Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,246

to get into the bed with Tory, lifting her a little and moving her across the sheets to make room for us. She was more than used to me doing this in the night now, so she didn't wake, but the tension in her body relaxed as I laid my head on the pillow beside her and drew her back against my chest.

Caleb climbed in behind me and slung an arm over me too as a tendril of amusement slipped from him.

"You're my little spoon, Maxy pad," he laughed and the taste of his joy to counter Tory's fear was enough to make me let that name slide as I used my gifts to make us all sleepy and we drifted off.

***

An incessant buzzing against my thigh woke me and I groaned groggily as I frowned at the dream I was currently taking part in. Caleb and Tory's sub-consciousnesses had clearly connected to mine to create a weird ass jumble of thoughts. I snorted a laugh at the sight of Mildred Canopus getting her ass kicked by Tory while a shirtless Seth whooped and cheered in between doing a strip tease to Milkshake by Kelis. Caleb and I danced on the back of a golden Dragon while Gerry's voice intermittently called out types of fish in a seductive voice.

I groaned as I managed to pull my Atlas from my pocket, frowning at the messages I'd received and the notification that I'd been tagged in multiple news stories.

Tory mumbled something sleepily and I wriggled out of the bed so as not to disturb her, managing to catch Caleb's knee in the gut before I made it out.

I paused and pushed more sleepiness over the two of them as they rolled towards each other before slipping back out into the living area and opening up the messages I found there.

I had eight missed calls from my dad and a bunch of texts from him telling me to phone him and I quickly tapped on the newspaper links to see what the hell was going on.

A headline stared up at me, slapping me in the face as I took it in.

Water Heir Max Rigel not really an Heir at all.

What the fuck? I clicked the next link and my gut plummeted as I realised exactly what this was.

Max Rigel - bastard! The truth about the Water Heir’s hidden parentage and everything you need to know about his secret Minotaur grandfather.

Shit. This wasn't good. Especially right now while Lionel had half the country believing that the Minotaurs were in on some secret plot with the Sphinxes to steal and hide knowledge from the rest of the Fae population.

My Atlas rang again and I answered my dad as I sank down onto the couch with my heart racing.

"Max? I take it you've seen?" he demanded.

"Yeah, Dad," I said in a hopeless kind of tone. "Who the fuck leaked it?"

There was a long pause before he replied. "You...already knew?"

"Yeah. I found out years ago so I’m not freaking out over that. And believe me, I'm not upset that that bitch you married isn't my mother, but...this is really fucked up timing, isn't it? I mean, it would have been a scandal before but with Lionel going after the Minotaurs-"

"I've already got all of my people on this," he growled. "Don't you worry. Besides, you still have my blood in your veins which is what really counts. Everyone screws around before they get married, so the idea of a bastard being a scandal is absurd in this day and age. You're still my Heir as far as I'm concerned and you're more than powerful enough to fight off anyone who tried to challenge you for your place which is all that really counts anyway. Fae fight for their position and no one is strong enough to unseat you. Don't worry son, we'll weather this storm."

I smiled weakly, endlessly grateful to my father for standing by my side like this. "Thanks, Dad."

"Nothing to thank me for. Now we just need to focus on damage control. We'll play down the Minotaur thing as much as we can. What about the other Heirs, how will they take it?"

"They already know, Dad," I admitted. "They don't give a shit. We're loyal to each other." I'd gotten over the fear of losing my place amongst my brothers the moment they'd found out the truth about me being a bastard. They didn't care about my bloodline - they cared about me. We were