Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,285

He’d tried to help us. And he’d died keeping Clara away from us. I would never be able to repay him for that and I missed him every day.

“Extinguish your Faelight,” Orion growled and his tone sent a tremor of fear through me as I quickly complied.

I got to my feet, meeting his anxious gaze as he listened to something out in the forest which I couldn’t hear.

“Get on my back,” he hissed and I hurried to jump up, holding on tight to his shoulders as I pushed Diego’s hat into my pocket.

“What is it?” I breathed, though our silencing bubble was hiding our voices anyway.

“I’m not sure,” he answered. “But we need to go.” He sprinted away through the trees, racing for the boundary so fast that the world became nothing but a blur of darkest greens and blues around me.

The glint of the icicles appeared up ahead and I pulled the stardust from my pocket, readying to throw it over us the second we cleared the wards. We were twenty feet from it, ten, five-

The world was ripped out from under me as Orion fell and I was thrown from his back with a scream, tumbling over the hard ground and casting a wall of moss to stop myself from rolling any further. I had no time to dwell on my panic though, I had to move. Fast.

Orion groaned in agony and I leapt to my feet, running back toward him in fear. He was on his back, writhing under the onslaught of some power I couldn’t see, but a sliver of moonlight gave me a glimpse of his eyes and they were swirling with shadow.

“No!” I gasped in horror, grabbing his arms and hauling him backwards toward the boundary.

We were so close. I could get him out. I could make it.

“Run,” he gritted out, but there was no way I was leaving him behind.

I flicked my fingers, focusing hard and casting a levitation spell to get him off the ground, my pulse thrashing against the inside of my skull. I started running, guiding him behind me, tugging on my magic to keep him close as I raced for the gap in the wards.

Something slammed into me with the force of a battering ram and I was thrown to the dirt on my back, a body pinning me down as adrenaline tumbled through my body. My magic was severed with Orion so he hit the ground somewhere beyond me and I knew I had no time to waste.

I twisted my hands up to fight as my heart thundered madly and Phoenix fire flared under my flesh like an inferno.

“One spark of magic and my brother dies,” Clara warned, leaning back so I could see her pale face in the moonlight and the shadows crawling beneath her skin. She smelled like ash and death, the power of the shadows radiating from every inch of her. “Don’t test me, little princess,” she hissed and a demon peered from behind her eyes that sent terror daggering into my heart.

Orion cried out in agony and it took everything I had not to try and destroy the girl sitting on top of me. My breaths came heavily and I balled my hands into fists as I held back the fire in my blood.

I looked over at Orion in desperation as he jerked on the ground under Clara’s power. What do I do? How do I get us out of this?

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been so cocky by coming here,” Clara spat at me then her face split into a grin. “But never mind, let’s have some fun before Mommy arrives. She’ll be quite surprised when she realises who triggered the shadow alarm I cast up by our house.”

I growled at that. No wonder we hadn’t been able to detect it with our magic. Shit, we had to get out of here. I had to find a way to save us.

Clara got up, pulling me to my feet and brushing a leaf off of my shoulder, smiling at me like we were best friends. “Don’t look so sad, it’s playtime. We’re going to have fun! Come on little brother, up you get.”

Orion stopped jerking, rising to his feet with his face twisted in raw anger. But he didn’t say a word and maybe he couldn’t because he just stared at me with anguish in his eyes. I wanted to tell him it would be okay, but fear was winding through me and I couldn’t