Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning
The Reckoning: Chapter 39

LIONEL STALKED TOWARDS US with a manic glint in his gaze and his long robes billowing out behind him.

“The two of you are going to cooperate with our plans,” he growled.

“Go fuck yourself,” I spat at him, straining against the magic which still held my arms firmly behind my back.

His fist collided with the side of my face so hard that I was knocked straight down into the grass. A gut churning crack sounded and I was pretty sure he’d shattered my cheekbone. Blood coated my tongue and agony unlike anything I’d ever felt echoed through my skull. I was aware of Darcy screaming beyond the ringing in my ears and Darius started shouting too.

“Don’t you lay a fucking hand on her again!” he bellowed and I blinked up at him as he pounded his fists against a shield Lionel had created to hold him back.

Lionel moved forward, gripping a fistful of my hair and wrenching me back up onto my knees so that I had to look at him.

The agony in my cheek throbbed with the movement and I winced as he shook me like a dog with a chew toy.

“Let that be a warning to you,” he hissed in my face. “Because the next time you disrespect me like that, I’ll take my rage out on your sister.”

I wanted to spit in his mother fucking face but he’d threatened me with the only thing I cared about in this world.

My brows pinched as I held my tongue, the fight going out of me in an instant.

“Good girl,” he mocked, slapping a hand against my shattered cheek in a patronising gesture which drew a scream of agony from my lips.

Lionel’s eyes lit with excitement at the sound and I was filled with the certainty that he was getting off on this. He was a total fucking sadist. This was what drove him; power, dominance.

Darius was snarling at him like a wild beast as he threw magic at the shield which parted us.

“Let her go!” Darcy demanded through a sob as she tried to scramble closer, Lionel’s magic halting her advance just as it had Darius’s.

“I’ll only say this once so the two of you had better be listening well,” Lionel purred, releasing his grip on my hair and standing to his full height again before us. “You will both do everything that’s asked of you tonight without complaint and as quickly as you can manage. You won’t try to run or fight back in any way. We only need one of you for this magic to work so if either of you breaks these terms I won’t hesitate to kill the other. Do you understand?”

I looked at Darcy desperately as tears continued to run down her cheeks. I couldn’t do anything that would risk her life and I knew she felt the exact same way.

“I understand,” Darcy breathed and I nodded, unsure if I could even talk through the searing torture taking place in my face.

“Good. Darius, Lance, make sure they’re prepared in their robes. And don’t forget that Xavier’s life depends on your full cooperation too. I have an Heir, I’m more than willing to trade the spare for the shadows if that’s what it takes.” Lionel swept away from us, the barriers of his magic falling away so that our arms were released from the restraints and the shields disappeared.

Xavier whimpered in the arms of the asshole restraining him and fear clawed through me as I looked at him. If Lionel was willing to kill his own child for this then I knew there was no chance of pity for us.

Darius caught my hand and tugged me to my feet, his eyes wild with panic as he reached out to cup my shattered cheek in his hand. I winced away from the pain of that small contact and his jaw locked tight with fury and shame as his healing magic washed into my body.

“Roxy?” Darius whispered, trying to catch my eye but I didn’t look at him. That wasn’t even my fucking name. “I don’t know what to do,” he breathed, looking from me to Orion and back again.

Orion’s features were a blank mask as he held a blue robe out to Darcy, his brow furrowed like he was desperately trying to think up some way out of this but had nothing.

“Are you alright?” Darius asked me, clasping my hand, the robe intended for me gripped in his fist. I reached out and took it from him, looking away as I shrugged it on.

“What difference would that make to you?” I asked coldly. I couldn’t believe I’d actually let myself fall for his shit again. Every time I got an inch closer to him it blew up in my face. Why had I let the moon pull me towards him when all I ever got for being close to him was pain?

Darius shook his head, looking back at Orion but our teacher still had nothing to say. We clearly weren’t going to be getting any help from either of them now. It seemed like they were against whatever was happening here but they were in no better position to stop it than we were.

“Lance?” Darcy breathed shakily, catching his fingers between her own. “What are they going to make us do?”

“They want you to claim the shadows,” he breathed, his tone pained.

I exchanged a look with Darcy but she clearly had no idea what that meant either.

“It’s how my sister died,” Orion added and my lips parted as fear swept through me, sharp and fierce.

“It’s time!” Lionel shouted, beckoning for us to join him by the crater.

Orion and Darius looked like they were trying to come up with reasons to stop us from going to him, but I’d heard Lionel’s warning loud and clear. I wasn’t going to keep him waiting while he held Darcy’s life in the balance.

I took my sister’s hand and walked purposefully towards the Dragon Lord as he watched us with a predator’s gaze.

The rest of the robed people surrounding us were chanting and stamping their feet, crying out in a language I’d never heard but which set every hair on my body on end.

Fear trickled down my spine as we reached the edge of the crater and Lionel moved to stand between us over our joined hands.

The stardust within the pit seemed to twist and writhe with some hellish magic I could almost taste. Bile rose in my throat in response, terror leaking through my veins. He was going to make us go in there with that foul creation, I could tell. And I didn’t think we’d be coming back out again.

“You said you only need one of us,” I breathed shakily, unable to tear my gaze from the pit which awaited us. “So just use me. I’ll do anything you want. Everything. Just don’t make Darcy do it too,” I begged.

“No, I’ll do it,” Darcy interrupted forcefully. “Let my sister go and-”

“I said we can do it with one of you,” Lionel interrupted in a hiss which warned us to stop speaking. “But the magic will be more potent with two. The only reason I would have for selecting one of you to do the spell would be because the other is dead.”

I fell silent, my bottom lip trembling as I looked into my sister’s eyes.

“Hold out your hands,” he commanded.

The chanting surrounding us was growing louder and louder, the magic building towards whatever terrible conclusion was coming.

I raised my hand palm up and Darcy mirrored me.

Lionel pulled a glittering silver dagger from the folds of his cloak and wielded it above our outstretched hands. He murmured several words I didn’t recognise and a rattling cold raced over my skin.

With a slash of his blade, he sliced Darcy’s palm open, quickly followed by my own.

I gasped at the pain for a moment as he snatched our wrists and pressed our palms together.

“Now,” he commanded. “Go forth and feed the shadows.”

Lionel’s hand landed on my spine and I fell forwards with a cry of surprise, gripping Darcy’s fingers tightly.

I hit the bottom of the crater on my knees, the glittering stardust surrounding us in a sea of black.

“Tory?” Darcy breathed in panic and I looked into her eyes as the earth trembled beneath us.

“Don’t let go of me, okay?” I said, not knowing why, only that we were always strongest together. If we were going to survive this then it would be as one. She nodded, the fear in her eyes a reflection of my own as she clung to me tightly.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I looked up to replace Stella standing behind me, her eyes dancing with excitement.

Lionel gripped me next, placing a hand on Darcy too.

I wanted to ask them what they were doing but the stardust was shifting like a tide before us. Almost as if something within it was hunting for its prey and I was afraid of what would happen when it found us.

“Make sure my sons take their places too. We must be ready to capture it this time,” Lionel growled and a moment later Darius took hold of my free hand.

I turned to look at him and for a brief second all I wanted was to throw myself into his arms and beg him to take me away from here. But I didn’t replace anything in his eyes but a wall of cold, hard acceptance. His jaw was locked tightly and his eyes were filled with regrets which he didn’t voice before he turned away from me.

Pain spiked through my chest, my lips parted and I suddenly felt like something had been stolen from me. Like he should have been fighting for me instead of accepting my fate.

I didn’t know why I even thought he might but the fact that he wasn’t tore through me like a chasm and a single tear spilled down my cheek.

“Darius?” I whispered, begging for something even though I wasn’t sure what.

He looked back at me, a well of pain in his eyes but he didn’t have anything to offer me.

“Don’t cry,” he breathed, wiping my tear away like he thought it would comfort me but I recoiled from his touch, pain flaring in me as he abandoned me to this fate, whatever it would be.

Someone started cursing behind me and I turned my head as Orion was dragged down into the crater too. Chains of fire magic were wrapped tightly around his chest, pinning his arms in place and immobilising him. The robed men forced him to his feet and Lionel tethered his hand to Darcy’s with a whip of magic.

Orion’s gaze fell on my sister and it was like something was breaking in him.

“Blue…” he breathed, a thousand words seeming to go unsaid as she held his eye, shaking her head at him.

“It’s okay,” she murmured over and over beneath her breath, even as he continued to struggle, seeming desperate to save her.

“You’re strong, Roxy,” Darius said in a low voice, drawing my focus back to him. “You can survive this, I know it…”

My lips parted but before I could respond, our combined blood spilled between our fingers and dropped into the stardust before us.

A wave of ecstasy ran up my spine and I gasped as my vision clouded and I lost sight of the world around me.

Shadows clambered through the wound on my palm creeping, sliding, weaving into my veins and forging a path through the fabric of my flesh. They kept going, reaching higher and higher as they spilled across my soul, digging their way into my heart and filling every void within me.

My lips parted and I could taste the shadows on the wind, I could feel them caressing every inch of my body, owning me, flooding me, completing me.

Horror like I’d never known gripped me as all the darkest parts of me were brought to light. Every fear, every hate, each cruel and twisted thing I’d ever done, thrust into the light like there was nothing else to me at all. Panic reared its head in me and I almost lost myself to terror.

But I wasn’t alone in the dark. Darcy’s presence was strong and constant beside me, the combined grip of our fingers unwavering as the shadows tried to prise us apart.

Voices began to echo to me in the void. A girl, calling out for us to join her. A flicker of brown hair, ebony eyes, blood.

“Come to me.”

I looked for her but she wasn’t there anymore.

“Find me.”

My heart started beating slower as the ecstasy in my veins began to turn to pain. I was trembling but I was burning too, the shadows reaching deeper and deeper within my soul as they tried to lay claim to all I was.

The girl was suddenly standing before us again.

“Release yourselves to me. Join the shadows…”

The flames were hotter now, scorching a path through my soul and I was aware that somewhere I was screaming as the agony of them consumed me.

I’d thought we couldn’t burn but I was wrong. I’d never felt pain like this. Chasms of fire carved through my flesh, scoring two great lines across my back, desperate for release.

“I can free you from this pain.”

She was reaching for us in the dark, her eyes full of shadows and promises.

But I couldn’t reach for her. Darcy still held my hand. And I wouldn’t let her go any more than she would release me.

The flames were scalding, searing away my flesh and blazing through me in a never ending torrent of agony. I needed a release. I had to go to the shadows but to do so meant letting Darcy go and I’d sooner burn forever more than do that.

With a cry of pure agony, I fell back instead of forward. Darcy was pulling me with her or maybe I was pulling her. Away from the shadows, falling into the fire.

The pain in my back exploded out of me like a tsunami of pure relief.

The world was burning and falling away and for a moment I didn’t realise what had even happened.

But I wasn’t dead.

I was flying.

I blinked away the flames and stared at Darcy in complete and utter shock as I took in the fire which engulfed her body. Wings of flaming red feathers burst from her back, beating in time with the slow pace of my heart as she held herself aloft.

Her hair was a twisting mass of living flames burning in darkest red and orange which whipped around her as she beat her huge wings to stay hovering at my side. Flames licked over her skin, casting her flesh in flame and her eyes in darkness. She looked like an angel fallen to the flames, endlessly beautiful and eternally powerful.

“Tory?” she asked, her eyes wide with wonder that told me she was seeing the same miracle as me.

We’d survived. And more than that, our Orders had emerged. And we weren’t Dragons at all. For a moment I was at a loss as to what we were, but the knowledge came to me like it had been there all along. We’d been reborn from the flames, rising from the shadows like…

“Phoenixes,” I said, staring at Darcy in complete and utter fascination.

Before I could take in any more than that, a heaviness fell over me and I felt the shadows coiling close again.

A cry escaped me as I fell from the sky, clutching onto my sister as the flames tumbled away from us and our wings retreated.

We were caught in a net of air magic before we could hit the ground and thick material wrapped around me as someone dragged me away from my sister.

I fought against the heaviness in my limbs as shadows crawled beneath my flesh, aching for me to wield them.

“Roxy?” Darius begged, shaking me as he held me against his chest.

I clung to the robe he’d wrapped around me as I tried to make my head stop spinning.

Lionel was talking to Stella excitedly and I looked towards him as shadows wrapped around his arms.

“We did it!” he exclaimed, his eyes alight with this new, dark magic. “It worked!”

All around us the robed figures were experimenting with the power the shadows had granted them and for a moment I saw shadows coiling behind Darius’s eyes too.

“Get off of me,” I hissed, pushing out of his grip as I scooted towards my sister.

Orion was holding her hand against his cheek, his head bowed hopelessly as he murmured to himself. Darcy wasn’t looking at him, her eyes were on me.

Darius followed me, staying close despite my warning and I felt the flames which lived in my soul rising in challenge beneath my skin. But that wasn’t all that was there. Deep within the confines of my heart, I could feel the shadows lurking, taking root and growing into something unknown.

Lionel strode towards us, his eyes alight with power and success.

“You were both a part of this,” he said, his words for Darius and Orion. “You hold the Fifth Element now too. So there’s no one you can tell and no more chances for you to defy us. You are bound to us by the shadows and they will never let you go.”

“What about them?” Darius asked, pointing at me and Darcy.

Lionel’s gaze swept over us. “They’ve done what we needed them to do. They were just the vessels to channel the shadows to us and they even saved us the trouble of having to cover up their deaths. Take them back to the Academy, we don’t need them here anymore.”

Orion and Darius exchanged a dark look but neither of them responded, seeming too defeated to even have words.

Lionel snapped his fingers at Darcy and me and I raised my eyes to him slowly.

“You will forget you were ever here,” he commanded, his voice thick with Coercion which tied me up in manacles forged of steel. “You will have no memory of this night other than knowing your Orders emerged. You will forget the shadows. And you will forget that you ever saw me.”

Darcy gasped beside me as the magic tried to drive into her and I looked at her desperately as his commands tightened on me too.

But before my memories could be altered by his Coercion, flames danced before my eyes like an impenetrable barrier. They burned against the power of his magic until his Coercion slipped away on the breeze. I exchanged a look with Darcy which told me the same thing had just happened to her but kept my mouth shut.

Lionel tossed a pouch of stardust into Darius’s lap and he lifted it in silence.

“Take them back to the Academy,” Lionel commanded. “Inform me if there’s any sign of them remembering.”

He strode away and Darius pulled a handful of stardust into his fist.

He looked into my eyes right before he tossed it into the air.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed. And the world slid away as we fell into the grip of the stars.

Darius Acrux was sorry? He didn’t know the meaning of the word. But after what he’d done, risking our lives by tangling us up in his family’s psychotic ritual, I planned on making him learn the definition

He was sorry?

Not yet he wasn’t.