Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,288

for good,” I said, feigning being beaten down so they thought I was telling the truth. I even faked a lip tremor pretty convincingly.

Stella’s eyebrows arched with intrigue. “What exactly?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I just wanted to help free him.”

“Clara, let my son speak,” Stella demanded and her daughter huffed dramatically.

“She’s lying, can’t you tell Mommy?” Clara spat. “Nothing can free him from my shadows.” Clara moved closer again, glaring at me with my blood still wetting her lips. “You fought them off with your dirty little Phoenix powers, but you can’t do it for him, can you? Or you already would have,” she taunted, flicking a finger and using a tendril of shadow to grab a sharp kitchen knife from a block across the room. She placed it in Orion’s hand and he immediately pressed the tip against my heart, making my body go rigid. “The shadows can’t be beaten,” she whispered excitedly. “I could have him cut out your heart and lay it in my palm if I wanted. And maybe I do...”

I winced as Orion applied pressure and the tip of it pierced my flesh.

“All that pretty blood,” Clara purred, licking her lips. “Your heart would taste sweeter than all the others that have filled my belly. And I’m owed vengeance against the Vegas, so maybe this would be fitting.”

Eat my fucking heart??

Stella gripped my chin and pulled my head around to face her as panic flashed through me. “You will tell me what you came here for or I will let my daughter do whatever she wants to you. Be honest, and I will have mercy.”

“Mercy,” Drusilla scoffed. “She’s a Vega. Let me drain her power just like my brother Alejandro drained her father’s. I want the power of the royals in my veins.”

“Quiet,” Stella snapped, her nails digging into my chin. “Tell me the truth.” Her voice was laced with Dark Coercion, but the Phoenix fire in my veins flared in my mind and quickly burned it away.

“Okay,” I panted, pretending her power had affected me and preparing to act for our lives. “It’s…the Imperial Star. Orion and I believe it’s being kept among his father’s things. We thought maybe it was here, in the basement…”

Stella’s eyes widened in glee. “Where?” she demanded, getting close to my face as a rampant hunger filled her expression.

“It’s disguised as a sceptre,” I lied, keeping to the bullshit story Orion had been feeding Lionel. “I don’t know more than that.”

Stella grinned like a kid on Christmas day, twisting around and running out of the room. I’d hoped Clara might be tempted away with her, but she remained there, twirling a lock of shadowy hair around her finger.

“This is foolish, we have the rogue Vega standing before us. Let me have her, Princess. Please,” Drusilla asked, stepping toward me hopefully.

“You could have a little I suppose, but I don’t think there’s much magic left,” Clara mused and I shuddered as Drusilla’s right hand shifted into long, Nymph probes as she approached, a rattle sounding from her that made my blood chill.

“Get away from me,” I snarled as Orion slid the blade up to my throat. A deep rattle in Drusilla’s body washed over me and my magic started to shut down as she drew nearer.

Clara started singing up on the kitchen table, her song tuneless and twisted. Orion’s muscles bunched and I could feel his hand shaking as he fought against the power holding him in place. But I’d been under its influence myself before and I knew the absolute control Clara could take of your body. Once she had you, there was no way out.

Only, there had been for me. My Phoenix had forced the shadows from my body. I’d found a way to escape, and maybe I could offer him that. I’d failed countless times with Darius, but I had to try.

I reached up, clutching Orion’s arm and willing my Phoenix to the edges of my skin, trying to hide what I was doing as I pushed the fire into his flesh. Drusilla pressed her sharp probes to my chest and they drove into me, making me scream in blinding agony. I forced my fire deeper into Orion’s veins, trying to spread it everywhere and chase away the shadows. But just like with Darius, they kept pushing back.

“Wait,” Clara growled suddenly, spinning on her heel and staring at me.

Drusilla didn’t stop, licking her lips greedily as she drove her probes in deeper and