Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

The war council had taken all goddamn morning, partly because we had to wait for over an hour for Darius and Tory following their wedding after he dragged her into their room on our way back to it to consummate their damn union. 

We’d spent that time trying not to notice the way the walls were rattling while also working hard not to fall into the trap of agonising over Darius’s fate.

I’d been awake all night with the others discussing it and we had all finally agreed to focus on this battle before we turned our attention to changing his fate. 

Gabriel had been working hard to see the best way to success for us with that and eventually we’d all landed on the fight happening in a week.

Without stardust to transport our army, we were going to have a whole lot of work to do to bring the fight to Lionel though, so we planned on getting the rebels underway over the next few days and we’d spent the afternoon taking part in a huge rally to get all of them hyped up for the battle.

But after hours of listening to them chanting their support for the true queens and feeling like extras to this entire war campaign, I was starting to feel the results of missing a night’s sleep.

“Just think, we could be back home again within a week,” Max said as he moved to stand at my side, pressing a hand to my shoulder and helping me to feel refreshed and wakeful once more.

“It’s hard to imagine that,” I admitted, the sounds of the rebels celebrating filling the tunnels and echoing all around my skull. There were more than a few drinks being consumed and it was clear that this entire thing was going to have descended into a rave by nightfall, but I found it hard to muster the strength to join in with the celebrations.

“We’ll figure it out,” Max swore, feeling my fear for Darius through his touch and I looked at him hopelessly, willing that to be true, but I just didn’t see how it could be. “He still has weeks left for us to find a solution. We’re the most powerful Fae in Solaria – there has to be a way to change it.”

“I really hope you’re-” I cut myself off as a buzzing sensation raced across my skin, warning me that the leather journal my mom had given me had a new message waiting for my attention. “My mom just sent us a message,” I said and Max’s eyes widened in fear the way they did every time she made contact. There had never been a problem with our families before, but we were all expecting Lionel to turn on them at any given point so that fear for their safety never diminished.

“Where is everyone?” I asked, looking out over the crowd of yelling, bloodthirsty Fae and spotting Seth and Darius on the far side of the room but I couldn’t see any of the others.

I grabbed Max’s arm, hoisting him over my shoulder and shooting through the crowd – possibly knocking a couple of people over among the tightly packed bodies – before coming to a halt before the other Heirs.

“Hey, what’s up?” Seth asked, looking between me and Max and clearly noticing the unease in our expressions.

“I have a message waiting for us from my mom,” I explained.

“Then let’s go read it,” Darius replied. “The twins have been swallowed by the crowd anyway and Lance is making sure they don’t get swamped. I think this thing will be going on for the entire night at this rate.”

“Come on then,” I agreed and I turned, leading the way to the royal quarters and heading to the room I shared with Seth.

It was pretty difficult for me not to think about how good his mouth had felt against mine in this very room, not to mention the other parts of my body too, but since I’d gotten him to come back here, we’d been careful not to get close to crossing that line again. We still needed to talk more about it really, but I was stalling on that, trying to get to a point where I didn’t think about him every time I jerked off, so that I could discuss it without the fear that I would end up making a fucking idiot of myself over it.

I shot across the room as the others stayed by the door and I carefully pulled the leather journal my mom had given me to reflect the words of her scribing stone out from its hiding spot, removing the magical locks and concealments I had in place to protect it.

The message was waiting for me on the it and my heart froze to ice in my chest as I read it.

Lionel has summoned us to his manor, but something is wrong. He has Hadley and the others and won’t let us see them unless we go to him. I fear what he is planning.

“Fuck,” Max cursed as Seth howled.

“What do we do?” I asked, my pulse racing.

“We go to them,” Darius replied firmly, looking between us. “I won’t let my father take your families from you.”

I swallowed thickly, wondering if we were insane to be considering this, but we were the strongest Fae of our generation and we had been working to hone our fighting skills for almost a year in anticipation of this exact kind of situation.

“Should we try to find the others?” Seth asked, looking towards the door.

“Fuck knows where the Vegas and Geraldine are,” Max said. “Last I heard, Gerry was getting them to individually bless every fucking Fae down here with their touch. Tory looked less than pleased about it, but Hamish insisted too and they headed off into the tunnels with them.”

“I could probably find them,” I suggested, knowing I could shoot back and forth throughout these tunnel networks without too much difficulty though they were pretty damn extensive now.

“We could cause a panic if the rebels realise we’re leaving,” Max pointed out. “I say we just go. We all know we’re going to do it regardless, so why risk causing the army to freak out when they need to be preparing for war?”

“Yeah. I’m with Max,” I agreed, my fear for my family driving me to act now.

“We don’t have any stardust,” Darius pointed out. “But I can fly us there. It will take an hour or more from here.”

“Then let’s go,” Seth said firmly. “We’ll be back here with our families, safe and sound before the rally is even over and then they’ll be ready to fight with us too. It can’t fail.”

We looked between each other, knowing there were definitely a lot of ways that this could go to hell, but we also knew that we had no choice. This was family. They needed us.

I nodded my agreement and we all broke apart to gather our weapons and change into clothes which were fit for a fight. I snatched my twin blades from my nightstand and called out to let the others know I would meet them outside when they were ready.

It took a few circuits of the tunnels before I found Gabriel and I damn near crashed into him as he stepped into my path, a knowing look on his face.

“You’re leaving?” he asked, his tone filled with concern.

“My mom and the other Councillors are in trouble. Lionel has them headed to Acrux Manor for something bad. Can you see anything that can help us?” I asked.

Gabriel frowned as he leaned into his gifts, hunting for the answers I needed before shaking his head in defeat and offering me an apologetic look.

“That place is hidden within the shadows,” he said. “But I can see many paths for your future beyond tonight so I don’t think you will die in this endeavour. Unless something changes of course.”

“Super reassuring,” I muttered.

“I try,” he replied dryly.

“Can you tell the others where we’ve gone?”

“The twins won’t be happy,” he warned.

“No, but this is family, they’ll understand.”

He nodded and I clapped him on the arm before shooting away from him, speeding through the tunnels, out of The Burrows and through the enormous forcefield which protected this place where I found Darius already shifted into his huge golden Dragon form with Seth and Max on his back with Darius’s clothes bundled in their arms.

“Gabriel couldn’t see anything to help us,” I explained as I leapt up onto him too.

“He never can when it matters,” Seth muttered and I sighed in agreement, taking hold of one of the huge spines on Darius’s back as I settled myself behind Seth, unable to help looking at the shorn side of his hair and the braids weaving across it.

Darius took off into the sky with a defiant roar and a burst of Dragon fire which promised a swift and brutal end to anyone who stood in our way and I just hoped we could make it there in time to see that promise fulfilled.