Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(12)
I moved to her side at a quick jog, falling into step with her as we hurried after the group of our peers.
The path was winding beneath the dark sky and I was sure that under any other circumstances I would have tripped. But with the miracle of magic flowing through me, I managed to stay true to my course without upsetting so much as a lonely pebble.
The path led into a thick forest and we stepped beneath its branches where flaming torches sprang to life to guide the way on.
We caught up to some of the other students and they eyed us with interest. A short girl with a blonde pixie cut and freckles dotted across her nose offered us a friendly smile.
“I’m Sofia,” she breathed, casting a glance behind us at the teachers before obviously deciding they didn’t mind if we talked. “I’ve never met a Changeling before,” she gushed, looking between my sister and I.
“Hi,” Darcy replied with a smile.
“I’m Tory, that’s Darcy,” I supplied.
“I guess this whole place is super confusing to you?” she asked sympathetically. “I could be your walking, talking info source if you like?”
“Oh,” I said in surprise. It wasn’t really programmed in me to expect help from people I didn’t know. Or those who I did know for that matter. Where we’d grown up, people didn’t just do something for nothing, but as I looked at Sofia’s earnest expression, I couldn’t help but think her offer was just that. “That would be... great. Thanks,” I said, trying out a warm smile while wondering if I was managing to pull it off. I probably looked like a hyena on crack but Sofia seemed satisfied with my attempt.
The path beneath my feet turned from dirt to gravel to shining gold. I tore my mind away from the caress of my energy and looked up at the building we were approaching instead.
It was a huge, golden dome, so big that I couldn’t see anything else aside from it. Carved all over its surface were swirling decorations which looked almost like living flames, especially as the clouds shifted over the moon and shadows danced along the whorls in the metal. The gold markings which we were walking on shimmered too and I realised what the building was designed to mimic. It was a giant model of the sun, the ground beneath us decorated to look like beams of light reaching away from it.
“The Orb is where we’ll take all our meals and gather for announcements like this one to declare the start of term,” Sofia supplied as she noticed my widening eyes. “It’s designed to look that way because the zodiac is directed by the sun. Without it, we would have nothing. Everything begins and ends with it.”
“Poetic,” I muttered, still not completely buying in to the whole horoscope idea, though I had to admit that the arrival of my magic was throwing my assumptions into confused overdrive.
“It’s... amazing,” Darcy said, her mouth falling open with awe.
We moved inside the double doors lined with symbols depicting each sign of the zodiac. We found ourselves standing before a whole crowd of students so big that I could hardly distinguish one face from the next. I only knew there were hundreds of them. And they were all looking our way.
At the centre of the room, beside a roaring fire pit which was surrounded by a ring of water, a curving red couch stood out amongst all the others. Its four occupants all looked deliciously bored, barely sparing a glance at the new additions to their ranks as the rest of the freshmen began to file into the huge room, taking whatever chairs were left available in the circular space. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a group of guys who were quite as alluring as them. It was like I could feel a deep hum of power emanating from them and the hairs on the back of my neck raised accordingly.
They hadn’t looked our way yet and I found myself glad to have the opportunity to study them without being noticed.
Each of them held a deep aura which set them apart from the rest of the people in the room. I would have thought they were siblings except that they looked so different that I knew it couldn’t be the case. Something bonded them together though, something so clear that I could almost see it.
They were all tall and strongly built with muscles in a way that made my gaze roam over them a little inappropriately. They oozed power, wearing it as comfortably as the designer clothes they’d clad themselves in.
On the left was a guy with skin as dark as coffee, his black hair shaved into a mohawk which should have made him look like a total douchebag and yet somehow made me want to run my fingers over it instead.
He said something to the guy beside him who tossed his head back in laughter so loud that I wished I’d heard the joke too. The smile which accompanied that laugh drew my gaze for just long enough to rouse its owner’s attention.
My heart raced a little like I was a kid caught taking candy as his dark blue eyes trailed over me. He pushed a hand through his curling golden hair, drawing my gaze to his broad shoulders for a moment before I looked away without studying the other two so closely.
My gaze trailed over the curved roof above our heads and I noticed a set of elaborate carvings cut into the gold ceiling which depicted constellations and planets. There were too many for me to even begin to count but my gaze roamed over them hungrily and I knew I’d be compelled to look up at them every time I entered this room.
Darcy moved closer to me as we began to follow the others and I raised an eyebrow at her as I tried to gauge her reaction to this. We hadn’t exactly had time to discuss the life-altering, mind-crushing, new reality we’d found ourselves dumped in but the smile she was trying to hide let me know that she was just as energised about this place as me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but something about Zodiac Academy just felt right. It was like coming home after months abroad. Except for the fact that I’d never been abroad or ever really felt like I had a home in my entire life so that couldn’t be right.