Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(121)

“We were just...” Darcy began, trailing off as she failed to come up with an appropriate excuse.

Orion’s hard gaze was punctuated by his ticking jaw.

“Get the hell out of here!” he snapped, all echoes of his compassion towards us banished.

Darcy flinched as if he’d hit her and we stumbled away from him, scrambling back along the cold path.

We followed the dispersing crowd until we’d rounded a corner and I stopped to pull the card from my pocket.

Darcy gasped as her eyes fell on the picture of a cloaked skeleton riding a horse, its empty eyes were staring up at us in warning. At the bottom of the card was a single word: Death.

Darcy reached forward to take it and as her fingers brushed the card, the warmth emanating from it flared to a burn. I almost dropped it in surprise but a set of pale eyes seemed to blink at me on the edges of my consciousness and for a second it was as though Professor Astrum was standing before us. The image was gone as soon as it had come and I frowned at Darcy in confusion as I flipped the card over.

On the back of it were words written in a swirling silver script and as I read them, my heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach.



I made a mistake and now my time is up.

The Shadow has discovered me and there is no hope for me to escape their wrath.

The answers you seek are hidden between Leo and Libra.

Don’t trust the flames.

Claim your throne.

- Falling Star



Fear took hold of me in taloned hands and it squeezed until I couldn’t breathe. Professor Astrum had been murdered. The only person who’d tried to help us in this screwed up Academy was gone. He'd been so afraid, as if he'd known something terrible was going to happen. And now it was too late to do anything about it.

We were alone against the Heirs.

And I was beginning to think we were destined to fall at their mercy.