Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

Each time Orion was tortured, it took him longer and longer to come back to me, and it was breaking my heart. There was something in those awful weapons Lavinia was using to hurt him, some taint that was built of shadow and cruelty, and it was leaving a brand on his soul.

“Lance?” I tried to draw his attention to me as he sat against the wall, the wounds on his bare chest half healed from the brief moments Lavinia had let Horace heal Orion. She always made him stop while the bruises still bloomed, and the cuts were barely scabbed over, never allowing him full freedom from the pain she delivered. Horace didn’t seem to care either way, only wanting to get away from me and Orion as soon as he could, trying to act like we didn’t exist.

Now, Orion’s eyes remained fixed on the cage bars, his expression empty.

“Talk to me,” I urged, shifting closer and taking his hand, but his fingers didn’t react to mine.

I was trying to stay strong through this, but my anger over him placing himself in this position with Lavinia always set the Shadow Beast stirring. Sometimes when that woman cut into his body, I lost control. The monster ripped out of my skin, and I was thrown into the pits of darkness in its mind, trapped in a vortex of wrath.

It seemed with every day that passed, my ability to keep the beast contained weakened, and I didn’t know how much longer it would be until it possessed me entirely. That was a fear I didn’t dare put a voice to. If Orion’s sacrifice came to nothing because of my own inability to stop the Shadow Beast, I’d never forgive myself. That reality didn’t bear thinking about. I had one task, and Orion was counting on me. I couldn’t let him down.

I squeezed Orion’s hand again, gaining no response. The pain of seeing him torn apart before my eyes was more than I could handle, and as much as I was trying to be brave, all I felt was a chasm splitting apart my mind, filled with vengeance and death. I was counting the marks left on my mate, promising them back to Lavinia tenfold with all the torment I could offer her, but it didn’t make it any easier, because it didn’t change anything here and now.

Orion never fought a single blow against him, facing each of them with a resilience that made me so goddamn proud. And if it was possible to love him even deeper, I did. I just wished with all my heart, on all the stars that ever were and ever would be, that this hadn’t been the answer to breaking my curse. Anything but him.

“Lance?” I tried again, crawling into his lap, and cupping his cheek in my palm.

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

“Please come back to me,” I whispered in desperation, tears rolling quietly down my cheeks. “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.” I pressed my lips to his, tasting sorrow and salt between us. His mouth didn’t move against mine, he didn’t pull me closer, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t him.

“Lance,” I begged, my voice shattering on the sharp rocks of terror. I couldn’t lose him here in this cold room before a throne that was still claimed by a heartless king.

“I can help,” a female voice made me whip around with a growl on my lips, and I found Stella Orion quietly closing the throne room door. She was in jeans and a black t-shirt, looking out of place in this grand room built for royalty.

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

Stella ignored me, drifting closer, trying to look past me to Orion.

“It’s the weapons she’s using on him,” she said in a voice dripping with emotion. “Every time she cuts him, the shadows get into his body. He’s strong. It’s a miracle he’s lasted so long without succumbing to the lure of them. But I can draw them out.”

I gripped the bars of the cage, my eyes locked on her, watching her as a lioness would watch its prey. I must have been at breaking point, because I couldn’t help but latch onto the hope her words were offering me. But how could I trust this woman after all she’d done?

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