Zodiac Academy: Origins of an Academy Bully (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts Book 0)

Lance is your guardian from here on out until one of you takes your final breath.

Your life is pledged to his. Where he goes, you go. End of story.”

“Do you often take fifteen year old boys to secluded places?” Darius joked and I snorted a laugh.

“Only the hot ones.”

“Lucky me,” he jibed.

“I can do something to get back at him, Darius. And so can you. I want to see you rise. To be the most powerful Heir of them all and crush your father beneath your heel.”

I ran my thumb across my bottom lip. “No...I think we should play him at his own game. He wants me to watch out for you? Fine. I'll take this job and teach you everything I know. In lessons and out.” I smirked and his eyes darkened with mischief.

“Dark magic?” he guessed, a note of excitement in his tone.

“You can be more powerful than even your father, Darius.”

“You want revenge,” Darius said uneasily.

“Yes and no,” I sighed. “Clara made her choice but it was Lionel’s blood that sealed the deal.” My throat tightened at my sister’s name on my lips. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I’d last said it out loud. “I can do something to get back at him, Darius. And so can you. I want to see you rise. To be the most powerful Heir of them all and crush your father beneath your heel.”

His eyes sparkled with the idea. “Do you really think I can?”

“Yes,” I said firmly. “I'll help you. And nothing will ever stand in our way.”

“We've failed,” Lional spat.

“How can that be all you care about!?” Darius roared at him.

Mom continued to cry and her tears soaked through my shirt as I remained frozen in total shock. Emotion clawed at my heart, ripping it to shreds as I tried to process this horrible truth.

Clara is dead.

My sister is gone.

I couldn't move to push my mother away, but the second I was freed from this hellish place, I would never let her lay a hand on me again. She and Lionel had done this, and I would never forgive it.

As the blood dripped onto the stardust, she moved the blade to her other arm, slicing another cut into her skin. The stardust began to throb as if a pulse lived within it, then slowly it coiled like a snake and rose up to wrap around the wounds on her arms. I knew in my bones that this was the darkness, the shadows coming to claim the power she offered.

Clara's shoulders trembled but she leaned into it instead of away. My breathing became shallow as she released a soft sigh, the blood magic giving her that familiar high. Her eyes rolled back into her head and the stardust slithered further up her arms.

The others were chanting, louder and louder but I couldn't peel my eyes from the horrifying sight before me. I kept crying out to my sister until my throat was hoarse, but she never turned her head.

The stardust crept over her shoulders and panic seized me as it tickled her throat.

Darius shouted at his father, but I couldn't hear the words, too shocked by what I was seeing. The dust wrapped around Clara's neck, sliding high, covering her mouth, closing in on her nose.

She remained in its grip, tilting her head back as if she was riding the biggest high of her life.

“Lionel!” my mother's voice rang in my ears.

“Calm, Stella,” he growled at her. “Your daughter is pure, she will be fine.”

Pure? What did that even mean?

The dust enveloped my sister entirely, folding her into the depths of the surging mound. I began to tremble with rage, terror, panic. Darius pressed closer to me and I sensed he was trying to comfort me.

What's happening?

How long will it take for her to come back to me?

The dust rose higher and higher toward the lunar eclipse, a pillar of twisting, writhing darkness. The group started muttering, their chanting falling away, but Lionel continued on resolutely.

As it spiralled above our heads and its shadow fell over me, a deep chasm of fear opened up in my chest.

Something's wrong.

With a sound like falling rain, the tower collapsed, pouring down toward the centre of the pit in a cascade of shimmering grains. The moment it met the ground, the dark substance turned to blood. It exploded against the base of the crater, showering up the sides of it. So much blood, it was all I could see. A red pool oozing and swirling.

My heart free fell in my chest as the horrifying reality set in.

My mother screamed.

People were shouting, cursing.

My heart was unravelling at the seams and all I could think was, she's gone.

She's gone, she's gone, she's gone.

Mom's hands were on me, hugging me, pawing at my shirt. But I couldn't move, I couldn't tear my eyes from that crater swimming with the remains of my sister.

“It was her choice,” Mom sobbed into my shoulder as if trying to convince me of that. “She wanted this.”

“Stardust created on a lunar eclipse takes the traveller to only one place,” Lionel spoke to everyone and my heart rate ratcheted up.

What is he talking about? What place?

I glanced at Darius whose expression told me he had no idea either.

“Tonight we'll be the first Fae to ever enter the Shadow Realm,” Lionel announced and the breath stalled in my lungs.

“Are you insane?” Darius demanded of his father, his brows pinching together tightly. Lionel ignored him, staring into the pit intently with a thousand hopes and dreams shining in his eyes.

The Shadow Realm was the darkest mirror world in existence. Nothing good came from there. But there was one rumour that had yet to be confirmed. That the Shadow Realm was home to the elusive fifth Element: the Element of darkness.

My shoulders knotted with tension as I stared at Lionel, unable to believe he was foolish enough to attempt this. Didn't he have enough power as it was? He was one of the four Celestial rulers. Since The Savage King had met his end, he’d sat on the throne beside the other three Councillors.

“It's time, Clara,” Lionel called to her and my heart clawed its way up my throat.

“Time for what?!” I cried but she ignored me, moving toward Lionel, her movements giving me a hint that she was nervous. And if she was nervous, it was nothing in comparison to what that made me feel. “Clara!” I begged. “Don't do anything for him!”

She glanced my way and the rigidity in her posture told me her mind was made up on whatever she was about to do. “It's not for him, Lance,” she called, taking the mask from her face and dropped it to the ground. “I want this.”

“Please stop,” I breathed, emotion scraping at my heart. This wasn’t really her. Dark magic had corrupted her, made her crave power to the detriment of herself. And I knew my mom and Lionel were to blame. They’d manipulated her. Bribed her with Dragon blood. And now she was so deep in this shit, she couldn’t see her way out.

Lionel rested a hand on the base of her spine then gave her a push that sent her stumbling into the crater. She moved carefully down the steep pit toward the smouldering heart of it, her entire body shaking as she went. The large pile of sparkling ebony stardust was more than I'd ever seen at one time.

My sister knelt beside it, pushing her fingers into the silt and sifting it through her fingers. She let it trickle back into the pile before taking something from inside her robes. A knife glinted under the firelight and fear quickened my pulse.

“Clara!” I called, my voice cracking. Lionel shot me a fierce look, but I wouldn’t be silenced by him.

She continued to ignore me, lifting the blade above her arm and scoring a line into her flesh.

Blood magic...but why?

Silence fell so thick and deep that it rang in my ears. I didn’t know what they’d summoned from the sky. But I was filled with the most potent sense of dread as I looked upon it.

One of the Dragons started handing out wooden masks carved with grotesque faces as another passed out more robes.

“We have to stop this,” Lance breathed, his eyes wide with horror. “This is beyond dark magic, this kind of ritual was forbidden long ago. It’s meddling with powers we can’t control. If anyone here sinks too far into it they’ll be lost, their soul consumed by the shadows.”

Before I could reply, a cold hand landed on my shoulder.

“You boys are here to watch tonight,” my father’s dark voice wrapped around me like a spell. “We’ll have no input from you yet.”

I looked up at him in surprise but before I could respond, his power slammed into us, knocking us to our knees.

Lashes of strong magic wound their way around my body, immobilising me at the sidelines of this madness as the chanting around us only grew louder.

“You have to stop this,” Lance growled, battling against his own restraints. “You can’t possibly hope to harness this kind of magic! My father told me that-”

“Your father wasn’t strong enough to harness the shadows. He was a disappointment and a fool. We will not make the same mistake twice.” Father strode away from us without another word and we were left there, kneeling in the dirt and forced to observe this twisted ritual.

“We have to do something,” Lance insisted, despite the fact that we both knew it was hopeless.

His gaze was fixed on Clara as his mother passed her a mask. For the briefest moment, all I could see was her tear-stained face and the fear in her eyes before the mask concealed her features and she slipped into the movements of the ritual.

The chanting was louder, fiercer now, building up to a crescendo as the moon slid closer and closer to the moment of total eclipse.

The magic in my veins was simmering to be set free and a trail of sweat raced down my spine.

Something was coming. They were drawing something here which didn’t belong.

My heart pounded violently against my ribs and I looked up at the sky in panic as a ring of light surrounded the moon.

The chanting suddenly fell silent, the Fae stilled and all of the cloaked figures raised their hands to the sky in a silent plea.

A burning trail of movement drew my eyes to the right and I gasped as I spotted the meteorite hurtling toward us in a trail of burning glory.

It was so bright that I could hardly bear to look at it but I couldn’t tear my gaze away either.

The darkness rode on that falling star. And it was coming straight for us.

It hit the Earth with enough force to make the ground tremble and tore a blazing trail into existence as it scorched across the ground.

A yell of fright escaped me and the heat coming from it almost burned my flesh as the huge rock slammed to a halt right in the midst of the cloaked figures.