Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

“Fine, I’ll just stand here like an unwanted almond,” I said loudly, but they ignored me. “No one likes an almond.”

“Even almonds don’t like almonds. They’re the eggplant of the nut world,” I muttered. “Actually, I don’t think they’re even a true nut. I’m pretty sure they’re a seed posing as a nut. Fucking undercover little seedling bastards.”

They were drifting this way, coiling out like tentacles coming to take hold of me and drag me into a pit of desolation. Or worse, Lavinia’s vagina.

Stars save me from the unholy demon vag.

Alright, maybe hiding here in a closet wasn’t so bad. I just hoped Max, Tory, and Xavier were having more luck than we were.

I doubt it

“Heyyy,” Leon crooned, and I expelled a relieved breath before launching into an explanation about the trapped prisoners, but I was cut off as he continued speaking. “I know, I know, it’s easy to be shy when you’re calling a living legend, but don’t worry, even I get intimidated by me sometimes – it’s a Charisma thing. So just take a breath, relax, and remember that I am far too busy to waste my time checking voicemail boxes, and as such, this isn’t one. P.S. If you’re trying to contact my merch shop call 5318008-535173. We’re now taking pre-orders for next year’s tiny snakes in tiny hats calendar. Byeeee.”

Fucking moron

I was sprinting for him before the smoke even dispersed, and he threw an arm up to cast at me again, just in time for my sword to cut through flesh and bone, severing the limb and spraying me in a glorious arc of red blood.

Glorious

“Because you might be saying you missed me, but what you’re really saying is goodbye, and you can stick it up your ass, Darcy. So Orion made a Death bond – sounds like he’s stuck here, but you’re not, are you?”

Jesus Tory

My sister was lost, and a monster had taken her place.

Because you wouldnt let her stay

I cantered along at Max’s side,

Is he in fae form ?

How could he stand it? I’d seen him going between the people, offering them comfort, and taking away some of their pain, but wasn’t he having to take their burdens on himself in those acts of kindness too?

Hes a good boy

“I held on tight to you, but clearly not tight enough,” I snarled through my teeth as I came back to reality, slamming the horn into another lock as more and more rebels ran out around me. “You were one of the things that made me glow. But now you’re gone, and you took all of my light with you.”

Breaking my heart

It carved through the air, then through shield after shield on course for destruction, but a large Dragon with dark hair and even darker eyes launched himself into the path of it at the last second, the bond he was now a slave to driving him to sacrifice himself before allowing any harm to come to his king.

What a pussy

“Run!” Gabriel Nox’s voice daggered through my skull, and the ferocity of his tone managed to turn my gaze to him where he was held up in the stands, bound in chains on his knees next to Vard. “Fear the Bonded men! You cannot win! Death is coming! The prophecy has changed!”

Ahhh

fried all of our Atlases.

Welp

“You have to go!” Gabriel cried from within that ring of fire, my gaze locking on him below me as I swung the sharpened spikes on my tail into Mildred’s face. “There’s no hope for me this day!”

This is bullshit

She kicked me back before I could do enough damage to end this, but I released a blast of lightning aimed to kill.

Kill that bitch

and I cursed internally that I hadn’t killed her, but

Fuck!

shifting into a trio of squat little Griffins who looked about ready to bolt.

Little babies

I spotted the bare skin of her arm, confirming to me that she hadn’t taken part in the Guardian bond ceremony and was still free from Lionel’s control.

So..... This pussy talked the entire guild into protecting him like a whimp

“Darcy,” I barked, like I was scolding a naughty pet. “You know me, you hairy asshole.”

What a way to talk to your sister

I could have sworn the warmth of Dragon fire seeped into my veins from the ruby pendant, like Darius was trying to lend me his strength too. But it was no good. I had nothing left. And as the Shadow Beast crushed my flesh in its powerful jaws, a padded foot pressing down on my chest, claws sinking deeper into my skin, I lost my grip on the world, my sister, and everything else, then I fell away into the void.

What the fuck

I’d remain here until Blue came back to me. However long it took.

Ughhhhh

“I always did like you bloodstained and violent,” he replied, climbing onto my back while his words made my heart leap.

“You are a stain on your father’s name, you should be ashamed of yourself, you little runt,” he spat at me, fire blasting from his hands again, and I sent my own fire back at him. “He should have drowned you at birth.”

Well he needs to die now

And before he could escape my flames, I made the decision, plunging the horn into his chest, a shout of effort leaving me and my arm jarring as I cut right through bone.

Hell yeah

I was moving before I could even think about the consequences, leaping over dead bodies and raising my horn while keeping my shield high. I needed to kill him, to slice his worthless head from his shoulders and hear the satisfying thump of it hitting the ground. For Mom, for Hamish, for Darius.

Omg no

“I’m sorry I failed,” I spoke to him, wrapping my arms around his neck, the sensation of flying taking over me as I left my body behind in that burning pit.

I kill everyone

Beyond it, mounted on the wall as a sick trophy were my wings, the two of them glittering lilac with a rainbow sheen to them like oil imbued in the feathers. My heart lifted and I found myself moving towards them instinctively.

Get them!!!

This wasn’t the lure I released once a month, it was no source of secrets or discovery, but a brutal, merciless Dread Song which was designed solely to rip the sanity from the minds of any who heard it.

The Dragons stared at me with wild, terrified eyes while they clawed at their wounds, some of them starting to bleed from the nose, ears, and eyes as my Dread Song cut their minds to shreds.

Insane

Xavier broke into a run with me, my chest aching as the Dragons trapped within my song all began to topple like the others, their minds cleaving and breaking, locked within their own nightmares forevermore. No magic could fix what I had broken in them, and they would suffer their own vile terrors until someone saw fit to put them out of their misery with death.

Thats crazy

Was this it? The moment when Lionel and Lavinia’s unholy alliance fell apart? Had she summoned me here to fight for her?

We can hope

“I have ensured that I am safe from all enemies,” Lionel said smugly. “I cannot be touched.”

Pussy

I fought the urge to recoil as the shadows sank into the thing’s skin, a man slowly appearing from the darkness, his face a picture of handsome cruelty. A demonic smile curved his lips and a sinister emptiness stirred in his gaze. He was naked, his powerful body marked with scars of shadow which seemed to pulse like living veins against his tanned skin. “Hello, Father,” he purred, his voice a wicked seduction.

ahh antichrist

Basilisk anti-venom,

Ryder comes in handy

Sofia and Tyler were with him now, the best healers the rebels had to offer trying to figure out whether or not they could be reattached, and I hoped to hell and back that they would find a way.

I hope so

I whirled to face Tiberius, but Max had gotten there first, his chest slamming into his father’s as I found the two of them on their feet, facing off against each other.

Oh...

So don’t try to talk down to Roxanya Vega now that she is standing there before you, bloodied and broken from everything that has been stolen from her thanks to all of those failures. You should be on your knees begging her forgiveness.”

Goddamn Max Rigel

I had only brought it as a last resort, my studies on the magic it called on making me more than wary of it, but now that I’d been forced to use it and had survived, I had no inclination to draw it out.

Feels like a bad idea

“That pup spends too much time thinking about the things he can’t have, when he should be claiming the things he can,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“A few years ago, I tried to steal something from Lionel’s manor with Leon Night and his brother Roary,” she admitted, her jaw tightening as she spoke that last name, her emotions shutting down in a way so similar to my own natural defences that I recognised it instantly. “It…went to shit. The Dragon stronzo discovered us before we could escape. Roary saved me, but by doing so he cast his own fate and he was captured. He’s been in Darkmore Penitentiary ever since.”

She still wants him

“Segui il fuoco,”

Follow the fire

To Raise the Trees of the Damned.

Oh shit Rosalie!

Once the blood of the intended is added to the seed, the essence of the caster’s soul must be leashed to its roots. The light of the moon helps raise the shadows to assist in the growth of the sapling, and the longer the bone chant continues, the larger and more powerful the tree itself shall grow.

To reach the Damned Forest you must drink a dose of wolfsbane mixed with larkspur from a chalice scrawled with the runes halgalaz and raido, and carve the name of your deepest desire into your flesh, then follow the ache of your heart before it gives out on life itself.

It wasn’t even like a vagina really. Vaginas were great. It was like…the anti-vagina.

Oh, to be a moon mate. A Wolf could dream.

Robyn Johnson: No one will ever compare to Darius. I bet even his corpse is hot #Iwouldbonehisbones #stiffforthestiff

Gross

So a few broken fingers seemed like a fair price to pay to the violent tattoo man.

Ryder is so sadistic