Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

“Twelve stones,” I murmured, flicking a page in my notebook, and reading through my hypothesis. “The Guild restored…ah.” I tapped my finger on the symbol of a rising sun I had scrawled in the corner. “Thought that was obvious, should have made it clearer. Oh Lancelot, if only I could speak to you…”

My heart tugged at the thought of my son and all he was going through, but that pain was gilded in pride. If he could only hold on, he could break Lavinia’s heartless curse on Darcy, and they might be free once more. Although, I could not help but foresee the countless dilemmas with that plan…

The word of a monster draped in shadow was hardly one to trust, but there was little Lavinia could do about the curse breaking if the terms she set upon it were upheld. The Death Bond was my greatest concern, so I was not letting it lie. I sought answers from the oldest souls who remained here, seeking magic lost and spells long forgotten. So far, I had found the most value in speaking with a Vampire from the blood ages. A man called Kaige Winter who had been a part of the most fearsome coven in history.

He spoke of magic that could only be found between coven mates, blood magic that was both outlawed and dangerous beyond bounds. But perhaps an answer lay in it, which was why I finally visited the woman I had long avoided. A woman I still despised to my core and who would find no loving arms to walk into when she one day stepped into death.

My wife.

She was always thinking of me lately, though it was not grief that tugged on me so much as regret. With a simple turn of my mind, I let that pull draw me to her, finding her in a dark bed chamber in The Palace of Souls.

Stacks of old tomes were lying open everywhere on the floor and between them all was a broken woman with shuddering shoulders.

I drifted through the room, noting the slimness of her frame, the pallor of her skin. She was suffering, and I felt no pity for her. In fact, I revelled in it, seeing her pay the price of all her poor choices at last. Though it would never be enough to undo what she had done.

“Stella,” I sighed, stepping past her, and looking down at the book clasped in her hand. “You are looking in all the wrong places.”

She cracked a little sob, true tears rolling down her cheeks and falling to her knees. It was rare to see her like this these days, real pain bleeding into her expression. She was so very good at wearing masks.

I had seen less and less of the truth of her after we were married. We’d had some good years, which turned to good months, then good days, then only good moments, until eventually, all the good was gone.

Her love for Lionel had never really left her, and deep down, I’d known her devotion lay with him. For a time, I’d fooled myself into believing I’d won her heart, but it was not to be. And truly, I wasn’t sure I had ever really loved her either.

Regardless, what we had shared had birthed two creatures I loved deeper and more unshakably than anyone or anything I had known before their existence. My children were my meaning, my reason for a life well lived, even if it had not been a perfect one. Perfection was an impossibility, as I knew well from my research. There was only polarity. You could not have good without bad. You could not have light without dark. And it went far deeper than that too, the inner workings of the universe were built on this system of balance, of a scale tipping one way only to tip back, until eventually the scales levelled out. It was why I was so very unsurprised that my son was a Libra, the man who would reunite the Guild born under the star sign of the balancing scales, how fitting. If only he could pull it off.

A glow caught my eye, and I looked over to find my daughter Clara appearing, perching on the edge of a carved wooden desk. She held far more sympathy for the waif in this room than I did, but I never tried to poison her against Stella. She was her mother after all, and Clara had been through things I would never truly understand, so perhaps she saw something in Stella to empathise with. For she knew what it was to wander down the wrong path in life, but from my point of view, it had been her mother who had led her down it.

“At least she’s trying,” Clara said sadly. “I think she’s really starting to see what she’s done; she’s trying to make it right.”

“Trying is not doing,” I said icily, seeking out the book Stella needed and finding it on a shelf. An ancient tome on coven law and the teachings of some old blood magics. The answer may not lie here, but it was the right start.

I pushed all my power into my hand, trying to force that book to fall from the shelf, willing it to move. I cursed at the way such effort sapped my energy, but pressed harder against The Veil, reaching for that book, and demanding it move, the importance of this too great to see me fail. A zap of energy sparked away from my hand, crossing the boundary, and knocking it onto the floor with a heavy thump.

Stella gasped, sitting upright, and looking around the room in fear. Magic crackled at her fingertips as she rose to her feet, hunting the shadows in the corners as she crept closer to that book.

“Is someone there?” she called, and Clara slipped from the desk, moving closer to her and laying a hand on her arm.

“I’m here, Mom,” she said gently, and Stella shivered as if she could feel she wasn’t alone.

“Azriel?” she whispered, voice dropping with fear and hope. “Is that you?”

“Just read the book, Stella,” I growled as she crept closer to it and leaned down, scooping it into her hands.

“Coven law.” She frowned. “Does an answer lay here?”

She looked around the room, wide eyed and lost, then shook her head and muttered to herself, “I’m going crazy in this old place.”

She moved onto the bed, opening the book and I let The Veil pull me away again, returning to my chambers in the Eternal Palace, my room a familiar haven that reminded me of my time at Zodiac Academy.

Occasionally this room appeared as Lance’s nursery, or Clara’s. Other times their bedrooms as they grew older, or the garden where we often played together. But sometimes the reminder of holding them in my arms and swinging them up into the air, or kissing their little rosy cheeks on a winter’s day was all too much to bear.

Zodiac Academy was a neutral space where I could focus and study, just as I had when I’d attended it. Of course, it had looked a little more chaotic than this back then, my room always full of open books which had little colour coordinated tabs sticking out of them. There had been crystals too, tarot cards tossed everywhere and every manner of trinkets I could get my hands on. But it was the hidden things that had caused me most intrigue. The dark magic books and shadow bound artefacts stashed in a carefully hidden compartments in the wall, concealment spells keeping the truth of my deepest fascination a secret.

I slipped out of my room, intending to find Hail but a familiar woman was standing there, her hand raised to knock on my door. She had ebony hair which hung to her shoulders in tight curls, dark skin and large brown eyes which were full of hope.

“Serenity,” I said in surprise.

I’d been helping her for some time now with a confounding situation she had discovered herself in once she had stepped through death’s door. If anyone had unfinished business, it was her. She had searched The Room of Knowledge for answers to her death, discovering the poison Tiberius’s wife, Linda, had slipped to her, stealing her from the world out of jealousy of Tiberius’s true love. This woman before me who had been forced to watch her son be named as Linda’s after she had fallen pregnant with Max, whilst Linda had faked a pregnancy of her own to claim Max from her when he was born.

But beyond that dark secret that had culminated in murder, Serenity had discovered another, perhaps even more wicked a deed that Linda had committed against her in life.

“Did you have any luck with the scrying bowl technique?” she asked frantically.

I placed a hand on her arm. “I could not reach anyone that way any better than usual. I tried many times, I assure you.”

“I must speak with Tiberius, Azriel, he needs to know, he has to go to him,” she said in desperation. “Please. There must be something you haven’t tried.”

“I promise I will keep trying. Darius Acrux is here, and he has been exploring some new…avenues. I will talk with him and see what he has gleaned from his research,” I promised.

She nodded quickly. “Okay, yes, I will speak to him too if I see him.”

“Of course,” I said then her eyes glazed with tears and her form began to drift, her soul called away to someone in the living realm. And from the look of love in her eyes, I had the feeling it might be her son.

I headed off down the hall, making my way to Hail’s rooms but pausing when I found the door ajar. I knocked it wide, stepping into the place which was dark except for the two burning blue and red wings of the throne that took up the heart of this room.

“Hail?” I called. “Merissa?”

I spotted the soft glow of golden light beyond the next door, and I slipped that way, pushing into the couple’s bedchamber, finding two souls by the arched window, hovering as singular orbs beside one another.

I moved around the giant, fourposter bed which had Hydras, Harpies and Phoenixes carved into the wood, making it to my friends and reaching for their shapeless light in confusion.

“Come back to me.” I pressed my power into them, letting them feel my good intentions, the familiar touch of my soul against theirs. And with a pulse of light, they stood before me once more, their hands coming together at once and locking tight.

Merissa exhaled a shuddering breath, focusing on me and rushing forward in the next moment.

Her arms looped around my neck, and I held her as Hail moved to clap a hand to my shoulder.

“It was so very hard to come back until I felt you there,” Merissa said, stepping away and looking to her husband.

“What happened?” I asked in concern and Merissa explained how her daughter had soul walked to seek out her twin.

My brows arched and the scientist in me took note of the intensely dangerous dark magic, a thrill dancing through me over its well-executed use.

“Wonderful,” I breathed.

“Terrifying,” Hail corrected sharply.

“Yes, and that,” I agreed with a wry smile. “The two reasons I am fascinated with such magic. A corn doll, you say? And did she use chamomile or lavender to ground herself? Or perhaps both?”

A violent yank in my chest told me my son needed me and I went to him in an instant, my questions forgotten as I reached for him across the void of nothing that parted us.

Lance sat with his back to the wall in his and Darcy’s cage in The Palace of Souls, his eyes hollow, his expression empty, the wounds on his chest half-healed and speaking of another torture session with the monster who was keeping him prisoner. The darkness clouding his soul was almost visible here between realms and I raced to him, falling to his side in terror.

“Lance?” Darcy tried to draw his attention to her, but he didn’t look her way, like he couldn’t even see her.

“Talk to me,” she urged, shifting closer and taking his hand, but still, he didn’t respond.

“Lancelot,” I growled, resting a hand on his shoulder, and trying to make him see me. “It’s time to wake up.”

Darcy’s face was torn with grief, her fear for her mate colouring the air and spreading into the atmosphere. My gratitude toward this woman was as vast as the sky, for she had saved my son from so many dark fates. Depression, solitude, even death itself, but this…without her power available to her, there was little she could do.

“Lance?” she croaked, crawling into his lap, and cupping his cheek in her palm.

He blinked slowly, a storm of darkness twisting through his gaze as he finally focused on her, but he still didn’t speak.

“Please come back to me,” she whispered in desperation, tears rolling down her cheeks, her face a picture of torment. “I’m so sorry that this is our fate. It’s all my fault. I should have stayed away from the rebels. I should have realised sooner what was happening to me. You shouldn’t have to be paying the price of this curse. It isn’t fair.” She pressed her lips to his, but he didn’t move, or blink. He was fading and I had to keep him there, because I could see the way the shadows were eating at him, deep in his bones now, and there were few ways to call him from the brink of oblivion.

When he had chosen this path and handed himself over to Lavinia as payment for his mate’s curse, I had been both horrified to witness it, and so deeply honoured to be the father of this man who had learned to love another Fae with such ardour that he would bathe in torment for her. I had never found a love like he possessed, and I would have made any sacrifice to ensure their bond endured. It was precious beyond all bounds, and protecting it was vital.

I was gone at once, seeking out the only person in this world who could help Lance now and was surprised to find myself walking back into the throne room at her side.

Stella had already come to him.

“I can help,” she said firmly.

“Stay away from us,” Darcy warned, rising to her feet, and hastily swiping the tears from her cheeks.

Stella ignored her, drifting closer, trying to look past her to Lance, and I urged her on, knowing exactly why Darcy would fear her presence, but Stella was the only one gifted enough with dark magic to save him. I pressed a hand to her spine, trying to force her to move faster as time blurred a little and The Veil tried to pull me away. I fought to remain, and Darcy’s voice echoed powerfully through the Savage King’s palace.

“Why would you help him?” she demanded. “You disowned him.”

“He will always be my son. It doesn’t matter what words have passed between us,” Stella said in earnest. “Perhaps you will understand one day, if you have a child of your own.” A sad smile lifted her lips as she closed in on the cage and I couldn’t help but see the honesty in her remorseful gaze. “You know…I thought his relationship with you was some pathetic little rebellion against me.”

“Hurry up, you waif,” I snarled, but of course she didn’t hear me.

“Not everything is about you, Stella,” Darcy said frostily, and I damn well agreed. “I love your son more than you can even comprehend.”

“I see that now. I’ve seen his silver rings.”

“The rings don’t change what we felt for each other before the stars offered them to us,” Darcy hissed. “The world decided to validate our love the second we were mated, but we loved each other long before that. The people who really care for us accepted that well before the stars had their say. You are not one of those people.”

Time flickered again, like a heavy breath against a candleflame, and I roared into the abyss, defying it as I stayed with my flesh and blood, the child I loved with the ferocity of the stars themselves. He had a life to live, and I would deliver it to him even if I had to die all over again to secure it, even if my soul was cast to ash and scattered to the farthest reaches of the universe, never to be restored. I would do it for him, as I would do anything for my children.

“Your son is the most incredible Fae I have ever had the privilege to know,” Darcy called to me as I struggled my way back to him, her voice Polaris in the night sky, drawing me north. “And he deserves happiness and peace. I vow on all I am that I will give him those things, and I will destroy anyone who takes them away from him. That includes you, Stella. I have a long list of enemies now, and your name sits close to the top of it.”

“Forgive me,” Stella sobbed, true pain coating her words. “I should have stuck by him when Lionel bound him to Darius. I should have been there more when Clara was taken from us. I should never have let things come this far. And I should have been a mother he could bring you home to.”

“You have forfeited that privilege, but you can lay on the altar of it now and offer him what good you have to give!” I bellowed.

“There’s nothing you can do that will ever earn my forgiveness,” Darcy said bitterly, and my heart went out to her, because I knew that hurt, that betrayal. It belonged to my son, but she bore it too. His burden was her burden. There wasn’t a Fae in any realm, in any time, that I would have chosen for Lance over Darcy Vega. “To hurt him is to incite my wrath. You turned your back on him and left him alone in the world when he needed you the most. There is nothing that can undo that.”

I looked to Stella with longing, knowing she was his only chance now.

“Save him,” I commanded.

“I can help him. Please. Bring him closer. Let me help him. I’ll bring him back to you,” Stella vowed, and it was as if she were saying those words to me as well as Darcy.

Darcy stepped aside, seeing this hope laid out before her but she was clearly grappling with trusting this heathen who had caused her so much suffering.

“Baby boy, come to me,” Stella tried, reaching as far as she could and grasping his leg.

He didn’t stir and I could see the indecision in Darcy’s green eyes as she looked from Lance to Stella, her throat bobbing.

“Swear you won’t hurt him,” she hissed, looking straight at Stella as she made her choice, and relief rattled through me.

Stella would not have come at all if she did not wish to help, and I knew my wife’s masks better than anyone. For once, she wasn’t wearing one, and so the words she spoke were as true as could be.

“I swear.”

Time blurred again and when I managed to regain my grip on it, Lance was close to the bars and Stella’s fingers were pressed to his wrist, the words of the incantation of the tenebris convocation passing her lips, the dark power building within her.

Darcy knelt at Lance’s side, and I moved to kneel with her, placing my hand on top of Stella’s and chanting those same words in time with her. A yank in my chest told me my power had connected to the spell and Stella winced marginally like she felt the change in the magic, the increase in power that now rolled into our son and tugged on the darkness he was trapped in.

“The stars and I will lay a trail of light for you, Lancelot,” I whispered. “I am working to change your fate, but you must come back and be ready to place your feet upon your new path.”

Lance groaned, reaching for Stella like she held some answer to his suffering. She brushed her fingers over his temple as he leaned against the bars, her brow knitted in concentration, and I wondered if he had any idea who it was that was helping him.

Darkness pooled against the edges of his skin, and she sapped it away into her own, her words intensifying and mine growing louder and faster to match the pace of hers.

Slowly, Lance opened his eyes revealing the glimmer of his silver rings and Darcy lunged at him with a squeak of delight, knocking him sideways so they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs while she kissed him.

“You’re back,” she whispered in relief, and I sagged against the floor, my own relief washing through me.

“I’ll always come back to you, Blue,” he promised, and I knew he meant that. Nothing in life or in death would easily part them now.

“The dark is deep,” Stella panted, sitting back on her heels in exhaustion over that spell, and I knew she still had a long night ahead of her. She would have to bleed to let it out, siphon that darkness from her own veins and capture in it a vessel before it could be truly destroyed. “But I can keep it at bay. At least for a while.”

“If you’re waiting for a thank you, you will only get one from me,” Darcy said as Stella peered in at them, looking like she wanted to stay. “Thank you for bringing this man into the world. He is the best thing you have ever done.”

The Veil tugged me away with such force that I knew I had to go, but those words wrapped around me, the pure love in them warming me through. She was right, of course, Lance and Clara were the best things Stella had ever offered this world. And I prayed there was still time for her to do right by at least one of them.