Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

“I’ll never give you what you want,” Gabriel spat. “No pain in this world will force me to reveal a single vision of mine.” “We shall see,” Lionel answered, and I acted on instinct, shooting forward with the speed of my Order. “Gabriel!” I bellowed in terror for him as Lavinia yanked me back with the shadows so ferociously that I was thrown to the floor.

Oh ny god dont do this to them

By the stars, no. How could this night get any worse?

Me last night

The pain of his loss came crashing in on me like stormy waves hitting the shore, and I didn’t know how I would ever recover from it. He was my pillar of certainty when the rest of the world was crumbling, the man who had stood by me after I’d lost everything.

He was one of the only good things in this forsaken world the stars had offered me, and now they’d taken him away without even offering me a chance to say goodbye.

IM SICK

“He was ten times the Fae you are,”

“Darius Vega is the greatest Dragon who ever lived,” I spoke loud and clear, making Lionel fall deathly still. “What did you just call him?” he asked venomously, danger thick in the air. “He married Tory. She is more powerful than him, so that made him a Vega,” I said, relishing this final blow I could land to him, feeling Darius’s defiance humming through the air and knowing Lionel could feel it too.

YES BABY

He shook his head as if in apology, and I wished I could convince him he had nothing to be sorry for. “There’s hope yet, Orio,” he called. “Have faith in the flames!”

Oh gabe

“I want them displayed as a trophy. A reminder to all of what I do to rebels and lesser Fae scum alike.”

YOU FUCKING BASTARD

Remember Blue. Stay strong for her.

His love for her is insane

As I stepped onto the platform and knelt, I thought of Blue and held her there in my mind before raising my hands above my head.

DONT DO THIS TO ME

But if anyone deserved this sacrifice from me, it was Blue. She loved me with the fury of a night storm, and I was going to honour that love down to every last raindrop.

Oh my babies

I turned my mind to the girl who was worth a thousand bloody deaths.

I stared at my possessor, anxious to start so that I could move closer to the end. “Do your worst.”

Brave boy

Through this suffering I might be destroyed, but she would be saved. So I would be a willing sacrifice on the altar of our love.

MY SHAYLA

He would survive this. I would make it so, no matter the path the stars had tried to lay out for him.

“It’s okay, carina,” Dante Oscura murmured, raising a hand clad in gold rings as a symbol of peace between us.

“We do,” the man coated in Disney tattoos growled, a grim set to his features as he looked upon poor Xavier.

“Lady Tory!” I yelled, noting the onyx colour of her hair beneath the blood and grime that was matted in it, and she turned cold, empty eyes my way. Her beauteous face was hollow, gaunt, devoid of that wild glow I had always loved so dearly in her.

Three coffins carved of ice.

NOPE NO NO

I’d had him through the worst time of my life, but now no one was here but me as I stood on the shores of loss once again, with the tide receding and the last of the goodbyes lapping at my feet.

Oh my heart is breaking

She was steel, hard and cold and unmovable in her grief. It had destroyed her, this loss. I could see that, see the way it had carved something vital from her soul and left her barren without it, unable to so much as feel the wind on her cheeks as the pain in her took precedent over all.

“It feels like that now, indeed, sweet Pegasus,” I whispered, reaching a hand up to brush my fingers through his dark hair. “It may even feel worse for a time, but this pain we must bear, because there are others left here who love us to the sun and beyond, others who need us to keep moving forward towards the hills of hope.”

STOP IT

something cracked apart and bleeding so deeply within her that tears were useless now.

but this pain would be chiselled away into a treasure eventually. One we could place gently within a casket in our chests, to take out and cry over whenever we needed. But for now, our grief was a roughened stone with edges that made us bleed inside. It was bleak, it was agony, it was the cruel and unforgiving way of death.

The way theyvepresented grief has brought me to my knees

I raised my eyes to Tory, noting the blood dripping slowly from some wound on her hand as she watched us. Broken. My queen, my lady, my dear friend had been broken by all she had now survived, and as I looked into that darkness in her eyes, I had the terrifying feeling that there was nothing on this earth that could ever fix her again.

I cant breathe

“Tory?” a familiar voice made me focus my attention on the man standing before me and I blinked as I took in Dante Oscura, his clothes torn and stained from battle, though he seemed unscathed beyond that, already healed of any wounds he’d gained. “Your people are waiting for your orders,” he said softly but firmly, like he was trying to remind me of what was expected of me.

Aww bless him

The truth was, I didn’t know how to do any of this. I was just a lost princess who had grown up in the wrong place and now stood before them after losing almost everything I held closest. I was broken. I could feel the reality of that deep within the cracks which had shattered through me after all that had been destroyed on the battlefield. But I was still standing here before them.

don’t bow to him or his false crown. Do you?” A deafening roar of defiance met my question, and a brutal smile curved my lips as I saw that need to fight rising in them once more.

I turned and strode away from them, keeping my chin high as I walked, not allowing my eyes to turn towards the coffin which contained Darius Acrux, the man I had hated and loved so eternally.

I cannot cope with this

This is not our end.

“Darius Acrux is a loss all of us will bear with great sadness,” Dante murmured softly and something akin to a knife twisted through my heart at the sudden change to our conversation and the sound of that name. “His sacrifice for this cause will go down in the history of Solaria and never be forgotten. A morte e ritorno.”

“I can help you close it while maintaining the scar,” he added in offering, extending a hand to me.

Bless them

Water dripped across the floor of the chamber as Dante turned my hand over and uncurled my fingers, his dark eyes flickering at the sight of the deep and jagged wound there.

“Per amore e sacrificio,”

“No way,” Leon said firmly. “Gabe wouldn’t leave us. Not in a million, billion years.” “Tell us the prophecy,” Dante demanded, and Leon began to pace.

Gabe loves his twisty word games, we’ll figure it out.” “Don’t call him Gabe,” Dante muttered and the two of them exchanged a brief, terrified look before turning their gazes back to me. “We’ll leave now.”

But I wasn’t powerless. I was Roxanya Vega.

We may have been running from the so-called Dragon King, but I wasn’t going to take this defeat lying down.

This would be the start of the end, and I wasn’t ever going to back down again.

I have to give it to her, she literally never gives up

Her hair, which had been a bland and forgettable colour before,

Bit rude

The fire in her eyes brokered no arguments, and I found my chest compressing with relief as I gazed into the eyes of my dearest friend.

Lets go girls

“Seth, hold on,” my mom called to me, and I blinked hard to clear my vision, finding her across the altar tethered alongside the other Councillors. “Stay strong. You’re an Alpha.”

Its not as emotive when she calls him alpha

They needed me to be strong, and I could do anything for my pack. I straightened my spine and ran on, ignoring the pain and locking away any signs of vulnerability deep down in that iron chest within me. The place I’d only ever let a few people see the inside of.

Caleb looked up, his eyes finding mine as blood dripped from his mouth and some clarity finally awakened in the depths of his blazing blue eyes. “Seth,” he said, his voice rough and hard. He looked like he wanted to reach out to me, panic etched into his features as he saw the pain in my movements. But we couldn’t save each other any more than we could save ourselves.

Ouch

“Stay with me,” I pleaded, knowing I couldn’t do this without him. This, life, anything.

Sweat raced down my back and my muscles roared in protest as I continued to run, and the only thing that gave me any strength at all was needing to survive this for the people I loved.

“Cal,” I panted as he gazed up at me through hooded eyes, his breaths falling heavily from his chest. “I don’t see a way out of this one.” “We always get out,” he rasped,

Me neither

I wanted him to think of every good moment we’d shared and all the life we’d lived together, even if it wasn’t enough. Even if all our plans and dreams for the future died here and now with us, at least we had the good times. At least we had years of laughter and joy in between all the pressures we’d faced together. Me, him, Max and Darius. It had always been the four of us, and it would be the same when we ended up beyond the Veil.

Fucking hell

Caleb nodded firmly. “We’d never leave each other behind.” “Death was always gonna be the last one we faced. And if it’s now, then that’s far sooner than I wanted. Fuck, I thought we had forever. I thought the four of us were invincible when I was a kid, pretty sure I still felt that way until now.”

This hurts a lot

But just in case the stars have other plans, then I want you to know I’m fucking privileged to get to face it with you,”