It was waiting for me when I exited the bathroom. Someone had pushed the letter with the Court of Solaria seal on it under my door and I dropped to my knees with my heart cramming into my throat as I opened it up and read it.
Dear Miss Gwendalina (Darcy) Vega,
You are hereby summoned to the Court of Solaria on March 30th for the trial of Lance Azriel Orion for breaking Law 303 of the constitution. In accordance with said law (outlined below*), you are required to provide a statement to determine the fate of the defendant.
The High Court Judge’s ruling will also decide if any motion need be taken against you.
Please note: your position at the prestigious Zodiac Academy has now been brought into question.
You MUST appear on the date of your court summons or a default judgement will be passed on you based on the evidence provided in court.
Regards,
Ravis Darkice
High Court Judge of the Court of Solaria
Griffin, Libra, Justice of Fae
*Law 303 of the Education Sector of Solaria: Any teacher or teaching aid in the position of authority over Fae studying at their institution of employment are prohibited from engaging in sexual relationships with their students on punishment of arrest and prosecution.
I wiped the tears from my eyes before they could fall, finding I didn’t have the strength to stand up. Everything hurt. And the shadows kept calling to me, begging me to dive into them, to take some relief from this pain. But I refused them again and again. I needed this burning agony, this rage. Because I was going to turn it against Seth.
I’d skipped lessons all day again, unable to bear facing the world. I still didn’t have my Atlas so I couldn’t check FaeBook, but I could have guessed I was plastered all over it by now. The rumours about me and Orion would be rife. The story thrown out of proportion a thousand times. Maybe the reason I hadn’t left this room yet was because the second I did, this would all be real.
Guilt ate at me for snapping at Tory. I hadn’t meant to say the things I did. Well, certainly not in the way they’d come out. But I just wanted the best for her so badly and it hurt me that she’d thrown away any chance at love when she’d defied the stars. I would have given anything for the stars to choose me and Lance as Elysian Mates. But it wasn’t to be. The stars had been laughing at us all along. And maybe Tory was right after all. Fate was bullshit. The fact that the stars would offer us something so sweet only to rip it away again made me sick to my core.
But I wasn’t done fighting for us yet. I had to talk to Orion. I had to find a way to call him. To know that he was alright. To plan a way out of this together.
I pressed my hands to my eyes, willing away the tears that threatened to start falling again.
It was almost seven o’clock and everyone would be heading down to The Howling Meadow for Elemental Combat class. I was going to walk out of this room and face my demons. One in particular, in fact. Seth Capella. That was what gave me the strength to get off the floor.
I headed to the mirror, wiping my eyes and using a vanity spell to hide the blotchy mess my face had been reduced to. I wore a mocha coloured crop top and matching yoga pants. And I decided not to bother with a sweater as I strode to the window and shoved it open, planning to fly. I leapt forward into the cool breeze and my wings burst free of my back in a fiery inferno, seeming to burn hotter with my anger as I swept around Aer Tower and headed over the trees, my eyes falling on all of the students gathering down below in the meadow.
I set my gaze on the boulders in the middle and plummeted towards them, dropping out of the sky like an arrow let loose from a bow. People started pointing as they spotted me and I clenched my jaw, determinedly ignoring them as I landed in front of Seth, not even stumbling a single step. All four of the Heirs were shirtless and covered in a dusting of dirt like they’d been fighting in the mud already.
“Darcy,” Tory said in surprise, a note of hope in her voice as she rushed to my side. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I answered truthfully, a crowd gathering around us as I faced the Heirs.
“By the eye of the storm on Jupiter,” Geraldine breathed. “Perhaps we should go for a ramble in the forest, Darcy? We could all have a heart to heart.”
“I’m fine right here,” I said firmly, stepping toward Seth and his brows pulled together. “Well?” I demanded as a hush fell over the class. Even Washer had stepped up to watch, apparently not planning to direct anyone away from staring at me. “Aren’t you going to say something? Aren’t you going to cheer and laugh and congratulate yourself for being such a fucking clever boy?”
Darius kicked away from the nearest boulder, his forehead creasing. “Seth?” he asked, like it hadn’t occurred to him that his beloved friend would be the one to throw Orion to the wolves. But who better to do that than the Alpha of the pack himself?
“You think I told the FIB?” Seth balked and mutters broke out in the crowd as the news that he’d known about me and Orion moved from ear to ear.
I released a bitter laugh. “I know you did. Who else would do it? My sister wouldn’t have done it and Darius is Lance’s best friend. So who does that leave, huh? Just a heartless Wolf with a sad little vendetta against me which he can’t fulfil like a man. Like a Fae,” I spat, raising my hands in preparation to fight him. I wanted him on his ass, but more than that, I wanted the truth. I wanted the whole school to know that this piece of shit had wronged me. And that I was going to destroy him for it.
“Why would I give you up?” Seth asked innocently and Max and Caleb moved back a few steps, sensing the fight that was going to break out.
“Maybe you should stop throwing the blame around, Darcy,” Kylie’s voice cut into me and I whipped my head in her direction, my wings casting her in an orange glow as they flared hotter. “You’re the one who spread your legs for grades. Maybe you should point the finger at yourself.”
I bared my teeth, stepping in her direction and she backed up into her friends with a look of fright in her eyes. Whatever I looked like right now, it must have been enough to strike fear in her heart. But she wasn’t who I’d come here for.
I turned to Seth and Tory gave me a nod of encouragement. She knew I needed this. If it didn’t have to be Fae on Fae, I had no doubt she’d beat his ass alongside me. But this was my fight. And I was going to win it even if it cost me every drop of magic I had to give.
“I didn’t do it,” Seth lowered his voice so only I could hear, stepping closer and reaching for my arm.
I yanked it away from him, horrified that he’d consider touching me. Lying to me. After everything, could he not even just admit that he was the one to get Orion arrested? That he was the one to dig through my flesh with sharp claws and tear my heart out?
“Fine, you wanna fight?” He raised his hands as the wind twisted between his fingers. “Then don’t hold back.”
I let my wings fall away then threw out my hands, forcing a huge surge of magic into them and releasing a tornado at him that launched him through the air. The crowd backed up as the storm tossed him to the ground with a hard whack, but he was up again in seconds, throwing his fist into the earth with a smirk on his features.
My heart drummed against my ears as the ground split in two and I started running toward him, trying to close the distance between us before it tore apart completely. A savage snarl ripped from my throat as the dirt tumbled away into a huge abyss beneath me. I threw out my palms, casting cushions of air to catch me, jumping from one to the next as I raced across the space dividing us with adrenaline zipping through my veins.
His long hair whipped around him in the breeze and his eyes were set on me in a way that was goading and hungry. I despised that look. Like he wanted this. I was going to make him regret every single second of that thought. He’d be bleeding and begging by the time I was done.
When there was just a meter parting us and the huge chasm echoed below me, I leapt into the air with a yell of determination, casting ice blades into my palms as I fell towards him.
A vine wrapped around my ankle before I made it and I was yanked down into the pit, falling and falling, a strangled scream stuck in my throat before my back impacted with the dirt. I was twenty feet below ground and staring up at Seth as he stood on the edge of the chasm, a twisted smile on his face.
“Fuck you!” I cried, sending the ice blades spearing from my hands towards him with another wave of rage crashing through my chest.
They shattered into shards as they collided with his air shield, but he’d been distracted long enough that I was back on my feet, causing the air to pummel him from behind so he was thrown head first into the pit with me. My heart soared but he caught himself before he hit the ground, landing lightly on his feet.
I dove at him with the force of a hurricane at my back, tackling him with the ferocity of a rabid animal.
He hit the ground and I straddled him with victory singing in my ears, grabbing his throat and throwing a fist into his face. An air shield covered it and I swore as my knuckles impacted with it, but I didn’t give up. I kept slamming my fists into it, covering them in flames as I battled to break through the shield and they started to bleed. He laughed wildly, getting cocky, but that was when the shield cracked and my fist slammed into his cheek, sending his head whipping sideways.
“Fuck,” he gasped then threw me off of him with sheer force, rolling over and pinning me down into the mud with the hard plain of his chest, his hands latching around my wrists and holding them still.
“Why did you do it?!” I demanded, battling to get my hands free as I hunted his eyes for a crack in his façade. This bullshit lie he was feeding me. And why? What difference did it make now?
“I didn’t do it,” he snarled, coming nose to nose with me, not blinking even once so all I could see was the depths of his earthy brown eyes. “I kept your secret. I never told anyone. I never even planned to.”
I encouraged fire to bloom down my arms where he held me and he let go with a dogish whimper, lurching upright to sit over my hips. I cast a vine from the ground, latching it around his throat and yanking him backwards so his spine hit the dirt once more. I was on my feet in seconds, holding my hand above him as I tightened the vine mercilessly, my breathing coming raggedly as he suffered beneath me.
The shadows stirred under my flesh, urging me on, whispering terrible, deadly, enticing things that I wanted to lean into in that moment.
Then the ground swallowed Seth whole and he disappeared into the mud, making my lips pop open as I hunted for him.
Dirt suddenly fell over me in a tremendous flood and I gasped, staring up above me as Seth stood at the top of the pit, covered in mud and casting a tumult of dirt down as he tried to bury me alive. He must have made a tunnel in the earth right to the top – asshole!
The weight of the earth slowed me as it pressed up to my thighs already, but I wasn’t beat yet. I clawed my way out then lifted one hand in the air and used the wind to drag me out. I shot towards the sky, my eyes pinned on Seth as I raced towards him. He leapt back a moment before my feet touched the ground and I collided with the air shield surrounding him. He smirked that awful smirk which turned my blood to ice and a growl poured from my lips.
“Go on Sethy! Put the teacher fucker in her place!” Kylie called and her little friends started laughing.
I threw everything I had at Seth’s shield, spears of wood, a raining shower of ice shards, a storm of air, but it didn’t give.
“Did Orion take pity on you, Darcy?” Marguerite’s voice called, setting my cheeks on fire. “Did he let you suck his cock and let you pass Cardinal Magic so no one would see what a loser you are?”
Tory waved a hand at her and Marguerite was knocked to the ground with a gust of air, her face smashing into the dirt.
“Woops, careful Marguerite,” Tory smirked.
I blinked to try and refocus, pouring more magic at Seth’s shield as I continued to blast it with everything I had.
He stepped back, watching me silently as I hounded forward with every spell I cast. It occurred to me that he couldn’t fight back. He was using all of his magic to keep that shield in place. So if I could only shatter it…
Exhaustion was gnawing at my muscles, making everything feel heavy, but adrenaline kept me going. And I realised Tory and my friends were cheering me on, screaming and clapping on the side lines. My heart lifted slightly at the sound and I focused my mind, trying to figure out how I was going to break his defences.
The answer came to me clearly. Fire. It was the most violent of Elements. And it lived in my core like a molten slice of the sun.
I cast two whips of fire in my hands that were as blindingly white hot as my rage. I knew I was running into the last reserves of my magic, so I had to make this count. I wielded the two huge whips with anger coursing through every inch of my flesh then brought them down on Seth’s shield with curses pouring from my lips at the effort it took.
I felt the bitterest and sharpest of all the emotions, hate, malice, anger, hurt, all tangling together like I’d swallowed a hundred sharp objects and washed them down with cyanide.
Seth’s expression wasn’t goading anymore, his features were contorted in concentration and effort as he battled to keep his shield in place. I struck at it again and again, my arms aching, sweat pouring down my spine as I gave this everything I had. I did it for Orion and me and Tory and even Darius. I did it to spite the stars and to cut down my enemy who’d made it his personal mission to ruin me the moment I’d walked into this school.
With one huge, final, splintering whip, his shield gave out and the fire wrapped around his limbs, upending him and searing huge burns across his bare chest. I doused it in a heartbeat, my final move decided as I poured the last of my magic into ice, letting it encase every part of his body right up to his neck, binding him in a freezing chamber until he couldn’t move a single muscle except his tongue. Enough to give me my victory.
“Yield,” I demanded, the world falling quiet around me as I stood over him, panting, battered, bruised. But triumphant.
Seth bit down on his tongue, saying nothing and I let the ice sharpen to a collar of knives around his throat.
“Yield,” I hissed, the shadows whispering in my ears, telling me to end it. They wanted his blood to spill and part of me did too. They latched onto that darkness in me and added kindling to it, coaxing it until it was a blaze I couldn’t ignore.
“Yield, you idiot!” Darius barked and Seth groaned.
“I yield,” he huffed and my friends went crazy, diving on me and pulling me into their arms. But I couldn’t stop staring down at Seth as I melted the ice from his body and he rose to his feet. It felt good to beat him. But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t bring Orion back. It didn’t fix anything.
I lifted my head to find the whole school looking at me, some in awe, some in horror. I grabbed Tory’s hand, pulling her out of the crowd and giving her a look that begged her to come with me. She nodded immediately, stripping off her shirt so she was left in her crop top and we took off into the sky without a backwards glance.
We raced across The Wailing Wood and I spotted King’s Hollow in the distance, the roof of the treehouse calling to me. The Heirs wouldn’t be heading there until the lesson ended and the wards around it kept it private from weaker Fae, so I led Tory that way until we landed on top of the slanted wooden roof and sat with the evening birdsong filling the air around us.
I dropped my head into my hands and tried to take even breaths, but I couldn’t seem to manage it.
“That was incredible, Darcy,” she said, resting a hand on my back as I hid behind a waterfall of blue hair.
“Why don’t I feel any better?” I asked through my teeth. My heart was drowning in a vat of acid. My hopes and dreams had long since melted in it too. And when I thought of Orion, the pain of it made me sick all over again.
“Because beating Seth doesn’t bring him back,” she said gently and I nodded, clawing a hand into my hair and tugging to try and force myself to feel anything but the hurt in my chest.
“He can’t go to prison.” I looked up at her through watery eyes, desperation lacing my tone. “He can’t. He -I-”
She pulled me into her arms and I held onto her, clinging to the other half of me. My twin, the night to my day. She was in pain too, and somehow in her arms it felt a little lighter. Like she was carrying some of mine and I was carrying some of hers.
“We’ll figure it out,” she promised and I nodded against her shoulder, trying to find some sliver of a possibility to hold onto. But everything seemed so bleak.
Silence stretched between while we just clutched onto each other and the sky turned to dusk, then to total darkness, and the stars glittered pitilessly down at us.
“I spoke to Darius today,” Tory broke the quiet at last and I pulled back from her with my lips parting.
“I didn’t mean what I said, it was out of order-” I blurted, guilt swelling up inside me.
“No, you were right,” she cut over me, nodding firmly. “I needed to hear it. And you’re the only one I could have heard it from.”
I gave her a sad sort of smile. “What happened?”
“I told him the truth. How I feel and all that shit. And he…told me he loved me,” she breathed and tears pricked my eyes for a whole different reason.
“That’s great, Tor,” I said earnestly, though I knew it couldn’t change anything now. Not unless we found a way to fix this. And I swore on everything in this world, that I would. I took her hand and we dropped back to lie on the roof without a word passing between us, gazing up at the cruel sky.
“Do you think the stars hate us?” I whispered like they could hear me, my eyes automatically seeking out Orion’s belt and wondering if wherever he was, he could even see the stars tonight. Or if he was locked in the dark like some criminal, some heathen.
“Maybe,” Tory breathed.
“Maybe they’re the souls of all the spiteful Fae who came before us, stubbornly clinging to the sky instead of passing beyond the veil. Maybe they want to punish the world for the miserable lives they left behind.”
“I hope not,” Tory said, her fingers squeezing mine. “But if they are, then we can still defy them. They don’t control us.”
I wanted that to be true for her sake, for Orion’s. But a quiet part of me knew it wasn’t true. In a world where the zodiac ruled our lives, our paths were just a roll of the dice. And once the dice had landed, our fate was set in stone. I just hoped our dice were still rolling. And there was a chance for us all yet.
