Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

Darius had made Caleb promise he’d never feed from her again after he’d hunted her and knocked her off the roof of King’s Hollow. He’d broken his word to him. He’d fucking bitten her. He’d drunk her blood, and when? For what? They’d been in a dusty old library, what possible reason could he have had for drinking from her?

“Aren’t you all intrigued by what we’re doing, dude?” he asked hopefully, golden eyes sparkling. “It’s so cunning. The most cunning idea I’ve ever had.” “It was my idea, stronzo,” Dante called. “It was a joint idea,” Leon said, waving a hand at him and turning back to me. “Mostly mine,” he whispered.

“Because you keep pissing me off.” I tried to get up, but he gripped my arm and used his Vampire strength to keep me in place. “Talk to me,” he commanded. “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. “No,” I lied quickly, heat rising in my veins. “Of course I’m not. Why would I be jealous? It’s just the principle of it all.” “What principle?” he demanded. “You broke your promise to Darius,” I said in fury, sitting up straighter.

In all honesty, I had been more caught up in the feeling of power sharing with her than concentrating on what she was doing with her magic, so I was at least a little to blame, but this shit wasn’t going to work for me. I wrenched my bedroom door open, having every intention of hunting her down and demanding a better room, but the door slammed into the edge of my bed and got itself wedged there with the force I used.

She may not wish to fulfil her arrangement to wed me any longer, and though it is a shame, my family have always and will always serve the crown. My marriage will only ever be to the benefit of the Vegas, one way or another, and I am more than content with that, whomever my bride shall be.

Ok Justin?

My irritation with Justin aside, I couldn’t help but realise what was going on here. What me and the other Heirs had so blatantly neglected while licking our wounds and wallowing in our grief over our lost brother. 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. They were gathering intelligence, rallying for the next strike. It was…humiliating. My whole fucking life I’d been trained to take charge, taught how to lead, and prepared for any eventuality. And yet when our people had needed us most, needed leadership and guidance and someone to stand up tall and tell them that we wouldn’t break, I hadn’t done a damn thing.

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. They were no doubt holding more war councils too, plotting, figuring out what Lionel was up to. 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.

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

Tory lifted a book out of my way as I got comfortable, the deep blue cover awakening my interest as she turned it over in her hands, then dumped it in my lap. “Here, give yourself a book boner. It’ll make you think of Orion.” I arched a brow doubtfully, but as I took in the beautiful decoration on the front of the book which depicted my most powerful Element in all its forms, I had to admit that a chill ran over me.

“You’re trying to find a way to bring him back?” I asked softly, wishing with all I had that there was some way to do such a thing while knowing in my soul that it was impossible. “Tory, in the entire history of our world, in all the years that have passed and with all the losses Fae have endured, none have ever found a way to return the dead to us.” “Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t try to explain it to me like I’m some silly mortal trying to figure out how magic works. I know what you’re saying, I understand it. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him. I can’t give up on him, don’t you get that?

Ether. “What is that?” I asked. “This is the power we gave up when the stars began Awakening our kind. Not the power they gifted us. Not the power they can control. This is wild, free, and untouched by them or their ideas of fate. It’s the true fifth Element and they hold no dominion over it. And this is what I will use to destroy everyone and everything who has tried to take so very much from me.”

So if that’s the case, then I’m thinking the shadows never were the fifth element at all and this-” she tapped the title of the book, “-was the true name for it. This was what they used to capture the shadows and bind them to whatever desire they wanted, this was the power that make wielding them possible in the first place.”

“Darcy doesn’t believe they’re simply soulless monsters set on preying on all of us. Miguel claims he’s on our side, though no one has managed to get much more out of him than that since he was captured. And despite the lies and the deceptions, Diego died to save my sister in the end. I know he wasn’t perfect but…” “But what?” I pressed. “I don’t know. But I do know that we’re missing something here, something vital, something which Darcy would want me to think about. It’s why I won’t let anyone execute Miguel, there’s too many what ifs. And I think Darcy will want to talk to him too, and I think she might be the one who can figure out the truth in all of this.

“I don’t think you should be playing with that, Tory,” I murmured, but she just gave a humourless laugh. “Playing is exactly what I’ve been doing up until now. Playing with the Elements they offered me and toying with the flames of my Order. But this right here is where things will get real. And I won’t back down. So I suggest you don’t get in my way.”

“Okay,” I agreed heavily, nodding in acceptance of the vow she was so desperate to keep. “I’m with you. If you think there’s a way to change this fate, then fuck knows I would give anything for that to be true. So whatever you need, whatever it takes, I’m in.” “Good.”

Nice, Max

“You just carry concealed weapons these days, do you?” I teased her and she looked over her shoulder at me, something dark flickering in her green eyes. For a brief moment, I was in her head, locked up at Lionel’s mercy, her Order suppressed, her magic kept in check by the Guardian bond he’d forced on her.

“Is that my lady?” a cry drew my attention, and I half turned to look around for Geraldine, but Tory caught my arm and yanked on it, forcing me to move faster as we headed for the drawbridge. “I love Gerry, but if she checks up on my eating habits one more time, I’m going to scream,” she hissed, her pace practically a trot as guards moved aside to let us out and we moved over the drawbridge.

Geraldine stared at me with those beguiling blue eyes of hers, blinked once,

“You know you’re not my queen, don’t you?” I growled as I stalked after Tory. “And I wanted some of those bagels you just handed out to the rabble-” “Shh.” Tory pushed one of the bagels she’d just taken into my mouth, cutting off my rant, then handing me the other. “You’re really bitchy when you’re hangry.”

“I won’t ever attack anyone who doesn’t first strike at me or this kingdom,” she swore, a ring of authority to those words. “My sister and I have no taste for war or death beyond fighting for the freedom everyone deserves from tyranny.”

I’ll make sure someone brings you some food,” she added, and Miguel’s eyes widened in shock and gratitude at the kindness. It didn’t surprise me though; 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.

Tory strode from the room without bothering to check if I was actually following her or not, and I trotted along in her wake, the words Justin had tossed at me earlier ringing in my skull. I wasn’t just some side piece to the ascension of the Vegas. But I had to admit that Tory was stepping into the role of ruler without so much as a flicker of hesitation, her actions strong and decisive, even if they were touched with harshness in the wake of all she’d lost.

“Do you really think so?” Tory challenged, a slight shimmer in the air between us making it clear that she’d placed a shield there so fast I hadn’t even noticed her casting it. “Yeah,” Seth growled, rising to the challenge and taking a step closer. “I think we can. And for another thing-” “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. “Caleb, what the fuck?” I growled,

“She needs to figure out this magic. And I swore an oath to help her do it. I believe she can, and I agree with her on the Darius point. If he’d wanted a say in what she did, he should have stuck around to voice his own opinion.” The words struck me like a blow, and if I hadn’t been able to feel how much it hurt him to speak them, I likely would have beat his fucking head in for them.

“I think it’s the only thing we have right now which might give us an edge. Which might, change our shitty fucking fates,” Caleb said and with those words I felt the truth of him. He had bought into Tory’s way of thinking about this untested power. He believed in her pointless quest to try and shift what had already come to pass, to force a different destiny upon us and the man we’d all lost. “Caleb,” I said slowly, the aggression falling from my posture as I felt the weight of my own loss crashing down on me. “I don’t believe…”

I shook my head, glancing to Tory again before expelling a breath. 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.

Geraldine shrieked at a pitch so high I was pretty sure she’d shattered my eardrums. By the time I took my hands from shielding my ears, I found her prostrate on the floor before a dazed-looking Tory who was blinking at all of us like she hardly recognised where she was.

Whatever had happened which had led to the K.U.N.T. raid on our meeting place, she’d hidden us from discovery. I had so many questions for her, more than I could count, which had been keeping me up at night ever since that brief moment where she’d saved our asses. Like how had she known I was there? Had anyone tipped them off to our whereabouts or had one of the other K.U.N.T.s like Mildred been the one to figure it out and decide to come after us?

But take heart, for success is not impossible and if you can find it in you to trust in an unlikely ally, then many truths may be revealed to you. Marguerite Helebor was nothing if not an unlikely ally.

Everything about him was so fucking fake, the smiles, the charm, the promises to protect our kingdom from Orders he didn’t like while making up lies about us. It was bullshit. And we planned on reminding the world that not all of us bought into it.

Lionel threw an arm up to shield himself, but he was too late, the thick white glue splattering him from head to foot, the iridescent glitter sparkling in the lights as he bellowed a furious roar. A screen at the back of the room started playing that sex tape of him fucking a Pegasus girl in her shifted form, the sound of him groaning in pleasure while she whinnied, bouncing back and forth on a loop while everyone in the room cried out in surprise. Another video cut in of Lionel talking to the press outside the Court of Solaria, his words all edited together from his speeches over the years to create a song. The beat was damn good too, and I hoped this song did its job to remind everyone that this was a rebellion not an insurgence, and we weren’t going to just take Lionel’s shit.

“I’m not here to save you, No, I’m here to break you. I’m just a lizard who wants it allll. I’ve lied and spewed a load of shit, I can’t believe anyone buys it. It’s time to rise and make a staaand.” The video cut in intermittently with old clips of Hail Vega with the Councillors, smiling and laughing alongside Lionel’s brother Radcliff. There were clips of the Vega twins too, hugging each other, their love for one another clear in their eyes.

“I’m lame and my friends all knew it. Don’t swallow my Orderist bullshit. The Vega twins will return before too lonnng.” Videos of the Heirs were shown, all four of them standing united, the people cheering them, and the Vegas waving to an adoring crowd. The blazing graphic of the Phoenix burned through it all, giving way to a shining symbol of the bird with outstretched wings, the words Long Live the Vega Queens blazing beneath it.

“Holy shit,” Bernice breathed, her voice concealed within my silencing bubble. “Is he using Dark Coercion?” We knew the stories, had read the articles put out by Catalina Acrux about the power her abusive husband had wielded over her. But seeing it here and now, watching as Nova was forced to submit to him, her mind not even her own as she nodded, made me sick to my stomach.

“So, Nova is corrupted, Marguerite is on our side and…we just got away with that?” Bernice breathed in disbelief as we ran for the door at the far end of the hall.

“He is my steed. Allow him passage,” I ordered, and Max grumbled something I didn’t catch as he headed yonder. “You’ll have to tell me the way. You’ve never invited me to your room before,” he said, an edge of bitterness to his utterance. “Oh, my dear, angelic anchovy, I forget sometimes what a delicate daisy you are.”

I flapped the cloth open and offered him the basket with a flourish, unveiling the various croissants and pain au chocolat I had baked in the shape of all his favourite sea creatures. His mouth fell open, slack-jawed like a hammerhead shark who’d lost its hammer. “Are they for me?” “Well who else? The cod’s kipper?” I walked forward and thrust them into his arms, his eyes getting a ravenous glint about them. It seemed my lovely lobster was afflicted by hanger, and I would not forget it henceforth. “These are my favourite,” he said, all subdued now like a tame sea lion as he plucked a pain au chocolat from the basket. “Well of course they are. Do you think I have not noticed the way you chomp and champ at these two types of pastry?

Fae?” “I don’t know,” my sweet salamander sighed. “Maybe all the stars care about is power.” “But if that were so, then my ladies would surely be the object of their bounties,” I said, the answer hidden as if it were stuck to the base of a barnacle on the hull of a boat.

“You cannot look at me thus and not expect to dive deep into my lady waters,” I panted. “Avert your eyes or make true on the vows that shine within them like the star you are named after, Max Rigel.” “Is that code for ‘please fuck me’?” He smirked, and gracious, that smile was a mountain which I wished to climb, to bury my flag in its peak and announce it as mine. “I could not be clearer,” I panted. “Take me to Davy Jones’ Locker, and plunder my treasure chest with your sea cucumber.”

“By the stars, you drive me crazy. I love you, Gerry,” he panted as I did a hip wiggle followed by a jangle jive. “Love!” I cried, throwing my head back and riding him as if I had an urgent message to deliver and only a simple pony between my thighs. “True, I love thee in return, despite your Heirsome flaws, your roots grown from a mighty tree of anti-royalists, and your muckly lineage.”

“I mean it, Gerry. We’ll work all of that out. I want you. Only you. The other shit is just politics.” “Yes,” I agreed.

“Not everything is about you, Stella,” I said frostily. “I love your son more than you can even comprehend.” “I see that now. I’ve seen his silver rings.” “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. The people who really care for us accepted that well before the stars had their say,” I said passionately. “You are not one of those people.”

“I’ll always come back to you, Blue,” he promised, taking away the fear in my heart. “The dark is deep,” Stella panted, sitting back on her heels in exhaustion over that spell. “But I can keep it at bay. At least for a while.” I sat up, letting Orion sit too as we gazed out at his mother who had offered us this help, though it did nothing to change my feelings towards her. One good deed didn’t erase countless bad ones. “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 smiled, stepping closer and tiptoeing my fingers up his bare chest until I tapped him on the nose. “I think you’re to blame for that, Professor. You taught me that the punishment for being bad, is so very, very…good.”

“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.” I released a breath of longing. “I just want to be back with our family and friends, preferably with a jade green Dragon head mounted on the wall next to an ugly hat and boots made out of a shadow bitch.” He barked a laugh. “That’s a future I’m banking on, beautiful.”

“It hasn’t even been a month yet,” I said thickly. “We can do this, Blue.” “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,” I said,

“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.

My mind turned to Gabriel, and even though I knew this tunnel didn’t lead to him, I wished it did. I missed my brother so much and hated to think what he was enduring all alone.

“By the stars,” Orion breathed. “I thought this was just a legend.” “What is it?” I asked, whispering like the place required it and finding myself walking straight forward into its depths.

“Amantium Caelum – The Lovers’ Sky. It was a gift to a Vega queen of old. She announced to the kingdom that she would marry the Fae who crafted her the most beautiful magical gift. For years, Fae from all over Solaria brought every manner of gift to her door, but none of them were beautiful enough to impress her. One day, a young woman from Alestria came to the palace with a simple wooden box in her arms, and when she opened it for the queen, this is what came out. And that very night, they were mated by the stars.” My lips parted as I looked to him, drinking in the story of my ancestors. “Is it true?” “Enough of it for this sky to exist,” he said,