Solaria is governed by the four Celestial families — Acrux, Rigel, Altair, Capella — whose heirs are students at Zodiac Academy. Nymph attacks across Solaria have been escalating; the Nymphs are the same species officially blamed for the murder of the Vega King and Queen.
Zodiac Academy Series
Book 0.5: Origins of an Academy Bully
Book 1: The Awakening
Book 1.5: The Awakening As Told By The Boys
Book 2: Ruthless Fae
Book 3: The Reckoning
Book 4: Shadow Princess
Book 5: Cursed Fates
Book 5.5: The Big A.S.S. Party
Book 6: Fated Throne
Book 7: Heartless Sky
Book 8: Sorrow and Starlight
Book 8.5: Beyond the Veil
Book 9: Restless Stars
Bonus Companion: Live and Let Lionel
Main Characters
Darcy Vega: Joint heir to the Solarian throne; House Aer.
Tory (Roxanya) Vega: Darcy’s twin; House Ignis.
Professor Lance Orion: Darcy’s Liaison; Vampire, Libra.
Darius Acrux: Celestial Heir, Dragon Order; son of Lionel Acrux.
Supporting Characters
Caleb Altair: Celestial Heir, Vampire Order.
Seth Capella: Celestial Heir, Werewolf Order.
Max Rigel: Celestial Heir, Siren Order.
Geraldine Grus: First-year, founder of the A.S.S. (Almighty Sovereign Society).
Sofia: First-year, friend to the twins.
Diego: First-year, Aer house, friend to the twins.
Lionel Acrux: High Lord of the Celestial Council; Darius’s father.
Hamish Grus: Geraldine’s father; former FIB investigator.
Recap Summary
The morning after the formal, Seth posts a FaeBook video of the incident and warns the school against helping Darcy regrow her hair. Tory breaks into Darius’s room while he is at the assembly, takes a bag of gold and a silver knife with unusual properties, and sets it alight on her way out. Darcy breaks into Orion’s office, finds a pouch of stardust, and is caught by Orion before she can use it; he reclaims it and tells her that leaving would mean admitting she is not Fae. Both twins return resolved to stay, hide the gold as an emergency fund, and agree to retaliate covertly.
Seth heals a bruise on Darcy’s face during Air Elemental class, then shifts and runs without explanation. Tory is Song-Spelled by Max — compelled to find and kiss him, after which the exchange reverses and she draws his fear from him instead; his deepest fear is his father losing the will to fight for him. Later Max uses his Siren gift on Tory publicly in The Orb, but she breaks the hold and warns him that using it again means his secret goes public. Caleb approaches Tory separately and explains that the Heirs’ campaign is not personal — the twins are a political destabiliser the Celestial families cannot afford, and their parents require them gone.
Orion and Darius carry a matching mark on their forearms; Geraldine identifies it as a protection bond, compelling Orion to feel Darius’s pain and protect him at all costs, for life. The marks are Leo and Libra — the exact combination Astrum’s first message named. Orion assigns himself to Darcy’s Saturday detention alongside the four Heirs and uses a minor spell to protect her hands from blistering.
The Celestial Council summons the twins to a gathering at the Acrux estate. Lionel addresses them by their birth names; both refuse and hold their ground when he attempts further provocation. Catalina Acrux keeps Orion at her side throughout the evening. Darcy slips away with Orion to a private courtyard pool, where they kiss. He talks about his sister Clara and shows Darcy a photograph from the last night Clara was seen alive. Behind the frame, Darcy finds Astrum’s second tarot card: a powerful man rules over the twins’ lives and those of many others; the answer to their questions will come on the lunar eclipse; do not let the shadows take them.
Tory corners Hamish Grus at the party. His FIB investigation into Clara Orion’s disappearance four years ago led him here — Clara was last seen alive at this estate. Lionel blocked all further searches; Clara’s mother Stella gave nothing, and the case was closed. The only person devastated by her disappearance was her brother, Lance Orion. Upstairs, Orion listens in on Lionel and Catalina confirming to each other that the eclipse is one week away.
Back at the Academy, a Celestial Times piece portrays both twins as mentally unstable and quotes the Heirs calling for them to step aside. The twins sabotage the Pitball match against Starlight Academy: Tory rubs Griffin dung into Max’s kit, which causes purple welts on contact, and plants a forgery that leads Darius to remove Milton Hubert — his most loyal player — from the squad. Geraldine lines Caleb’s shorts with glitter.
Zodiac lose to Starlight by one point. On the pitch, the twins present Geraldine the Fae of the Match award. The Starlight captain invites the twins to reconsider their claim; they agree aloud, in front of the Celestial Council and the full stadium, and when the Heirs charge them, the twins join hands, combine their power, and throw all four across the pitch.
Nymphs swarm the stadium in force, cutting off every exit. A Nymph breaks the Heirs’ forcefield over the Pit from above; the twins climb out and join the fight. Darius shifts into his Dragon form and fights from the air with Orion on his back. As a third Nymph moves to kill Orion, Darcy manifests an unrecognised blue fire that kills it outright, and Tory manifests the same fire in red when a Nymph drives its probes into Darius’s back. One student, Ashanti, dies in the stands. When Darius crashes from his wounds, Tory stays with him and pushes her magic into his body; it merges with his, easing his pain until Orion reaches them and heals him. Tory also uses Coercion during the attack to force Sofia and Diego to flee. The Nymphs retreat, and Orion states that by targeting the children of Solaria’s ruling elite at the Academy, the Nymphs have declared war.
Next in Series
Refining narrative tension and plot cohesion
The Reckoning falls on the lunar eclipse, and Astrum’s second card promised the twins’ questions would be answered on that day. Clara Orion disappeared at the Acrux estate and the investigation was shut down by Lionel. The Nymphs have declared war.
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