Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates

The Palace of Souls felt like home and that was so fucking unreal that I didn’t even know what to do with it.

Spring break had been like a dream of escaping reality where me and Darcy had parked our relationship baggage at the door and made a damn good effort to leave it there. Mostly.

I may or may not have been messaging Darius a bit in the evenings. Or a lot. After seeing that video of what he’d done to Zane, I’d been pleased then pissed then unsure how to feel about it. I didn’t want him to charge off and fight my battles for me and Zane was someone I’d clearly left in the dust for a damn good reason. But then, after a few days of stewing over his Dragon macho bullshit ways, I’d watched the video again, seen the actual remorse in Zane’s eyes and felt…good. Vindicated even.

That asshole had sent me countless messages after I’d gotten out of hospital. Never once asking if I was okay but demanding I return to him, asking what my problem was, even chewing me out for the accident and trying to blame me for the argument that had caused it. Apparently, I should have realised that him letting another girl suck his dick was no big deal because he didn’t kiss her or fuck her and he was thinking of me the whole time. Douchebag. I honestly didn’t know what I’d ever seen in him.

Okay, that was a lie. I’d seen freedom in him. He was twenty one, starting up his own gang, he commanded respect on the streets and always had a roll of cash in his back pocket. I’d stupidly thought that a guy like him could take care of me and Darcy, offer us a place to belong. That was before I realised that relying on someone else to take care of me was a dumb bitch move and vowed never to do it again.

And he was hot. Not Darius Acrux hot. But I’d always had a thing for danger and darkness, and wrap that combination up in a bundle of muscle and you basically had yourself some Tory kryptonite. Damn hot douchebags, I always knew they’d be my downfall.

Anyway, I’d moved on from Zane the-fucker-who-left-me-to-die-and-only-had-an-average-sized-dick-which-he-didn’t-know-how-to-use Baxter a long time ago. Even when I had nightmares about drowning in that car, he didn’t really feature in them. It was more about being trapped and alone than him abandoning me in particular. So I hadn’t had any grand plans of revenge for him. He really wasn’t even on my agenda in any way, shape or form. But seeing him brought so low and forced to admit he actually gave a shit about what he’d done to me was pretty gratifying. And the idea of Darius beating the shit out of him for me was kinda hot. Not that I’d ever admit it.

So following a week of giving Darius the cold shoulder over treating me like a princess who needed her honour defending, I looked around my giant ass palace one evening, admitted to myself that the princess part at least wasn’t entirely inaccurate, and decided to reply to one of the messages he’d sent me. It was a single word. Thanks. And it had kinda opened the floodgates for about a thousand messages since.

I now knew a hell of a lot about what it was like to grow up in a house with a tyrant, and he’d even opened up about some of the darkest shit that Lionel had put him through. I knew more details about his favourite Pitball team than I’d ever cared to know, countless funny stories about things him and the other Heirs had gotten up to over the years and much more besides. I’d traded him tales of shitty foster families, bike heists, the love I shared with my sister and a refusal to tell him how many ex boyfriends I actually had. Because there was no need for him to go hunting down all of them. For example, my fifth grade boyfriend Johnny Briggs really couldn’t be blamed for dumping me – I had flashed my panties at his best friend behind the slide after all. No way he deserved to have a Dragon visit him while he slept.

I didn’t let myself think about the reality of my situation with Darius when I was messaging him. Like the fact that this strange new relationship that was growing between us couldn’t actually result in anything more than this. I didn’t want to focus on the fact that I couldn’t really have him or even admit to myself that I wanted him. His messages made me smile. And for now at least, that was enough.

Darcy seemed to have come to terms with her separation from Lance. At least in some small part. She was still devastated and heartbroken, but she was also managing to compartmentalise it, force it out of her mind as much as possible during the day. She’d admitted to me that she was still crying herself to sleep at night though. But she didn’t want me to share her bed anymore. She wanted to learn to live with the pain of it on her own because there was a horrifying chance that this really would go on for years.

Each day we chose a new section of the palace to explore and now I hardly even got lost in the sweeping hallways and vaulted corridors. We’d decided to keep the Queen’s quarters as our main residence while we stayed here and I didn’t like to admit it out loud, but there was something comforting about being in the rooms that had belonged to our mother.

We were beginning to piece together more and more about our birth parents and had even faced reading some articles about the reasons for the Savage King earning his reputation. He was a monster alright. He’d been a ruthless and vicious leader, creating laws that were impossible to follow and punishing Fae who broke them with death.

But we’d also found a box filled with love letters he’d written to our mother hidden in their things and the tender way he spoke of her and even of his joy over her pregnancy made my heart ache.

It was so difficult to marry the two sides of him together and I still couldn’t figure out what kind of a parent he would have been to us.

Our mother was easier to get a feel for. She’d run charities and funded projects in the rougher parts of the kingdom. She’d started scholarship programs so that promising Fae from poorer families could get into academies, and had funded women’s shelters to help people escape from power abusive relationships. Though she clearly had a ruthless streak too. She’d swapped us for mortal children, knowing they would die because of it. She’d also intervened in some of the king’s cruel plans, but stood by his side while he executed others. I didn’t understand it. But I supposed what I did know about them for sure was that they loved each other and us. And maybe that was enough for me to make peace with some of my demons.

The palace was so huge that we’d eaten every single meal in a different room, terrace, veranda or garden since the day we’d arrived here and we still hadn’t run out of options in nearly two weeks.

We were eating breakfast out on the Duke’s Terrace (there were six freaking terraces in this place) on the last morning of our stay when a butler arrived to announce a guest. 

Darcy looked up from her french toast and I shoved the last bite of my pancakes into my mouth just as Gabriel walked out to join us. His chest was bare and his wings were out and the butler looked like he might just choke on his own tongue as he looked at him. But after a week of tolerating my booty shorts, crop tops and sailor’s mouth, the staff were starting to realise that we were never going to be the traditional kinds of princesses, so I guessed he was trying to adapt.

We both jumped up to embrace Gabriel and he grinned at us before taking a seat at the little wrought iron table in the sunshine as we looked out over the stunning grounds beyond the palace. There were gardens dedicated to each Element and season, a winding river with magical little boats which took you on a circuit of the grounds if you hopped into one of them. There was also a menagerie of various magical creatures, each housed within their own perfectly acclimated habitat and more besides that which we hadn’t even begun to explore.

“Have you eaten?” I asked Gabriel as he turned his chair backwards and straddled it so that his wings had room.

“Not yet,” he admitted. “I was woken by a damn insistent vision which demanded I come and see you two today.”

I glanced at the lingering butler and leaned back in my chair. “Be a lamb, Jeeves, and get our friend some pancakes?” I said with a grin.

The servants had refused our insistence to stop waiting on us hand and foot and actually got pretty damn upset if we tried to do things for ourselves, so we’d eventually caved to the peer pressure. But I refused to take bossing them around seriously, so I asked for everything in the most douchebaggy way I could manage and layered on a heap of sarcasm for effect. I was actually pretty damn sure they loved it. But maybe not.

The butler scurried off and Darcy rolled her eyes at me. “Ignore Tory, she calls all the butlers Jeeves because she can’t remember all of their names.”

“Neither can you,” I pointed out.

I swear, that guy was one of about fifteen butlers and it wasn’t like they introduced themselves, they just appeared at random intervals with snacks and shit before disappearing again like ghosts. I was pretty sure they used hidden passages to get around, but I hadn’t figured out a way into them yet.

“No, but I just smile politely and don’t mention it,” she said like that was so much better.

“So, what else did your vision tell you to do?” I asked Gabriel as I looked at him with a smile.

“Nothing,” he replied. “But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was really important I come here today, so here I am.”

I exchanged a glance with Darcy and a shiver ran down my spine. I could admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of divine intervention these days, but Gabriel’s visions had rarely been wrong. They’d also rarely been able to help either of us and I knew Darcy was feeling a little bitter over the fact that he hadn’t foreseen Kylie-the-cow planting cameras and fucking up her and Orion’s lives. But I guessed it was hard for him to focus on visions about so many different things and people all the time. And I knew enough about the way The Sight worked now to understand that if he wasn’t actively trying to focus on having a vision about something or someone in particular, then they didn’t often come to him unbidden.

Darcy opened her mouth to say something else, but as she did, she fell still, her eyes landing on the steps which led down from the terrace to the immaculate lawn beyond.

“Do either of you see that?” she asked in a low voice.

I frowned as I looked more carefully and my heart leapt as I spotted a bare footprint on the top step, glimmering with a faint silver sheen in the sunlight.

“We need to follow them,” Gabriel announced, pushing to his feet so suddenly, he almost upended his chair.

“Where to?” I asked as me and Darcy rose as well and the hollow look in his silver ringed eyes made my breath catch.

“The answers,” he replied in a voice filled with power which at once sounded like him and not like him at all.

His shoulders relaxed as the vision released him and I reached out to take his hand as he looked down at us in confusion.

“Are you alright?” I breathed as he shook his head like he was trying to clear it.

“That…it wasn’t like a normal vision. It was like the stars spoke through me.” The frown on his brow told me how unnerving that had been and I squeezed his fingers as Darcy moved closer to him too.

“We don’t have to do what they want,” I said defiantly. “If you don’t want to follow this path then I’m happy to tell them to go fuck themselves again.”

“Because that went so well for you last time?” Darcy asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Burn,” Gabriel teased as he looked between us and I rolled my eyes. Okay, she maybe had a point but that didn’t mean I was just going to let those glimmery assholes dictate my entire life now because I was afraid of their vengeance. “But I actually think we should follow this path anyway,” he added. “I don’t know where it leads, but I have the feeling it will be…enlightening.”

I glanced at Darcy and she shrugged in acceptance as I nodded.

“Okay then, let’s follow the creepy ghost footsteps. No reason to worry about that,” I said and Gabriel snorted a laugh as the three of us headed down to the lawn.

More silvery footsteps appeared before us and a shiver ran down my spine as we crossed the winter garden filled with snow and ice white roses before emerging in the water garden filled with little pools and burbling brooks.

We left the palace far behind as we continued to follow the trail over small bridges in silence, an almost physical sense of anticipation consuming us.

We crossed the river with the boats floating lazily along its surface and the shimmering blue water caught my attention. We passed through an orchard and turned a corner at the end of it where we found ourselves at a huge archway fashioned out of flowering lilac wisteria which marked the entrance to the royal maze.

“The servants warned us not to enter the maze,” Darcy murmured as we hesitated before it, the trail of footprints leading inside. “They said Fae have gone in there and never come out again.”

“Apparently no one has reached the centre of it in over a hundred years,” I added quietly.

I wanted to scoff at the silly rumours, but standing before the beautiful archway which led into the depths of the yew maze with walls so tall they blotted out the sunlight above us made me feel immeasurably small somehow. There was something about the maze that set me on edge and made my magic shiver beneath my skin.

Gabriel drew in a deep breath and shrugged, his wings rising and falling with the movement so that his black feathers brushed against my arm.

“If we want the answers, we have to go in,” he said simply.

“The answers to what?” Darcy asked and he hesitated for a long time before replying.

“Everything.”

“Well, that sounds promising,” I muttered. Fucking stars. “I guess we’re going in then?”

The others nodded and we followed the footprints in to the darkness which lingered within the maze.

We followed the footprints around several turns before they abruptly disappeared and the hedgerow behind us rustled as it grew over the path we’d just taken to get here.

“No wonder no one can find the centre of it if it moves,” I groaned. “Why don’t we just fly up and over to the middle?”

“No,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “If we want the answers, we have to find the centre the proper way. Meet the challenge and rise to it.”

“Of course we do,” I muttered. Because the stars never let anything just be easy, especially for us.

“I think we need to take the next right,” Darcy said slowly and before I could question her, I realised I agreed.

“So do I,” Gabriel said and we all shared a look before moving to take that path.

There were no more footprints as we walked further and further into the maze, our instincts somehow staying in line with each other at every fork in the path. It was eerie, but something about it just felt right. The three of us together, heading into the dark.

We rounded a final corner and a soft gasp escaped me as we arrived in the centre of the maze where a huge weeping willow with pure, silver leaves stood waiting for us.

We walked forward as one, not hesitating for a moment as we pushed the fronds aside and stepped beneath them.

A stone archway stood within the shade beneath the tree with carvings etched all over it. There were Phoenixes and Harpies, Dragons, a Hydra and a sky filled with stars. All of it achingly beautiful and telling a story I couldn’t quite understand.

Beyond the arch was a stone staircase with silver footprints leading down into the dark.

Gabriel took my hand on one side and Darcy’s on the other as the three of us descended together.

Our footsteps echoed off of the hollow space beneath the ground and every breath we took seemed magnified.

We emerged in an empty chamber lit only by the light of a pool of silver water which sat at its centre, so still, the surface looked like a mirror.

As one, we moved to kneel before it, like our bodies were being guided by whatever spirit had led us here.

We leaned forward to look into the reflective pool and my breath caught in my lungs as I stared down at myself. Except in the water, I wasn’t wearing a crop top and booty shorts and my hair wasn’t braided at my side. I was wearing a golden gown which looked fit for a queen and a silver crown inlaid with rubies sat on my head over the flowing locks of my black hair.

I glanced to my left and found Darcy dressed exactly the same as me in the reflection while Gabriel was in a fine black suit and shirt, an unadorned silver ring placed upon his black hair and a shimmering crystal ball clasped between his hands.

As I stared at the image of him, I was struck with the similarity some of his features held to ours. The straight slope of his nose, the arch of his eyebrows and the shape of his eyes.

“Gabriel…” I breathed as I turned to look at him beside me, but his focus remained on the pool as he slowly reached out and touched it.

Ripples shimmered and danced across the water and as I looked back down at it, I was suddenly sucked into a vision like the ones we’d experienced the last time we’d come to the palace.

This time, I recognised my mother the moment I saw her, though she only looked about our age. She was wearing weird leather armour like the kind of thing gladiators used to wear and she held a spear as she slipped between the trunks of huge trees in a lush green forest.

“That’s a Voldrakian Marriage Trial,” Gabriel breathed beside me and my frown deepened.

“A what?” I hissed.

“In Voldrakia, a kingdom to the south of Solaria, the elite members of society take place in trials designed to test the mettle of the Fae taking part. It’s a bloody, brutal game where members of prestigious families put their children forward to survive two weeks in the wilderness, fighting to the death for the supplies necessary to survive. It takes place before their magic is Awakened and there are all kinds of perils in it from the monsters lurking in the woods to the other contenders who will all fight tooth and nail to survive. Whoever remains alive at the end of the trial will be betrothed to one of the other survivors. They then take on their magical education and are married four years later once they graduate,” Gabriel explained in a low voice as we watched my mother stalking through the trees.

“That’s…intense,” I muttered, not mentioning the fact that the idea of the arranged marriage part of it freaked me out more then the death games bit.

“Different kingdoms do things differently,” he shrugged as we turned our attention back to the vision.

The girl I was watching didn’t look like a Queen, she looked like a warrior, set to survive anything and I felt a real sense of union with her in that moment. I knew what it was to fight for survival and the look in her eyes felt so familiar that it made my heart ache with a wish to have known her.

The vision shifted and changed, showing her fighting in the game, battling a monster coated in scales with deathly black eyes with her spear alone and winning. She made a camp, foraged for food, fought other contenders.

And then one night, a boy walked into her camp with a spear of his own and pressed it to her throat as she slept.

I was so caught up in fear for her that it took me a moment to look at his face hidden in shadows. But when I did, I almost cried out because I could have sworn that I was looking at Gabriel. As the boy shifted before the light of the fire, my pounding heart calmed a fraction as I saw enough differences in his face to know it wasn’t him. But that only opened my heart up to a terrifyingly desperate possibility.

“The stars sent me to find you,” the boy murmured and my mother stirred at the sound of his voice.

“I recognise you, Marcel,” she breathed like they’d somehow met before, but I was struck with the most definite knowledge that they hadn’t. Not in the flesh. Only in their dreams.

“I’m going to die tomorrow,” he replied and there was no sadness in his voice, just a calm acceptance of the fact. “I’m going to trade my life for yours and the life of our son.”

Our mother sat up and pushed his spear aside as she reached for him and he tossed it to the ground as he dropped to his knees beside her.

“Our son will change the world, he’ll be the greatest Seer of his generation,” Marcel breathed as he leaned down to kiss our mother and the conviction of his words let me know that he had no doubt of that whatsoever. He’d seen it.

“His life will be hard,” our mother breathed against his lips as she pulled him down on top of her and a tear slid along her cheek.

“For a time,” he agreed. “But he will know all the best kinds of love in the end. Even if he never knows ours.”

Our mother cried silent tears as she kissed him again, the passion between them growing as their limbs tangled together on the bed of grass she’d created.

The vision blurred before we saw too much, but my hand slid into Gabriel’s as my heart thundered to a deep and heady rhythm as the next vision played out.

The following morning, as they woke in each other’s arms, they were surrounded by cries of triumph as a group of four huge boys leapt from the trees and circled them.

Our mother fought beside Gabriel’s father fearlessly as they managed to cut down two of their attackers and adrenaline surged through my body as I ached for them to escape.

One of the other boys fell beneath their combined efforts but the last one lunged at our mother, throwing his spear just as Marcel leapt forward to intercept it. It plunged through his chest and our mother screamed as his blood coated her.

“Save our son,” he demanded, holding her eye as he fought to stay on his knees and launched his own spear back at the boy who’d impaled him, forcing him to leap aside.

“I could have loved you in another life,” our mother breathed, touching his cheek for the briefest second before she turned and fled with her hand touching her belly like she was cradling the tiny life which she knew had begun to grow within her. 

Gabriel’s grip on my hand was so tight that it was bruising and I could feel a tremor running through his limbs as he finally found out who he was.

His mother was our mother. He was our blood.

Our brother.

The vision blurred again and we watched our mother and the other victors of the games emerging at the end of the trials. The boy who’d killed Gabriel’s father was among the survivors and before the day was out their families had promised them to each other, branding their backs with each other’s star signs as our mother scowled in disgust at the choice which had been made for her.

A series of short visions followed, our mother’s belly growing as life swelled inside her. Giving birth to a baby boy she named Gabriel as she placed a loving kiss on his head. We saw her running around the halls of her home with him, doting on him, playing with him, loving him with such clear intensity that it made my heart ache to watch it and tears spill down my cheeks.

His existence was hidden to protect him from the wrath of the man she was destined to marry. She was a princess in her own kingdom, but she wasn’t allowed to make her own choice about the man she was destined to wed.

When she graduated her academy, she was tangled up in marriage preparations which happened to coincide with a visit from the King of Solaria.

I watched the visions of her meeting our father again, of gaining his trust by showing him the love she’d foreseen for the two of them. They snuck around the palace as they embarked on their affair so that her fiancé wouldn’t find out about them while our father made arrangements to whisk her away to Solaria and marry her himself.

We watched as she introduced a four year old Gabriel to the Savage King and the man who had made our entire kingdom tremble in fear smiled with all the warmth of the sun. He took him in without question, played with him, taught him to ride a horse and took him flying in the sky on his back when he shifted into his Hydra form.

My heart ached as I watched moment after moment of the three of them together, the happiest of families behind closed doors. They told the world he was an orphan boy who they’d taken into their home as their ward, though our father planned to adopt him once his true Heirs were born.

It was achingly sweet and hauntingly sad. This perfect fairytale of a life which had been stolen from all of us. A brother who we’d never even known existed.

Of course it wasn’t all dreams and fairytales and there was an undercurrent to the visions of things our father was doing in the kingdom. Of Nymph attacks and plots our mother could see coming for them but couldn’t uncover no matter how hard she tried.

Eventually the scenes of the happy family melted away and the visions faded as the familiar sense of our mother’s presence slid from the room and the silver pool fell still again.

I drew in a deep breath as the magic of the place crackled around us but before I could draw back, a shiver danced along my spine and a soft sound caught my attention. It was like someone whispering in another room, the sound was there but the words were absent. Then a second voice joined in, a third, a fourth, until the air around us was filled with the whispered voices of the stars and goosebumps rose to cover my flesh.

A drop of liquid gold fell from the roof of the cave and splashed into the silver pool, causing a perfect circle of ripples to spread across its surface before the stars gifted us another vision.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the pool as we were transported to the night our parents had died. Even before it began, I knew that that was what I was looking at, as if the whispers had told me despite the fact that I couldn’t understand them. 

Smoke tangled in the air and my breath caught as I forced myself to watch the inevitable play out.

Our mother and the Savage King were in their bedroom, standing by a hidden door at the back of the room as Astrum grasped a seven year old Gabriel’s shoulders and listened to what they had to say.

“You have to make sure no one can find him,” our mother insisted as tears tracked down her face. “You have to block his memories and his gifts too. He can’t come into The Sight until the danger has passed or he’ll be found.”

“Mommy? I don’t want to leave you,” Gabriel said as he tugged on her skirt and she dropped down beside him as she dragged him into her arms.

“I wish it didn’t have to be this way with all my heart,” she sobbed. “But I promise one day you’ll find your sisters. One day you’ll have a chance to fix this kingdom and save our people from the threats that haunt it.”

“Take this,” the King commanded, shoving something into Astrum’s arms which was hidden within a red cloth.

“But sire, I’m not worthy of it! I couldn’t possibly wield-”

“If you even attempt to wield it, you will die,” the King snarled, looking every part as savage as his reputation. “It’s not for you. It’s for my children. Hide it. Hide it well and scour it from your memory.”

“Of-of course, your majesty,” Astrum agreed, tucking the object beneath his cloak with trembling fingers.

“You can’t ever let Gabriel or the girls know who is keeping them safe,” our mother sniffed. “If they find out who you are while you’re still alive, fate will twist and they’ll be killed. I’ve seen it. They can never find out-”

“I understand, my Queen,” Astrum replied, stroking my mother’s hair fondly. “I will watch over your children and guard them until my last breath and they will never know who I am. I swear it on all the stars.”

“You will swear it on more than that,” the King snarled, grabbing Astrum’s hand and gripping his face with the other. “You’ll make a soul pact with me.”

“Y-yes, sire,” Astrum agreed, his eyes wild with fear.

“You will guard our children from afar with everything you have, but you will never let them discover your identity while you still draw breath. And you will hide the artefact in a place where my enemies will never find it and only my children can uncover it. Swear to this oath on penalty of your soul. If you fail in either mission, your very soul will be torn from the keeping of the stars and set to burn in pain and misery for all of time. Do you swear?” the Savage King demanded.

“I swear,” Astrum replied, raising his chin as he held my father’s eye and a flash of red and black magic passed between them, winding around their bodies before sinking into their flesh.

Our mother sobbed as the King pulled Gabriel from her arms, placing a kiss upon his head before he pushed him into Astrum’s arms and forced them both to take the hidden passage.

Gabriel was shouting and trying to fight his way back to them but Astrum held him firmly, his face written in anguish.

“This is the only way,” our mother sobbed as Astrum pulled him back and I could tell she wished it wasn’t so.

She cried out in grief as the King closed the door between them and my heart twisted with pain for her as she said goodbye to her son for the final time.

I wanted to turn to Gabriel and pull him into my arms, but the visions weren’t done with us yet and everything shifted again.

Two babies were screaming in their crib as our mother stood over them, wielding magic with ferocious strikes as she fought to protect them from more Nymphs than I could count.

Our father was on the far side of the room, fighting even more of them as he bellowed with rage and fought with a magic so powerful that the walls of the palace trembled.

I watched on in horror as more and more Nymphs swept into the the room and with a cry of pain, our father was overwhelmed.

Our mother’s screams were deafening as the awful death rattle of the Nymphs filled the air and they fought to be the one to pierce his heart with their probes and steal his magic.

They all raced away from our mother in their desperation to claim him and as they fled, a man was revealed beyond them.

My heart froze into a solid lump in my chest as Lionel Acrux strode into the room and our mother fell still, her face written with shock.

“You,” she gasped as she stared at him in utter horror and I could tell that her visions hadn’t shown her this. “I thought you were our friend, I thought-”

“That’s where you went wrong, my Queen,” Lionel purred as he closed in on her, his own power humming through the room as she fought to maintain her shield with the last dregs of her magic. “True Fae don’t have friends. Just people we can use or people we can destroy on our way to the top. And I’m afraid it’s time for you and your King to become the latter. You see, with your family out of the way, I become one of the four most powerful Fae in the kingdom. And then it’s only a matter of time before I will find a way to claim the throne for myself alone.”

“Why are you bothering to tell me this?” she gasped, her face stained with tears as the Nymphs finished her husband and began to circle close to her, sensing their next meal.

“Did you really think you could fool me with a couple of mortal babies?” Lionel sneered, flicking a disgusted look at the crib she was still shielding. “I’m not leaving the Princesses alive to grow up and challenge me again.”

“I’ll die before I give them up,” our mother hissed.

“You’ll die either way,” Lionel agreed. “But luckily for me, you’ll give them up despite your wishes.”

“Never.”

Lionel’s smile deepened as he took a step closer to her and as he spoke again, his words were thick and laced with Dark Coercion. “Tell me where you hid them.”

Our mother’s eyes widened with panic as her lips were forced to part and her tongue spoke the words despite how hard she fought them.

Lionel smiled darkly as she gave up our location and with a savage blast of fire magic, he shattered the shield surrounding her and allowed the Nymphs to claim their prize.

He turned and strode from the room before she was even dead. I looked at her with pain wrenching my heart in two as a Nymph speared her heart with its probe but instead of the agony I expected to find there, the faintest smile graced her lips as if she’d won something despite her death.

“She knew,” I breathed. “She knew we wouldn’t die.”

As the vision shifted for the final time, we watched the shadowy figure standing outside the house where our changeling family slept soundly in the mortal realm. Fire illuminated Lionel’s face as he cast a burning orb into his hand and threw it at the house, encouraging the flames to blaze and blaze until there was nothing left but charred bricks and ash. He waited and watched then left in a flash of stardust with a satisfied smirk on his face just moments before we were pulled from the ashes by the firefighters. Not a miracle at all. Just two Phoenixes, reborn in flames and safe like our mother had foreseen. But he never knew. Not until we showed up eighteen years later.

The vision faded away until we were left staring at our reflections in the silver pool again and I fought to catch my breath as my brain swelled with all of the information we’d just been given.

“You’re our brother,” Darcy gasped as she turned to Gabriel.

I twisted towards him too and he looked between us, his face painted with so much emotion that it was hard to take.

“I was alone in the world for so long that I gave up on ever uncovering the mysteries of my past,” he breathed. “I found happiness in creating my own family…but now… I remember. The visions broke the block on my memories and I remember my mother, your father… I remember holding the two of you on the day you were born and promising to love and protect you until the day I died.”

I lunged at him as Darcy did the same and the three of us fell into a sobbing, laughing, happy, sad, utterly confused and yet completely fucking ecstatic heap.

I didn’t know how to process half of the things that we’d just discovered, but I did know this: Lionel Acrux had been working with the Nymphs for a long time. He’d orchestrated our parents’ deaths and followed us to the mortal world to try and kill us too. He’d been working on our deaths for a long time and had stolen more than just a life from us. He’d stolen our home, our family, and kingdom. And there was no way in hell I was going to let him keep it. One way or another, whatever it took, Lionel Acrux was going to meet his end. He was going to die.

But despite all of the horrors and pain of the things we’d just seen, there was something so pure and good there too. We’d found something we never even dreamed of. Another member of our family. And I swore on all the stars in the sky that I’d never let him be taken from us again.