Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky

Darius ended up getting both me and Tory out of the interrogation, and I was glad to have some alone time with my sister after everything that had happened lately. We ate our way through two massive chocolate bars as we talked shit and reminisced about old times, then I helped her stash a few bars in her room for later, knowing Seth would sniff them out if I took them anywhere near my room.

The interrogation showed up nothing. No culprit. Which either meant the guilty party had trained their mind well enough to hide the truth from a Cyclops which was damn difficult, or they weren’t here and had probably broken through the boundaries to kill those men. I wasn’t sure which of those thoughts unsettled me most, but both led to countless unanswered questions that set me on edge.

I sat between Orion and Tory in the dining hall, the Heirs sharing our table along with Geraldine and Xavier as we discussed the endless theories we had about the murderer. And the thing that left me the most terrified was the theory that this had something to do with the ‘man with the painted smile’ from Gabriel’s prophecy.

We hadn’t been able to talk to our brother all day since he’d helped out with the interrogations, trying to see anything from the people being questioned. But now as I caught his eye across the hall where he sat with his family, he stood up and came over to join us, taking a seat beside Geraldine opposite us. I spotted Justin Masters looking wistfully over at her from a table full of royalists, picking at a bagel.

“Any news?” Darius asked instantly, the tension in his posture speaking of his concern over this situation.

Tory absentmindedly stroked his arm beside him, turning to our brother for the answer we were all anxious for.

Gabriel shook his head, lines of stress forming around his silver ringed grey eyes. “Nothing. But I’m hopeful that means this incident is nothing to do with you. Perhaps someone here had a feud with the guards, so it’s something I cannot see because it does not affect those I care for. But on the other hand…”

“What?” I breathed as Orion’s hand dropped to my knee under the table and squeezed reassuringly.

“It could be that this is linked to the Nymphs somehow as I cannot predict their moves and the shadows hide them from me. But the attacks seemed more savage than their usual style,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. “We can’t rule it out. But if this was Nymphs, then they have somehow breached the magical boundary protecting this place. And that seems highly unlikely…”

“Could Nymphs be here already?” Tory asked slowly, glancing at other people around the room in suspicion. “We didn’t know Diego was a Nymph and we saw him at school every day.”

“How can we tell a Nymph from a Fae when they aren’t shifted?” Max asked, narrowing his eyes at everyone around us like they could all be our enemies in disguise.

“You can’t,” Orion said simply.

“I totally can,” Darius said cockily. “It’s in their eyes.”

“Bullshit, you always think that, but it isn’t true,” Orion tossed back. “How’d you miss Diego if you can tell the difference?”

“I always knew there was something off with that hat kid,” Darius said with a shrug.

My heart tugged over Diego and I thought of his hat which was now stashed in the nightstand in our room. Maybe there were more answers there waiting for us within it…maybe I should try to see into the soul web again.

“I still don’t get how he passed the stars’ test at The Reckoning,” Max said with a head shake.

“I should have known he was a Nymph when I tasted his blood that time. Shame their blood isn’t black when they’re in their Fae-like form or I would have noticed.” Orion grimaced at the memory. “I just figured he’d Emerge as one of my least favoured Orders.”

“Like Heptian Toads?” Caleb asked with a knowing nod.

“Yeah and Grieven Slugs,” Orion said, miming a retch while Caleb laughed.

“Have you ever tried a Polar Bear Shifter though? They taste like a snow cone,” Caleb said excitedly.

“Well, nothing tastes as good as a Vega,” Orion said tauntingly and Caleb bared his fangs as they locked eyes.

“Yeah? Try hunting the most powerful Werewolf in Solaria,” Caleb said with a smirk and Orion bared his fangs at him.

“I’d rather drink a Toad’s blood than drink from him again,” Orion sneered as Caleb locked his arm around Seth and Seth’s eyebrows shot up as he looked at him.

My heart pulled at the sight of all that gleaming hope in his eyes, but there was nothing to suggest Caleb wasn’t just getting protective over his Source. Hell, I really hoped for Seth’s sake it was more than that though. My fluffy Wolf friend might have been an asshole in the past, but he had such a squishy heart these days and I really wanted to see him happy.

“Bullshit,” Caleb snarled. “I bet you’ve checked out his veins plenty of times since we got here.”

“Why would I be interested in the blood of a mutt? I’ve got a Vega princess as my Source,” Orion said proudly.

“Are Power Shamed Fae even allowed to legally have Sources?” Caleb asked airily, pushing a hand into his blonde curls and flexing as he tightened his grip on Seth. Orion stiffened as though he’d been struck and I could see a war breaking out in his eyes.

“Don’t call him that,” I hissed.

“Don’t worry about it, beautiful. He’ll be tasting his own blood in a second.” Orion rose from his seat and Caleb stood too, both of them posturing for a fight.

“For the love of Hyacinth the first! Do sit down you pompous, sharp-toothed velociraptors!” Geraldine banged her fist on the table. “We have a murderer in our midst, and the game is afoot. We must solve this mystery before one of our own is found butchered in the night. Or would you rather we have this discussion while picking up the pieces of our beloved Xavier, because let us be unduly honest, he is quite the target with his sweet innocence and gentle soul.”

“Hey,” Xavier protested around a mouthful of lasagne. “I’m not innocent.”

“On a completely unrelated side note,” Orion addressed him as he and Caleb fell back into their seats. “I need the blood of a virgin for the Zodiac Guild elixir, do you mind if I grab some from you after dinner?”

Xavier spluttered his way through swallowing, his cheeks turning bright red. “I’m not a virgin.”

Darius boomed a laugh and Tory smacked him while the rest of the Heirs cracked up and Geraldine doubled over, wheezing as she held her side.

“Oh my great aunt Gweneth on a merry-go-round, I needed that laugh during this sombre eve, dear Xavier. Thank you,” Geraldine said, wiping tears from under her eyes.

“I’m not joking,” Xavier balked. “I’ve had plenty of…sex.”

“With who?” Darius demanded, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms.

“Girls,” Xavier blurted. “Lots of girls. I’ve had girls on their knees while I rut my…horn on their swollen…parts.”

“Oh dude, please go fuck someone, it’s painful to hear you talk about something you’ve never done.” Caleb pointed to another table where a group of girls sat together and Xavier’s shoulders stiffened.

“I’m not a virgin,” he insisted, his cheeks getting somehow redder.

“It’s okay, man.” Seth leaned across the table toward him, lowering his voice. “How about I teach you some stuff? Ease you into it with a nice orgy, huh? I could get five or six of those hot Oscura Wolves over there to fuck you sideways.”

“Five or six…” Xavier visibly gulped.

“Not everyone’s first time is a fucking orgy, Seth,” Max laughed.

“Well, it should be,” Seth insisted. “Then you can work up to the one-on-one stuff later. If there’s five other people fucking around you, you can learn on the job, pick up tips from the best fuckers while they guide your hips. It’s like a swimming lesson.”

Everyone laughed, even Orion, but he quickly caught himself, flattening his smile into a glare at Seth like he was offended that the Wolf had made him laugh.

“Can we move on from talking about my little brother having an orgy?” Darius asked.

“I actually wanted to apologise to you, Gabriel,” I said, biting my lip in concern as I caught my brother’s eye.

“About what? Oh,” he said as he saw the answer and nodded. “About the fact that the house I painstakingly built with earth magic for my family was badly damaged by Lionel Acrux when he captured you?”

“Yeah…that,” I said sadly.

“Yeah, sorry Noxy,” Orion added.

“I’m hardly going to blame you for that,” Gabriel said, waving a hand. “Anyway, I’ve already seen a new wing I’m going to add with an indoor swimming pool. So no harm done.”

Relief rushed through me, though I still planned on paying for that damage and I’d get him a big ass hamper full of all kinds of his favourite stuff too when this war was over.

“What else have you seen about the war?” Darius cut in. “I don’t wanna stay in this hole in the ground forever. When can we strike at my father?”

“I’m waiting to see an opportunity,” Gabriel promised. “You know I’ll tell you as soon as one arises. Just be ready at all times, because with the Shadow Princess blocking most of my visions of Lionel, I may only get a small window to see a way to get him, and we may have to act on it fast.” He rose from his seat, heading back to his table and placing a kiss on his wife’s lips before taking the little baby boy from her arms and snuggling him against his chest. I’d not had nearly enough cuddles with my nephew yet, but I decided that was definitely on the agenda for me this evening.

Orion followed my gaze and pinched me softly to get my attention onto him. “You want one of those?” he murmured, darkness entering his eyes.

“One day,” I said, reaching up to brush my thumb over the dimple in his right cheek and picturing how cute it would look on a tiny little baby. He shifted back from my touch and my heart crushed at that action, frowning as he turned away from me.

“Don’t you?” I asked.

He took my hand beneath the table, squeezing and the contact sent a tremor of pure heat through my body, but he didn’t answer me.

“Is that a no?” I pressed, realising how much I wanted that in the future as the idea of him not wanting it was presented to me.

“My shame would be passed on to any child we had,” he said tightly, his quiet voice just for me and I opened my mouth to say that was ridiculous, but was cut off by someone shouting.

“Cooweeee!” the shockingly familiar voice made my vagina ziplock itself and I twisted around in my seat in alarm, spotting Professor Washer sashaying through the wooden doors with two large suitcases levitating along behind him. He wore a velure purple tracksuit, the top half unzipped to reveal his tanned, waxed chest and the bottoms looking two sizes too small as they clung to his muscular thighs and – more horrifyingly – the bulge between his legs.

“Oh for the love of fuck,” Orion said under his breath as Washer instantly spotted us and started making a beeline for our table. As he got closer, he noticed Orion sitting beside me and gasped, pointing a quivering finger at him.

“Miss Vega, stand aside! That man is a fugitive. He addled your mind, he made you do terrible, terrible things to him and he did dirty, filthy things all over your body. I read the report back to back to back, every last detail committed to memory so I would know how best to help you recover.”

“That’s it,” I spat, jumping out of my seat and climbing onto the table. But I didn’t know the spell to make my voice louder, so I faltered and looked to Orion. “Can you cast the loud voicey spell on me?”

“Why?” he asked anxiously, glancing around at the rebels.

I looked to Seth instead, beckoning him closer. “Can you do it?”

“Sure, babe.”

“Don’t.” Orion rose from his seat, but Seth was already reaching up, brushing his fingers over my throat and a cool magic caressed it before I started shouting.

“Lance Orion is not a criminal!” Everyone in the room winced. Oh shit, I did not need to shout while the voicey spell thing was on me.

“Darcy, stop,” Orion commanded, but I ignored him.

I cleared my throat and the sound of that echoed painfully around the room while Hamish started retching in the corner at the mere mention of my boyfriend’s name. And I was so fucking done with it.

“He lied to the court to protect me because he knew I’d lose my place at Zodiac Academy. So stop treating him like he’s a monster. He didn’t hurt me or abuse me or cast any kind of spell on me.” I looked down at Orion, but he didn’t smile, he reached for me frantically, trying to pull me off the table.

“Please, Blue,” he begged.

I danced out of his way. He deserved the world to recognise who he was, to see the sacrifices he’d made for Darius, for me, for the kingdom. So I wasn’t just going to sit here and let people pretend like he didn’t exist.

“So stop shaming him!” I cried, but the only answer was an awkward, echoing silence.

Tory was gazing up at me, sucking her lip as she clapped to try and get the crowd started, but they didn’t follow her lead even when she elbowed Darius and he gave a couple of pitying slow claps too.

“Not a fucking slow clap, asshole,” Tory hissed.

“Either kind of clap is awkward as fuck,” Darius muttered back and my skin prickled as the distant sound of Hamish retching reached me.

“Get down,” Orion growled, his eyes flaring at me and my cheeks blazed as I didn’t get his backing in this.

“Get up here with me,” I countered. “Tell them the truth.”

He shook his head and Tory and Darius shared a glance while Geraldine pulled at her hair and looked around the room in alarm.

“All praise the eloquent way my lady speaks!” she cried suddenly. “How passionate her plea is, how heartfelt and…beautifully put. She glimmers like a starstone on a moonbeam with her passion and prose!”

Several people clapped at that which was worse because now they were just applauding the way I’d said it, not the words I’d spoken at all.

Muttering was starting to break out and Seth whined in discomfort for me, the sound making my skin burn with embarrassment.

I climbed back down from the table, sinking into my seat and Orion reached for my hand under the table, but I snatched it away, unable to believe he hadn’t fought his corner, hadn’t stood up there with me and shown the world who he truly was.

Everyone in the room hurriedly turned their backs on him again, and my throat thickened.

“Why won’t you tell them the truth?” I whispered to Orion and he looked to me with confliction in his eyes.

“Because it will make no difference. I’m sorry, Blue.”

Those words chipped at my heart and I stared down at my hands in my lap, feeling like a complete idiot for being left hanging like that in front of the whole room.

Washer drifted closer, trying to use his Siren gifts to get a feed on my emotions.

“Well if you have any concerns and need to get things off your breast – er chest, my dear, do come to me,” Washer purred and Orion snarled.

“She won’t be coming anywhere near you, Brian,” he hissed and Washer forced his eyes onto him.

“Now, now, I didn’t want to cause a hullabaloo. In fact, I come bearing gifts.” He turned, gesturing to the large suitcases behind him. “I have brought all of the Vegas’ things from the academy. I’ve up and quit, see? The academy has gone totally downhill and if I’m being entirely honest, I’m fairly sure Elaine was planning to have me murdered, so here we are.” He beamed at me and Tory. “Oh and I have an extra surprise for you! I handwashed all of your little knickies and knackies so they’ll be silky fresh for your royal behinds.”

“You did what?” Tory snapped.

“Please tell me a knickie and a knackie isn’t what I think it is,” I murmured.

“You really must take better care of your delicates, girls. G-strings and thongs can get a teeny weenie bit frayed if they aren’t rubbed down regularly with a good soap. I use a gentle foamy white soap that I make myself, I’ll give you a sample sometime. I call it Washer’s essence.” He winked.

“What the fuck are you saying?” Darius growled, smoke pluming between his teeth and I grabbed Orion’s arm to stop him from getting out of his seat, though maybe letting him go psycho Vamp on Washer’s ass alongside Darius wasn’t the worst idea.

“I’m saying it’s a secret recipe, silly boy. Cheery chow!” He headed away towards Catalina and Hamish, embracing them and his ass wiggled back and forth with each hug.

Ergh, great, I thought I’d seen the last of that creeper.

I noticed everyone was still working hard to keep their eyes away from Orion and my shoulders fell with dejection. “I don’t understand why they won’t stop this Power Shaming shit.”

“Because Power Shaming is more than law, Blue,” Orion said, his eyes falling from mine, showing me he was ashamed of it too, and that broke me more than anything. My anger with him melted a little because I could see that this was something I didn’t really understand, but it still hurt me. “It’s cultural and people don’t want to be associated with it. And it isn’t something that can be undone. I am grateful for what you were trying to do, beautiful, but commanding the world to acknowledge me won’t work.”

I sighed, hating this crap. What was the point of being a ‘true queen’ if they weren’t going to listen on something that mattered this much to me?

“Yeah, just you sitting at our table is bringing us down like a thousand cool points,” Seth said with a sigh. “But that’s okay, bro, we wanna be your friend, don’t we Cal?” He elbowed him and Caleb glanced at Orion with a hint of a growl on his lips.

“No thanks,” he muttered as Orion straightened at the challenge in his eyes.

I knew their Order drove them to competitiveness, but I guessed I’d just never spent so much time around the two of them together to realise how deeply that instinct ran.

“I am torn in two, my lady Darcy,” Geraldine said to me. “By my loyalty to you and my instinct to shun your Orry man until he is no more than a ghost of a shadow in my periphery. But I can overcome any obstacle for you, my queen.”

“Thank you, Geraldine,” I said and she rose from her seat, walking around to Orion and hugging him from behind, making him stiffen like he’d just been struck with a whip. “I see you Lance Azriel Orion. My eyes are wide open and there you are like a crisp apple balancing upon the bosoms of the stars.”

“Thanks,” he forced out. “I mean, not about me being a tit apple, but the other part.” He awkwardly patted her hand while subtly trying to unlatch her arms from him and she hurried back to her seat with a choked sob leaving her.

“Would it help if I dick punched anyone who ignored you?” Tory offered and I laughed.

“Is that your answer to everything, little savage?” Orion asked her with a smirk and she thought on it for a second.

“Most things, yeah,” she agreed and Darius frowned at her.

“How come you’ve never dick punched me then?” He almost sounded like he felt left out and she made a show of curling her fingers into a fist in front of his junk.

“Are you sure you wanna cash in on all the dick punches you’re owed?” she asked teasingly.

“Dick punch time,” Seth breathed, taking out his Atlas and pressing record.

“She’ll send your dick into orbit if she gives you what you’re owed,” Max pointed out to Darius, trying to casually take Geraldine’s hand beside him but she jabbed him away from her with a fork.

“What are you doing encroaching on my personal feeding space you Larry lobster?” she demanded of him, jabbing him harder with the fork and making him curse and yank his hand well out of the way.

We finished our meals and spent the rest of the evening discussing who the murderer might be, only to circle back around to the same conclusions. It could be anyone, so we had to keep our wits about us, cast security spells on our doors and always travel around the place in pairs. Surrounded by my friends, I wasn’t nearly as afraid as perhaps I should have been. I was among the most powerful Fae in Solaria, and if anyone could take on some sneak lurking in these tunnels, it was us.

When we left the dining hall, I invited everyone back to our room to try out Diego’s hat again. Caleb frowned around at our room as we arrived, immediately starting to decorate it with moss on the walls and glittering silver streaks through the ceiling. I smiled at the beautiful magic as I helped cast some chairs and a sofa out of rock with Tory, and Seth coated them all in thick moss before everyone sat down.

Darius cast a few everflames to warm the space and I sat crossed legged on the bed beside one while Orion dropped down at my side. Caleb and Seth dropped onto the sofa while the others took the chairs. I looked to Orion then started telling them everything we’d learned about Lavinia including the visions we’d seen, the things we’d learned within the hat before and everyone listened with rapt attention. Then I grabbed Diego’s hat out of the nightstand, knowing it was time to look for more answers, to see what other secrets this held.

I found myself just staring at it with my heart crushing and grief tearing up the inside of my throat. My eyes blurred with tears as I missed my friend and thought of the sacrifice he’d made for us in the woods when he’d tried to take on Lavinia.

Silence fell in the room and Geraldine sniffed loudly.

“Our dear, hatted friend,” she croaked. “He will not be forgotten. I shall write a ditty about his soul-weaved hat and his dear abuela, and we shall sing it to the stars so loud that he shall hear it beyond the Veil.”

I nodded, smiling sadly at Geraldine before turning to my sister who gave me an encouraging look.

“We need to all hold hands so you’ll see the memories too,” I explained.

Seth grabbed Caleb’s hand and Max took hold of his other one before snaring Geraldine’s hand too, and we connected the circle with Xavier, Tory and Darius.

“Are you sure we should be messing with this soul hat thing?” Tory glanced at the hat nervously and I knew she was worried about the feel of the shadows again.

“It’s okay, baby. I got you,” Darius said and she looked at him with the fire of her Order lighting up her eyes, making me feel all fuzzy for them as she nodded her agreement.

“Everyone ready then?” I asked and everyone assented, making my heart race with anticipation of what we might see. We’d talked about Diego countless times before, but none of us had answers about him. Was he an anomaly? The only Nymph with a good soul? Or were there more like him out there?

I took Orion’s hand then pulled on the hat with the other before reaching for Tory’s hand beside me. As her fingers met mine, I was yanked away into the darkness of the shadows, tumbling into their depths while feeling the presence of everyone following me into it.

A gasp hitched in my throat as the white cloud of the soul web appeared before us and I felt Diego reaching for me from within it.

Fingers curled around my arm though I couldn’t see anyone there, but then his presence moved closer and his voice echoed around me and I felt Tory being drawn nearer to him too.

“It’s time to know the truth, amigas.”

He pulled us into the web and I braced myself for what was going to happen as I fell deep into the past, drawn into a long lost memory as my eyes opened and by instinct I knew whose memory this was. It was Diego’s.

I held a little blue Pegasus toy between my finger and thumb, making it fly in front of me as I knelt in the mud around the back of my house. I’d found the toy washed up at the edge of the river down in the woods and though I knew I should have given it to Mamá, I also knew she’d throw it away if I did. She hated anything to do with the Fae, but I secretly wanted to know more about them. Everything about them.

I wondered about the kid who’d owned this little Pegasus, if they knew what they’d Emerge as one day. What would it feel like when they had their power Awakened? Did the stars shine on them and make them feel all good inside?

Mamá didn’t like the stars. She said they’d cursed our kind and that was why we never had much money or food. My stomach growled in hopes of a meal that might not come tonight, but I was used to that, and while I was looking at this little blue winged horse in front of my eyes, I didn’t feel much of anything except the imaginary life I was dreaming up for myself.

What would it be like to fly? 

To have a herd, and magic in my veins, and gifts from the stars?

Would the stars like me if I was Fae? Would I get to walk along the streets in the daylight instead of having to hide away all the time?

Suddenly a strong hand latched around the back of my neck, yanking me to my feet while another snatched the little Pegasus from my fingers. I was thrown against the wall and I stared at my Uncle Alejandro as he sneered at the toy in his hand in disgust, my pulse thumping furiously in my ears.

“What is this?” he spat, but I couldn’t get an answer out, fear making me choke. “Answer me, Diego.”

“J-just a toy,” I spluttered.

“Was my nephew playing in the mud dreaming of being Fae?” he snapped and I shook my head several times, feeling every drop of blood in my face draining away.

He clucked his tongue then let fire bloom in his palm to surround the little Pegasus and something possessed me to lunge forward with a cry, reaching for it and burning my fingertips as I tried to save it. But Alejandro knocked me back with his other hand and I watched as the Pegasus turned to blue gloop which he let fall onto the grass with a hiss.

“Be thankful your madre didn’t find you with it,” he said, stepping closer and adjusting the bright red scarf around his neck as he scrutinised me, running a hand over his short, dark curls. “How old are you now? Eight?”

“Ten,” I whispered, wishing he’d go away, but the look in his eyes filled me with dread because I could see he was far from done with me.

“Old enough,” he said under his breath with a decisive nod. “Come. I have a job you can help me with.” He shoved me ahead of him, striding after me and my mouth dried out in fear as he corralled me towards his car.

When he opened the door and shoved me onto the backseat, mi abuela came hurrying down the porch steps of the house, her old legs carrying her towards me as panic ringed her eyes.

“Alejandro, where are you taking him?” she demanded.

“It’s time he became one of us. The boy has gone soft,” my uncle explained, getting in the car and locking the doors.

Mi abuela tried the handle of the back door, looking to me in alarm as she shook her head frantically. “He’s just a baby!”

Her fear made my palms sweat and a ball rise in my throat as Alejandro started the car, driving down the track into the woods.

“Wait!” she cried as she was left behind, but he didn’t listen and my hands began to shake as Alejandro drove deeper into the dark forest that bordered our land.

“U-uncle Alejandro?” I stammered. “I-I’d like to go back now.”

“There’s no going back. You need to become a true Nymph. You need to let her influence in, then maybe you’ll become someone this family can be proud of.”

I fell quiet, thinking on that. I did want my family to be proud of me. I always seemed to disappoint Mamá and Alejandro didn’t like me much at all. Mi padre never really paid me any attention, but maybe he would if I could make him proud.

The car bumped along the track and the darkness thickened around us, blocking out nearly all of the daylight as we headed in the direction of Alejandro’s work shed. I wasn’t allowed out here, but I’d come and had a look one time. Just once. Because I’d heard a scratching, clinking sound I didn’t like coming from his shed and I’d run away and never, ever come into the forest again.

Now we were heading toward it once more, I remembered those sounds and terror twisted up my insides. I didn’t want to go to his work shed. I didn’t want to see what was in there.

The track soon started climbing the hill that led to the shed and the trees thinned out towards the top of it, revealing a wide open space where the wooden structure stood, just a shadow under the dying sun. The door handle was made of bone, a skull etched into it with two hollow eyes that whispered of the monsters which lurked beyond that door.

Alejandro stepped out of the car, yanking the door open beside me, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I was frozen and scared and I just wanted to go home to the arms of mi abuela.

“Out,” Alejandro barked, but I shook my head in a fierce refusal.

He reached into the car, fisting his hand in my shirt and dragging me out of the car, giving me no choice as he hauled me along toward the shed.

“Please,” I tried, my voice so small it barely carried anywhere at all. “I don’t want to go in there.”

The rattle of chains sounded from within it and a groan carried from inside that made a tremor run down my spine.

Alejandro locked a hand over my shoulder, ignoring my pleas as he led me to the door and unlocked it by pressing his palm to the surface. He pushed the door inwards and darkness greeted us along with a sound like a whimper.

I squinted into the dark, my lips parting at seeing a teenage girl there, bound and chained, but then my stomach turned and I tried to run as I saw the two bloody stumps where her hands should have been.

But my uncle kept a tight hold of me, shoving me into the shed and making me stumble to my knees in front of her. She was gagged, her eyes fearful and large, and blonde hair was matted around her shoulders.

I scrambled backwards to escape, hitting Alejandro’s legs as he swung the door shut behind us and switched on the light. The single bulb above us cast her face in harsh shadows, but I could see her green eyes more clearly now and the panic in them made me want to run and never stop running.

Alejandro stepped past me, walking to the back of the shed where a line of tools were hanging on the wall, and my stomach started to churn as I noticed the countless dried patches of blood across the concrete floor telling me this girl wasn’t the first to have come here.

“I want you to shift your right hand into a probe, Diego,” Alejandro instructed casually, like we weren’t in some horror show murder shed and I managed to get to my feet and make it to the door, jiggling the handle only to find it locked tight.

I turned, my back flush to the wood as I stared down at the girl on the floor as she begged for mercy against her gag. I wanted to find the key that would free her, let her out of this shed. But mostly I just wanted to run and run and run until my feet were bleeding and I couldn’t get any more distance between me and my terrifying uncle.

“Do as I say, Diego,” he snapped and I did, looking down at my right hand as it shook and shifting it into the long, wood-like probes of my kind. I’d been able to shift since I was five, and I knew what my probes were for. Mamá had told me that one day, if I didn’t use them, I’d start to get sick. So sick, that eventually I’d die. Though sometimes it seemed like she wanted that to happen.

“You don’t want to be Fae, sobrino,” Alejandro said in a dark tone. “You want their power though, like all our kind do. And it is yours to take. We are their hunters, we are higher on the food chain, and we’ll rise again one day and take our rightful place in this world as their rulers, you mark my words. The Shadow Princess will ensure it is so.”

“I don’t want to hurt anybody,” I forced out around my heavy tongue as the girl on the floor started to thrash like an animal in a trap. I didn’t like this. I didn’t like any of it. I just wanted to go home and never come back.

Alejandro turned around, revealing a sharp looking knife in his hand which he pointed at me. “Press your probes to her heart.”

I shook my head and he strode forward, slashing the blade across the girl’s cheek and making her scream against her gag as her blood splashed to the floor.

“I will make you watch me slice her apart piece by piece if you hesitate another moment, Diego,” he said with a sick look in his eyes that made me sure he meant that. And I was so afraid of that happening that I stumbled forward, holding out my arm.

Alejandro smiled cruelly as he took hold of my wrist and placed the tips of my probes to her heart. I immediately felt it, that deep source of power within this creature. This Fae. And my pulse began to slow as some instinct burned in me to take it. I was hungry. So, so hungry for this power that it made me ache inside.

“That’s it,” Alejandro purred, gripping my wrist tighter as my probes cut into her flesh and she screamed against her gag.

But the second I saw blood, I shook off the feeling of that instinct, fighting it away and trying to draw my hand back.

“No, I don’t want to,” I begged as the girl groaned in agony. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

Tears slid down my cheeks as Alejandro’s grip became bruising and in the next second, he’d slashed the blade across her throat and hot, wet blood splattered me, making me blink in complete shock.

“She’s dead regardless,” he hissed. “Take her power or I will cut your throat next.” He drew my probes tight against her flesh once more as she started to choke on her own blood and I squeezed my eyes shut as my probes cut into her skin, driving in deeper and deeper.

I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to.

“That’s it,” Alejandro purred excitedly. “Do you feel the connection to her power? She is not the most powerful Fae, but when you are stronger you may wish to replace her magic with that of another. You cannot accumulate power from multiple Fae, Diego, but you may exchange it when you are ready to claim the Element of a more gifted Fae.”

I resisted for as long as I could but then a strange whispering started up in my head, the soft caress of a woman’s voice. “Take it, Diego. The Fae have wronged you. Take it and join us.”

There was something so alluring about the voice that I couldn’t help but listen to it. My probes sank into the muscle of her heart and I gasped as magic rushed up my arm, pouring into me in wave after wave. I trembled at the feel of it tumbling into my veins and winding around my own heart, burying in deep and taking root there.

For a second I forgot all else as I drowned in the amazing feeling of all that power filling me up, but as the rush of it settled within me, my eyes cracked open and I found the girl dead, staring lifelessly at me with so much accusation in her eyes that it broke something in me.

I yanked my hand away, shifting it back to normal and backing up as the horror of what I’d done fell on me.

There was so much blood, I could smell it everywhere, and it was all I could do not to retch as my spine hit the door.

Alejandro moved to open it with a satisfied smile on his lips and I stumbled out onto the grass, scrambling away from him as I sucked down lungfuls of cool air. And suddenly something else was rearing up in me, dark shadows pooling through my skin as they wound their way inside of me and connected me to the darkness of their nature by this violent act and the power of some deity seemed to tug on the strings of my heart, taking hold of me as surely as if she was a part of me. And as she spoke to me again, I knew this was the Shadow Princess my family had told me of. “You are one of us now.”

I was pulled out of the memory, shock jarring my heart as I processed the horrors I’d just witnessed, but I barely had any time to recover before I was cast back into Diego’s memories and saw him walking up to the gates of Zodiac Academy beside his uncle, a darkness about him that he’d lacked as a kid.

“Repeat your instructions back to me,” my uncle commanded and I nodded as he cast a silencing bubble around us. It was one of the few basic spells he could manage along with locks and the rough hold he had over his stolen Elements.

“I’ll learn everything I can about harnessing Fae magic and feed all the information back to you and Mamá,” I said, nerves warring in me over this task. What if I was caught the second I walked in there? I’d be killed and there was no chance my mamá, mi padre or Alejandro would try and save me. The moment I walked through the gates of Zodiac Academy, I was on my own. And yet…I didn’t care. Since mi abuela had died, all I’d wanted was to get away from my family, and the only dream I’d had my whole life was being a part of the Fae world. So I’d agreed to this loco plan because it was a chance at seeing the Fae world from the inside. She’d knitted me the hat I wore now which connected me to the web of souls and had added extra protective spells which helped keep the shadows from crawling too deep into my mind. It was the only thing that made me feel like myself, so I rarely took it off. When I did, I could hear the Shadow Princess whispering in my head and I was afraid of how easy it was to fall under her command.

“And?” Alejandro growled. The next part was the most frightening, this whole thing planned so last minute that I wasn’t even remotely prepared for it.

“If the Vegas are discovered and brought to the academy, I must get close to them and find a way to deliver them to you and Mamá,” I said, that particular part sending my heart into overdrive. They were the Vegas, the strongest Fae in the whole kingdom. How was I ever going to pull this off?

“And if you fail to do so?” Alejandro prompted with a dark look that made me feel miniscule.

“You’ll kill me,” I rasped.

“Yes. Slowly,” he said the word like he was devouring it. I’d seen the monstrous things this man was capable of over the years and I never wanted to be at his mercy. “And no one will miss you, because you will be nothing but a failure. This is your one chance to make your mother proud. Lionel Acrux has paid your tuition and you would be wise not to squander this opportunity he has offered you.”

I nodded, wringing my hands together as I felt the pressure of this task like a noose around my neck.

“But if you succeed, Diego, you will be deemed worthy among our family,” he said with a pointed look. “So do not disappoint us.”

“I won’t,” I breathed, though how I was going to pull this off I had no idea.

Alejandro left me at the gate and I found myself being swept along with other students here for their Awakening. I glanced back to see him shrinking into the distance and felt the shackles of the home I’d been a slave to my whole life loosening just a little. As I took in the huge, gothic buildings of this elite Fae school, my jaw slackened in awe. It was fantastico, more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen and despite the weight of the burden on my shoulders, excitement trickled into my blood, and I wondered if I might just be lucky enough to claim an inch of freedom here. For a little while at least.

We eventually arrived in a huge meadow that stretched away before me under the stars. I looked up at the sky which seemed clearer than I’d ever seen it, the swirling blue and pink path of the Milky Way streaking through the heavens above, built of countless gleaming stars.

As everyone formed a circle at the centre of the meadow, two girls and a tall man appeared out of nowhere, making my heart jolt violently, realising a second later that they must have used stardust to travel by. Everyone started staring and muttering the girls’ names, confirming they were the Vega twins and my gaze latched onto them, my heart beating fiercely beneath my ribs. They seemed a little lost as the guy directed them to join the circle and I glanced between their perfectly mirrored features as they stood side by side, a sense of dread sliding over me as I knew what would happen to them if I succeeded in my plan.

The professor at the centre of the circle started chanting to the stars and I tipped my head back to look up at them, my hands shaking a little with the pressure of what I had to do next. I rarely used my air Element since I’d stolen it all those years ago, but Alejandro had forced me to practise with it to ensure I could fake my own Awakening. And as Professor Zenith called out for the air Element to arise, I cast air from my fingertips, making the grass rustle around me like it was for everyone else and I didn’t breathe again until she announced we were air Elementals without so much as a suspicious glance my way.

I dropped my head, setting my gaze on my fate once more as the shadows stirred beneath my skin. These two girls had to die or else I would die instead, and I was just thankful I wouldn’t be the one to strike the killing blows.

I was pulled out of the memory and shock descended on me. Diego had been planning to hand us over to his uncle and mother? I didn’t even have time to get my head around that before I fell back into another one of his memories, finding myself in a dark woodland.

I crept through the trees of The Wailing Wood, hunting the ground for what I needed to restore my magic. After I’d stolen the magic from that butchered Fae years ago, I’d been bound to her power in the way her Order had been bound to it. My uncle had told me she had been a Cerberus, so to recharge my magic I had to do what she had done and feast on Aconite – or as some called it, Wolfsbane. I’d heard it grew out here in the woods and now I could feel the well of my magic hollowing out, I needed to find some and recharge it fast.

There were other Orders out here, Fae in their shifted form lumbering through the darkness around me, but none came too close as I continued my search, delving deeper into the trees and using the light on my Atlas to hunt the ground.

At last, I lit up the purple flowers I was looking for and I crouched down, turning off the light on my Atlas and stuffing bunches of them into my pockets. I ate some of them too, chewing through the flowers and stems, loving the taste of what should have been a deadly poisonous plant as it recharged my well of magic.

Then when I’d gathered as much of it as I could, I stood up and started making my way back to the path.

The crash of some large beast sounded somewhere behind me and a tremor ran through me at the power of the Fae in this place. It thrilled me and equally terrified me, because I knew all of them would turn on me, rip me to pieces if they discovered what I was.

As I made it back to the edge of the path, I spotted a girl walking along it in the dark. Alone.

She had blue tipped hair and my pulse increased as I thought of the task I’d been given here. I could creep up behind her, shift into my Nymph form and overpower her. Maybe no one would see. Maybe I could subdue her long enough to get her off campus and call my uncle and my mother to come for her.

I chewed the inside of my cheek anxiously as I followed her, staying in the trees just off the path and trying to force myself to focus. I could do it.

I thought of the Fae I’d killed in Alejandro’s shed, her hands cut off and terror filling her gaze. It made my stomach churn and it wasn’t the last Fae I’d seen like that despite how much I wished it could have been. Alejandro liked to play with the ones he caught and he’d made me watch enough times to break something in me. But I’d never spoken to those Fae, never seen them before their bloody ends. This was different. I’d sat beside Darcy in class. She’d been nice to me. She even seemed to like me a little.

My hands shook and I tugged on the corner of my hat as I drew on the strength of my abuela, though she’d likely hate me now for what I was becoming.

I followed Darcy, debating what I was going to do, thinking of the bloody death that awaited me instead if I didn’t capture her and her sister. But I hadn’t been here for hardly any time at all, there was still so much of the Fae world I wanted to see. And getting hold of the Vegas wasn’t my only task anyway, I was supposed to feed information back to my family about what I learned in classes on how to wield my magic. So…why act tonight?

A twig cracked under my foot and I swallowed a curse, ducking behind a tree as Darcy swung around to look in my direction. Mierda.

When she started moving again, I scurried across the path, trying to keep quiet as I ran into the trees on the other side of it. I slipped deeper into the shadows, deciding to go back to Aer Tower and deal with this another day. It was too soon anyway. Far too soon.

The memory changed fast and I found myself in Andromeda’s Place in Tucana the first time we’d visited the bar with Diego and Sofia.

“Washer is a total perve,” Sofia whispered then giggled and the sound made a grin pull at my mouth. She was something else, this chica. She shone when she was happy, and even whinnied sometimes. I was fascinated with her and her Order and sometimes I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

“Is that why we have to wear bathing suits that barely cover our asses in his class?” Darcy asked and I looked at her.

“I’d bet on it, chica,” I laughed, nudging her in the ribs, the sound all too genuine.

I was facing a real big problem with my plan now that I’d successfully gotten closer to the Vegas twins. I was not only starting to like them more than I wanted to admit, but I was also liking this life way too much. I was so free. I could do anything I wanted. I had my own room, my own space, and yeah sometimes the teachers could be hijo de putas – especially the one who was currently sitting at the bar looking like a smarmy pendejo – but despite that, it was still the best place I’d ever been in my life. And maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that I hadn’t made any moves against the Vegas yet, but that ended today. And as much as my smiles were real for every moment I’d spent with them tonight so far, dread was creeping up on me like a plague. Because Alejandro and my mamá were getting impatient, and they wanted me to make a move against them.

We ate our way through our meal and I checked my Atlas subtly under the table while the others chatted, my gut knotting with dread at the message there from my uncle.

Alejandro:

I’m growing impatient. How much longer?

I tapped out a reply, trying to keep my breaths calm and steady.

Diego:

Maybe tonight isn’t the right night.

Alejandro:

It’s the perfect night. Do not fail me, or you will regret it.

My hands shook and bile rose in my throat as I pushed my Atlas back into my pocket and tugged at my hat, wishing I could speak with mi abuela right now and ask for her guidance. But I was on my own tonight and the fear of what Alejandro would do to me made me push down the guilt writhing in my gut and commit to the plan I’d put in place.

“Shots!” I announced, rising from my seat and working to still my shaking hands.

“Yes!” Sofia cried and the twins laughed as I strode away to the bar, trying to get my mind in the right place for this.

For a moment, I let the shadows slide deeper under my skin, allowing them to lull away my anxiety and focusing on what I had to do.

I ordered the shots at the bar, glancing over at Professor Orion as he cosied up to some woman opposite him. He seemed distracted by something as the shots were laid before me and I slid the vile of powdered knotroot from inside my jacket, quickly sprinkling some of it into two of the drinks.

My throat nearly closed up as I shoved it back into my pocket, throwing Orion a fearful glance, but finding him staring across the room. And as I followed his gaze to Darcy Vega, I grimaced and gathered up the drinks.

I may have loved living among the Fae but there was one kind I didn’t like at all, and it was the Vampires. They used others as blood bags, stealing what they needed, and in all honesty, it reminded me of my own kind. I’d seen what Nymphs could do, and if I could trade away that part of me to be any kind of Fae, I would. Except a Vampire.

I headed back to the table, frowning as I found Geraldine Grus in my seat and heat skidded up the back of my neck. I held the shots out of her reach as she tried to grab one, my pulse hammering as I worked to keep control of this situation. I felt sick, but all I could think about was Alejandro gutting me if I didn’t pull this off and the fear of that was enough to make me stay on this path.

“Isn’t that your gang out there?” I asked Geraldine, nodding to the window and she gasped.

“Oh sweet raisin bran!” She gathered up her badges and leapt out of her seat before curtsying to the Vegas. “Your majesties, forgive me but I must go.”

“You’re forgiven,” Tory said lightly.

“I can be back in one hour!” Geraldine exclaimed. “Then we can all go dancing together.” She ran out of the restaurant, leaving me with one less obstacle, but I didn’t even hear the girls’ next words as my pulse blared in my ears so loud it drowned out all else. I hated myself for what I’d become, for what would happen because of my actions tonight. But I was a pathetic coward too, because I didn’t want to die.

I dropped into my seat with a sigh. “Who needs a drink?”

I was about to pass the two spiked shots to the twins when Sofia swooped down, grabbing one of them and swallowing it whole.

Santa mierda!

Before I could get hold of the other one, she got her hands on that too, drinking the rest and sending a flash of panic right through me.

“Sofia!” I gasped in horror.

I was suddenly yanked out of the memory and thrown into another one so fast it made my head spin.

“What have you done?!” Alejandro roared, his hand tightening on my throat as he crushed me back against my car at the side of the road. Sofia was asleep in the back of it, passed out from the knotroot she’d swallowed. My uncle had nearly driven me off the road on my way back to Zodiac Academy and now I knew I was fucked. Deader than dead. He wouldn’t forgive me for this failure.

“It was an a-accident,” I stuttered in terror. “Sofia drank the knotroot.”

“There’s another nest of Nymphs vying for the Vegas’ magic in Tucana tonight, Diego,” he spat. “If they get to the Vegas before us and claim their magic, I will make you pay severely. I want all four Elements to be mine.” A manic glint entered his gaze.

Alejandro’s eyes slid over my shoulder as he looked down into the back seat of the car and I tried to shift protectively in front of Sofia. Please don’t wake up.

“You can’t kill her,” I blurted and he looked at me with a mocking sneer.

“And why not? Do you really think you can claim her from me?” he laughed coldly, wetting his lips.

“If she dies, it’ll blow my cover. I was the last person seen with her,” I said frantically, knowing that if I didn’t sell him this, he was going to kill her, and I just couldn’t let that happen.

He considered that, a crease of irritation forming on his brow. “Well perhaps I’m tired of waiting for you to prove your usefulness. You’ve fucked up at the first hurdle, why should I even let you return to the academy?”

“I’ll have another chance. And I’ve only been there a short time, I can learn all the spells so you can wield your magic better. That’s important too, isn’t it?” I asked, trying to keep the hint of begging out of my voice as his fingers sharpened to probes around my neck and started to dig in.

“Hm,” he grunted then yanked his hand back, curling it into a fist and driving it hard into my stomach in a winding blow instead.

I doubled over, clutching my side with a groan of pain as Alejandro backed up.

“Go,” he barked and I got into the car, trying to start it with fumbling fingers. “You’ll bring them to me soon, Diego.”

I nodded, getting the car going and tearing off down the road with panic in my chest.

What the hell was I going to do?

Holy shit, Diego had tried to spike our drinks that night so he could hand us to his psycho uncle? I felt for my sister’s presence and drew her closer as shock and anger tore through me, but then I was falling again, diving deep into another memory.

“Falling Star wants to meet,” Darcy told us and Sofia bobbed up and down in excitement.

My heart clenched as Darcy moved to walk away and my hand shot out to grab hold of her. “Wait, is this a good idea? It might not be safe.”

I didn’t know who this Falling Star person was but if they were dangerous, I couldn’t let the twins go to him. I was trying to make myself believe that that was because their deaths by any other hand than my family’s would equal my own, but it was more than that. More than I dared to admit. I was starting to like them. And as I looked to Sofia, I realised I was becoming protective of this little friendship circle we’d formed. I didn’t want things to change when they had been good for the first time in my life.

“It’s fine,” Darcy promised. “Falling Star has helped us. Why would they hurt us?”

I shared a concerned look with Sofia and Tory rolled her eyes and walked away. “It’s happening, Diego. Get over it.”

I frowned as Darcy gave me an apologetic shrug and the two of them headed off together towards the library.

“Hey Sofia – you’re looking as hot as a rainbow on a cloud, baby,” Tyler Corbin called, walking over to us with swagger in his step.

I didn’t like Tyler. Mostly because he had everything I’d ever wanted and he didn’t even care. I’d watched him shift into a Pegasus and fly with Sofia, the two of them the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. And I’d wished so hard that I could just trade lives with him and fly through the clouds with her at my side instead.

Sofia blushed and I watched her flutter her lashes at him with my throat tight. “You should go say hi,” I forced out and she arched a brow at me.

“Are you sure?” she asked and I nodded stiffly, watching as she trotted over to talk to him and they walked away towards the dance. I hated to do that, but I needed to go after the twins and make sure I wasn’t seen.

When I was certain no one was paying me any attention, I crept towards the library, slipping inside and hurrying silently through the stacks as I followed the sound of Tory and Darcy’s footsteps.

As I made it to the iron stairway at the back, I kicked off my shoes and picked them up as I ran silently up the metal steps to the wide balcony that overlooked the bookshelves below.

I hugged the shadows up there as I sought out the twins in the stacks beneath me, my heart beating a mile a minute as my gaze landed on them standing there with Professor Astrum.

“I’m sorry for not revealing myself sooner,” he said in his rasping tone and my lips parted in shock. This guy was Falling Star?

He started speaking about the Savage King and I pulled my Atlas from my pocket, angling it at them and pressing record, sure this conversation was incredibly important. And as I listened, shock rolled through me as he accused Lionel Acrux of leading the Nymphs into the Savage King’s palace to murder their parents. My uncle had been working with him for years though he never told me much about their alliance, I had to admit this guy’s suspicions sounded spot on to me. But if he was pointing fingers at our kind, what else did he know? What if he was onto me? He could have been warning the girls about me for all I knew.

But I relaxed as I realised that he was way off base when he started accusing Darius Acrux and Professor Orion of controlling our kind during the recent Nymph attacks. That had had nothing to do with them. The Nymphs were coming out of hiding more often recently because the Shadow Princess had been calling out to us louder and louder to do her bidding.

My panic started to rise as I listened and I feared being discovered here so I hurried back to the stairs, jogging silently down them and moving between the stacks towards the exit.

A creak sounded as my foot pressed down on an old floorboard and my heart galloped harder as I ran faster, remaining as silent as I could before making it outside and darting around the side of the building to hide.

I pushed my feet into my shoes, clinging to the shadows as I kept moving, trying to decide what to do. And I knew I only had one choice.

I brought up my uncle’s number, forwarding him the video and leaning back against the wall as I waited for a reply. It came a minute later as he called me, and I answered in a whisper.

“Hello.”

“Good work, Diego. You are proving of some use at last,” he growled. “I need you to use the amulet I gave you tonight. Place it in the ground at the eastern fence and meet me there when I message you.”

“Okay, what are you going to do?” I asked, fear lacing my words at the idea of my uncle coming here, but the line went dead.

I sighed, pushing my Atlas back into my pocket and adjusting my hat over my ears as I decided to head back to Aer Tower to fetch the amulet before I went to the party. And as I stared up at the darkening sky, I wondered if the stars truly hated me like my mother believed they did.

The memory changed to later that night, and I was thrown back into Diego’s body as he slipped out of The Orb and started running towards the eastern fence.

Adrenaline fuelled my limbs as I ran as fast as I could across campus, my smart jacket flapping out behind me as I tore along the dark paths and tried not to panic about what my uncle planned to do tonight.

As I made it to the fence, he stepped into view among the trees beyond it with my mamá at his side, the two of them wearing all black apart from the knitwear my abuela had gifted them.

“Hurry up,” my mamá snapped and Alejandro pointed to the ground at my feet.

I took the amulet from my inside pocket, pushing it into the ground and feeling the dark magic imbued within it. It snaked out into the dirt and the magical boundary in front of them crackled and shrouded in shadow. The two of them stepped through it and Alejandro used the heat of his fire magic to bend the bars so he and my mamá could climb through the fence onto campus.

My breaths came unevenly as I stared at them, fearing what they were going to do now and knowing that I was responsible for it. But as Alejandro stepped closer, his upper lip peeling back as he looked at me, I knew I’d had no other choice. He grabbed the back of my neck, swinging me around and shoving me ahead of him.

“Take me to Astrum,” he snarled.

“That old man’s been avoiding his fate far too long,” Mamá purred excitedly and a shiver of dread ran down my spine.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking to her and her eyes dripped over me in disdain.

“He’s old enough to know,” Alejandro said as he shared a look with his sister.

“He worked at the palace when we killed the royals,” Mamá said with a twisted smile on her lips that made my stomach knot with dread.

“You…what?” I breathed, sure they were just messing with me.

“Where do you think I got all of my power, idiota?” Alejandro smirked, playing with flames in his palms and making my throat tighten. “I’m the strongest Nymph in Solaria.”

“That’s because you didn’t share,” Mamá sniped at him. “Though the queen tasted oh so sweet when she died. I can’t say I’d have wanted to miss that.” She grinned evilly and I found my feet unable to move any further as I stared at them, realising what they were saying.

“You killed the Vegas’ parents?” I rasped.

“Yes,” Alejandro said with pride in his voice. “Thanks to Lionel Acrux.”

“He loved watching them kick and scratch us as our friends held them down for us, didn’t he?” Mamá said, the image making bile rise in my throat. “I think he enjoys death more than you, Alejandro.”

“No one enjoys it more than me,” he said darkly, grabbing my arm and shoving me along again. “But look at your son, he can’t even stomach the thought of blood.”

“He’s the spitting image of Miguel in every way,” Mamá said in disgust, but I didn’t know how I could resemble a man who rarely spoke and seemed to be void of all emotion.

My legs felt numb as I kept walking towards The Orb where I’d last seen Astrum, wondering if there was some way I could alert everyone to the Nymphs being on campus without unveiling myself. I could deal with them just like that, my troubles gone forever, and I could stay in this world pretending to be Fae for as long as I could get away with it.

“I want my hands on a Vega tonight,” Mamá said greedily as she quickened her pace. “Let’s be done with it, Alejandro.”

“I don’t want them to die here,” he purred. “Let’s take them home. At least one of them.”

I thought of the girl in that shed again and slowed my pace, unable to bear the idea of seeing the twins in that vile place.

“You won’t get close to them. There’s too many Fae around,” I tried. “Even Professor Astrum will be hard to get alone.”

Alejandro swung towards me fast, his hand fisting in my shirt as he held raging flames an inch away from my face and I saw a demon staring back at me in his eyes. “Those sound like the words of a coward,” he snarled. “I am hungry for a kill tonight, sobrino, and if it is not a Fae then perhaps it will be you. And perhaps I will make it a long, agonising game too.”

I shook my head, frantically trying to push his hand off of me as my mamá watched with a cold detachment in her gaze. Terror clawed through my insides as I stared at the hatred in my uncle’s eyes and I wanted to vanish so I didn’t have to face it.

“Okay, okay,” I blurted and he let go of me, pointing me ahead of them and I stumbled on, my breaths coming raggedly as I led them towards The Orb.

As we approached the golden building, I spotted Professor Astrum standing out on the lawn in front of it, looking up at the stars with his eyes closed like he was somehow speaking with them.

I glanced at my uncle and Mamá in fear as they locked him in their sights like their next meal and I wanted to call out to him to run.

There was no one else around, the party still thriving inside The Orb, but no students were hanging around outside. I didn’t understand why Professor Astrum was just standing there like that, but as he opened his eyes and lowered his head to look toward us, he spoke.

“Ah, of course,” he sighed, nodding. “I couldn’t see my death, only the darkness that awaited me beyond this night. But now it makes sense.”

Alejandro and Mamá advanced on him and I scurried after them with a plea that died on my lips as my uncle called out to him.

“Where are your pretty stars to protect you tonight, Seer?” he said mockingly.

“The stars await me.” He checked the watch on his wrist, nodding with a solemn look in his eyes as Alejandro and Mamá closed in on him on both sides.

I stopped walking, my eyes darting to The Orb and back as I wondered if I should try and run for help. If I could make it there and alert the faculty to their presence then maybe they’d be caught, maybe they’d kill them and I’d be free at last.

Astrum’s eyes fell on me and a frown knitted his brows as realisation crossed his features. I’d been so caught up in fear, I hadn’t even thought to hide from him before I exposed myself.

He looked to the stars again, murmuring something to them and his eyes widened as his eyes fell on me with understanding.

Alejandro kicked out the backs of his knees and Astrum fell to the ground, no hint of magic flashing in his hands as he seemed to accept this fate. But I wanted him to fight, to rise up and attack the monsters who stood either side of him. More than that, I wanted to fight them myself, to make a stand and refuse to follow their orders any longer.

Instead, I found myself frozen in terror and unable to do anything but watch as my mamá laughed coldly and shifted her hands into Nymph probes. She stepped forward with intent as her rattle filled the air and locked down Astrum’s magic, combining with the sound of Alejandro’s until he was weakened before them, though it was clear he’d had no intention of fighting this.

Mamá drove her probes into his chest and Astrum tipped his head back with a smile pulling at his lips as he mouthed the names of the Vega king and queen like he could somehow see them before him.

Alejandro let my mamá torture him for several seconds before shoving her aside and driving his own probes into Astrum’s chest in a brutal blow that sent blood splattering across the ground. I knew they weren’t planning to take his magic, I’d seen them do this before, getting high on connecting with a Fae’s magic source without ever actually exchanging it for the Elements they’d already claimed for themselves.

Astrum never moved his eyes from the sky and Alejandro growled in anger as he didn’t get the reaction he wanted. And as Astrum slumped backwards onto the ground, Alejandro unleashed a furious fire from his veins, burning him as he grinned at the carnage he caused, the huge flames heating my cheeks as I stumbled back and watched the fire twist higher and higher, burning Astrum’s body away to nothing beneath him.

Mamá spat into the flames and my eyes darted to the path as a pitchy scream sounded beyond the blazing fire that blocked us from view. Alejandro grabbed Mamá’s arm and the two of them ran, tearing past me and nearly knocking me over as they made their escape before they were spotted.

I stood in shock, trying to gather my wits as more and more students poured out of The Orb and I circled around to join them, hugging the shadows so I wouldn’t be seen.

My mouth was too dry and the scent of death hung everywhere as I pushed into the crowd and melded with the panicked students.

“Move aside!” Professor Orion’s voice carried above them and he came barrelling through the crowd with Darcy and Tory on his heels. Darcy’s hair had been sheared off and Tory’s eyes were alight with some horror, making my gut tighten. What had happened to them?

“Who is it?” a boy muttered beyond me.

“Do you think it was a Nymph?” another girl whispered and panic rose in me like an oncoming storm.

I had to throw them off, I had to make them think it was something else.

“What the hell is that?” Darcy whispered in fear as she squinted at the raging flames.

“I’ve only ever seen Dragon Fire burn like that,” I said loud enough for my voice to carry, latching onto what Astrum had told the twins and casting shade on Darius in the hopes that no suspicion would fall on me or my kind. Because I knew a terrible fate awaited me if I gave my family away, and maybe my uncle was right. Maybe I was a coward.

I could feel Diego’s panic wrapping around me from that night and I didn’t know what to think as I was cast forward into the future. I started to see moments blurring together, Diego letting the Nymphs onto campus the day they’d attacked at the Pitball pitch, him tossing the vile of knotroot out the window into the bushes at the base of Aer Tower to hide it from the FIB raids, his anger as Orion had broken the box gifted to him by his grandmother, his embarrassment as Orion had exposed his secret crush on Sofia to the agents around him. I saw the night he let his uncle onto campus and I fought with him in the astronomy tower, but I also saw Diego willing me to kill the man who’d tormented him, praying I was strong enough to destroy him.

And then I was thrown into another memory of Alejandro choking him in the woods at the edge of campus, his vision going dark as his uncle demanded he work harder to deliver me and my sister to him. I could feel Diego’s fear tearing up the inside of me and his absolute longing to shed himself of his family, his Nymph form, and be Fae like his friends, like us. The people he was truly starting to love and care for in ways that he had never felt for anyone.

Then I was in Diego’s room, watching as he pulled his hat off, leaving it on the desk as he tugged down his sleeves to cover bruises his uncle had left on him, and the next minute I was in the woods with him, his hand taking hold of mine as he we headed to the Fairy Fair together. Without his hat, the shadows slithered deeper beneath his flesh and the Shadow Princess purred evil commands in his ear. He found it easier to be colder, to draw me in and try to get closer to me as his uncle had asked. It was why he’d kissed me, why he’d tried to flirt with me, but all the while he’d been hurting over Sofia dating Tyler, knowing she would never choose him instead. And he believed in his soul it was because he wasn’t Fae.

The shadows had burrowed deep within him during the Fairy Fair and he’d almost lost his mind to them, the Shadow Princess calling to his soul and filling him with rage against Fae kind. It was the reason he’d snapped at me, called me a whore. He’d let his mind sink so deep into the shadows that it had nearly consumed him whole. And the moment he pulled it back on later that night, I felt his remorse, his pain. And I felt the beating he’d taken from Alejandro for failing him once more too.

I suddenly crashed into another memory on the night of The Reckoning, looking up at the stars through Diego’s eyes with terror making his bones quake.

A glimmering number three hung above my head, a mark of how poorly I’d done so far, but now The Reckoning would be the final deciding factor and I was certain I was about to be either sent home for good or exposed by the stars for what I was.

I glanced over at the Vegas, guilt eating me up over how I’d behaved at the Fairy Fair, sure I’d ruined our friendship, though I didn’t know why I even cared. I’d tried to hurt them last night, tried to do what Alejandro had demanded of me and bring them to him at last. But even while embracing the shadows, I’d failed. And now I felt the weight of what I was becoming like my heart was turning black within my chest. I was growing sick of this game and I was so tired of being a traitor to the girls I’d come to really care about. But what kind of friend was I? They’d hate me if they knew the truth. And now it had all come to nothing, because I couldn’t lie to the stars. They’d see me for what I was – if they’d even bother to judge me at all.

Principal Nova directed us to all make a circle in the meadow and join hands like we had at the Awakening, and I waited with bated breath for the axe of fate to fall on my neck.

As Zenith called out to the stars, I looked up at the gleaming pinpricks of light and a shudder ran through me before the entire sky seemed to twist in a vortex. Suddenly I was standing in a chamber of darkness, seeming to float there as if I weighed nothing, as if I was nothing. And for a second it was a relief to feel like the world was over, and no more was going to be asked of me.

I wondered if this would be it for me, a void where no stars existed, no powerful beings bothering to turn their gaze on someone as worthless as me.

But then a whisper filled my head which sounded like it was woven from the fabric of the universe itself.

“Imposter,” it breathed. “We see you, son of the shadow born. And it is time to face The Reckoning.”

I swallowed hard, wondering if they’d punish me now, kill me maybe. And perhaps that was better than going back to a life where I would be made a monster again and again.

“A great burden rests heavily upon you, and a path of dark and light lays before your feet. So which will you choose?”

“I can…choose?” I asked in surprise.

“All creatures of the stars may choose.”

“But I’m not Fae,” I said thickly, shaking my head.

“You are a child of cruelty and misfortune, but you are still our child.”

“I don’t understand. Please, tell me what do. How can I protect the Vegas without ending up dead for it?” I begged.

“Death is your greatest fear.”

“Yes,” I croaked.

“What is it you are afraid of, son of the shadow born?”

“To be nothing,” I breathed. “To disappear and never have known anything good.”

“Do you know nothing good?” the stars asked and the darkness lifted, showing a vision of me laughing with my friends, the smile on my face so unfamiliar to me that I reached up to touch my own lips.

The vision faded away again and tears pricked my eyes. “I have to bring them to my uncle,” I half sobbed. “If I don’t, he’ll – he’ll-”

The vision changed before me, showing me that fate, me chained in that dark shed in the woods, my hands cut off and Alejandro standing above me with a blade in his grip and a sinister smile on his lips. I screamed, trying to block it out, but no matter if my eyes were closed or not, it was all I could see.

“Please – stop – stop!” I cried and the vision faded once more, leaving me in the pressing darkness. But I preferred that to the visions of the stars.

“I don’t want to see anymore,” I whispered.

“What does a Fae do when their back is against the wall, son of the shadow born?”

“I don’t know,” I rasped.

“What does a Fae do when their back is against the wall, son of the shadow born?”

“I don’t know – I’m not Fae!” I shouted, my voice ripped raw as the pain of those words tore through me. “But I wish I was,” I murmured, a tear running down my cheek.

“A Fae faces their fears,” the stars whispered.

I hung my head.

“What does a Fae do when their back is against the wall, son of the shadow born?”

“They fight,” I said softly, knowing that was the answer but still knowing I wasn’t one of them.

“What does a Fae do with their heart?” the stars asked and I frowned at that question, thinking on it.

“They love,” I decided.

“And what will a Fae do to be worthy of their place in Solaria?”

I frowned, the answer coming to me easily and falling from my lips. “Anything.”

“You have passed our tests.” The stars released me from their grip and I could hardly believe that I was being let go, that I was deemed worthy to stay at Zodiac Academy. It made no sense, and yet it was the best thing I had ever experienced. And for a moment, I could almost feel what it was like to be Fae.

I was yanked back out of the memory and more zoomed in front of my eyes from one to the next. I saw Diego struggling with his conscience, saw him face Alejandro time and again and meet his wrath.

I saw him spiking Tory’s drink in The Orb, his attempt to take her to his uncle, then felt his relief when Darius intervened and he once more faced Alejandro’s punishments. But now he seemed to prefer it, finding strength in his actions by deciding to take the pain instead of truly fulfilling any of his uncle’s wishes.

I watched him smile and laugh with his friends and enjoy every single second of his time at Zodiac Academy, and I saw him grow stronger right before my eyes, more than I’d ever even noticed when he’d been right there in front of me.

I fell into another memory which made my heart lurch with fear because I knew what was coming as I walked in his shoes, shedding his clothes and hanging his hat on a branch in the woods that bordered Stella’s property.

I shifted into my Nymph form and felt the tug of the Shadow Princess’s power rolling through my veins as I was called to battle. “Time to fight. Time to kill. Come to my aid.”

Alejandro and Mamá crashed through the woodland close by as they fought against Darcy and some of the Heirs.

The shadows beckoned me into them deeper and deeper, but I wouldn’t go. Not tonight. Not when Darcy and Tory were in trouble. Mi abuela had told me that I was strong enough to fight against the will of the Shadow Princess if I only believed it was so, and tonight I’d finally found that strength in me, refusing to be a pawn to that creature any longer.

I may have been sent to Zodiac to capture them, but I was done playing my uncle’s game. And now when they were in danger, I wasn’t going to let them down. They’d been loyal to me and I would be loyal to them in return, even if it meant my uncle saw what I was. I had friends now. They’d help me. They’d accepted my connection to the shadows, so maybe they could accept that I was a Nymph too. Because I was done lying, done betraying them.

And I’d stand beside them tonight and fight like the Fae I wished I could be, and pray they could forgive me when they learned the truth.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Clara Orion. You’re just a hollow thing full of shadow and death,” Darcy spat as I crept up behind the Shadow Princess, feeling the stars turning their gaze towards me.

“So which would you rather I give you, Darcy Vega? Shadow or death?” the Shadow Princess flexed her fingers and Darcy’s eyes widened as she prepared to shield. I knew in that moment she was going to act too late to protect herself.

I lunged forward, ramming my probes into the Shadow Princess’s back with a bellow of defiance and lifting her off the ground as I raised my arm. My lungs laboured and victory rushed through me as this golden moment gilded every one of my veins and made me feel like a god as I finally made a move against the monsters I’d been enslaved to my entire life.

Darcy cast a fireball to finish the bitch off, but the Shadow Princess twisted around to avoid it, forcing me to drop her as she gripped the shadows within me and I growled in frustration as she hit the ground on her knees.

Before Darcy could strike at her again, the Shadow Princess shot away with a burst of Vampire speed.

I looked to Darcy, triumph pounding through me, but it was quickly followed by uncertainty as she raised her hands at me, a frown pulling at her brow as she tried to work out if I was her enemy or not.

I took a step back, bowing my head to one of the true queens, because of course that was what she and her sister were. I’d seen them blossom into the most incredibly powerful Fae and I’d happily kneel at their feet and serve them in any way they wanted. They may not have known it, but they’d given me a family, a home, and I would repay them for that in any way I possibly could.

The Shadow Princess suddenly leapt onto my back and I was too slow to act as she reached around and drove a blade into my chest.

The shock of the strike made me roar, but the sound died as she drove that knife into my chest over and over until pain was all I could feel as I tumbled to the ground in a heap, blood washing over my body and making me dizzy.

It had all happened so fast, and I was finding it impossible to draw in any breath as I felt the stars press closer.

“Son of the shadow born, do you remember what Fae do with their fears?” the stars whispered to me as terror wound its way around my thrashing heart.

“You dare attack your princess?” the Shadow Princess snarled as she stood over me and I nodded, the answer to the stars’ question now so blindingly clear.

I do dare. Because Fae face their fears. And I’m almost as afraid of you as I am afraid to die.

Darcy released a flare of Phoenix fire at her, but the Shadow Princess darted out of its way and blackness curtained my vision for a moment as I lost consciousness.

When I woke, the shift had fallen over me, so I lay there naked in the mud with blood pouring down my chest and death calling my name. I could see the stars through the trees, shining so bright it almost seemed like day.

“Diego?” Darcy gasped, dropping down beside me as horror lined her features. She rested her hands over my chest, trying to heal the wounds, but I knew it was far too late. And there was so much more I needed to say. But one thing more than any other.

“I’m so s-sorry, Darcy,” I forced out, needing her to hear it though knowing there wasn’t enough time to explain why.

“I don’t understand,” she sobbed, still working to stop the flow of blood, but I was already falling away. “Max!” she screamed, turning to him but I clutched her arm, desperate for her not leave when I was only moments from death.

“Fae magic can’t heal me,” I whispered.

“How can you…how are you here?” she croaked, tears running down her cheeks and I hated to see her crying over me. But it reminded me that she cared, that someone really cared. And I had meant something on this earth in a world where I should have meant nothing.

“I’m not your enemy,” I swore, needing her to know that and she took hold of my hand, squeezing tightly and making my fear lessen just a little. My heart was slowing and the stars above me were whispering of my end, so I had to give her the key to everything I knew, things that could help her defeat my uncle, my mamá, even Lionel Acrux. “You’ll see… you need to…take my hat.” I coughed and blood rose in my throat, the taste of it everywhere, but the pain was turning to a cold numbness now.

Darcy wiped the blood from my lips, pain written into her features as she tried to keep me here. And it felt so, so good to be wanted like that. To know that I would be missed.

“Just hold on,” she begged. “There must be something I can do.”

I shook my head slightly, understanding what the stars were asking of me now. I had to face my fear, and this was it. I just hoped there was something waiting for me in death beyond darkness, I hoped there was a place for me among the stars.

“I just wanted to be useful. Did I do okay? Was I good friend?” I asked as a tear rolled from my eye as I knew I’d never see Sofia again, or Tory, or Geraldine. The friends who had given me a life I had always dreamed of having.

“You’re the best friend, Diego,” Darcy promised and before death could steal me away, happiness spilled into every inch of my being and for a single second, I felt like a Fae who was dying a worthy death for his friend. His queen.

And as her face faded from view, and I slipped away somewhere far warmer and safer, I felt mi abuela’s hand taking hold of mine and drawing me into her arms, her voice so familiar and comforting as she held me. “I am so very proud of you, Diego.”

I was forced out of the shadows of the hat, finding my face wet with tears as Orion pulled me onto his lap and I let myself cry against his shoulder at reliving that awful goodbye once more.

Geraldine wailed behind me, sobbing Diego’s name as Orion stroked his hand up and down my back.

It was so much to take in and I didn’t know whether to even be angry with him at all for the things he’d done, because in the end he’d given his life to save me and he’d made his choice to tell us the truth, he’d just never gotten the chance.

When I finally looked around, I found the Heirs and Xavier deep in thought and Tory wiped tears from under her eyes.

Orion tugged the hat off of my head, tossing it onto the bed and kissing my wet cheek as I pulled myself together at last, the grief in my chest a tight pinch which wouldn’t go away.

“The hat kid’s name was Diego? I swear it was Darnell,” Darius murmured to Tory and she punched him in the arm with a muttered curse about him being an asshole.

“He will not have died in vain,” Geraldine said, rising to her feet and sniffing loudly as she reined in her tears. “We shall avenge his brave soul and destroy the wicked witch who laid him in the ground.”

I nodded my agreement, looking to my sister as she reached out to squeeze my arm and I saw the need for revenge in her eyes as keenly as it lived in me.

“Her life is marked,” I growled. “As is Alejandro’s.”

“For our mother and father too,” Tory growled.

“We’ll send them into death screaming for mercy, and tear our parents’ Elements free of their veins,” I hissed.

Geraldine kissed her fist and held it to her chest. “For the true queens!”