Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,11

bittersweet slap to the face still stinging my cheek and heading out the door, his heavy presence following me. I grabbed my suitcase and carried it downstairs where a porter was waiting to take it from me. Darius had already gone back to Zodiac a few days ago, insisting he needed a head start on his work and Father had let him go because he always wanted his special Heir to be ahead of the game. I knew better though. Darius had told me himself he was going out Nymph hunting with the other Heirs and Darcy Vega. He’d been telling me about their hunts all summer so I could live vicariously through his stories. I longed to join them, it sounded like something from one of my Xbox games. A real life adventure. And now I was getting my magic Awakened, maybe it wouldn’t be too long before I really could help. Though I guessed I knew in my heart that I had a lot to learn before I’d be of any use. Still…

Voices carried from out on the porch, the front door half open and my father’s hand suddenly landed on my shoulder as he steered me outside. When I looked up at him, I found him wearing one of his false smiles, his teeth on show and a decent attempt at pride glowing in his eyes. I slapped on my own smile which was equally fake and we stepped outside where the press had set up some lights facing the porch and Mom was there chatting with Portia in a flowing green gown.

“Ah, here’s the man of the hour!” Portia exclaimed, her blonde hair bouncing as she hurried up the steps toward me. “You look dashing, Xavier. Let’s get a few pictures with your parents.” She positioned me between them and they both moved in close as the photographer started shooting. I looked up at Mom with a grin and she shot me a wink that warmed my heart.

When the shoot was done, Portia questioned me about my feelings over being Awakened and starting school, and I was able to let out the bursting emotions inside me over it all. Because I was fucking excited. Star damned crazy happy about it. And by the time I was done telling her about it, my jaw was aching from how hard I’d been smiling.

“It’s not fair!” Clara shrieked from somewhere in the house and Father’s face turned to thunder.

“Excuse me,” he said curtly and Portia waved him off, but shared a brief look with the photographer that said she was curious as shit.

“Go grab your coat, Xavier,” Mom encouraged, her eyes anxious. “We’d better head off soon.”

“Yes, of course, I won’t keep you any longer,” Portia said apologetically, starting to pack up her things.

I slipped back inside the house while Mom started making small talk with her slightly louder than was necessary and I shut the door behind me. Clara was on the stairs with a cloak of shadows spinning around her, her hands planted on her hips. Tory stood beside my father in a red satin dress, gazing at him with a doe-eyed look that made my skin crawl. I couldn’t even express how angry I was about what my father had done to Tory. I hadn’t seen her since Darius’s birthday and had no idea where he was keeping her. Now, he brought her out like a dog on a leash. It was fucking sick.

“I was your Guardian first, Daddy, how come she gets to go with you?” Clara pouted, her eyes a swirling storm of darkness. I probably should have been used to her calling him Daddy by now, but fuck no I wasn’t. It still made me wanna vom. Every. Damn. Time.

“Now, Clara, I explained this to you,” Father said in a purr that made me equally sick. “Roxanya needs to be seen as allied to me out in public. And you still don’t have full control of your power, you cannot pass as Fae yet.”

I drifted across the hall to the coat closet, grabbing a smart black one and pulling it on, never taking my eyes off of the circus of horrors playing out before me.

Clara’s face twisted in fury and the storm cloud of darkness around her built in size, the strength of her power tugging on the shadows living in me.

“I can control myself!” she bellowed and Father snarled, lunging at her and grasping her throat.

“Silence,” he hissed. “Or I’ll have you