Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,134

as he casually cast a pyramid then made splashes of fire spew out the top of it like it was a volcano. Fucking Hadley. The girl he was working with was so busy staring at him, she kept burning herself on her own flames.

“If you want to make something three dimensional, you have to stop focusing so hard,” Sofia explained, raising her hands and creating a square of flames between them. Her fingers worked in practised movements as she cast another square beside it then let lines of flames merge them to form a cube. “The harder you try to force it, the less obedient the flames are. Think of it as like blowing on a candle. If you blow too hard, the flame will go out, but just a little and it will bend the way you want it to.”

I stood beside her, stealing a glance at her pretty face and cute little nose while I cast a square with my fire magic. That was easy enough, but building anything else onto it was always the hard part. I watched her magic, then watched her, then her mouth. Fuck, her mouth. Her lips were candyfloss pink and she lightly tugged her lower one between her teeth as she concentrated.

The smell of burning reached me and she wheeled toward me with a gasp. “Xavier!”

I looked down, finding I was legitimately on fire. “Fuck!” I lurched away from her as the fire resistant uniform started somehow burning under the intensity of my flames and climbing up my arm. I waved my arm wildly which only made it fucking worse then remembered I had water magic and cast it at myself with absolutely no control. I knocked myself over with the amount I used, landing on my ass utterly drenched.

“Oh my stars, he’s so fucking cute,” Nina Starstruck whispered to her friend and the two of them giggled. “He’s like a clumsy little Darius who doesn’t even realise he’s hot.”

Great.

Sofia offered me a hand to help me up, but I was too mortified to take it. I knocked her hand away and got up myself, dusting the sand off my ass which wouldn’t go anywhere because I was fucking soaked. I released a horsey snort of frustration and turned away from Nina who was batting her long lashes at me. I knew I wasn’t like my brother, but that had always just been fine until everyone and their cat started pointing it out.

Sofia reached up and pushed my damp hair out of my eyes, tiptoeing to do so. She was so small it was just another thing I fucking adored about her.

She’s taken, bro. Get the hint.

“You put the fire out at least.” She laughed lightly and I couldn’t help but grin at the sound.

“Yeah, I guess,” I murmured and she jabbed me playfully in the arm.

“You’ll get it. It’ll just click one of these days.”

“I just hope it clicks before The Reckoning or I’m fucked,” I said.

I couldn’t lose my place at Zodiac. I had to work harder and make sure I didn’t do anything stupid like this when I was being assessed. I didn’t work too well under pressure and Sofia always got me so worked up that I often ended up embarrassing myself in front of her. I’d done a perfect water cast just yesterday, creating a river that flowed in whichever direction I urged it to. But was she there to see that? No. She was here to see me acting like I was still on day one of my training.

I focused on creating a cube for the rest of the lesson, determined to do it and prove I wasn’t actually a useless dick pigeon, and by the time Pyro called an end to the lesson, I’d not only perfected it, I’d created a pyramid just like Hadley’s too. Sure, he’d moved on to casting a whole flaming flock of birds flying around the amphitheatre, but I was getting there.

I cleaned up in the changing room with Hadley, pulling my uniform back on after a shower.

“Did you catch Athena?” I asked him and he blew out a breath of frustration.

“No,” he growled. “I lost her in the woods and couldn’t find her.” His fangs snapped out as he thought about it and I gripped his bare arm, forcing him to look at me.

“Be careful. Darius told me what happened with Caleb and Tory when he hunted her. You can’t let this get to you.”

“I know,” he huffed. “I’m