Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,157

word to it as a glint of light peeked between his fingers. “End the plague in Maresh,” he asked. “My people are dying.”

Whispers filled my head as if from the stars themselves and I suddenly realised what was in his palm. The Imperial Star. “It is done, father of the flames.”

Hail spoke another word to it which I didn’t understand before speaking to it once more.

“Protect my people from foreign invaders,” he asked and the star’s reply filled my head.

“They shall be protected,” it whispered.

The vision faded away and my breaths came quicker as I found myself on a battlefield with Hail in bloodied armour and hundreds of dead bodies stretching out before him and his army.

Lionel stood at his side as Hail flicked his gaze to a town beyond the dead and turned to walk away. Lionel caught his arm, speaking in his ear and his voice sailed to me on the wind.

“Leave none alive, everyone in the town must die. And they must die at your hand. This is your decision, you shall forget it was ever mine,” he growled, his voice thick with Dark Coercion and I wanted to cry out and stop the power from taking root in my father, but his eyes blackened and he turned to look at the town once more. He ran forward and his huge Order split apart from his skin.

His Hydra form was enormous, as large as a building as he took off into the sky on leathery wings, all the eyes of its many snake-like heads directed at the town. Screams carried from the villagers and magic twisted up into the sky as they tried to defend themselves. Lionel watched with an envious expression as the King blasted the town to ruin with purple fire pouring from his lungs.

Tears wet my cheeks as women and children were destroyed beneath his impossible power and the real monster stood observing it all with a twisted smile on his lips.

The vision shifted and Hail knelt on the huge balcony beyond his bedroom again, clutching the Imperial Star in his hand as he whispered to it in desperation. “Help me, I don’t know my mind anymore. I don’t know who I am. Why do I do the things I do? I need to know what’s wrong with me. Let me see things clearly,” he begged of the star in his palm and my heart twisted painfully as I watched our father break. He spoke words to it that I could barely comprehend, the magic in them clear as they buzzed through the air and the star shone brighter in his palm.

Whispers filled my head from it in answer. “I lie in the palace of the flames. Where the ground is deep and the dead are old. Where the last of them lie. Only there shall you find peace.”

“What does that mean?” Father demanded. “Please, let the madness stop.”

“Keep the broken promise,” the star answered.

“What?” he growled, but the light went out in his palm and as he spoke a strange word to it again, it pulsed with light, but only answered him in riddles.

“Give me back my mind,” he gasped at last, clutching it to his chest in desperation as he stared up at the sky. “No more shall die at my hand.”

“It is not your hands,” the star whispered and Hail groaned because he didn’t understand. And it hurt me, because I did. I knew the truth, and it looked like he’d died without ever knowing it.

The vision fell away and we were suddenly looking at our own reflections once more. I dragged my eyes up to meet Tory’s and found tears tracking down her cheeks too.

“He wasn’t a savage,” she rasped and I moved toward her, the two of us embracing hard.

“It was Lionel, all fucking Lionel,” I growled and she cursed him with every swear word she knew.

“He has to die,” she snarled, even though she looked a little ill at the idea thanks to the bond he’d put on her. “He has to pay for our mother and our father.”

“And he has to pay for what he did to you,” I said in a deadly voice and she winced as she drew back, grappling with the Guardian bond.

“But I also can’t bear the thought of him dying,” she croaked, clutching her heart and it pained me to see her that way.

“When he’s gone, you’ll be free,” I promised and she nodded, though I could see the desire in her