Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,121

its leaves like it was in the height of summer before they all turned crisp and brown and came fluttering down around me in the air again. Gabriel had gone flying to ease his own anxiety and every now and then a shadow would cross overhead and I knew he was close.

When Max finally texted an hour later to say we could come back, I ran through the trees as fast as I could, desperate to see my sister. It had been agony waiting. And I’d longed for her to come back to me for so long. I didn’t want to waste one more single second away from her.

I made it to the treehouse and Gabriel landed in front of me. I crashed into him and he wrapped me in his arms, holding me tight. Max stepped out of the door and we parted as he gave us a tight smile, his eyes ringed with darkness.

“How is she?” I begged.

“She’s okay,” he said, but his voice was laced with an undertone of worry. “At least, I think she will be in time.”

Tears burned my eyes and I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his Siren power reaching out to soothe me. I let my defences down so he could and brushed my fingers over the back of his neck as I released some healing energy into his body to fight the exhaustion he must have been feeling.

“Thank you,” I breathed as he held onto me for a moment before stepping back. I could never repay him for this. One look in his eyes told me what this had cost him, and there were no words which could ever encompass my gratitude for that.

He gestured for us to go inside and I ran into the tree trunk with Gabriel hot on my heels. We raced up the spiralling stairway and I pushed through the door into the lounge. I sprinted to Max’s room and forced myself to stop before I just burst through it. I couldn’t possibly understand what she was going through right now, and as much as I wanted to believe she would need me close, maybe I was wrong. Maybe she wanted space. And though the idea of that broke me, I knew I had to offer anything and everything she needed.

I knocked gently and Gabriel remained quiet, though he could probably see exactly how this was going to play out.

“Tor?” I called, my voice quavering. Please be okay.

“Darcy?” she called back, hope filling her voice and tears rushed down my cheeks.

“I’m here with Gabriel.” I pressed my forehead to the door, letting the tears run, not bothering to even try and hold them back. “Can we come in?”

“Yes,” she croaked and I twisted the door handle, pushing the door open to reveal the darkened room with a lamp switched on by the bed. She was curled up in a ball at the heart of the covers and she pushed herself up to look at us, her face blotchy from crying. I rarely ever saw my sister like that; it made me want to find Lionel Acrux this very second and make him bleed for what he’d dared do to her.

Gabriel’s shoulder brushed mine as we waited for her to speak, but she didn’t, she just opened her arms to us with a choked sob and I ran to her, jumping onto the bed and falling on top of her as I crushed her in my arms.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed and I held her tighter as I fell into the space beside her, kissing her forehead and keeping her close.

“Don’t be sorry for anything,” I growled. “It wasn’t you. It was Lionel.”

She shuddered at his name and I clutched her tighter as Gabriel joined us in the bed, his strong arms wrapping around us until all of our souls seemed to connect. We just held each other and I felt the love of my family binding us all so tightly together that nothing could ever break us. Not Lionel, not the stars. They might have tried to shatter our wills and crush us beneath them, but they’d never succeed. We’d always end up back together. Where we were meant to be.

“Are you okay?” I breathed and she nodded.

“Yeah, not perfect, but I’m okay,” she said. “And that’s better than I’ve been in a long time.”

After a while, a quiet kind of peace fell over us all and the wound in my heart started to heal. This