Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

Everyone filed out of the room as the meeting finally ended and I drifted into Caleb’s way, wanting to catch his attention, unsure exactly what I was going to say, only that I definitely needed to say something.

I could lead with a ‘thank you for saving me from the creepy shadow eye’- though had he seriously had to punch me in the fucking face with a stone hand? That shit seemed personal.

The tension between us was unbearable, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Was I supposed to just walk right up to him and say, hey man, maybe we should talk about how you made me come so hard I nearly blacked out the other night?

Or, hey bro, remember how I said we were BFF BJ buddies, well I’m actually so in love with you that I wanna tattoo your name on my cock, and I know you won’t ever feel that way about me, but hooking up with you is slowly breaking my heart because I know I can never truly, really have you.

Dammit, I needed Darcy here to tell me what to say. Where even was she? Tory had been cagey as hell about her in that meeting. My moon senses were telling me something was up, and I was going to find out what it was. Just as soon as I spoke to Cal…

I moved into his way as he went to leave, but the motherfucker shoulder checked me, stalking past me with Tory at his side. Rage simmered in my chest, turning my heart from solder to coldest steel. Fine. Have it your way, asshole.

The room emptied out and I flexed my fingers, a storm of air swirling between them as the echoing silence drew in around me. Alone, that was me. Just a pup on a mountain with no one to snuggle him.

I sank onto a chair, clasping my head in my hands as my thoughts fell on Darius and the grief I’d been disguising as anger spilled out of me in one long, mournful howl. I pressed my mouth to my arm, suffocating the sound away so no one heard me. Max would come offering me comfort, and I couldn’t face him or anyone else right now. I just wanted to remain furious at Darius, because the second I let the mask slip, I was gonna have to feel it all. The loss, the pain, the grief. I didn’t want it. I wasn’t strong enough to survive it. But despite how much I tried to escape it, I still fell into a chasm of despair that I doubted I’d ever escape from.

“Seth? I’m still here.” Xavier’s voice made me jump and my fist snapped out in the direction it came from, slamming into a wall of ice he cast to block the blow. My knuckles split apart on its surface, and I savoured the pain, standing and throwing my fists into it again and again until it crumbled to crushed ice at my feet.

Beyond it, Xavier was revealed, his eyes heavy with shadows and a dejected look about him that made me wonder if he would ever smile again.

I stepped through the hole I’d made in the ice and wrapped my arms around him, drawing him tight to my chest. “I’m so sorry, Xavier.”

“Not your fault,” he grunted, not hugging me back, but that didn’t mean I was going to let go. Everyone needed a hug now and again. I was a hug master, and people always needed hugs most when they refused them. It was their way of trying to resist the emotions that hugs brought on, especially in the aftermath of so much loss. But that pain had to come out one way or another, better it was shared in the arms of someone who loved you.

We stood like that until time turned to grains of sand at our feet and I finally released him, hunting his expression for some sign of resilience but there was little there except grief.

“I don’t care what the Councillors say, I’ll never take his place as an Heir,” he said, his eyes darkening and revealing the pressure they were clearly placing him under. It was a fucking joke to put him through that while he was still struggling through losing his family, but then again, I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen my mom and the other Heirs’ parents act in the name of duty all my life, and politics rarely took emotion into account.

“I know, man,” I said gently.

“He’s only been gone for a few turns of the earth and all they care about is their precious power balance being restored, the future and all the fucking horse shit they think is still a possibility.” He stamped his foot. “Even if there was some small chance of us defeating Lionel now and the Council regaining power, I would die before I stepped into my brother’s place.”

I noticed how he called his father by his name, like he was rejecting all ties to him and refusing the word that made them family. I understood that on a soul-deep level. Real family were the people who earned their place in your life, not the ones who demanded things of you just because you were tethered to them by blood.

“If there’s anything you ever need-” I started but the door cracked open and Sofia’s golden head slipped through followed by Tyler’s, the two of them gazing at Xavier with longing in their eyes.

“Are you finished with your meeting?” Sofia asked hopefully.

Xavier glanced at me, and I stepped back, nodding toward the door.

“See you later,” I murmured, painting on the falsest of smiles – I was real gifted at that. Not letting people see the hurt in me, that I needed company right now more than I needed anything else in the world.

Xavier squeezed my arm then trotted over to Sofia and Tyler, his two herd mates pulling him through the door and surrounding him in affection, whinnying softly as they went. I watched them go through the open door and the fires burning in the sconces on the walls all went out as Xavier’s magic left with him.

I was alone in the dark and suddenly I could taste snowflakes on my tongue and feel the pressing walls of an ice-cold cave closing in on me. The Forging I’d been forced to endure as a pup was so far in the past, yet it always came back to me in moments like this. When I felt frighteningly alone.

I didn’t have a pack among the rebels, the Oscura Wolves all too deep in their own clan for me to take part in that. There were other Wolves who’d come to me, offering to form a group with me, but I’d rejected them all because I’d already had the best pack I could imagine. I’d had the Heirs, Darcy, Tory, Orion, even crazy-ass Geraldine Grus. They were my family, and some of the best times of my life had happened in The Burrows. It shouldn’t have taken losing everything to realise that.

It all seemed so fucked now. Darius was gone, Tory was heartbroken, Orion and Darcy were lost, and Max was trying to forge this new, sweet thing he had going with Geraldine amidst a world of despair. Then there was Caleb. The man who had become the centre of every thought, every dream, every nightmare I experienced day after day.

The truth was, my Order demanded the closeness of a pack around me when I was suffering. I needed to be wrapped in the arms of Fae I loved, and frankly if I was getting all the things that would make me feel better, I also wanted someone to tickle my tummy and call me a good boy. The problem was that, that someone couldn’t be just anyone anymore. The person I wanted to comfort me was the one person I couldn’t have. And I didn’t want to crawl into anyone else’s arms but his. So instead, I rejected the world, rejected all the instincts of my Order and I drowned in this pain. That was what this felt like, sinking so deep into a torturous pool of unrequited feelings that I couldn’t breathe.

I missed King’s Hollow. I missed when things were simple, but mostly I missed a time that didn’t even exist. A place where all of the people I loved were safe, where we weren’t at war with each other or a false king, and where my best friend was as fiercely in love with me as I was with him. Yeah, I was selfish. I should have wished that none of this had ever happened between Cal and I, that we’d stayed friends and never muddied the water of that friendship. But there was no denying the truth that if the moon and stars offered me one, unconditional wish, it would always be him.

I sighed, moving to the door, lingering in the shadows as I clogged up the bloody holes in my heart over Darius and cloaked my pain with rage.

My hand curled into a fist and I strode out of the room, needing an outlet of carnage. I felt like a cruel Heir again, hunting the halls of Zodiac Academy for a Vega to toy with, and a small voice in the back of my head reminded me how well that had ended. Darcy wasn’t here to call me out on my bullshit, Darius wasn’t here to keep me in line, Professor Orion wasn’t around to drag me into detention, and no one else was going to stop me.

I rounded a sharp corner in the ruins and slammed straight into Rosalie Oscura. I barked, expecting her to flinch and submit to me as the superior Alpha, but she lifted her chin and growled low in her throat in a challenge. And maybe I really did fancy beating her down to release some of this energy in me.

“Oh hey, didn’t see you there, cucciolo stupido.” She went all innocent on me, batting her lashes, but there was a mocking in it that had my eyes narrowing.

“What did you just call me?” I growled.

“It means…friend.” She shrugged, stepping sideways to head past me but I darted into her way.

“Why did it have the word stupid in it then?” I pressed, hungry for a fight with one of my kind. I could use the reminder that I was the strongest Werewolf in this kingdom.

“Did it?” She frowned like she couldn’t remember then clapped me on the arm. “If you’re looking for Caleb, he went to the old bell tower with Tory.”

“Who says I’m looking for Caleb?” I said defensively.

“You did,” she said.

“No I didn’t,” I balked.

“Not with words, obviously,” she said. “With your stupidi occhi da cucciolo.”

“My what?” I demanded. She was pissing me off now.

“Look.” She took my arm, pulling me over to a glassless window that looked out over the ruins running down the mountainside, pointing to the belltower where the sun glinted off the ancient bronze metal of the bell at its peak.

“What am I looking at?” I muttered.

“This.” She leapt up onto the window ledge and sprang out of it, casting vines of earth magic and swinging away from me before landing on a half-crumbled balcony far below. “See you later, dumb puppy!”

I growled, stalking away from the window, and heading along in the vague direction of the belltower. It wasn’t like I was actually going to go there. I could walk in that direction though. I could walk anywhere I liked. Caleb wasn’t king of the ruins. Maybe I just fancied a trip up the belltower. Maybe I just liked the view from up there. It had nothing to do with him. Nothing at all.

The grass coating the mountainside was long and swayed in the endless cool breeze, its soft tendrils swishing around my knees as I stalked through it, every step sounding my approach loudly enough for a Vampire to hear with ease. There was snow further up the mountain and the scent of that cold air sweeping down from its peak stung my nose, reminding me of those days in the wilderness, of the things I’d survived to bring me to this point. It was maddening in a way, the memories of being so helpless and so alone pressing in until my mind was spinning with them and my chest ached with the need for comfort.

When I arrived at the belltower, I gazed up at the rustic walls, the old reddish stone still mostly intact, ancient carvings near unrecognisable after years of corrosion from the wind.

I headed inside, walking up the tightly curling stairway, casting a silencing bubble around me. Not that I was trying to stop Caleb and Tory from detecting my approach or anything…

I made it to the top of the tower and peered out from the final stone steps that led onto the veranda beneath the giant bell which hung there.

Caleb and Tory stood arm to arm, looking out over the mountainside, talking within a silencing bubble of their own. They were facing the opposite direction to the way I’d come, so they probably had no idea I was here. That anyone was here. And something in my gut twisted like knotweed as Caleb dropped his arm over her shoulders and drew her close.

Tory wasn’t a hugger. I knew that from first-hand experience of trying to get snuggles out of her, but the way she melted into him and rested her head to his chest had my lungs refusing to work.

He spoke to her in soft murmurs, affection pouring from his eyes. I tried to lip read what he was saying and could have sworn I saw him say, ‘I’ve got you, sweetheart.’

They had a past together, and now they were shattering over Darius’s death and the obvious arms for them to fall into were each other’s. It wasn’t Max she’d brought up here, not Gerry, not me. It was him. The man she had sought out plenty of times before, because they had a connection. Maybe one I’d long underestimated until now.

A lump thickened in my throat and my pulse pounded unevenly in my ears. My world was caving in, the ground collapsing beneath my feet. I’d been such a fucking idiot. I’d been Caleb’s easy lay when he’d been breaking, the Werewolf who never caught feelings for the Fae he fucked. The one who could be emotionless with anyone he took to his bed. I was the obvious answer to his curiosity too. He wanted to know what it was like to be with a guy, so why not pick Seth Capella? He wasn’t going to catch feelings, he wasn’t going to make it awkward, he wasn’t going to tell anyone either because he was a loyal friend. He was just Seth.

Tory lifted her head, speaking to him and I read the words, trying to decipher them from her perfect lips. Lips my lips could never rival. “Your dick is so hard, Caleb.”

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t what she’d said, but that was all I could see right now. His huge, throbbing, perfect dick, and I didn’t want it anywhere near anyone else unless it was sleeping contentedly in his pants dreaming of me.

I didn’t want to fall into a pit of jealousy, I didn’t want to focus on this when Darius was in a coffin, growing eternally colder by the second. It should have been the last thing on my mind. Tory was heartbroken, Caleb too. I just hadn’t expected to see them here breaking together, finding something in their shattered pieces to clutch onto. And it was each other.

My eyes traced the loving smile his lips painted for her, and I captured that moment in my mind, knowing I would rewrite it later, with me in her place.

I moved back down a step as my heart crumpled like a ball of paper in a tight fist, planning to leave when a cry from above made me pause. I squinted toward the sun above the mountain ahead and Caleb’s head snapped in that direction too, probably hearing some faraway words within that cry which I couldn’t perceive.

A small shadow was cast over the mountainside and I spotted the source of it in the sky; a man tethered to a parachute made of leaves, his legs wheeling through the air as he descended towards us.

Tory dropped the silencing bubble around them, and I dropped mine too, hurrying up onto the veranda, crossing beneath the huge bronze bell above.

Caleb’s eyes whipped onto me in an instant, and I raised my chin, showing no sign of the acidic envy I was feeling. Just chilled out, ever-smiling Seth Capella.

“Who is that?” I asked, looking to the sky again.

“I think it’s…Justin,” Tory said in shock. “Shit, do you think he’s been stuck in that thing since the battle?”

“Why is he even in it at all?” I asked and Tory grimaced.

“He saved my life, but then we were surrounded by Nymphs, and I knew I needed to be able to fight without having to worry about accidentally burning him to a crisp. So, I sort of…made a parachute for him, shot him into the air and totally forgot about it until just now. I may be an asshole.”

My surprise was overridden by the sound of Justin’s voice, and I looked back to him as he drew closer.

“Hide the children!” he cried, pulling on the vines of his parachute to guide himself towards us. “The enemy advances!”

I climbed up onto the low wall at the edge of the veranda, squinting towards the horizon, but the sun was blinding. “What enemy?”

“What-ho!” Geraldine appeared with Max from one of the ruined buildings down below, spotting Justin as he sailed towards the belltower.

“Milady!” Justin cried. “The dastards approach from yonder!”

“Yonder?” she gasped. “From whence did you come, you bucktailed barklouse?”

“Over the bracken hills and the whistling woodlands,” Justin called.

“Can someone speak a language I understand and point me at an enemy so I can kill it?” I yelled and Tory fisted her hand in the back of my shirt, pulling herself up beside me on the wall.

“Hang on, I speak semi-fluent ASS,” she said as Justin came floating down to the belltower. His parachute caught on the spire above the bell, and he jerked to a halt, hanging down beside us from his harness and fighting to get free of it.

Caleb whipped out a finger, cutting the binds with magic and letting Justin crash down on his ass before picking him up and planting him firmly on his feet.

“Where’s the enemy?” he demanded.

Justin lifted a trembling finger, pointing in the direction of the forest at the foot of the mountain and I turned, following his line of sight just as a cloud drifted over the sun so I could see clearer. Nymphs. Rivers of them, all bursting from the thick trees and running up the mountain, splitting apart and taking different paths so they weren’t all bunched together as a single target.

“Fuck nuts,” I breathed, adrenaline zipping through my blood and bringing on a hunger for war.

The camp for the rebels was spread out between us and them, a few cries going up from the earth grown tents as some of them spotted the Nymphs too, and my stomach clenched with fear for them.

“Avast!” Geraldine cried from below.

“We’ll get the weapons!” Max shouted. “Alert the rebels!”

He and Geraldine took off running towards the central part of the ruins where most of us had been sleeping and I spun around, my eyes falling on the bell.

I cast a powerful wind, throwing it at the bell and making it ring with a deafening sound that carried all across the ruins to alert the rebels immediately.

“I have no power, I shall seek out a store of Aconite so that I may recharge and join the fight. I’ll warn as many rebels as I can on my way,” Justin said, running off into the stairwell without another word and I had to hand it to him for finding that reserve of energy because the poor bastard looked like shit.

“Caleb, power share with me!” Tory shouted over the din of the bell. “We need to stop as many of the Nymphs from making it to the rebels as we can.” She offered him her hand and he slapped his into it, stepping up onto the wall at her side.

I ground my jaw, turning for the stairs to leave them to their little power sharing battle date, but Caleb called out to me, halting me in my tracks.

“We need you, Seth.” He offered me his free hand and I hesitated by the stairs, part of me wanting to leave out of spite, but I shook off that thought and remembered what was really important here. We were under attack. I had to protect the people I still had left in the world, and that included him and Tory.

I moved to join them, jumping back onto the wall and clapping my hand into his. His fingers slid between mine and I shared a look with him that could only have lasted a single breath but felt like it lasted a whole lifetime. I saw a fate where we survived this war, and I woke each day with him by my side, felt his mouth on mine whenever I craved it, and he stood at my side always, two kings of the world.

But then I blinked, and reality slapped me around the ear.

“Create a wall of thorns, vines, trees, anything you can to block their path. We can take it in turns to cast and use the full force of our combined power for each move we make,” Tory said, and she gasped as her magic merged with Caleb’s.

Caleb released a noise that was almost sexual as her power poured into his, and jealousy burned hot in my flesh. I threw all of my power into the place where Caleb’s hand connected with mine and he let it in all at once. I sent so much furious, stormy power his way, that he literally moaned, and a smirk lifted my lips.

He sent his own magic flowing back into me, followed by the fiery power of Tory’s and it was his turn to smirk as I gasped, the earthy fury of his power tumbling through my body alongside the flaming glory of a Vega.

“Fuck,” I exhaled.

“I need a free hand to cast,” Caleb said, slipping his hand from Tory’s and she pushed her hand up the back of his shirt to press her palm to his skin there instead. Could have rolled his sleeve back and touched his arm, but whatever Trevor. I wasn’t the touching police. If the touching police were here, they might have a thing or two to say about it, but that wasn’t anything to do with me.

I ground my teeth, not thinking about the magic flowing between them through that more intimate spot. I yanked my gaze away, turning to the Nymphs streaming up the mountainside while rebels rallied below, the strongest of them forming a line just beyond the tents while the children ran for the safety of the ruins. I raised my free hand, anger splintering through my chest as my gaze locked on our enemies. I had a furious, merciless monster in me to let out, and they had picked the wrong day to come knocking at our door.

I took the lead, wielding the earth of the mountain, caging Nymphs in a tangle of thick, thorny vines, strangling them in the grip of my magic. The huge, twisted knot of vines grew out fast across the mountainside as Caleb and Tory fuelled my cast, creating a mighty barrier to slow them down.

I bared my teeth as a line of Nymphs broke through before I could close the gaps, and I focused on the ground beneath them, the whole mountain beginning to quake from our god-like power. Boulders as big as cars began to fall from the base of the ruins, crashing down among the mass of Nymphs and ripping through their ranks. It was hell on earth, a glorious rain of destruction that felt so fucking good. I’d have no mercy here. I’d watch them all fall and make them scream as they went out of this world.

The rebels who had been rallied ran towards the mountain base with Geraldine and Max heading the way forward, preparing to fight the moment a Nymph made it to the edge of the ruins.

But between me, Caleb and Tory, our calamitous power was keeping them at bay.

I spotted the Councillors among the masses, calling out orders and trying to form their own plan of attack, but the rebels kept looking our way instead, waiting for a signal from the Vega princess.

Caleb’s fingers tightened on mine, drawing on my power and I gave him everything as he took over, setting a furious earthquake rocking through the mountain, a huge fissure opening up behind our vines so Nymphs were sent hurtling into its depths.

I whooped, tugging on the combined magic and turning my attention to the power of air as I threw a raging wind at the Nymphs who were still standing, forcing them into that void.

We offered our power to Tory next, and she twisted her fingers, flames bursting out all along the vines, making the Nymphs shriek as they burned in her fire.

Max and Geraldine locked hands at the forefront of the rebels, and suddenly the mountain was trembling for a whole different reason as water came pouring out of Max’s hands and rushing down the mountain before them. The glorious devastation made my jaw fall slack and I watched in fascination as we let our Elements loose, working together in a unit which felt impossibly right, though I could feel the absence of the others now more than ever, the Fae who should have been here guiding their power with us.

The wave slammed into the Nymphs, washing them away, their bark-covered limbs sticking out of the water as they tried to swim, but were lost to the violent Element as it swallowed them whole.

The moment the wave hit the vines, Geraldine and Max turned it to ice, freezing every last one of our enemies who still lived, creating an impenetrable barrier.

“Yes,” I growled, my heart thumping manically in my chest.

A few beats of silenced passed as we all stopped casting magic, waiting for another enemy to appear, but all that remained were Nymphs twitching in the ice. It was a beautiful victory, something we all star-damned needed after our defeat, and even if it was only a tiny win in the grand scheme of things, it still felt so good.

A cheer went up from the rebels and the Councillors looked from Max and Geraldine to us up on the belltower. My chest puffed up as my mom’s eyes fell on me, but my heart sank when I didn’t find pride or gratitude there. She was hella pissed off.

Her gaze slipped to Tory beyond me, taking in the way the three of us were holding onto each other, sharing power.

She turned her back on me, heading away in the direction of the Nymphs, while Tiberius frowned and muttered some words to Melinda – the only one of them who was smiling. A little whine left my throat, but I swallowed it down, rejecting the feelings of dismissal and disappointment Mom had cast my way.

Tiberius stalked off after my mom, striding down the hillside with the rebels, swords drawn as they moved to finish off any Nymph who still lived.

Melinda looked to her son and Caleb dropped my hand in an instant, his power leaving my body just as abruptly and I missed it immediately. His mom kissed her fingers, holding them out toward him in a gesture of love before heading off after the others. I was relieved for him, and though I was jealous of that pride Melinda had shone his way, I’d never begrudge him of it.

Max and Geraldine came hurrying back through the crowd and Tory plucked them up with a gust of air, guiding them to the top of the belltower before jumping down from the wall to join them. Caleb hopped down after her while I lingered in place, pushing my hands into my pockets.

“Well grab a grape and call it a date,” Geraldine said, slapping her thigh. “That was a jolly good show. My lady Tory, did you see those devilish danderkoots tumbling into that ravine? What fun!”

“We should go finish the fun,” Tory said darkly, glancing over her shoulder to look at the rebels making their way down the mountain. “There’ll be plenty still alive.”

“Ohhhh, by my cockles, you do have a streak of savagery in your lady waters, does she not, Maxy boy?” Geraldine elbowed him, but I noticed Max’s gaze was set firmly on me.

I stood up straighter, realising I hadn’t been shielding my inner emotions and my gaze had been firmly set on Caleb. I locked that pining shit down fast, veiling it with anger and baring my teeth at Max in a warning to stay of my head. The last thing I needed was him figuring out that I was hopelessly in love with my best friend and fucking up the last remnants of the Heirs.

“I’m up for a kill too. Come on, Tory.” I turned and stepped off of the wall, casting a bridge of air beneath my feet and stalking across it, creating a straight path down the mountain.

Tory followed me, instead choosing to fly as she set her wings free at her back, the bronze feathers glinting beautifully in the sunlight.

“Do you have to do that?” I snipped at her.

“Do what?” she muttered.

“Be so…feathery.”

“Feathery?” she echoed dryly. “What’s your deal, Seth?”

I glanced over my shoulder, finding Caleb following on my air bridge with Geraldine and Max behind him. I bet he loved all those feathers brushing his face, touching his golden hair. Were they really going to bury their grief over Darius in each other while she wrapped her wings around him and held him like a baby duckling?

“I don’t have a deal,” I growled.

“Right. Whatever,” she said, shutting down and I glanced at her, feeling like an asshole. She’d lost her star-bound mate, I didn’t wanna be the dick who made her life even more difficult than it was right now.

“Sorry,” I murmured, and she shrugged like she didn’t care about my apology, about anything. “We’ll find Darcy,” I said, knowing that was the only thing that could bring any kind of light back to Tory now. And fuck, I was worried about my little blue-haired bestie too.

Tory frowned then flew a little closer. “I told Caleb on the belltower, and Geraldine told Max earlier, so…”

“What?” I asked anxiously, not liking being the last to know whatever she was about to say.

Tory flicked a silencing bubble around us, and dread cornered my heart and prodded it with a sharp stick. “You know the Shadow Beast from the battle everyone keeps talking about?”

“Yeah…”

“Well,” Tory swallowed, pain crossing her features. “It was Darcy.”

Confusion knitted my brows together and I shook my head dumbly. “What was Darcy?”

“The Shadow Beast,” Tory pressed.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s Lavinia’s curse,” Tory said thickly. “Darcy was the one killing those people in The Burrows. Darcy was the one who shifted into that beast at night and fucking ate people. And Darcy was the one who was forced to turn against her own people in the battle, rip through our ranks and kill again and again and again. That fucking Shadow Beast was one of the most powerful monsters I’ve ever seen. And it has hold of her.”

I stopped walking, a cold, horrid shock sliding down my spine and holding me there. I shook my head mutely again while Tory beat her wings in place, hovering before me and looking me dead in the eye.

“You can’t tell a single soul, Seth Capella. No one outside of our group. If the rebels find out it was her, they might not understand. And the Councillors, they could-”

“Want her dead,” I finished in a rasp. “They’ll want her dead if she poses a threat against us like that.”

Tory nodded, terror making her cheeks pale as she laid a hand on my shoulder. “I believe when she regained some control, she ran to protect us, and that Orion is with her keeping her safe. Either that, or he managed to drag her away from the battle somewhere.”

“So we can’t go looking for her?” I asked with a sad whimper, horrified about what she must be going through.

“We’ll find her. But she can’t come back to the rebels until we can figure out how to get that fucking monster out of her.”

“Orion will know how,” I said firmly. “He knows everything.”

“If he’s still alive,” she replied gravely then turned and flew away from me, dropping her silencing bubble as she went. I was left standing there in the air, a fresh wound added to my heart and a feeling of complete helplessness to Darcy’s curse. I realised Tory hadn’t even made me do a star vow with her to keep this secret, and my heart squeezed tight in my chest at her trust in me.

I tipped my head back, a howl of anguish leaving me, and Caleb came to my side.

“She told you?” he guessed.

“Is anything ever going to be okay again?” I whispered, not wanting to voice it too loud in case the stars listened in and took it as a challenge to make things worse.

Caleb let out a low sigh, his head falling forward and a few curls tumbling into his eyes. “I don’t know, Seth.”

He shot away from me, catching up with Tory and slowing on my path of air to walk beside her.

“Not to worry, Jimbob,” Geraldine said as she caught up, clapping me on the shoulder hard enough to send me stumbling forward a step. “All will be right in the end.” She continued on, singing a song about broken warriors and some long-forgotten war, though there was a warbling tone to her voice that spoke of her own persistent grief.

Max joined us and I hung my head as I walked on, dragging my feet, my body feeling like it was slowly turning into a lump of used up coal.

“Are you gonna talk about it or pretend I can’t feel all that emotion you’re bottling up?” Max murmured.

“There’s only one emotion. I’m ragey.”

“You are desperately sad too,” he said.

“Fine. There’s a sprinkling of sadness. But that’s it.”

“And you’re lonely.”

“I’m not lonely,” I hissed. “I don’t get lonely. I have all of you.”

“Yeah, which is why I can’t quite figure out the root of that one. But I think I’m starting to get it.”

“There’s nothing to get, Max.” I knocked my shoulder hard into his, trying to make him drop it. “Of course my emotions are fucked, I’m trying to process all this shit.”

“No, you’re not, you’re trying to bury it. Don’t you think you’re getting too old to keep hiding away from everything real about you?”

“Oh, so now I’m not real,” I scoffed. “Thanks for the pep talk, Max. Why don’t you go hang out with your new royalist girlfriend? That’s where you really wanna be right now anyway.” I gestured for him to walk ahead of me, but he didn’t go anywhere, his dark eyes boring into mine.

“Just because I love her, doesn’t mean I love you any less. I’m not abandoning you by wanting her.”

I let out a doggish whine, glancing at him and trying to confirm that from his expression. “Promise?” I whispered, brushing a hand over the braids that ran along the side of my head.

“I swear it.”

“Everything’s changing,” I said. “Are we even gonna be the Heirs once this war is over? It was always the four of us, now it’s three, and I don’t know how much longer I can hold onto you and Cal.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.

“You can’t promise that,” I snarled. “Darius promised the same thing once. Besides, if we win this war and actually survive it, we aren’t going to be us anymore. Everyone will head off to build their own lives, to find their happy place. And she’s your happiness. You’ll get married and have babies, and Caleb will want that too eventually. Who do you think he’s going to pick?”

My gaze whipped to him and Tory, and I knew it was just my overactive imagination running on hyper drive, but I could see how this played out. We’d all grieve Darius month after month, then year after year, while she found comfort in Caleb, and he found comfort in her. Eventually, they’d create something good out of the ruins of their loss, and maybe they’d decide that was enough to fill the voids in them. I was pretty sure he’d loved her before, or at least come close; what if that had never gone away?

“Seth, please talk to me,” Max said, drawing my attention back to him. “I won’t judge anything you say. You know I’ve always got your back.”

“I dunno what you mean,” I muttered, locking away those emotions I felt towards Caleb, refusing to let Max’s Siren gifts get a read on them. He could never know this secret, because it meant nothing. Unrequited love that I would smother with a pillow until it stopped kicking.

We made it to the frozen vines where the rebels were killing any living Nymphs in our trap and I carried us all down to the ground on the bridge of air, jumping onto the rocky ground and setting my gaze on a Nymph about to break free of the ice it was encased in.

The Nymph cut through the snare of vines with its probes and the ice came down in a shower of shards as the monster came running forward to intercept me, a screech of hate tearing from its throat. With a surge of energy, I raised my hands, casting a rough metal sword in my hand, preferring to do this one on one. I needed to stretch my muscles and feel the song of a kill in my veins.

The Nymph tried to grab hold of me, but I ducked its probes, swinging my blade and carrying myself to its chest on a gust of air. I slammed the sword in deep and the Nymph turned to smoke and ash before my eyes.

I released my hold on the air beneath me, dropping to the ground with a thud and running toward the head of another Nymph sticking out of the ice. It looked almost dead, but I lopped its head off to finish the job, a howl of anger leaving me as I thought of Darius.

Die for him, motherfucker.

The rebels were finishing the last of them, and my gaze fell on a Nymph they hauled from the ice as he shifted into his Fae-like form, naked as he was tossed to the ground at the feet of my mother. He was a slim man with a gaunt face and black, thinning hair.

“Wait – please!” he cried, his voice touched with an accent. “I wish to speak with the Vega Queens. I am not your enemy.”

I glanced back in the direction Tory had taken, but she was busy finishing off Nymphs of her own with Geraldine. Caleb met my eye and Max jogged forward with a frown on his brow as my mother raised a hand to silence the Nymph for good.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Max said as he felt the Nymph’s emotions.

“Wait,” I called to my mother a second before she could cast a killing blow.

I moved forward, holding my roughly forged sword out and pressing it under the Nymph’s chin as he gazed up at me in fear. “What’s your name?”

“Miguel Polaris,” he said.

“Did you know Diego?” I asked in surprise and he nodded quickly, grief filling his eyes.

“He was my son,” he croaked. “Please, have mercy. I can help you with your cause.”

I lowered the sword and my mother stepped closer.

“He’s our enemy, pup,” she warned.

“I’m not a pup,” I growled, shrugging her off.

I slammed the sword into the earth beside Miguel’s head and he winced in fright. Then I shed my shirt, offering it to him before making him a pair of pants out of leaves.

“Seth,” Mom hissed, stepping closer and whispering to me. “This isn’t the time to try and prove the size of your wee willy winky-”

“Go,” I barked at her, an Alpha tone ringing through the word, and she flinched, almost submitting before she bared her teeth and growled in anger.

By the moon, I can’t believe she brought my winky into this.

“I am still your Alpha,” she snapped. “Do not speak to me as if you are in charge.”

“I won’t submit,” I said, lifting my chin and we stared at each other, the urge to shift trickling through me, and I wondered if the day had finally come when I was going to challenge her.

Max pressed a hand to my arm, sending a flow of calming energy into me and I took a breath.

“Not now, brother,” he said quietly. “Keep your head.”

I glanced at Caleb who was looking at me with heat in his eyes, his gaze falling to my naked chest briefly before he cleared his throat and leaned down to pull Miguel to his feet. He created metal cuffs, locking them in place at the base of the Nymph’s spine.

“We’ll ask Tory if he’s worth keeping,” he said.

“You cannot truly think it is appropriate to seek council from a Vega, Caleb,” my mom said in horror.

“Holy shit, is that a falling star?” Caleb gasped, pointing to the sky and Mom whipped around to look.

Caleb shot away with Miguel in his arms, and I snorted a laugh, exchanging a grin with Max.

“Argh, that boy,” Mom said with a huff as she realised what he’d done. “Go round him up, Seth.”

I headed away from her with Max, having zero intention of doing what she said but happy to use the opportunity to escape.

Caleb tossed Miguel at Tory’s feet as he reached her, and her brows lifted in surprise. Max and I broke into a jog to catch up to them and when we made it there, Tory was frowning.

“How can we trust you?” she demanded of Miguel.

“Let me prove it. If you still have my son’s hat-”

“I’m not letting you near that,” Tory said. “You’ll send some sort of shadow soul hat message and tell Lavinia where we are.”

“Lavinia,” Miguel spat on the ground at her name. “She is a plague. The shadows are her prisoner.”

“By the goolads of Gragoria!” Geraldine cried from somewhere to my left and I realised she’d hacked a path through the vines with her flail. “I. Shall. Smite. You. Oh. Ghoulish. Foe. Of. Mine.” She spoke with every strike of her flail against the vines, fighting to get deeper towards a Nymph who was tangled in the thorns. “Hear my name and hear it well – for it shall follow you into the evernight!” She swung her flail into its chest, finishing it off with the merciless blow and it shrieked as it died.

Geraldine came running back to join us, wiping a line of sweat from her brow, before swinging the handle of her flail up to rest on her shoulder.

Miguel looked up at her from the ground in awe. “I know of you. The Nymphs call you Sentina Laquorian. It means the Sentinel of the Royals in the shadow language of old.”

“Who is this swine in the muck?” She raised her flail. “I shall clobber his nefarious clout-trapper for you, my Queen.” She brought her flail down and Miguel flinched, but Tory caught hold of Geraldine’s weapon with a vine, keeping it from falling on the Nymph.

I bounced from foot to foot in excitement, unsure if death was in the air or something even more thrilling.

“He’s Diego’s father,” Tory explained.

Geraldine gasped dramatically, throwing the back of her hand to her forehead. “Our gentle, hatted friend. What kind of father were you to he?” She demanded of Miguel. “Speak loud and clear, for these next words might be the last farthings that ever fall from your penny purse.”

Miguel swallowed tightly. “Not the one I wished I could be, Sentina,” he choked out, bowing his head to her in shame. “I was held in the power of the shadows. My… wife Drusilla kept me under her control, and I was subdued for many years, a walking pawn at her and her brother’s side. I was under Drusilla’s control until Gwendalina Vega cast her to dust and broke the dark spell which kept me as her prisoner. She freed me. And I shall do anything to repay that debt, anything to make up for what happened to my boy, my Diego.”

“Her name is Darcy,” Tory growled, and Miguel mumbled a string of apologies.

“So what, pray tell,” Geraldine hissed. “Are you doing among the masses of an enemy army? If you are as pious as you plead, then why have we discovered you in the midst of these rapscallions?” She began pacing back and forth in front of him, leaving her flail hanging from Tory’s vines as she clasped her hands behind her back. It was pretty damn entertaining to watch, and Max looked like he was in danger of poking Miguel’s eye out with his boner over his girl’s interrogation.

“I’ve been hiding among them, if I had tried to escape, they would have killed me,” Miguel said.

“Oh – ho! So you were there when we fought the Nymphs in battle? Did you stand shoulder to shoulder with them, nary a word of complaint as you took up arms and stood against us, you cuttlefish of a fellow?”

“I fought in the battle, yes,” he blurted. “But I did not kill a single Fae. In fact, I led those monstrous Nymphs to their deaths whenever I could. They are twisted up by Lavinia’s power, they covet her like some dark goddess, but she is no such thing.” He spat on the ground again. “She is the reason we suffer in the dark. She is the reason for all the chaos in the shadows. She is-”

“Silence!” Geraldine crowed and I sniggered, nudging Max beside me, but he was slack-jawed and unblinking as he watched her.

I looked to Caleb, trying to catch his eye but he was firmly looking at Geraldine even though I knew he could feel my eyes on him. Hmph.

“You are but a whelk at a dolphin’s door,” Geraldine proclaimed, pointing from Miguel to Tory. “How are we to believe these preposterous tittling tales?”

I snorted at the word tittling, but no one else joined in. Tough crowd.

“I lost a father, a mother, and a brother upon that battlefield,” Geraldine lamented, pain lacing every one of her words and darkness fell over us all like a cloak.

Tory backed up, looking like she wanted to disappear from the world, and I half expected her to take off and fly away into the sky, only Caleb took hold of her arm and kept her there. Of course he did. Because he was her anchor now. Her rock in a stormy sea. And that didn’t hurt. Not even a little.

“Ow,” Max breathed, looking to me as he felt my pain, and I snatched it away from him again.

“I can nary lose another,” Geraldine croaked, taking a moment to contain herself as she held her fist to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Gerry,” Max said softly, moving to her side.

She sighed, patting his arm before turning back to Tory. “I say we behead this loathsome creature and be done with this dalliance. What say you, my Queen?”

Tory gazed down at Miguel with a frown, mulling over what to do. “He helped us once before. He gave us the information about Vard’s shadow eye through Diego’s hat.”

“That is not enough to prove his innocence, my lady. He could have been trying to wandangle us, to lure us into trusting him before. He brought an army of Nymphs to our door,” Geraldine said passionately.

Tory looked to Max. “What can you feel?”

“It feels like the truth to me,” Max said thoughtfully. “Though that doesn’t confirm it. I’d have to look deeper to be sure. It could take some time. I’d need to hear him speak more about his time in Lionel’s army.”

“We have to move!” Leon’s voice made us all turn, weapons and hands raising defensively. He was running towards us down the mountainside with a backpack on, weaving left and right between the tents. “We’re being far too predictable.” He picked up a rock, throwing it at an unsuspecting rebel and it bounced off the guy’s head, his cry of pain cutting the air. “Pack your bags, or burn your bags, for the love of the stars, don’t tell me what you’re gonna do with your bags dudes, we just need to go!”

“Is Lionel coming?” a woman asked him in panic and Leon grabbed hold of her, shaking her as he shouted in her face.

“He will if you keep acting predictably, Mindy,” he yelled.

“My name isn’t Mindy,” she said in confusion, and he tossed her over his shoulder, slapping another guy around the face before pointing directly at Tory. “You know the plan. We need to go. Give the order, but don’t be predictable about it.”

“Where will we go?” someone lamented from the crowd and Tiberius Rigel muscled his way forward to see what the commotion was.

“To the sea of course,” Leon said, tossing the woman he had hold of into the arms of Tiberius. “Like we planned. But we have to choose a beach at random.”

“Calm down, you’re causing a panic,” Tiberius commanded.

I tossed away my makeshift sword, unbuckling my pants. “Fuck it, let’s go.”

“My lady? The rebels will not move unless you give the order,” Geraldine said and Tory shrugged, taking off into the sky on her wings. She pressed a hand to her throat, casting an amplifying spell that carried her voice up the mountainside.

“Let’s go! Gather supplies and get ready to leave,” she called, and the rebels finally listened, hurrying to obey.

“Shift into your Order forms, run for the sea!” Leon shouted and an answering roar sounded as Dante shifted from somewhere along the barrier of thorns and ice before taking off into the sky with a muscular man and a petite woman holding a baby on his back.

“Follow your queen!” Geraldine bayed before tearing her shirt and bra off, her huge tits springing free and Max cursed, trying to cover her up while she knocked him aside with a swing of her hip. “You’re acting too predictably, you tantalising trout.”

“Yeah, Maxy boy,” I taunted as Geraldine leapt forward, shifting into her Cerberus form and picking up Miguel with one of her three mouths, while taking her flail into another. Miguel wailed in fright as Geraldine charged off down the hill after Tory, and the rebels followed with hollers of passion, roars, neighs and howls all colliding together as many of them shifted.

The Councillors cried out to people, trying to restore order, but none of them were listening, half of them leaping and twirling about the place as they followed Leon’s lead while the rest raced after the Vega princess.

“I’m going after Gerry,” Max said, but I caught his arm.

“That’s predictable. Go dive onto that Griffin’s back and fly away with him.” I pointed to the white Griffin who was preparing to take off, clawing at the ground with the eagle talons on its front legs. I shoved Max in that direction, and he hesitated only a moment before giving into the madness descending around us and leaping onto the Griffin’s back, shouting ‘yah!’. The Griffin bucked angrily, but Max held on as it flexed its wings and sailed into the sky.

“This is crazy,” Caleb breathed, and I rounded on him as I yanked my belt off, whipping him hard across the chest. “Ah, motherfucker!”

“Gotta be random, Cal,” I taunted.

He lunged at me, but I moved before he could catch me, whipping his ass with the belt.

“Give me that,” he growled, darting forward with a blur of Vampire speed and taking hold of the belt. I didn’t let go of the other end, wrapping it around his wrists, lashing it tight with a skill only an orgy pro could achieve, smirking as I captured him.

“You can’t beat me at being unpredictable,” I challenged.

“It’s not a game,” he said. “It’s life or death.”

“Sounds like the best kind of game to me.” I reeled him closer by the belt, knowing he could have just burned it away by now, but for some reason he hadn’t.

The thundering of footfalls sounded around us, and no one was paying us any attention at all.

“I bet you’ll never guess what I’m about to do,” I said.

“Go on. Surprise me,” he said dryly, the anger between us still a potent thing. “Though the only thing you could really do that would surprise me right now would be to apologise for being a prick about Darius. But you won’t, because you can’t ever admit when you’re wrong.”

His words scalded me and I released a Wolfish growl. “Oh yeah, Cal? Well how about this?” I carved the ground out from beneath us into a huge chasm, the two of us falling fast and slamming into the mud at the bottom. I was on him in the next second, punching him in the side and he kicked out at me, using his Vampire strength to snap the belt in two.

“I liked that belt,” I huffed, punching him again.

He shot to his feet, kicking me in the side and I wheezed as I was thrown onto my back. He was on top of me in the next second, strangling me as mud coated us and I tore at his shirt until it was half ripped off of him.

“Ha-ppy now?” I forced out around the pressure in my throat.

“Happy?” he barked, coming nose to nose with me as his hair fell into his eyes and he blocked out the sunlight from far above. “Right now, I can’t even see a glimmer of happiness in my future.”

A whine slid through my lips at those words, and he released me, his breaths coming heavily as he rested his hands either side of my head.

“Oh, you’ll find your glimmer. Your feathery little glimmer,” I said icily, then shoved him off of me. I got to my feet, trampling his chest and preparing to launch myself out of the hole on a gust of air. But a probed hand shot out of the mud wall to my right and I yelped in surprise, my ass hitting the ground as a Nymph clawed its way out of the earth like a fucking zombie, clearly buried here by our earlier attack. I brought my hands up to cast magic and blast the thing into death, but its rattle filled the air, locking down my power in my chest.

I cursed, about to shift into my Wolf form, but Caleb shot forward with a flash of speed, kicking the Nymph’s head again and again before it died under his vicious attack and finally turned to ash. Caleb dropped down beside me, his hand going to my ankle and healing the bloody cut I hadn’t even realised the Nymph had given me.

“I had it,” I said, meaning for it to come out as a growl, but the words were weakened by the concern in his eyes.

“I know,” he muttered. “But I wanted revenge for what it did to you. You’re my…Source. It makes me protective.” He didn’t look at me, his thumb carving over my ankle in soft strokes even though he’d already healed the skin. I wasn’t sure anyone had ever taken care of me like that while I’d still been able to do so myself.

“If I’m still your Source, why haven’t you had a drink from me in days?” I asked, my voice rough as Caleb let go of my ankle and looked to me with his jaw ticking.

“Because sometimes your blood makes me…” He trailed off and I mentally filled in the end of that sentence. Makes you wanna casually fuck your best friend, before you prance off with someone you could have real feelings for.

“Got it.” I shoved to my feet, going stone cold on him.

I cast air beneath me, carrying myself out of the hole and I continued down the mountainside on my little breeze, feeling all the things. Mostly the bad things. But then there was the unmistakable tingling in my ankle and that burning way he’d looked at me when he’d healed me.

Fuck, maybe I was destined to pine for a man who would never want me. But moments like that made me think the suffering was worth it. So I’d keep drowning until I got another one.