Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

“Oh, and Arnold?” Tory added, backing into the elevator which had arrived behind us. “If I ever see your cowardly, abandoning face again, I’m gonna cut your horns off and shove them up your ass. Got it?”

“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.”

Tory Vega was one hell of a friend to take on a night out, but our destiny had never been meant to merge in the way I had once thought it might, and I found that there was no sting left to that truth anymore, no lingering hurt or resentment. Me and her were a train wreck waiting to happen as a couple, but as friends we worked out pretty damn well.

Tory didn’t reply but she shifted closer to me, her head falling against my shoulder as she took my hand in hers.

“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.” Silence fell away from us once more and I could feel the echoes of her words spilling out over the sky and beyond, the certainty and power of that oath she’d made, and the knowledge that she wouldn’t stop until she saw it fulfilled.

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.

Where was he? Was he still alive, still protecting Darcy with every breath he took? 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.

“If you have to go, please be the last one. Please stay until the end. I can’t lose you. Not you.” “I’m not going anywhere, Seth,” he vowed, unblinking as he stared me straight in the eye. “I am not. Going. Anywhere.”

His promise wasn’t binding; life was too volatile for certainty, but it meant a hell of a lot that he voiced it anyway, because I knew the heart of Caleb Altair, and he had never let me down yet.

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. She had made a kind of nest out of a heap of coins and jewels from Darius’s treasure trove to sit in

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

“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. “All I have is this rage in me. I need to find my sister, kill that Dragon son of a bitch and then…well then there isn’t anything left for me unless…”

“You’re trying to find a way to bring him back?”

I can’t give up on him, don’t you get that? He is everything to me, and the stars stole him away.

They offered him death in exchange for my life. That means they gave me life when their fate had chosen death for me instead. So they can either give him his life back too, or they can find out what I will do to them in payment for that sacrifice.”

“You just carry concealed weapons these days, do you?”

Despite the walls she was now maintaining to keep me out of her head, I knew how alone she was feeling.

the Vegas had suffered in hunger and coldness. She wouldn’t want anyone else to endure the same, even if they might turn out to be her enemy.

“I don’t think Darius would have wanted you to risk-” “That’s the thing about dying,” Tory hissed venomously. “You give up the chance to want anything at all.”

“Leave it,” Caleb growled, shooting around to place himself between us and Tory, his fangs flashing in the light as he bared them at us. My heart stilled in shock, then free-fell inside my chest to splatter all over the floor in a bloody mess as I found myself standing off against him like that, my friend standing in defence of a Vega over his brothers.

She was her own woman. She understood the risks in what she was attempting by wielding this ancient power, and I could feel how deeply determined she was to go through with this insane plan. She was going to immerse herself in the use of ether regardless of anything anyone else had to say on the subject. And she was right, we couldn’t stop her.

I had no intention of doing any such thing to her after all she’d suffered at Lionel’s hands, even if I knew that Darius would have hated this.

But not Tory. There was nothing left of her here with us beyond the empty body which was shielded from our help by the pentagram she’d drawn. “No, no, no, no.” Seth fought to get to her, the idea of losing another member of our group clearly on the brink of breaking him.

“The rings don’t change what we felt for each other before the stars offered them to us,” I hissed. “The world decided to validate our love the second we were mated, but we loved each other long before that.

“To hurt him is to incite my wrath. You turned your back on him and left him alone in the world when he needed you the most. There is nothing that can undo that.”

“You’re back,” I whispered, relief flooding me, and he carved his fingers through my hair as he held me close. “I’ll always come back to you, Blue,” he promised, taking away the fear in my heart.

“If you’re waiting for a thank you, you will only get one from me,” I said as Stella peered in at us like a stray cat in need of food. “Thank you for bringing this man into the world. He is the best thing you have ever done.”

“Whatever happened to you being obedient, Miss Vega? It could be dangerous in here.”

“I think you’re to blame for that, Professor. You taught me that the punishment for being bad, is so very, very…good.”

“You’re asking to be spanked, Blue.”

If we ever have kids, I will never let them out of my sight.” A smile lifted my lips at the image of that. “You’d be a seriously protective daddy.” “I’d be the asshole parent, but I’m good with it,” he said, only making my smile grow. “They can hate me so long as they keep breathing.”

“Only since you,” he said quietly. “Is that what you want? Marriage, kids, some fairy-tale house? It doesn’t have to look like that, I can paint our picture with whatever brush you choose, and make it look however you imagine.”

“Think of Tory, how she’s waiting for you out there beyond these walls. Think of how much she loves you.”

“Your will is stronger than iron,” he said firmly. “You can fight this. Do it for your sister, for your brother, for you, for us

“That’s my girl,” he exhaled, pressing a kiss to my hair. “You’ve got this.”

“For a grumpy ass professor who was sent to prison, power-shamed, and is now stuck here in hell, you sure have a lot of optimism these days,”

“You are the only thing in this world that I’m wholeheartedly optimistic about, Darcy Vega, because I know I’ll fight to death and beyond to keep you. And I’m starting to think you might do the same for me.” “Starting to think?” I said, a smile making my lips weightless. “There isn’t an enemy in the kingdom I wouldn’t face down for you.”

“Or maybe a shrew,” I said with a frown. “Darius used to call me that.” “A shrew?” he chuckled. “I weirdly liked it,” I said, trying to smile even though my heart weighed a ton. It felt far too soon to start having fond memories of him. It didn’t seem real to me that someone with so much fire in their soul could be gone from the world. A part of me didn’t believe it at all.

“What are you doing?” I asked and he looked over at me like a naughty school kid who’d been caught getting up to no good. “I’m moving the Vega star over here,” he said. “It looks good here, don’t you think?” I laughed, jogging over to join him as he reached above his head again and tried to make the Vega star sit with Orion.

“Are you messing with age-old magic?” I asked sternly. “That’s not very professorly of you.” “Well, it wasn’t very professorly of me when I took a student to my bed either, was it?” he said. “Or when I had you over my desk, at the Fairy Fair, in the archives-”

“Blue,” he growled. “Were you just about to touch The Untouchable Egg?” “Of course not. That would be crazy,” I said with a grin, lifting my other hand and reaching for it with that one instead.

“I’m already cursed. I can’t be double cursed.” “By the moon, are you trying to give the stars ideas?” he hissed.

“Not a possession, no. But you are mine. You were mine before we met, and mine the minute we locked eyes. You are mine in this life, and every life we may experience from this point forward. You are mine in every reality you exist, and mine in every reality you don’t. And I am yours in kind, in every way you can imagine. I will gladly be your possession, but I will also be your guardian, your keeper, your protector. And I will do whatever I can to turn you away from danger, because it is impossible for me not to.”

“Get away from my mate, you creepy-crawly son of a bitch!” I cried.

He was the beginning and end of me, creation and ruin falling into harmony, and I didn’t think a point in time would come when I would be done falling in love with him.

“Hm, this seems familiar...” He glanced around at the rippling light and my cheeks flushed with the memory of him taking me to the bottom of the Acrux pool.

The girl. Yes, that was it. The girl was important. She was the centre of the universe, a goddess who ruled me, and I gladly submitted to that rule. She was fury and light and a taste so sweet I would never forget it. “Blue,” I whispered, or maybe I only said it in my mind. I remembered now. It was her I sought, always her. We had promised never to part, and I couldn’t break that promise. Even if I did turn to stone, I would find a way to walk, to follow her wherever she may go.

“You will do it again. And again, and again, and a-fucking-gain.” I kissed her hard and she laughed, the sound so damn rare these days that it almost hurt to hear it. “Now we just need your Phoenix to wake the fuck up.”

“You’re a useless bird that couldn’t light a match, let alone start a forest fire,” I growled, jabbing her in the side, and she laughed again. “Your Phoenix is almost as stubborn a student as you were.” “Hey, I was a delight to teach,” she said with a grin. “You were a delight to punish,”

“You lied to me,” I said to my own reflection, though the words were intended for him. “You promised you’d stay.”