Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,221

also valuable to him, so what could he even do to me? Imprison me? Yeah, been there done that, got the ‘I survived Darkmore’ cap.

“She isn’t herself,” I snapped. “How can you lay your hands on her? It’s the shadows that want you, not her. She would never touch you.”

I expected him to strike me, but he didn’t. He just laughed, a cold, empty laugh. “Your sister was sucking my cock long before she ever went into the shadows, boy. Even before I Guardian bonded her to me.”

“Liar!” I snapped, lunging at him with nothing but hate driving my actions as I cast a blade of ice in my palm. It shattered against his air shield before I even got close, and his eyes darkened to deadliest nightshade.

He whipped out a hand, a blast of air throwing me across the room so I hit the wall hard and pain exploded through my head. He wrapped a tendril of shadows around my throat and held me pinned there, slowly walking toward me like a murderous beast and carefully pushing his blonde hair back into place.

“She is attracted to power and I let her have a taste of it because she was useful to me. Don’t go trying to convince yourself that I forced her or abused her. You want to know how it first started? I found her waiting naked in my bed one night when Catalina and your mother were staying in the city for some charitable function. I will admit that I was surprised, but she is a beautiful girl and I wasn’t going to embarrass her by turning her away. And it wasn’t long after that that I realised how useful she could be to me. Now she is useful once more, so I will fuck her and use her and devour her if the notion takes me, boy, because she is mine – quite willingly so. She no longer cares about her waste of perfectly good oxygen brother who has done nothing but brought shame on her family. You are an embarrassment to your parents,” he hissed.

“Only to one of them,” I managed to croak out and his eyes narrowed.

“Your father was a loyal servant of mine, despite how his wife pined for me,” he laughed again, taking joy in my pain, but he didn’t know anything.

My father had deceived him. Let him think he was his ally, when he’d actually been the ally of the royals. His loyalty had lain with them, and no one else. And when it came to it, he’d sacrificed himself to ensure this asshole of a Dragon had a weakness. The Imperial Star, the twins, me. Maybe they’d even known about Darius too.

“You should really show more respect for the man who arranged the marriage of your mother and father,” he snarled, releasing me from the shadows so I hit the floor. “You wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for my interference.”

“Lucky me,” I ground out, pushing to my feet and he raised his chin.

“It’s time you learned your place, Lance Orion. You’re nothing anymore. You gave up your Faehood when you fucked a Vega and landed yourself in prison. Pathetic really. When you’ve found the star, I will be more than happy to put you out of your misery if you want. I’m sure you’ll be begging for death soon enough.”

“Fuck you,” I snapped and he turned his back on me, heading to the exit.

He said nothing more as he stepped out of the door and it whipped shut behind him with a swipe of his hands, locking tight.

My heart bunched up in my chest and I roared my anger at the world over Clara. But I had to hold on to the fact we had the Imperial Star now. And somehow, some day soon, Lionel was going to meet his end and I would make damn sure I was there to watch.

W ith all of us in King's Hollow, we were seriously lacking in space with the two armchairs and a three seater sofa between the seven of us so I escaped to the kitchenette. My plan was to make coffee for everyone while Darcy and Seth started bickering about who had claimed the armchair first, but I stalled as I realised I wasn’t actually sure how to do that.

Although I'd been staying here pretty often since I'd been drawn back from the shadows, I’d been treated like an honest to shit princess by the others because they were