Sorrow and Starlight: Zodiac Academy 8

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, emotional abuse, and bullying.

The Zodiac Academy is a series of nine novels along with multiple novellas and short stories. The main novels are The Awakening (2019), Ruthless Fae (2019), The Reckoning (2019), Shadow Princess (2020), Cursed Fates (2020), Fated Throne (2020), Heartless Sky (2021), Sorrow and Starlight (2022), and Restless Stars (2024).

The series follows twin sisters Tory and Darcy Vega, two struggling orphans living in the mortal world who are told by a stranger named Professor Lance Orion that they are the lost princesses of the Fae world, Solaria. Though they are the rightful heirs to the throne, to claim it, they must prove themselves at Zodiac Academy, a school where students harness their elemental abilities. Upon their arrival at the school, they are met with hostility, especially from the Celestial Heirs, the sons of the families who currently rule Solaria: Darius Acrux, Seth Capella, Max Rigel, and Caleb Altair. The Heirs see the twins as a threat to their family’s hold on the throne and begin a ruthless campaign of bullying and sabotage to drive them out.

After a professor who may have known what happened to their parents is murdered, Tory and Darcy initially plan to flee the Fae realm but decide instead to get revenge on the Heirs. Despite this, Tory and Darius bond over magic, while she also has a sexual relationship with Caleb. Darcy, meanwhile, begins seeing Orion. At a political gathering, the twins confirm that they have no interest in taking the throne, but a journalist later smears them in the press. The pranks cause the Heirs to lose a major Pitball game, but the loss is overshadowed when Nymphs, creatures from the Shadow Realm, attack the academy. Tory and Darcy discover that they can wield a mysterious red-blue fire, helping to repel the attack, but not before Tory nearly loses Darius, forcing her to confront her growing attraction to him.

After the twins pass their Elemental Trials, Darius’s father, Lionel, captures them. Lionel reveals his plan to open a way to the Shadow Realm using royal blood from Tory and Darcy. As the ritual takes hold, the twins’ Order forms awaken, revealing that they are both Phoenixes. Though they succeed in overpowering Lionel’s magic, he still gains the power he sought with the ritual and uses dark magic to coerce them into forgetting what happened. Their Phoenix fire resists his power, allowing them to secretly retain their memories.

Tory and Darcy reveal to Orion and Darius that Lionel’s coercion failed, forcing them to hide their Phoenix natures to survive. They also struggle with the residual shadow magic, which manifests as a seductive voice pleading for help. Gabriel Nox, a new professor and Orion’s friend, offers to train the girls to control their shifting abilities. Everything changes on New Year’s Eve when Tory and Darius discover that they are magically destined to be together. When Tory rejects this destiny, she dooms them to become Starcrossed, forever drawn to each other but cursed to never be together. Orion gets Darcy’s help to rescue Clara, his sister, another victim sent by Lionel to the Shadow Realm. She returns possessed by the Shadow Princess, Lavinia Umbra, and stabs Orion, but Seth and Darius save him. Orion and Darcy’s forbidden relationship is revealed, leading to his arrest and imprisonment in Darkmoor prison after falsely confessing to coercion to protect her. The twins learn that Gabriel is their half-brother, that Lionel orchestrated their parents’ murders, and that Lionel used Dark Coercion on their father to make him into the Savage King. Lionel then kidnaps Tory.

When Tory returns from the summer under Lionel’s control, she is traumatized and conditioned to fear Darius due to the twisted Guardian Bond that Lionel has over her. Lionel seizes power, becoming king through shadow magic and tyranny, and bans mingling between the Orders. Orion is finally freed to find the Imperial Star, an artifact needed to defeat Lionel. Max helps Tory work through her trauma, and Darius takes her to the mortal realm to weaken Lionel’s bond. Darius is saved from an arranged marriage to the Dragon Mildred by Gabriel, who sends him to commune with the stars. There, Darius agrees to die in one year to break the bonds on himself and Tory, allowing them to finally be together. Orion kills Clara, allowing Lavinia to separate and become a fully formed, independent threat, and Lavinia curses Darcy.

The rebellion against Lionel escalates, and after a battle, the resistance is forced into hiding in the old tunnels called the Burrows. However, in the caverns, some of the rebels are murdered, though investigations fail to find the culprit. To weaken Lavinia, the group attempts to close shadow rifts—tears in the fabric of reality that exude powerful magic. Darius reveals his fatal bargain with the stars and then marries Tory. Lionel and Lavinia launch a full attack on the Burrows. Darcy is forced to transform into the Shadow Beast, revealing that she was unknowingly behind the murders. In the form of the Shadow Beast, she wounds her friend Geraldine. Orion surrenders to Lavinia for three moon cycles to save Darcy, Lionel kills Darius, and Tory curses the stars for allowing this to happen.