Already finished The Awakening, Ruthless Fae, The Reckoning and Shadow Princess want to know what happens next to Vega sisters? Zodiac Academy: Cursed Fates is the fifth book in the Zodiac Academy series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. Want to know what happens in Book 5 of the Zodiac Academy series? Read on!
warning: This is a FULL SPOILER RECAP of the fifth book. If you haven’t read it yet, turn back now unless you’re ready for all the major twists and reveals!
Cursed Fates Book Recap – Book 5 in Zodiac Academy Series
CLARA’S RETURN & THE STAR CROSSED CURSE
Clara Orion is resurrected from the Shadow Realm but emerges consumed by darkness. She stabs Orion with a draining dagger and nearly kills him. Seth and Darius power-share to save his life; when Orion wakes, he’s feral with bloodlust and attacks Seth before Darius offers his own throat. Meanwhile, Caleb feels an inexplicable pull toward Tory—they sleep together as she tries to forget her pain. The truth emerges: Darius and Tory had their Divine Moment, and Tory refused. Both now bear black rings around their eyes—the mark of being Star Crossed.
Clara arrives at Acrux Manor with a Guardian bond to Lionel from before her death. She and Lionel begin a sexual relationship; she calls him “Daddy.” Darius attempts to kill Clara but she overpowers him easily. Clara reveals the Vega twins also wield shadows. Lionel announces Darius’s wedding to Mildred Canopus is moved forward to two days after graduation and forces the press to report that Darius refused Tory, not the other way around.
Darcy confronts Tory about her absence during the ritual. Tory explains the stars pulled her to Darius for their Divine Moment, but she refused because he never apologized for the torment he’d put her through. At the start-of-term dinner, everyone sees the black rings in both their eyes. Principal Nova announces heightened security measures due to increased Nymph activity.
SHIFTING ALLIANCES
Diego approaches Darcy and Orion with crucial information—his family’s magic connects them to a web of souls that shares memories, and his family works with the Acruxes. He makes a star promise to prove his loyalty and becomes their shadow spy inside Lionel’s operation. A memory shows Clara commanding an army of hundreds of Nymphs—they’re under Lionel and Clara’s control.
Darius confronts Seth about blackmailing Darcy over her relationship with Orion. Seth admits he was jealous—he wanted Darcy as a potential mate because she’s powerful enough to match him. Darius forces him to understand that Orion deserves happiness, and Seth agrees to stop tormenting them.
At shadow lessons, violent storms erupt whenever Darius and Tory are alone together—the stars literally attack them with lightning and earthquakes. They realize the stars won’t allow them to be alone anymore. Orion warns that shadows feed on grief and pain, making Tory more vulnerable now.
Xavier observes Clara’s desperate search through magical objects at Acrux Manor. Lionel introduces Xavier to Mr. Gravebone, an “Order Conversion Therapist” who uses hypnosis and pain to make Xavier reject being a Pegasus and identify as a Dragon instead.
FREEING THE ACRUXES
Gabriel confronts Tory during a flight, revealing through visions that she had multiple chances to change things with Darius but pushed him away each time. Catalina Acrux tracks Tory down outside campus. When Tory touches her, Phoenix fire surges through Catalina’s body and burns away every piece of Dark Coercion Lionel had placed on her over the years. Catalina was magically forced to be cold and distant from her children. They make a star promise to share intelligence on Lionel’s plans.
The twins publicly announce their intention to fight for and win the throne. The Daily Solaria publishes an eight-page spread. Their plan: challenge the Heirs for the throne, and expose Lionel’s alliance with Nymphs to force the other Councillors to arrest him for treason. Despite this declaration of political war, Darius still shows up for Tory’s morning runs. They playfully create crowns from magic before thunder forces them apart.
Catalina texts Tory that Lionel is having Xavier brainwashed. Tory travels to Acrux Manor and uses Phoenix fire on Xavier but only finds one piece of Dark Coercion. Then she throws Xavier out the ninth-floor window while filming—he shifts into his Pegasus form mid-fall and she posts the video to FaeBook, exposing his true Order to over a million followers. This strips Lionel of his power over Xavier.
Tory realizes she can burn Dark Coercion from Darius as well. She discovers HUNDREDS of coercions Lionel has placed on him over the years and destroys them all. Sleeping in his bed afterward to restore her magic, Tory wonders for the first time if she made a terrible mistake saying no.
LOVE AGAINST THE STARS
Orion recruits the Heirs into a plan: he’ll research ways to break the Star Crossed curse while they work on helping Darius win Tory over. At Seth and Max’s birthday party, Caleb reveals he’s figured out loopholes in how the stars track Darius and Tory. He leads them to an “amplifying chamber” beneath the lake—a space designed to mask their presence from the stars. With power-blocking bangles hiding their magic, the three of them have a threesome. Afterward, the ground trembles as the stars figure out where they are. Darius tells Tory he is hers no matter what. Tory runs away crying, unable to let him have her heart.
Tory executes a plan to “poke the Dragon”—she steals Darius’s treasure and performs a cheer routine to “7 Rings” while flaunting gold worth over a million auras. When Mildred attacks her, Tory beats her unconscious in a brutal fist fight. Darius heals her injuries; when she tries to return the fire ruby pendant, he tells her to keep it. Dragons never give away treasure.
Darcy gives Orion an incredible gift: a sword forged with Phoenix fire, completely indestructible. They spend the night together in the secret library archives. The next morning, FIB agents storm into The Orb and arrest Orion. Someone sent them video evidence of him being intimate with a student—Darcy’s stolen Atlas revealed where to find them.
ORION’S TRIAL
Darcy publicly accuses Seth of stealing her Atlas and setting them up. Tory stays with Darcy all night as she cries. The next morning, Darcy lashes out—she tells Tory that real love requires vulnerability, opening yourself up and trusting someone with your broken heart. Tory and Darius fought fate when nothing was stopping them except themselves.
Tory finds Darius on the morning run. They finally have the raw, honest conversation they’ve been avoiding. Darius apologizes truly; Tory apologizes too. With Sofia’s Pegasus herd surrounding them to keep the stars at bay, Darius presses his forehead to hers and says “I love you, Roxy.” They kiss desperately as thunder crashes and trees fall around them. A massive tree collapses where they stood; they barely escape.
At trial, the prosecution plays edited clips from the six-hour video. Darcy takes the stand and fights back passionately. Then the truth emerges: Kylie Major stole Darcy’s Atlas—not Seth. She was trying to catch Darcy cheating with her ex-boyfriend Seth and accidentally captured her with Orion instead.
Orion takes the stand and lies. He claims he used Dark Coercion on Darcy, groomed and manipulated her. He changes his plea to guilty. Sentence: 25 years in Darkmore Penitentiary—10 for manipulating a princess, 15 for dark magic. Darcy grabs his hand as he’s taken away but he doesn’t look back.
A BROTHER FOUND
Weeks pass. Darcy sleeps in Tory’s room every night, crying herself to sleep. Tory increasingly gives herself to the shadows to escape her pain. In Elemental Combat, Darcy attacks Seth publicly. The fight is brutal. Finally, she creates white-hot fire whips and shatters his air shield, forces him to yield. The whole school watches Darcy Vega defeat Seth Capella.
Darius takes Darcy to visit Orion at Darkmore, disguising her with illusion magic. Orion appears hollow-eyed and broken. He tells her to leave, forget him, move on. When she begs for an explanation, he turns his back on her—the ultimate Fae insult. He refuses to sign the appeal papers.
During spring break at the Palace of Souls, Gabriel arrives with an urgent vision. They follow silver footprints into the royal maze—a magical labyrinth no one has reached the center of in a hundred years. At its heart, they’re pulled into visions of the past. They watch their mother as a teenager in the Voldrakian Marriage Trials, conceiving Gabriel with a Seer named Marcel who died to save her. Gabriel is their BROTHER.
More visions follow. The night of their parents’ death: Lionel Acrux walks in and uses Dark Coercion to force their mother to reveal where she hid the twins, then lets the Nymphs kill her. He follows them to the mortal realm and burns down their changeling family’s house—but the twins survive, reborn as Phoenixes in the flames. Lionel orchestrated everything. He’s been trying to kill them for eighteen years.
GIFTS OF FIRE
Seth delivers a raw, vulnerable apology to Darcy. He admits he envied the twins for escaping the pressure he grew up with. He tells her Orion sacrificed himself to protect her reputation and her claim to the throne. An unexpected alliance forms. Together with the Heirs, they confront Kylie and declare her “nothing”—invisible to anyone who supports the Vegas or the Heirs.
The Heirs travel to the mortal realm to find Zane Baxter, Tory’s ex who left her to drown. They visit the twins’ old apartment—a single 40-square-foot room with flaking paint, one ratty blanket, and a single tin of beans. The Heirs are horrified at the poverty the princesses endured.
Three months into his sentence, Orion’s mother Stella visits and reveals Lionel is close to finding the IMPERIAL STAR—an ancient artifact that can make its possessor invulnerable to magical attacks.
On the last day of term, Tory gives Darius her real gift: a Phoenix Kiss. A gold bangle that, when branded into his flesh, implants Phoenix fire beneath his skin, making him immune to Dark Coercion forever. “You set me free,” Darius breathes. He asks: if forever was just one day, would she be his until midnight? Tory says yes.
Gabriel gives them a reading, then is seized by a powerful vision: Lionel finding the Imperial Star, rising to the throne, shadow falling over Solaria. They have three weeks before Lionel finds it—unless they stall him. The price: “A royal sacrifice of the highest kind.”
THE TRAP & THE FALL
Diego calls Tory at midnight with a memory from the soul web: Lionel has taken Darcy and is torturing her at Orion Manor. Tory stardusts there immediately. But the dining room is empty—it was a trap. Clara can see through anyone connected to the Polaris family soul web; she planted a fake memory. The house is flooded with Order Suppressant; Tory can’t call her Phoenix.
Lionel captures her and brands “ACRUX” into her flesh with Dragon fire. Without her Phoenix, she can feel fire for the first time—blinding agony. She bites her tongue bloody but refuses to scream or give in to the shadows.
Darius bursts in and attacks his father with the full force of his rage. For the first time in his life, he’s winning—his hands around Lionel’s throat, squeezing the life from him. Clara arrives and rips him off before he can finish. Lionel recovers and forces the GUARDIAN BOND on Tory. She is now bound to protect Lionel’s life at the cost of her own. When Darius attacks again, Tory tackles him to the ground and holds a blade to his throat. “I can’t let you hurt him. I’m his Guardian now. You’d have to kill me first.”
In the woods, Clara forces Darcy to attack the Heirs with shadows and a knife. Seth intercepts Darcy’s killing blow meant for Max—the blade slices across his throat. Darcy’s horror ignites her Phoenix, burning through the shadows, destroying Clara’s hold on her completely. She’s free forever. Caleb and Max desperately save Seth’s life.
A Nymph attacks Clara, then collapses—and transforms into Diego. He was a Nymph all along. He asks if he was a good friend. Darcy holds his hand and promises he was the best. “You always felt like home,” he whispers, then dies and turns to ash.
With the Nymph army closing in, Tory makes a desperate bargain: she’ll give herself to the shadows completely if Lionel lets everyone else go. She kisses Darius goodbye: “If you meant all the things you said to me, make sure Darcy is safe.” Then she turns away and lets the shadows take her. Euphoria sweeps through her as the darkness claims all her pain.
Lionel transforms into his Dragon form and carries Tory and Clara away as the house collapses. At the boundary fence, Darcy makes the Heirs join her in a star-bound oath: they will find the Imperial Star before Lionel does, no matter what it takes.
At Acrux Manor, Tory stands in an underground torture chamber, shadows swirling in her veins. Lionel asks who she loves. She searches inside herself and finds echoes—”a girl with blue hair and a man with a dark soul.” He shocks her with agonizing magic. The shadows feast on her pain. He asks again. She looks into his eyes and gives him the answer he wants: “You. Only you.”
Interested what happened next? Check our book recap for Big A.S.S Party Book 5.5 in the Zodiac Academy series.
Where the key characters are at the end of Cursed Fates:
Lionel’s Guardian, surrendered to shadows, brainwashed in his torture chamber and claiming she loves only him.
Phoenix burned the shadows out of her forever; she’s made a star-bound oath to find the Imperial Star before Lionel.
Free of Dark Coercion thanks to Tory’s Phoenix Kiss, but Star Crossed and helpless as his father took the woman he loves.
Serving 25 years in Darkmore Penitentiary after lying at trial to protect Darcy; refuses all contact.
Fully allied with the Vegas now, bound by oath to find the Imperial Star.
Fully allied with the Vegas now, bound by oath to find the Imperial Star.
Fully allied with the Vegas now, bound by oath to find the Imperial Star.
Maintains her immunity to Max’s powers and continues to reject his advances, though there are hints of underlying attraction. She’s become an unexpected ally to the twins, helping them navigate palace politics.
Knows Xavier’s true identity and still wants him; her Pegasus herd helped shield Darius and Tory from the stars during their love confession.
Dead. Revealed to be a Nymph; died protecting the group and turned to ash.
Still the Shadow Princess at Lionel’s side, controlling Nymphs and the shadows inside others.
Revealed as the twins’ half-brother; his wife just gave birth, making Darcy and Tory an aunt.
Has Tory as his Guardian, commands a Nymph army, and is weeks away from finding the Imperial Star.
Free and publicly a Pegasus; will attend Zodiac Academy in September.
Secretly freed from Dark Coercion, covertly allied with Tory against Lionel.
Books in the Zodiac Academy Series:
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