Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,273

on the Pitball field?” he snarled and my jaw literally dropped.

“How the hell do you know about that?” I gasped, but his teeth snapped together. Goddammit Darius. “He kissed me because he was trying to-” I stopped myself there, not wanting to give away Seth’s secret about Caleb. “He just wanted to make someone jealous, that’s all.”

His jaw ticked as he rested his elbows on his knees. “Do you really have to lie to me?”

“I’m not lying,” I said in disbelief, my tone getting harsher as I failed to keep myself calm.

“You lied about us, so why not him?” he threw at me and outrage hit me like a punch to the chest.

“I had to lie about us,” I snarled and he blew out a breath.

“For fuck’s sake, that came out wrong. I mean, you have reasons to lie about him too. There’s a law banning Fae of different Orders from dating, your sister might disapprove and-”

I pushed out of my seat in fury. “I’m going to say this one last time, Lance. And if you don’t believe me then that’s your problem. But I am not with Seth Capella. And I wouldn’t make the mistake of lying to my sister ever again.”

My Atlas started ringing before he could respond and I took it out, finding Gabriel calling. I answered, holding it to my ear as I rose from my seat as my stomach dipped.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked, concerned he might have seen something bad.

“All good, Darcy, can you put me on speaker? Lance needs to hear this too.”

Damn psychic. I wondered how much he saw of me sometimes. Could he just figure out wherever I was by turning his mind to me? Probably.

I hit the speaker button, lowering the Atlas from my ear and Orion frowned curiously.

“I’ve had a vision,” Gabriel said, sounding excited. “It’s an opportunity. One we really mustn’t miss.”

“What is it, Noxy?” Orion rose from his chair, moving to stand in front of me so the Atlas was held between us.

“Lionel’s hosting a party at the palace on Christmas Eve,” he said. “And there’s going to be a chance for me to get inside and use the chair in the Royal Seer’s Chamber that night. The stars are going to grant me this one opportunity to use it even though I don’t officially hold that title.”

I sucked in a breath. “That’s great.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said. “And I think we might have another opportunity at the same time too...”

“Like what?” Orion asked.

“Stella’s going to be at the party, which means you two could try and get onto her property. I can’t see how that might go unfortunately, she still has Nymphs stationed there and they’re keeping it concealed from me with the shadows.”

“Why us?” I asked, glancing at Orion then back to my Atlas.

“Because you’re the only two who won’t be invited to the party. Besides, you can break the wards, Orio, and Darcy, you know where to look for Diego’s hat.”

My heart beat harder and adrenaline coursed through my veins as I accepted he was right. “Okay. Shit, let’s do it.” I looked up at Orion with a grin and he smirked back at me.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Gabriel said. “The moon’s up.”

He hung up and I turned to look out the window, my smile widening as moonlight spilled across the patio.

“Fuck yes.” Orion shot away, grabbing the diary from his nightstand drawer and I jogged to the door, sliding it open just before Orion ran past me, catching my hand and towing me after him at speed.

He planted me in a seat at a patio table and dropped down beside me, placing the diary in front of us. I started casting a concealment spell around us and Orion helped until we were totally hidden then he threw me an addictive kind of smile.

He opened the diary and the moon bathed the pages. Light shimmered across it and words appeared in dark, swirling handwriting.

“Is that the Imperial Star?” I breathed, pointing to the image at the base of the first page as I raised a hand to brush my fingers over the necklace and Orion whipped around to look at me.

“You can see the words?” he asked in surprise.

“Yeah, can’t you?” I frowned.

“I can,” he said. “But Darius couldn’t.”

“Oh,” I breathed. “Well…the tomb let us both in. So maybe it’s a Vega and Orion thing.”

“Yeah…actually, my father’s note said the diary would be unreadable to the disloyal. He must have meant loyalty to the royals,”