Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight
Sorrow and Starlight: Chapter 10

My body quaked with the effort of trying to resist the call of the shadows as Gerry shouted at the top of her lungs, “Out with the darkness and in with the light! All shall burn beneath my lady’s might!”

Tory was locked in battle with the Nymphs to our right, holding them back through fury and violence alone. I scrambled up onto my knees as I turned my head towards her, craning my neck to watch as Phoenix fire blazed from her body and her enemies fell all around her.

More were coming though. I could feel the dark rot of their emotions churning the air as they raced our way from somewhere beyond the manor walls, their bloodlust and sick thirst choking me as my gifts wrapped around them and I forced myself to start counting.

“The Vega line runs true,” Melinda Altair breathed from her position across the altar, and I could hear the awe in her voice as she watched one of the girls who had been born to sit upon the throne fight with such incredible power.

“There are around fifty Nymphs headed this way,” I yelled, and Caleb’s head snapped around as he looked to me to confirm my words.

His jaw and chest were covered with the blood of the Fae he’d been forced to feed from, and the haunted look in his eyes let me know how close to the surface that monstrous part of him resided, the hope there fading at my announcement.

“How long?” Seth panted as the rock beneath his feet continued to rotate, forcing him to run even though the sun had now fully crested the horizon, the Fae who had been in charge of the magic now caught up in the fight.

“Five minutes,” I said, cringing away from the presence closing in on us and drawing the power of my gifts back to me. “If we’re lucky.”

“Luck has nothing to do with this roll of the dice, sweet salamander,” Geraldine cooed as she drove the binding needle into the fabric of the world itself and tugged, that slice of hell growing smaller with every pull of her arm as she fought to seal the rift.

Sweat lined her brow and the set of her jaw was more than enough to tell me how hard she was fighting to channel the dark magic and end that thing, her own power waning with the effort required to do it.

She was magnificent. Blood splattered and furious, a queen in no need of a crown, her hair a river of blood red, come here like some avenging angel, fighting against hopeless odds without so much as a flinch of fear.

“If you can’t close it in time, you have to run, Gerry,” I begged her. “If those Nymphs arrive before you can-”

“I do not recall asking for the advice of a doubtful dogfish,” she ground out. “Nor do I recall you having the heart of a cowardly lionfish, Maxy boy. Tell me, did the rift suck out your heart of ice alongside siphoning away your power, or are you simply going all wet in the whistle over me in particular?”

I could feel my father’s eyes on me as I shook my head, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter anymore anyway, not when I could feel our end closing in on us and the only ray of light I cared to look upon was the woman standing up on that black altar before me.

“Nothing in this world could break me the way you can, Gerry,” I admitted roughly. “Nothing could make me falter or blink other than the need to protect you. I can’t watch them lash you to this thing with us. It would rip the last pieces of me free of my body and destroy them more certainly than anything else.”

Geraldine’s cheeks darkened with a blush as she fought to push the binding needle into the edge of the rift once more, the last foot of it pulsing and bulging like a living thing that was fighting to resist its end.

“Then I suggest you turn your efforts from trying to dissuade me and focus instead on cheering me on,” she replied. “For my feet are now soldered to this spot, my will iron and my focus fixed like a flan on a Friday. I shall not yield this position to any but death, and if its dark minions come calling for old Grussy, I shall fight them to the bitter end while seeing this most precious of tasks fulfilled. My queen bid me here, and here I shall stand, even if the great wide yonder comes to gobble me up.”

“Geraldine,” I snarled, my gifts reaching for her as I fought to make her see reason.

A cry of pain had us all turning our eyes towards Tory as a Nymph managed to get around her defences, and blood poured from a slice which had been carved down her side beneath her arm.

The Nymph which had struck her exploded in a blaze of blue and red flames just as Tory slapped a hand to her side and froze the wound solid before the whip of shadows spiralling from the rift towards her could make contact. She cursed at the pain, but it worked, the shadows recoiling once more to feast on those of us still tethered to it, but it was as if the scent of her blood on the air had awoken the most beastly nature of every Nymph who remained.

The Nymphs shrieked as they lunged at her, no longer seeming to have any care for self-preservation as they converged around her recklessly, probes extended and rattles filling the air with such potency that my own magic guttered and died within my chest.

We lost sight of her in the throng of creatures, Seth howling balefully while Caleb roared her name.

“Gobble, gobble, gobble!” Geraldine bellowed, the binding needle flashing in the light of the breaking dawn as she drove it in and out of the air faster than before. Sweat glistened on her skin, her limbs trembling with fatigue, and as I sent my Siren power towards her, I felt the press of her exhaustion crashing into me like a solid force.

“Let me in!” I demanded.

I pressed my gifts at her, offering what little strength I had and begging her to accept it as the chains which held me cut into my flesh and made me bleed even more.

The shadows latched onto those wounds as they formed, my magic pouring from me faster than it had before. The rift guzzled at it greedily, even though only a few drops of it remained.

Geraldine relented, her mental barriers falling, and my gifts broke into the ocean of her mind like I’d jumped from a clifftop to descend into the purest blue sea.

I threw my strength into her, not caring one bit for my own needs and giving all of what I had to her, begging the stars to offer us just a few more seconds so she might finish this like she’d sworn to.

I couldn’t allow for any other fate. Not for her. She was my everything.

My vision blurred, a sea of pastel coloured fish swimming all around my head as I lost myself within Geraldine’s mind and felt my hold on my own body slipping. It didn’t matter. Not while she was still fighting on. I gave and gave, pressing every bit of strength left from me into her so that she might do this, even as I heard the next wave of Nymphs come crashing out into the courtyard.

“Oh fuck,” Seth said and the hopeless tone to his voice told me all I needed to know about the legion which had just arrived.

A flare of power brushed against mine, as familiar as a summer breeze and ten times as powerful. My father’s Siren spell, his gifts scorching a path alongside my own towards the girl who fought to free us as the Nymphs closed in.

She wasn’t going to stop. Not even to defend herself. The rift was almost closed, and I knew that she would sacrifice her own life to see it shut if that was what it took.

My terror at the mere thought of that set something blazing not just within me but within the power that had joined mine. With a surge of our gifts, both me and my father gave that beautiful girl every bit of strength we still possessed.

“Who comes to take down the last pillar of the Grus empire?” Geraldine roared as she drove the binding needle into the air one last time. “Who presumes to defy the will of the true queens? Come forth and rip me from this rock of shadow and whisperings if you so dare, but know this – I fight in the name of all that is, was and will be. And you, shall. Not. Smite. Me!”

The needle plunged into the void between worlds for one final time, snapping the rift closed with a brutal finality that sent me and all of us who had been tethered to it crashing to the ground, releasing us at last.

I cracked my eyes open to stare up at Geraldine as three Nymphs leapt for her, but she rocketed towards the sky on a pillar of water before they managed to so much as brush the toes of her boots with their probes.

The Nymphs screeched, unleashing their rattles as Geraldine took a pouch from her pocket and stuffed a handful of aconite into her mouth before ripping through her clothes as she shifted and fell from the sky right into the midst of the hellish creatures. Her armour shot away from her in every direction, Athena yelling in fright as the pointed breastplate damn near impaled her. Hadley caught hold of her, yanking her tight to his side and kicking the piece of armour away from her like it had been him it had almost taken out.

Four mighty paws hit the ground with a rattle that made the tiles beneath me tremble and Geraldine bayed like a bloodhound on the heels of a fresh kill with all three of her mighty heads.

She ripped into the Nymphs, black blood spraying from three sets of jaws while her huge paws swiped and kicked, sending even more of them tumbling away from her.

The sound of shattering glass made me whip around and my eyes widened as I took in the forms of three frozen Nymphs. Tory carved her way free of their bodies by shattering another of their companions, her dark eyes blazing in a way that made my heart skip a beat.

Her green gaze took in the empty patch of air which had held the rift and she smiled in a feral, terrifying way that instantly made me think of the Savage King who had sired her.

“Now, Geraldine!” she cried, the voice of a queen breaking over the sound of battle.

My girl lifted her three bloodstained heads to howl her agreement and she broke into a run, making the Nymphs scatter and fall back from the altar, the monsters heading towards Tory and away from us.

I managed to summon the strength to push myself to my feet, the cut to my wrist still dripping blood, though I barely even noticed it as I watched the powerful beast that was the girl I loved racing our way.

Geraldine took a running jump, soaring over our heads and I spun to watch her as she shifted in mid-air, landing straight in the centre of the stone altar in her Fae form, butt naked and releasing a warrior’s cry.

Magic exploded from her in a wave of water that crashed past everyone who was chained to the altar, surrounding us and the Fae who had been chained and tortured to feed me and the other Sirens, before solidifying into a dome of ice that shimmered with power all around us.

The explosion that followed a moment later nearly knocked me from my feet, the ground bucking, heat blazing over the shield that protected us and making water drip down onto our heads as the ice began to melt beneath the onslaught of fire.

With a shuddering gasp, Geraldine maintained the shield for a few more seconds before stumbling to her knees, the water washing away in a great wave as it melted, revealing the princess of flames who stood among a pile of ash beyond it.

My lips parted as I took in the destruction that Tory had woven with her power, not a Nymph in sight and the closest wall of the enormous manor house which had stood at our backs reduced to rubble too.

Flames licked at the rooms which had been exposed by the damage to the building and for several long moments, all any of us could do was stare at the girl in the epicentre of that blast.

Tory Vega stared back at us with her chest heaving and blood still frozen to her side from that massive wound. More cuts and bruises were revealed across her skin as she released her hold on her Phoenix and the fire guttered from her body, her wings disappearing with it, leaving the girl I knew standing in place of the creature of legend we had all just witnessed wielding power beyond all measure.

“Stars save us all,” Antonia Capella murmured, her eyes moving to the blue sky overhead as if she might see through the rising dawn to the glimmering entities above.

The crunch of bare feet moving across broken debris made me turn again, replaceing Geraldine striding towards me with her body on full display to anyone who cared to glance her way and a look in her eyes which could set the world alight once more.

“Gerry, where are your-” I began, but she cut me off as she caught hold of the back of my neck and propelled me against her body. Her other arm banded around my spine and before I’d fully realised what was happening, I found her dipping me backwards as she claimed my mouth with her own, and I clung to her like a damn barnacle on the hull of a ship.

Any protests I may have wanted to make died on my tongue at the taste of that kiss though, my heart skipping and racing and damn near galloping its way through my chest. I gave in to the call of her, her song more powerful than even the lure of the greatest Sirens on earth.

Geraldine kissed me like she owned me, and in that moment, and likely all other moments too, she did. I was her creature for better or worse and she had come for me in the dark when I needed her most.

Geraldine released me suddenly, setting me back on my feet and slapping me so hard my face whirled to the side, the sting of her palm marking my skin as I swore at her and stumbled back a step.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“For getting yourself tangled up in this hilly holly and leaving me to wonder if I would ever set eyes upon your salacious face again, that’s what, you wandering kipper.”

“Gerry,” I ground out, reaching for her but instead of letting me take her hand, she took hold of the chains which bound me and severed them with the force of her earth magic.

I rubbed at the point where the manacle had held me, and she stalked away to free Seth next. He leapt at her, licking her face and making me swear louder as I stalked towards them, pulling my shirt off as I approached.

“Thank you, Batty Betty,” he exhaled, squeezing her hard enough to make her yip.

“Yes, yes, that’s quite enough wilting and welping. Now let me see what I can do for you all, I’m a little low on power though,” she said breathlessly while batting him off. “But I’ll heal what I can when I’ve had a moment to recover.”

“Put this on,” I snarled, thrusting the shirt into her face while she sighed loudly like I was nothing but a burden set on this world to torment her.

“You and your worries about my wandering petunia will be the end of me one of these days,” she grouched, though she took the shirt and shrugged it on before moving to free Caleb next.

Seth dove on him, hugging him tight and licking Caleb’s cheek. I ran over to them, and Seth yanked me into the fold of their arms, all of us clinging to one another, the power of our unit missing just one vital piece. Seth whimpered anxiously, still pawing at Caleb’s golden curls and nuzzling my neck.

“I thought we were goners. Real, for true goners,” Seth said.

“We can’t die,” Cal said a little breathlessly. “We’re Bitey C, Wolfman, and Fish Fury.”

“You remembered,” Seth gasped.

“Of course I fucking remembered.” Caleb scruffed Seth’s long hair and I managed an actual laugh, shoving Seth in the shoulder.

Geraldine tried to leave us to it, and I stalked after her, but she shrugged me off, moving to release everyone else while I just trailed her like a whipped little bitch. But if destiny was kind enough to allow me to be her whipped bitch, then I was all for it. I was hers in any way she would take me and damn the consequences.

When she broke the shackles from my father’s limbs, he almost collapsed, his arms crashing around me as he hauled me close and choked out a laugh that was half sob.

“I thought I was going to die while knowing you would follow me beyond the Veil,” he breathed, his grip unyielding as I gave into the warmth of his embrace and held him in return.

“I never should have agreed to you staying in Lionel’s company for so long,” I ground out in reply, hating myself for not insisting on him joining us at The Burrows before this came to pass.

“Since when do I run my choices by you?” Dad joked as he pulled back, his palm encompassing my cheek as he looked me over.

“Perhaps you should in future,” I replied steadily, and he nodded in solemn agreement as he looked around to check on the other Councillors as they were released from their bonds too.

“Where’s Ellis?” I asked, my sister’s absence prickling at me just as it had since I’d first noticed it. But it had been hard to so much as hold onto my own name while tethered to that rift, let alone ask questions about the only Spare missing from this circus of depravity.

“Some of the family members were kept inside as further motivation for us to cooperate,” Dad said, but I felt a touch of his discomfort as he said the words, the taste of a lie hanging between us.

“But you don’t think she’s with them?” I pressed.

Dad sighed, his shoulders slumping as he shook his head. “They wanted me to believe that she and your stepmother were being held with Melinda and Antonia’s husbands and younger children, but I felt the smugness coming from Linda when she was led inside. The feeling of accomplishment and the…excitement. I fear they have truly thrown their lot in with Lionel and helped with this ruse to trap us here.”

I blew out a shallow breath, some small part of me disappointed at that news even if it didn’t surprise me. Linda could go to hell for all I cared; I hoped she burned for her choice to ally with that son of a bitch. But Ellis… My sister may have been a brat and more ambitious than her abilities really allowed for, but she was still my blood at the end of the day. What would it mean for her fate now that she had chosen to align herself on the other side of this war?

“So,” Dad said, a quirk to his lips and the shift in his mood alerting me to the object of his attention as I glanced over my shoulder towards Geraldine. “It’s the Grus girl then, is it?”

“Yeah,” I replied as I watched Geraldine bark orders at anyone close enough to follow them, her upper lip curling back in a canine snarl of distaste as she picked up her breast plate which had landed in a puddle of black blood. “It is.”