Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8)

by Caroline Peckham

“It’s you and me, Tor. No matter what, wherever we are.”

“Do you believe in me, Lance Orion?” I asked and his throat rose and fell. “My belief in you is without bounds,” he said heavily. “But-”

There was a presence at my back, footsteps hounding my own. But I didn’t turn. Because I knew who was stalking me into the dark, and I had always enjoyed his brand of violence best.

Darius?????

“Over here, you brainless fuckwit,” I encouraged, my arm held back behind me ready to launch the spear directly between Tharix’s eyes.

Get em

But before the blade’s edge could cleave into his skin, Tharix’s hand shot out and powerful vines grew from his palms, capturing the handle just above my hands, a hair’s breadth before I could finish him.

Dammmmit

His eyes were still closed, the spear still firmly lodged in his head, but somehow, he acted as if he could see me regardless.

Hes too op

The creature roared and I definitely got an inappropriate semi over my girl’s display.

Yeah not the time

cast the nearest sword into my grip and swung it in my hand, a ring sounding through the jet black metal. I noticed the Hydra constellation etched onto its surface, and as I grazed my thumb over it, purple fire burst out along the blade. My lips parted in surprise before curling up into a sinister smile. Holy fuck, looks like I just got hold of the Savage King’s blade.

“You’d better be watching, sir. Because this fight is for the Vegas.”

My father stood there, his gaze expressionless and hard, the mask of the Savage King firmly lining his features and nothing but contempt oozing from him as he waited for me to board his vessel. “What is this?” I hissed, holding my ground as I stared at the creature who I knew couldn’t really be a relative of mine. “Your chance to cross,” Hail replied gravely, waving a hand at the small space beside him on the raft. “If you can face the cost of passage.”

Wha???!!

“Do you deny the truth of your nature?” the ferryman asked mildly. “Can’t you face what you are at your core?” “That isn’t me,” I denied. “I never wanted to do any of that. I had no choice. I had to protect the people who-” I was cut off as the vision in the water became my father again, his face set with self-loathing as he carved a hand through his dark hair, pacing before my mother. “I had no choice,” he said, a near pleading tone to his voice while Merissa looked at him like she didn’t know him at all. “They were threatening our kingdom. They were going to hurt the people I have sworn to protect. They were planning to hurt you.” I tore my gaze from the water and scowled at the ferryman.

“Lionel Acrux made him believe those lies,” I said. “What’s your excuse then?” he asked.

Damn...

“What is selfless and selfish. Kind and cruel. Endless and fickle. Priceless and without cost. The harbinger of war and the one thing which can end it just as surely?” the ferryman asked, his words a taunt as the riddle washed over me and I just shook my head, having no idea what he meant. “What is excuse and reason. Validation and violence. Need and demand?” “I don’t know,” I replied, and his laughter was cruel and cold. “Yes, you do.”

On a scale of one to totally fucked, I was sitting at an eight point five.

Good odds

My blade slammed against it, then bounced off with a judder that ran right down the length of it.

What if we take it off and.make friend

I drove the sword into its chest in a vicious strike that made the Shadow Beast scream and from that wound spilled light.

Or not

The touch of it was so familiar that it made me hurt inside, a noise of pain falling from my lips as I reached for it in desperation. Magic. And not just any magic. It was mine.

Omg!!!!!!

But there was one vital piece missing that made me ache, and as I turned to look for it, it came to me. A beautiful Phoenix bird flew from that gaping wound in the Shadow Beast’s chest, wings of red and blue fire bursting from inside it and flying above me in a circle, a heart wrenching cry leaving its long beak.

Fuck yes!

I was me again. Whole, and unbreakable. And no shadow would ever find its way into my body from this day until my last.

I took a moment to press my hands into its fur, feeling for the collar around its throat, my fingers hooking around it. I pushed the fur aside, frowning at the dark and unwelcoming power it emitted, telling me exactly who had put it there.

Friend???

The Shadow Beast whined, the sound so mournful that it tugged on my heart strings. It was grief, regret, and I shared in that exact same pain, knowing it far too well.

“I’d hope someone would take the risk if it was me,” I whispered, reaching out and pressing my palm to the soft spot between the beast’s captivating eyes, not letting myself back down on this. It was instinct, and I had to trust it.

FRIEND

Its fluffy tail was wagging, hitting the carpet like a dog happy to see its master. “Holy shit,” I exhaled.

Yay!!!!

He raised a black metal sword in his hand with purple fire licking along the edges of it. It looked like a sister to the white sword I’d claimed.

King and Queen

“Um, also, the Shadow Beast is free too and… I think it’s coming with us,” I added quickly.

A pet

My brother reached up and clasped my cheek, a smile lifting his lips and knowledge filling his gaze. “You did it.” “I did it,” I confirmed with a grin, pulling him to his feet. “And now we’ve gotta go.”

My heart leapt as the Shadow Beast arrived, grunting in greeting and bounding over to us, but it didn’t attack, only looking happy to find us once more, and I was pretty happy it had too.

Im imagining the tiger from kdh

“No,” he growled. “Yes,” I retorted, and Gabriel got up, stepping between us. “This really isn’t the time for marital bickering,” he warned. “It’s not marital if we’re not married,” I pointed out. “We will be married,” Orion said in a growl. “Says who?” I balked. “Says me,” he snapped. “I will wed you the moment this war is over.” “Oh you will, will you?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “We’re already mated, why would we get married too?” “Again,” Gabriel cut in. “Really not the time. We need to go.”

hurried down the corridor at his back with Orion beside me and he leaned low to speak in my ear. “You will marry me.” “You know, people usually ask someone if they want to marry them, not just command it,” I whispered. “You’re already mated to me by the stars, what’s there to ask?” “Just because we’re mated doesn’t mean you get to skip a proposal.” I shot him a sharp look. “So you’d better ask really, really nicely the next time you bring this up. And I am making no promises that I’ll say yes.” “Or that I’ll agree to it,” Gabriel tossed back over his shoulder.

I shook my head at him, but then my thoughts turned to the girl missing from our family, my heart ripping open at the loss of Geraldine.

Someone tell her

I all but moaned as they came to me, the bronze sheen of feathers rising at my back and my Phoenix singing inside me. Orion’s eyes lit up as he watched me. “That feel good, beautiful?” “So good,” I exhaled.

Im so happy for ths good

I’d risen from the belly of the palace, had bathed in the blood of a hundred Fae, battled a monster, and retrieved what had been lost to me. Now we were perched on the edge of salvation, and by the stars, the sun, and the moon, we would be leaving here together tonight.

My Phoenix fire flared, burning through the shadows as they fought to hold my wings, but Lavinia’s dark power turned to nothing under the intensity of the blaze.

Have we killed the bitch???

And as I now had an ice crystal which held the blood of a willing sacrifice, I had exactly what I needed for the spell to work.

Oh shit!

I realised the Shadow Beast had left me at some point too, no longer hovering at my back.

Where go

I sensed a shift in the air as I hurried to catch Orion, flying after him through the trees and moving as fast as I could. It was almost as if another presence was with me, and a glimpse of the past stole through my mind of me splashing in the warm, summer waters of the lake on the palace grounds while Hail taught me to swim as a child. “Go on, Gabriel!” he cheered.

“Let’s get into the sky so we can see better.” I moved behind him, hooking my arms beneath his and drawing him tight against my chest. “Is this our Titanic moment?” he murmured, and I sniggered before kicking off the ground and carrying him high above the treeline.

My gaze fell on Darcy where she hovered above a sphere of red and blue Phoenix fire swirling on the hillside close to the palace, and I assumed the shadow bitch was contained within it. “Damn,” Orion breathed. “Do not get a boner over my sister while I’m touching you,” I warned. “Too late,” he muttered, and I cursed, flying us towards Darcy as fast as I could.

“I cursed you,” I snarled, throwing my hand up towards the sky, ether tumbling from me as I bared my scarred palm to them, making the sky quake at the power I unleashed. “I made you a promise. And it is time you saw it come to pass.”

Everything was ripped from me, my Phoenix crying out as my connection to it was lost, my hold on my power guttering as it was taken from my control, falling into the depths of the magic I’d begun to wield and no longer held in my grasp.

Im scared

The spell suddenly locked in place, binding to the entirety of who she was. The wind fell still, and a weighted breath left my lungs, the entire universe seeming to hush in the face of this power. “No,” she sobbed, and a rush of victory flooded through me.

Fuck yes!!

I created the form of a Phoenix bird from my flames, sending it away from me. It flew with a heartfelt cry leaving its beak, soaring over the Shadow Beast, and aiming for Tharix.

Thats cool af

But the shadows managed to carve a hole in my flames and Tharix swept down from above, scooping Lavinia’s smouldering body out of it with his talons and taking off into the sky.

...... Really?

“Some of them were under her control unwillingly,”

Allies!

the doorknobs changed for golden Dragon heads. My upper lip curled back at the tacky, egotistical decorations he’d brought into my family home.

Melt them

“Come on, beastie. Do the smoke thing.” I looked at the huge creature sitting on the wreckage of Lionel’s bed, chewing its way through Lionel’s expensive suits from a toppled wardrobe.

Give it a name

Just before the stars stole us away, I saw the palace locking itself up tight once and for all and I cast a flaming Phoenix bird out of my fire, sending it out to fly above the palace, singing our victory and perching on the roof in a mark of defiance.

Badass

My soul shook as that beautiful, powerful, unstoppable mate of mine stepped through the barrier between life and death like it was any other door which she refused to leave closed. She was here.

I am SCREAMING

Because death was eternal. And there was no coming back from it.

Shut up

But I’d been to the Room of Knowledge and looked out of the great orb, at the world through the eyes of the stars themselves, and I knew the truth when I beheld it there.

Fuck the stars