Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

“You really would have preferred grave robbing and fighting those monsters to karaoke and sushi, wouldn’t you?” I asked and her eyes flashed with what looked like amusement for a moment as she shrugged. “Definitely.”

Silence stretched and a cool wind blew between the mountains, giving our grief a moment to rise up and have its way once more. “It feels like I’ve lost a limb,” I murmured, my throat thickening as I looked across the mountainous landscape, imagining a golden Dragon tearing across that sky, tumbling through the clouds. Tory didn’t reply but she shifted closer to me, her head falling against my shoulder as she took my hand in hers.

and I could have sworn a note of power radiated from the oath she’d carved into her skin. “I made a promise to the stars to end them for this failure,” she said in a low voice, the cold certainty in her words making the hairs along the back of my neck stand on end. “And I intend to keep it.”

If there was a single Fae in Solaria capable of making the stars themselves tremble with their wrath, then I knew it was Tory Vega. And not even the might of the heavens would save them when that time came.

“Love you, bro,” I added, and his face softened. “Love you too, asshole,” he said.

Tiberius frowned, looking to Max then back to Geraldine. “I’m terribly sorry, my dear, but I have no idea what you just said.”

I definitely didn’t want to go back to war with the Vegas and their friends.

The only times when I’d been free of that was in the company of the Heirs, and more recently the Vegas and my new friends. I wasn’t ready to go back to correcting every move I made that might piss off the masses. Fuck the masses. They could wait until I was done grieving.

“What the fuck kind of horoscope is that?” I asked, my nose wrinkling as I read it over again and Mom growled low in the back of her throat as she dismissed it. “That Vega girl offered Brian Washer a position as a general in her army,” Mom muttered irritably. “And the first thing he thought to do with his new title was to start up a daily horoscope for the rebels.

LMAOOO

because if Washer and his teeny weeny had decided to do this, then I knew there was about as much chance of my mom convincing him to stop as there was of a Lionel revealing himself to be a secret Worm Shifter in his next press release.

All I wanted was the last remnants of the people I loved to be safe.

I stalled as the air glimmered in front of the castle and Caleb and Tory materialised from the stardust, with a large bag made of leaves and something hopeful in their eyes. Relief flooded me at finding them safe and I broke into a run, colliding with them the moment I got there and pulling them both into a chokehold of a hug.

“Hey dude,” Leon called to me. “Wanna help us? We could use another decent earth Elemental over here.” “We don’t need shit. Stop recruiting every asshole who walks by,” Carson grunted, tugging his long hair up into a topknot and offering me an unwelcoming scowl.

I cant wait to read their books

“It’s to distract Gabe,” he announced. “Because his Harpy brain is obsessed with nests, isn’t it great? When he tries to see us, all he’ll see is this amazing nest and he’ll go all pigeon brain on it, cooing happily while he examines every bit of it. We’ve hidden all kinds of fancy sticks inside it, so it’ll keep his mind super distracted, and he won’t be able to see too much of our war plans.”

Her eyes narrowed as I padded forward, my lips peeling back in a snarl. Fight me.

She was the biggest Alpha Wolf I’d ever met, her size almost matching mine,

I love this girl!!!

This girl with her knowing eyes, and little looks in my direction whenever she was close by. Like she held some information I could never understand, and it was time she learned not to rile me.

She knows you and cal are mates you idiot

She snarled, gnashing her teeth in refusal and my bite deepened until she yelped. Come on. Give up. Yield to me. Rosalie managed to get a paw between us, tearing her claws across my face and my jaws unlocked, the pain of the attack making me release her with a whine.

She didn’t keep fleeing like a pup as I expected though, she turned back at the crest of the steep hill, jumping into the air and coming down on me like a ton of bricks, teeth and claws ripping into fur and flesh.

But before I could even begin to heal her, she leapt upright, her tail wagging and a bark of amusement tearing from her throat. She ran the pad of her tongue right up the centre of my bloody face then trotted off with her tail held high, pushing through the crowd and leaving me staring after her, in the grass, naked on my knees. Like a fucking idiot.

There was a bottle of bourbon on the table which they’d been sharing, and I growled, knowing for sure it must have once belonged to Orion. It was his favourite brand. The Silver Circle.

I love that he knows that. Also why am i always obsessed with grumpy vampires that love bourbon

The burn trailed all the way down my throat into my stomach and I revelled in the way it melted some of my anxiety, but hated the way it reminded me of my moon friend.

Had to be. That was his thing. He wouldn’t leave her ever, and as much as I missed them, I had to keep believing they were going to find their way back to us one day soon. Just make it really, really soon, guys.

Literally like hurry uppp

and every time my mind slipped too close to Darius, I was sure I was going to break into a million fragments of childhood memories, pacts made and delivered, friendship forged from the deepest love in the universe.

His dad kinda gave me the heebies sometimes.

Listen to your gut kid

Uncle Lionel had gone craaaaazy on my butt, then Darius had come running in after me and demanded I go home so that he could deal with the situation. There had been this awful kind of tension in the air and Lionel had asked Darius if he was certain he wanted to take on the responsibility for my actions. Darius had shoved me out of the door, holding his chin high as he confirmed that he did.

Oh my god he took the beating for him

Darius sat up next, slinging an arm around my shoulders even though he wasn’t often very touchy. “Forget the mountain,” he said, like he knew. He always knew. I smiled, looking at him and nuzzling his face. “You’re not ever gonna be alone again,” he swore, and my smile reached as high as the moon.

:((((

I pressed play on Bones by Imagine Dragons, the music thundering through the air and filling up my soul.

He murmured a spell under his breath, using the binding stone to knit my nipple back onto my skin before dipping

LMFQ

“You bit Tory,” I spat, the truth pouring out like I’d never had a chance to hold it back. His eyes widened in surprise. “Are you…jealous?” he asked.

Skin to skin contact with him was like a drug, and I was his hopeless addict.

“If you have to go, please be the last one. Please stay until the end. I can’t lose you. Not you.”

“Don’t let this war change you,” he said. “Your optimism is one of my favourite things about you.”

“I envy the way you feel everything so sharply, even when you try to disguise your pain in rage,” he said. “But doesn’t that make me weak, Cal? I feel weak. I can’t contain this pain. It pours out of me like I’m filled with holes. But you’re always so strong. You don’t have cracks, let alone holes.” “Your pain is the most admirable strength I know. I keep mine inside because I don’t know how to express it outside of words, but you’re the opposite. You bleed with your actions, and I’m one of the few people in the world who can read your anger and hate for what it really is.” “What is it?” I asked, because hell if I knew. “Love.”

FUCKING HELL THAT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS

“Her blood is a head rush for sure,” he admitted, and I swallowed a jealous growl, remaining silent. “But yours…”

“You taste like the earth and sky colliding, but it’s more than that. There’s moonlight in you, and it calls to me like a song in the night. You’re my Source and nothing is going to change that. I don’t want to claim anyone else, this is mine and it’s all I crave.”

“What do you need?” he asked softly. “Do whatever it is your Order wants.”

He was Caleb Altair. The most protective, loyal Fae who knew every piece of me and never flinched from it. Of course I’d fallen for him. Just like The Wheel of Fortune card had predicted. It was inevitable.

Every fine member of the A.S.S. watches you pant over her like a dog in heat, and we smile at the power she wields so flippantly over a man who believes himself to be untouchable.

but Tory wasn’t there to sit on hers and Darcy was…well, fuck knew where Darcy was. I was worried about her, I knew that much.

None of them would be won away from the Vegas, none of them had any interest in supporting our claim to the throne.

The war was still raging. And Geraldine and the A.S.S. hadn’t wasted a single moment despite facing their own losses and pain.

Geraldine had orchestrated this, and Tory had stepped up, she’d rallied the rebels after their defeat, and was clearly overseeing all of these plans as Gerry moved them into action.

Not to mention the fact that Tory had headed out to that library and returned with several books on forgotten magic, more plans burning in her green eyes even as she broke apart over all she’d lost.

Because theyre women. The strength finds them

“Let him through,” Tory said. “He’ll only start crying a river of tears if you don’t and flood the whole building.”

I pushed the door open to Tory’s room, arching a brow as I found her there, cross-legged on the floor in nothing but an oversized black t-shirt and her panties, her dark hair tied in a messy knot on top of her head. There was a plate of untouched food by the door which looked like last night’s dinner and an almost empty bottle of tequila beside it, which I assumed was the option she’d gone for instead.

Aww my girl

“You look like shit.” “Why thank you,” she replied sarcastically, swigging from the bottle of tequila while holding my eye in a challenge for me to mention it.

“Here, give yourself a book boner. It’ll make you think of Orion.”

“This is for imbuing land with self-replenishing water so that crops can grow through drought,” she huffed, a flash of anger hitting me before she reined it in again. No…she didn’t rein it in, she hid it from me, letting me feel a touch of pain and despair but shielding that rage, like she knew it was the most potent and powerful emotion she was experiencing right now and didn’t want me stealing that from her.

“You’re not coping,” I told her, though it was clear she knew that already. “There is no coping with this,” she replied, a burst of anger hitting me again, and this time she didn’t bother to conceal it.