Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,290

Drusilla’s body was cast to ash, the remnants of her clothes laying in tatters on the floor.

“She’s coming back!” Miguel shouted from the doorway, one side of his face burned as he stared in at us. It was the most emotion I’d ever seen on his face, panic, desperation, and a glint of a soul that had been absent from his eyes up until now. I didn’t understand it and there was no time to either.

Orion shot away with me held against his chest like a child, tearing through the front door and sprinting into the trees. I held onto him, feeling the kiss of his healing magic still tingling beneath my skin. Clara was suddenly at his side, keeping pace with us and I threw out my hands with a yell of rage and determination, my Phoenix flames tearing away from me in the shape of wings.

Clara fell back to avoid them, but I could hear her chasing us still.

“Lance!” she cried, her voice throaty and more real than it had sounded before. “Get away! Run!” she begged. “I can’t hold her off much longer.”

I didn’t know if it was the real her or some trick, but she didn’t attack us and it hurt me to think she was still in there, trapped by the shadows.

Orion clutched me tighter, releasing a groan of distress as he sped on and suddenly we were through the wards. My hand was sticky as I pushed it into my pocket hunting for the stardust, but Orion was already throwing some over us and we fell through a sea of stars.

They gleamed down on us brighter than ever and I felt some of their strength filling me up. Whispers drifted through my head and I could have sworn they were saying our names.

Orion’s feet hit solid ground, still holding me tight against him and as I tried to get down, he refused to let go.

“It’s okay, I can walk,” I said, but his jaw was locked shut and he didn’t look at me as he walked through a gate and I felt the trickle of magic slipping over me. “Lance, it’s okay. Put me down.”

I glanced around to try and see where we were, a vineyard stretching out either side of us, but then he sprinted onward with his Vampire speed again and the world was lost to me.

He stopped on the porch of a huge house which stood in the shadow of a large mountain. It had pale blue walls and a Christmas wreath hanging on the door. Orion pressed his hand to it and it opened at his touch. I knew where we were. It was a place of happiness, family and peace.

It was Gabriel’s home.

A flash of gold caught my gaze and I nudged Seth as I spotted Tory strolling across the room with shadows coiling all around her arms and her gaze vacant. At least they’d made it back without us having to cause some kind of distraction.

"Is it me or is she scary as fuck when she goes all shadow freak?" Seth muttered and I snorted.

"A bit," I agreed. "But she can be scary as fuck without the shadows too."

"I guess she'd need to be to keep Darius in line," he joked.

"Is that so?" Darius's voice came from behind us and I turned to look at him with a less than innocent shrug.

"You're high maintenance, dude. You gotta admit it," I teased.

"Yeah, everyone knows brooding bad boys are the hardest work when it comes to boyfriends," Seth agreed. "But all the angry fucking usually makes it worth it."

"Usually?" Darius asked, looking amused.

"Well, I don't have first hand experience of your cock to judge by, so I can’t be sure unless you wanna go somewhere more private?" Seth teased and irritation prickled down my spine.

"If anyone is going to be pinning you beneath them tonight, mutt, it'll be me," I warned him, flashing my fangs and watching as Seth's smile widened.

"Wanna bet?" Seth challenged, always so cocky about his ability to fight me off and yet whenever we played this game, my fangs always ended up in his skin.

"Are you challenging me to chase you around the palace like we're a bunch of badly behaved kids whose parents can't reel us in?" I asked.

"No. I'm challenging you to chase me around the palace like a bloodthirsty Vampire who spends his nights dreaming about the taste of me," Seth goaded, tipping his drink back into his mouth and grinning as he