Welcome to Zodiac Academy, here is your campus map.
Note to all students: Vampire bites, loss of limbs or getting lost in The Wailing Wood will not count as a valid excuse for being late to class.
Click on the map to explore it more closely.
This isn’t it.
I won’t let him go.
I’ll follow him beyond the veil.
I’ll climb into the stars and drag his soul back out of them if I have to.
This. Is. Not. It.
The twisting maelstrom of snow swirled around me and a shadow caught my gaze amongst it. I let my Phoenix fire fall still, dropping my head to search the thick fog of white before me. A figure had moved in the mist, I was almost sure. Or maybe I was just so desperate for it to be true.
“Hello?!” I cried, running forward, stumbling over rocks and snow as I sped blindly into the blizzard.
The sound of footsteps crunched toward me and my pulse thumped wildly out of rhythm.
“Help!” I screamed.
I rammed into someone and stumbled back, their hand latching around my wrist before I lost my footing.
My heart splintered as my eyes fell on him. Because surely the stars were trying to destroy me tonight. Of all the Fae to answer my call, why did it have to be him? His long, dark hair was flecked with snow, his brow taut with worry as he took in my bloodstained clothes.
“Seth,” I rasped, then tugged on his hand because what choice did I have? “I need your help,” I growled determinedly.
He nodded in alarm and followed without question as I dragged him as fast as I humanely could towards the cave. I tore inside, barely able to draw breath as I saw Orion on the ground, looking so pale, so absent. Blood pooled around him, the puddle so wide we had to run through it to reach him.
“Orion,” Seth breathed then yanked his hand free of mine. “What the fuck happened?”
My lungs compressed as I turned to him, searching his face for any sign of compassion. But it was too dark to see his expression clearly and in the depths of my soul, I knew it was possible that he wouldn’t care. But that wasn’t going to stop me.
“Don’t ask questions - help him!” I demanded.
I shoved him toward Orion with all the strength I had as more tears blurred my vision.
Seth dropped to his knees and ripped Orion’s shirt open, resting his hands on his chest and casting healing magic. “Shit. Darcy…I think he’s dead.”
“He’s not fucking dead until I say he is!” I shouted so loud that my voice rang around the cave and echoed back to us. I fell down beside Seth, giving him a pleading look. “You’re at least going to try, aren’t you?” My voice cracked because I didn’t know. Seth had hurt me so deeply, hated me so fiercely. He’d never cared for Orion, but was he really heartless enough not to help?
“Aren’t you?!” I snapped, shaking him.
“I’ll give him everything I have,” Seth promised as the green healing light spread further from his hands. A ragged breath left me and another sob ripped free of my chest.
I clutched onto Seth’s arm, too terrified to touch Orion and feel how cold he might be, how still. My tears rolled onto Seth’s jacket as sheer panic reached into my heart. He wasn’t moving. Wasn’t responding at all.
“Please,” I begged, turning my head toward the cave roof and imploring the stars to listen. “Don’t take him from me. I’ll give you anything you want. Anything.”
I felt Seth’s eyes on me, but when I looked down he was focusing on Orion again.
Seth clenched his jaw, magic pouring from him as his brow creased with concentration. “Come on you asshole, wake up and tell me you hate me.”
I unknotted my sweater from Orion’s waist with shaking fingers, terrified to look at the stab wound, but I had to see. I had to know.
Blood oozed from the wound and I clamped my hands over it with a wail of grief. “Why isn’t it working?”
I fell forward, my ear resting against Orion’s chest as I desperately listened for his heartbeat. “Please don’t leave me.”
I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my own thrashing pulse and I quickly pulled away, dragging Seth’s hands back onto him.
“Keep trying,” I commanded and he rested his hand directly onto the wound, letting Orion’s blood coat his skin as magic flowed from him in waves. The green light pulsed in time with my heavy breaths as Seth poured more and more of his magic into healing him. The wound started to close, but it was so slow, the skin knitting back together at the edges, but not nearly enough.
“Power share with me,” Seth said through his teeth, his muscles bunching with exertion.
I turned away, hurriedly letting a line of Phoenix fire roll from my hand and burn in a twisting coil behind me, warming my back and slowly trickling some more magic into my veins. Then I laid two bloody hands over Seth’s, shutting my eyes in concentration. I didn’t have much to give yet, but any drop I had was his. There was just one problem: I had to let down my barriers to power share with my mortal enemy.
“Do it,” Seth growled and I squeezed my eyes tighter, trying to force the barrier down even though it felt like a wall of iron at the edges of my skin.
“I can’t,” I gasped.
“You can,” Seth growled. “Do it for him.”
I pictured Orion, focusing solely on him and how easily I could let his magic flow into my veins. We’d done it instinctively plenty of times. It was as simple as breathing.
My barriers fell and we both inhaled sharply as my magic clashed with Seth’s, winding around it and twisting into something truly powerful. The green light grew brighter as I gave Seth every scrap of power in my veins. His magic felt lighter than I’d expected, not cold and dark and cruel. It was like a warm embrace, soothing, calming, like the man it belonged to really wanted to get me through this ordeal.
The wound healed so slowly it was painful to watch, and Orion never stirred. I could hardly bear to look at his face, the blood around his mouth, the stillness of his features.
I won’t let you go. I promised I’d do anything in my power to keep us together and I’ll do it, goddammit. I will do it.
Seth’s magic began to slow and he cursed under his breath, tugging more forcefully on my power, but I was starting to hollow out. I wasn’t replenishing fast enough and I had little left to give. I could feel Seth’s magic waning too and the panic that invoked in me was insufferable.
“No,” I begged of him, of the world. “We can do this.”
“Darcy…”
“Don’t,” I snarled, refusing to meet Seth’s eye. “Keep going.”
He nodded, but the green light was fading and the wound wasn’t nearly healed enough.
I refused to accept the reality that was closing in on me on all sides. The world was becoming so small, I didn’t know how I’d ever fit in it without him. I’d be crushed by the loss of him.
“I’m almost out,” Seth said heavily, like he really cared. And fuck, I needed him to care. I needed him to scrape out the magic from every crevice of his body and pour it into Orion in the hopes that it would be enough to save him. The fire behind me wasn’t restoring my magic fast enough; I was channelling it into Seth as quickly as I was gaining it. And if Seth ran out, I knew we’d fail. I’d fail. I’d break our promise. I could feel it burning within me, but it was shrinking like a flame about to go out.