Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,174

and I yelped as it whipped me forward and threw me to the ground on my back, making pain ricochet through me. It pinned me in place by the throat with impossible strength, its long probes extended and ready to steal my magic. Fear hit me as the rattle emanating from its chest immobilised the well of power inside me. It was going to take all my magic and my life with it if I didn’t get free.

I fought wildly, about to shift back into my Fae form even though I knew it would leave me vulnerable, but it might just give me room to wriggle free.

Caleb leapt out of the corn stalks with a yell of anger and sliced through the Nymph’s arm, making hope spark through my blood. The severed limb fell to the ground and I rolled over, scrambling upright to get away, but the beast snatched hold of my leg and twisted until it snapped. Agony spread through me as I yelped, slashing back at the Nymph with my Phoenix claws and ripping a gouge across its face. It released me with a shriek and I ran away, keeping my weight off of my bad leg as Caleb fought to bring the Nymph to its knees.

A Dragon’s roar filled the air and Darius’s huge golden form swept overhead, a blaze of fire pouring from his lungs. The heat of it warmed me through as he aimed it down at an enemy of his own and the others cheered, telling me this battle was almost over.

We could never leave a Nymph alive during these fights. If they reported back to Lionel about what we were doing, he’d hunt us to the ends of the earth for defying him. But we’d all decided it was worth the risk. We needed to be doing something to fight back against him in a real way while we continued our hunt for the Imperial Star and planned a rebellion for the future.

I lunged at the Nymph’s leg, slashing with my claws to help bring it down and it finally fell, crashing backwards and hitting the earth with a bone rattling thump.

Caleb dove onto it, showing no mercy as he drove one of his blades between its eyes and the Nymph burst into a cloud of shadows as it died.

He shot over to me in a blur, concern etched into his face as he ran his hand over my hind leg and healed the break.

I licked his face and he smirked at me, the sight making me howl excitedly. We sure made the perfect fucking team. And maybe I needed to accept that we were always just going to be friends, because I’d never survive losing him. But to keep things as they were, my heart was going to have to pay the price. And I was pretty sure I could already feel it breaking.

T he grand ballroom at the palace where we'd celebrated last Christmas remained well and truly locked up tight against any and every attempt that Lionel made to get into it. He cursed and ranted about the palace, using every kind of spell he could think of and even getting in earth Elementals with expertise in building and architecture to try and break through the magic that was keeping him out, but it was no good. He hadn't even been able to blast his way through the door with Dragon fire.

So, much to his disgust, instead of holding his ball in there, he'd had to make use of a huge pavilion out in the east gardens for the occasion. Tonight was the annual Dragon Guild's Oath celebration which Clara had informed me was the night when every Dragon in Solaria was expected to come and reaffirm their loyalty to the Guild by remaking their oath beneath the watchful gaze of the stars. Lionel had taken advantage of that last part when telling everyone that it would be held outside, playing up to the idea of the heavens watching over the occasion, but I knew the truth. And the tantrum he'd thrown over the palace rejecting him had a smile toying around the corners of my lips.

Beyond the pompous oath nonsense, Darius had told me that this night would mostly be used by Lionel to make certain that his most loyal supporters were all still firmly on team Asscrux. The Dragons would all be making arrangements for political gains such as marriage contracts, trade deals and the like. All