Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,286

think of a way out of this. If I attacked Clara, she’d kill him. And I couldn’t risk that. Not for anything.

Clara lunged toward me, picking me up and throwing me over her shoulder. I gasped as she shot off into the forest and I heard Orion tearing after us.

When I was placed down again, we were inside Stella’s kitchen, the space large with beams running across the ceiling and wooden worktops beneath large cream cabinets. Clara jumped up to sit on the edge of the huge table at the centre of the room, flicking her fingers so Orion came up behind me, wrapping a hand around my throat. I stilled in his hold, my breaths coming heavier. I couldn’t panic. I had to think straight. Find a way to escape.

Do not fucking panic.

Clara swung her legs as she observed us and I glared back at her with venom in my eyes.

“If you fight him off, he dies. If you fight me, he dies. If you make me angry, he dies,” she sang. “Do you understand the game?”

“Yes,” I hissed poisonously. “What do you want?”

“Hmmm, no one has asked me that in a long, long, long, long time,” she said in delight, her hair floating around her like it was caught in some ethereal wind. “I suppose I want what every princess wants. What you want too, Vega girl.”

“What’s that?” I demanded, figuring it was best to keep her talking until I could work out how to get us out of this. But unless I could kill her before she could kill Orion, I didn’t know what to do. And one failed attempt would equal his death. She was so powerful, I had no idea what it would take to destroy her.

“To be a queen,” she sighed longingly. “Daddy’s going to marry me.”

I wrinkled my nose and she shrieked at my expression. Orion yanked me back against his body, his grip on my throat tightening painfully. I clutched his arm, fighting my instincts not to use magic and force my way free.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she yelled, her voice taking on a deep, demonic quality that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. “I’m destined for greatness. Daddy says it himself. He loves me. Just like my brother loves you.”

Orion twisted me around in his arms, closing two hands over my throat and the fear in his eyes nearly broke me.

Clara shot over to us, watching my face with a bright smile. My lungs burned for air and my nails dug into his hand as magic tingled my fingertips, begging me to use it against him. But I wouldn’t. There was no force in this world which could make me risk his life.

Orion suddenly released me and she grabbed his hand, making him dance her around the room like a puppet on strings. I held my sore throat, gasping down a lungful of air as I buckled over. My Phoenix roared beneath my flesh, desperate to try and destroy her and it took everything I had to hold it in check. One spark and she’ll kill him.

“How did you get out of your prison, I wonder?” Clara mused, cupping Orion’s face between her hands. “How very curious. Daddy won’t be pleased. But he’s having a party and I mustn’t disturb him during his parties. Mommy will know what to do though. It’ll be a family reunion!”

She wheeled away from Orion suddenly, directing him toward me and he shot forward in a blur, grabbing me from behind.

“I wonder how she tastes,” Clara breathed and Orion grabbed my arm, forcing it out towards his sister. My muscles tensed as hatred snaked through my flesh. But I couldn’t fight.

“Get away from me,” I snarled as Clara moved toward me like a wraith, licking her lips. “Don’t move, little princess. Or he’ll be deader than dead.”

I bit down on my tongue as she grabbed my arm, bringing my wrist to her mouth, my stomach twisting from her touch. Her fangs snapped out and I shuddered as her cold mouth pressed to my flesh. Her teeth sliced into me with force and I gasped in pain as she bit down, tearing into my veins like a savage and drinking greedily.

I felt my magic being sucked away into this void before me as she drank and drank, gulping more and more of my lifeforce into her. My Phoenix was warring inside me, my skin growing hotter and hotter as I could barely