pouring from me and filling that hole, filling it deep and hard and all the way to the brim. I filled that hole like no other could and slapped my leopard print speedo-covered hiney over the top of it for good measure, half a second before the whole world went boom around me.

This chapter is so...

Death came so quick and sudden that I barely felt the hand that snatched me into its grasp, but I smiled as I sensed those waters sucking me down.

Holy shit

I held out my hand and Seth took it. “I need to meet Gabriel. Are you coming with me, or do you want to return to the fight?” I asked. Seth tightened his hold on my hand, and I forced myself to stifle my tears at the pain I found simmering in his earthy brown eyes. “I’ll fight,” he said roughly, and I nodded before launching us into the sky.

God my boy im so sad for him

“Fight hard, and if it comes to it, die well,” I told him as I wrapped him in my magic and prepared to launch him away from me. “Same to you, my Queen,” he growled and then he was gone, hurled across the battlefield with the full strength of my air magic, his sword raised high above his head as he descended on the foul beast from above.

“I take it you’re responsible for the genitals?” I asked, pointing at one of the statues which had no pants carved onto its frame and instead had its very anatomically correct dick on show. “Well, I was until Gabe got all cranky about it and said they need to wear pants. So there’s only like fifty with their cocksickles and tatas on show.”

Leon.... I cant

“Darcy is out there.” I pointed towards the battlefield and the sayer Dragons all clambered up the side of the crate, hopping onto me.

Babies!!

I reached for the statue who stood at the front of the ranks, his imposing body of clay towering over me, his faceless head angled towards the battle beyond my back as though he were simply waiting for my command. But clay warriors could not fight an army. Even if an earth wielder wanted to command them, they could never take control of so many at once. No, what these statues needed were souls.

Excuse me

“Tory,” Gabriel murmured, reaching out to grasp my shoulder. “I saw your death. This magic is going to demand too much of you. You need to stop.”

Omg...

If the price of this was what I feared, then it wouldn’t just claim me. Darius would be torn from this place alongside me, torn away from all I had promised him when I’d stolen him back from the clutches of death.

Fuck this

“We are dying,” I said, my voice a strangled rasp which I only hoped had found its way beyond The Veil. I thought of my mother and father, knowing they would be drawn closer to me in my grief. I prayed to them and poured my power into the cold clay before me. “We need you now more than ever before.”

Holy shit wait???? We are bringing mom and dad to fight??!

“I don’t beg you,” I hissed, my bloodied fingers painting a final rune onto the clay despite the way my hand shook, and the ether ripped pieces of me away chunk by chunk. “I am Tory Vega, daughter of the Savage King, sister of Darcy Vega and rightful queen of this fucking land. I. do. Not. Beg.”

“Roxy,” I panted, feeling her grip on life loosening, chains of power dragging her from me. “Hold on,” I gasped even as my own grasp on this place wavered too, The Veil thinning, showing me that place which I had vowed to stay well clear of for far longer than this.

FUCK

“I told you they’d become far greater than you or I,” a woman spoke from beside him and I whirled to my mother, falling into her embrace and releasing a choked sob of longing. I could still feel the cold clay of the statue’s body which she had taken residence in, but on top of that was the feeling of her, of a mother’s embrace which I had never known. “You came,” I breathed in awe.

OMGGGGGG

“You have until the battle is won, one way or another,” a rasping voice spoke at my back, and I turned to find The Ferryman there, his cowl pulled low to hide his features, his paddle gripped tightly in his fist as though even here, he stood with one foot in the river of the dead. And if I strained my ears, I was sure I could hear it flowing. “Make it count.”

“Lance is down there,” Azriel growled, drawing his sword, the pommel remaining as stone while the blade seemed to form out of pure light. “And he needs me.”

Yes he does!

“You died?” I breathed, the grief hitting me like a stab to the chest, but Washer just shrugged. “I can’t think of anything I’d have rather given my life for.”

Im so sad over this asshole

“There is someone else you should meet, son,” Hail murmured, and he turned to a statue which was just waking at his back, a dark-haired man appearing within the stone who blinked up at the sky in awe before dropping his gaze and staring with abject longing at Gabriel. “Come, Marcel,” my mom encouraged and the man who I realised was Gabriel’s biological father stumbled closer to meet his son.

Omg yay

“Here,” Gabriel said, lifting two swords from the ground, the ones he and my sister had been wielding for some time. The black one belonging to my father and the white to my mother. “The Savage King and his Queen cannot be without their weapons.”

Eeeee

“Tell the poor choice,” Hail murmured in my ear as we prepared to charge into war. “He did…okay.” “Darius?” I asked, a smile lifting my lips for a brief moment. “Did he help in this?” “He offered his power to you while you were balancing on the edge and together, you managed to open the way. But when this door closes, I expect the two of you to stay on this side of it for a long time yet. Understood?”

I gasped as I spotted Diego, a bright smile on his face and no hat to be seen. “Let’s kill those pendejos, mi reina.” “About fucking time,” Hail rumbled. “For Solaria!” I yelled so that every one of them could hear me. “And for Lionel’s fucking head!”

Omfg!!! Im crying at work

I had found peace beyond The Veil with my abuela once the shadows had been cleaned, our souls released from darkness and released to our rightful places of death along with all the other lost Nymph souls. But

Omg yay

“Is he dead?” she asked, concern written into her features, though she didn’t seem to care that she was butt naked and covered in blood. “I just look it,” Orion growled, shoving himself up as his broken bones finally fused back together. “Good. Because your girl would have been pissed at me if you’d died on my watch, stronzo.” Rosalie grinned then turned and took a running jump onto Dante’s back as he swept past again.

My baby!!!!!

“This is dangerous,” he said, and I nodded because no matter how fucking amazing it was, I could tell that was true plainly enough. “Never again. Just today,” I swore and the look we exchanged told of how difficult it was going to be for us to resist this temptation and keep to that vow.

God you better keep that vow

“Seth,” I took a step towards him then stopped, looking to Orion who was glancing between Seth and the direction Darcy had fallen. “You go after your guy, I’m going after my girl,” he said. “We might not see each other again,” I replied tightly, and he nodded, stepping forward and tugging me into a tight embrace. It was brief and full of despair, but as we parted, I could see this was it now. We were teetering on the edge of oblivion, and there was only one person each of us should have been with in the face of our demise. “Take care, brother,” I said, our hands clasping before his shield evaporated.

Ahh

“I’ll bring a plague of Nymphs back to take your head, Savage Whore!”

Rude

“You will never speak of her like that again. I will assure it.” Orion ripped the man’s head off with his hands and let it fall from his grip, and my heart raced at the sight.

Oh

Hadley burst into view carrying Grayson and Athena under his arms, both of them wearing make-shift clothes and armour created by the power of earth. Hadley placed them down, his mouth wet with blood and his eyes dark with horrors.

Omg they're ok

“Please, wait. Don’t kill me,” she gasped in terror, and I dropped the concealment spells and silencing bubble, revealing myself to her. Her eyes widened, recognition racing over her soft features.

Oh shit

“Why now?” I asked darkly. She gulped, her throat bobbing against my palm. “Because I’ve been a coward for too long. And… I want to be brave. I want to make a choice which is entirely my own. If only once.”

The jade of the castle magnified the power of the defuser, and with the glacia crystal’s amplifications qualities, the whole contraption lit up in a bright blue glow. It buzzed and hummed, the crystals all coming to life within it and the whirring of power crackled through the air.

A little coral-coloured sayer dragon was floating down from the sky on outstretched wings, sinking into the centre of the group of guards. My gaze met with the tiny creature’s and I swear it winked at me half a second before a blast of magic erupted from it in a flash of golden light. I threw my hands up to shield my eyes and when I opened them again, every one of the guards was screaming as the flesh melted clean off of their bones.

Omh lol

The raining droplets of power hit my wings, doing nothing to me, but it was sure as fuck doing something to those weapons mounted on the backs of that legion of shifters. As the power washed over them, they exploded, the power of the defuser driving into them and breaking the mechanisms. The blasts killed the shifters wearing them, rendering the guns entirely useless. Some of the beasts fought to get free of the contraptions, but it was too late, each one reaping what they’d sowed.

DAMN

made a vow to end you for the death of my beloved friend, Angelica,” I told her. “And I am yet to ever break my word.” With a twist of my wrists, the water surrounding Mildred’s head turned to ice, her body thrashing with panic beneath me as it dug into her skull, crushing her foul head and all the foul thoughts housed within it, piece by piece. She dropped out of the sky, her entire body jerking with panic, and I tipped my head back to release a trio of howls from my lips as I rode her to her demise.

Fuck yes!

Max caught me before I could follow her into her grave, and I chuckled as I turned in his arms then patted him fondly on the cheek. “That’ll do, starfish,” I told him. “How many times do I have to tell you not to-” I pressed my fingers to his lips and shushed him. “Be a dear and don’t dither about the danberry bush.

My eyes glazed, shock leaving me frozen, arms leaden. I felt my inner Wolf cub crawling away into the darkest, safest, numbest place it could find inside me, refusing to come out again. Caleb stepped closer, casting a wall of earth around us to keep us shielded from any oncoming attacks. “Seth,” he growled, gripping my arm. “You’re so fucking strong. Don’t let them break you now after everything.”

To finish every last one of the False King’s warriors at the side of my Moon Mate and dress myself in their blood.

“King actually,” I corrected, and his pupils dilated before he fell sobbing to the ground before us and began begging for his miserable life. “King?” Tharix asked casually, flicking a hand at the man so a snake of shadow shot for him before yanking him away into the darkness beyond the tapestry. His cries of terror were muffled to the point of inaudible thanks to the roar of battle which permeated the walls, and Tharix turned his attention from him immediately. “Did you fail to mention the consort part intentionally for dramatic effect?”