Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,282

to sit on the throne than we are. Even though it's our birth right. Even though we are more powerful than you. Even though we had to lose everything to get to where we are." Her eyes flashed with emotion which she rarely allowed anyone to see and I was caught between wanting to hold her and shake her.

"Roxy," I said in a rough voice, stepping forward and making a move to catch her arm as anger prickled through my flesh at her accusations. But she shifted so that I couldn’t touch her, my hand grasping nothing as she drew back and the beast in me growled angrily. "If I could go back and change it, I would. But that doesn't alter the reality we now live in. The Heirs and I have the political knowledge, strength of character and magical training to assure that we are the only realistic candidates to rule this kingdom once my father is dethroned. If you'd just stop being so damn stubborn and look at it logically then you'd see-"

"Enough," Gabriel snapped, stepping between us and fixing me with a furious glare which begged for me to smack it off of his face. "If this descends any further we will be discovered here and your bickering won't resolve anything. You're too stubborn and pig headed for that." His words could have been aimed at us both but the way he was glaring at me made it clear who they were intended for.

"Do we have a problem?" I snarled at him, but instead of rising to the bait I was laying for him, he just sighed.

"I deal with much more irritating men than you on a frequent basis, Darius, you won't rile me into a fight just because your pride is wounded. We came here for a reason and we need to see it through." He cast a pained look up at the portrait of his mother then strode away from me towards the chair which occupied the centre of the room.

It was a throne in its own right really, cut from glass which caught the light and seemed to sparkle with endless magic. It was inlaid with silver gemstones which I was certain were fragments of meteorites which mapped out all of the constellations over its surface.

Roxy moved after him, not wasting any more time on me and I muttered curses at her and myself in my mind as I followed on behind them. The sooner she accepted she was going to have to bow to us the better.

Gabriel fell still before the glass throne, reaching out to brush a finger over the armrest and stiffening as his gaze glazed with a vision for several seconds before he pulled his hand back and shook his head to dismiss it.

"We don't have long," Gabriel murmured and Roxy took hold of his hand, squeezing his fingers tightly before he looked over his shoulder at me. "You should record this," he said. "Because I don't know what I'm about to see, but I do know that it's quite possibly the most important vision I am going to have in my entire life."

I arched a brow and silently took my Atlas from my pocket before setting it to record.

Gabriel pressed a kiss to Roxy's head then guided her a few steps back from the glass chair before turning his back on it and slowly lowering himself to sit upon it.

He sucked in a sharp breath and the fire in every sconce in the room guttered out under a supernatural wind which kissed my skin and made me shiver. As we were plunged into shadows, Roxy's hand found mine in the dark and I held her tightly, blinking as I tried to see through the pitch-black. I flinched as deep blue flames burst to life in the sconces, lighting the place in an eery colour.

All of the gemstones set into the chair began to glow with some inner light and the constellations they made up were projected all around us, covering the walls, ceiling and floor as if we were floating amongst them ourselves.

Gabriel's hands clasped the arms of the throne, his knuckles turning white as his pupils seemed to glow with golden light until all that I could see in his eyes was that rich, golden colour like I was looking upon the face of a star.

"Hear me now, for his prophesy could change the course of fate itself," he said in an ethereal voice that wasn't his