Page 23 of Pisces Rising

But as quickly as this horrifying thought sprang to her mind, a deeper awareness urged her to look closer. This was no mere beast. This was an incarnation of all her deepest fears, her gnawing sense of prey fleeing the relentless apex predator made hideously manifest. And in that singular, paralyzing moment of mortal, obliterating dread, Pisces put the pieces together: The figure of Aries standing in the water on the shore. The fire serpent’s birth from the watery depths was not Aries or any manifestation of his power since, by his own admission, the ocean itself would extinguish him forever.

"Aries!" she screamed, putting every ounce of will and pleading into that cry. She prayed he’d not abandoned her and returned to the stars because only one force could match the monster bearing down on her. Where was he, the fierce warrior who had sworn to be her enemy?

As if in answer, the colossal serpent whirled in the shimmering, blazing air and released another teeth-rattling hiss straight at the shoreline. Pisces' gaze followed its trajectory, even as her tired legs fought to keep her afloat, and she saw him—Aries, descending in a blaze of fire to the shore. The inferno met the sand and rose, transforming into the shape of a warrior on fire.

But he couldn’t reach her. The water’s edge was the barricade between Aries, her, and the deadly creature in between. She watched as his flames receded, and she saw the horrified look on his face. He called out to her, but the crackling roar of the serpent drowned out his voice.

If she could only reach him—dive below the surface and get past the monster, find sanctuary in Aries’ undeniable ferocity, then perhaps?—

With a soul-withering screech, the monstrous serpent reared back its head and plunged straight for Pisces, unhinging its maw to consume her with its ravenous amber fury.

"No!" Pisces screamed, diving beneath the water as she tried to outswim the column of blazing fire. It was advancing, somehow slithering through the watery depths as Pisces frantically pulled and pushed through the water. But her mortal energy was spent, and as her exhausted, aching limbs threatened to give up, the water around her boiled at the serpent’s proximity.

Where was Virgo, Sag, and Gemini? Why weren’t they helping Aries or getting her to shore?

Her body finally gave out, and she hovered, her blonde hair fanning around her like wings as she waited for the creature’s fangs to finally, and forever, tear her in two. As she drifted to the surface and made peace with her fate, prepared to leave this universe forever, a thunderous eruption even greater than the fire serpent’s assault rocked the island, detonating up from the waves in a cosmic burst of scarlet and saffron light that forced Pisces to shield her eyes from the sheer, searing brilliance. She squinted, adjusting to the unholy light washing over her. Out on the lethal water was Aries, wreathed in blinding haloes of ashfall and scorching haze, every ridge of muscle and sinew etched in glowing, volcanic glory.

His eyes, those fierce onyx depths, had become volcanic wells of fury. And his hands—they now blazed with solar infernos, spiking and weaving streamers of raging heat shimmering with latent power on a scale beyond her comprehension.

The beast, however gigantic its form and searing its fangs, was simply no match for a force of nature this magnificent in its wrath. With another thunderous bellow, it halted its assault on Pisces and coiled toward Aries, doubling its offensive on the crimson-haloed warrior in its wake.

Aries didn't so much as blink, merely widening the molten flames around his form and slamming them home against the creature. The serpent seemed stunned, hesitating in its relentless pursuit, uncertain how to proceed against such cosmic resilience.

And that was all the opening Aries needed. Arching back, the blazing cobra braced to strike, and Aries thrust both palms forward, unleashing concentrated spears of atomic sunfire that slammed with annihilating force against the leviathan's underbelly.

It reeled, those wickedly sharp fangs scything up plumes of seawater and sand as it attempted to regain its advantage. But Aries merely intensified his assault, ripping searing tentacles that charred midnight slashes across its twisting length.

Within seconds, Aries’ bombarding threads of fire had the serpent thrashing in the water, its previously determined domination now thoroughly unraveled into reeling desperation. One final volley from Aries slammed squarely into its jaw, unhinged it in a deafening screech of pain and smoke-trailing retreat. But Aries’ cosmic fire had found its mark right down the throat, and as the leviathan coiled its enormous, battered body, it suddenly exploded in a torrent of water and flames. The force from the creature’s demise pushed Pisces back, hurling her through the water and further out to sea. Deeper and deeper, she fell, struggling and pulling as she tried to get to the surface for air.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream, the water around her becoming a dark vortex she couldn’t escape, and the glow of Aries’ blazing fire now just a mere match lit in the watery distance. As the shadowy hand of death gripped her, a thin whip of light lashed out, catching her around the waist and jerking her toward the surface. As soon as she hit the air, she gasped, and the searing tendril tightened its grip, dragging her closer and closer to land until she felt her body being pushed. When she could feel the sand beneath her, she willed her arms and legs to move and crawled with the help of the searing tendril pushing her until she was safely planted on the beach. Rough hands grabbed her under the arms and dragged her inland, and voices echoed around her.

She opened her eyes to see the panic-etched faces of Sag and Virgo standing over her, then saw Gemini behind them.

“Where is Aries,” she managed between desperate breaths. Their silence struck a terror in her far worse than that of the fire serpent. With immense effort, Pisces rolled over and pressed herself to her knees in the cool sand, utterly spent and hallowed by the sheer force of nature she’d just witnessed.

Her eyes scanned the beach and then drifted out on the horizon to see Aries in the water, silhouetted against the spectral glow of the departed sun. An anguished cry sprung from her as the final slivers of comprehension formed in her mind: Aries had made the ultimate sacrifice for her. As her destined love and sworn protector, he’d entered the one place forbidden to him, and it was about to extinguish him forever.

For a brief moment, their eyes met, conveying millennia of devotion in one look, and as she reached out to him, the final slivers of amber light drained from his celestial form, and he sunk into the watery depths of the ocean, his blazing celestial light extinguished forever.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Sag had to drag Pisces away from the beach as she wailed and clawed at the sand. She was desperate to swim out and either find Aries—or join him in whatever abyss he’d gone to.

The three remaining Zodiacs on the island weren’t about to let her go back out there, and so Sag threw her over his shoulder, deflecting her blows until they reached Virgo’s lab.

The soft whirring of machines filled the space between Pisces’ cries, and when she went for the doors, Virgo locked them remotely. Like a trapped, wild animal, she collapsed on the floor, back against the wall, only after exerting herself to exhaustion. Her half-damp hair was matted, her eyes red and strained, and she glared at her former star brethren with despair.

They seemed at a loss for words from their shadowed faces, simply staring back with mirrored pain. "Why didn't you do something?" Pisces ground out, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

Gemini retrieved a blanket from a nearby closet and draped it over Pisces before rejoining the uneasy trio.

"Why didn't you help him?" Pisces shouted, her voice reverberating. "You are Zodiac! You could have saved him. Instead, you just...you watched him die..." A sob broke her words as thick tears fell.

Virgo cleared his throat. "It's not so simple. You and Aries were Master Zodiacs—with the most knowledge and power. The rest of us are not as formidable."

“It is that simple!” she shot back, indifferent to his current strength over hers. "This is your island. What was that creature?"

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