Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,340

happening. I forced my Phoenix fire against it with everything I had, but it did nothing to stop it. And in the deepest regions of my heart, I knew nothing could as I fell to my knees and an ocean of darkness stole me away.

L avinia’s laughter rang out everywhere as I pushed through the sea of shadows, feeling it drag at me like I was wading through the thickest of bogs. No magic could hold it back except the power of the sword, so I cut and fought my way forward with it to find Darcy even as my muscles burned and my strength was pushed to its limits.

“Blue!” I shouted, my voice getting hoarse from calling for her.

The shadows suddenly opened up, releasing me and a path ran through them all the way to where Darcy was lying on the ground, looking terrifyingly still as her dark blue hair spilled out around her in a fan. Panic split through me and I sprinted toward her with a yell of desperation, but before I made it there, the shadows closed up once more and she was lost in the dark.

“Lavinia!” I bellowed. “What have you done to her?!”

Laughter rang around me, mocking me and chills spread everywhere through my body. I heaved in breaths, cutting through the shadows as I forcibly tried to get to my girl. She’s not dead. She’s not fucking dead.

“Calm down, it’s just a little curse,” she said with a laugh that made my blood chill.

“What kind of curse?” I roared, whipping around as I hunted for her and finding nothing but shadow yet again. What has she done to her?

“My army is here,” Lavinia whispered close by and I swung toward the voice with a snarl. “Your friends are dying.” The pressing silence of the shadows lifted for a moment and screams and shouts of terror called out all around me, making my heart stammer with concern.

I heard Geraldine screaming in pain and fear crashed through me before the sound was stolen once more by the darkness closing in on me.

Two cruel eyes appeared in the dark and I slashed my blade toward them in a warning to keep her back. Lavinia shrieked then released a breathy sob that pulled at my heartstrings.

“Lance,” she spoke and I knew it was my sister this time. “She’s getting too strong. You have to end this. Please. Kill me. I’m already dead anyway. I can’t come back, deep down you must know that.”

“No,” I growled in denial, reaching for her in the dark and her cold fingers found mine, though I still couldn’t see her.

I tried to pull her towards me out of the fog, but she couldn’t be moved.

“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “For everything. But you have to see the truth. You know it in your heart.”

“Please don’t say that,” I begged, the thought of losing her all over again too much for me to bear as panic made my heart hurt and I fought to deny her words.

The shadows closed in around me and flashes of images ran through my mind until I was dragged into memories racing through my head of the night I’d lost my sister.

Clara stood in the desolate land of the Shadow Realm naked and frozen, her arm still bloody from the sacrifice Lionel had made her offer before the dark stardust had consumed her.

“Hush,” Lavinia’s voice filled the air and shadows coiled around her, cloaking her body. “I am here.” They wound tighter and tighter and Clara gasped in fear as they sank beneath her flesh, taking root in her. “Go quietly, Fae girl, your body is mine.”

Clara screamed and thrashed as the shadows possessed her until she was forced to her knees and blood dripped from her mouth as the shadow spirit of Lavinia ate its way into her body.

Sickness ran through me and I was half aware of releasing a shout I couldn’t hear.

Wounds opened up across her skin and blood poured out from her in wave after wave, washing across the ground and rushing back through a fissure which was torn into the air. A portal ripped open by Lionel Acrux as a part of the ritual he’d forced us to bear witness to all those years ago, sacrificing my sister just for this.

Clara started crawling back toward it in desperation as a horrid scream left her which made my entire being seize up with grief.

She fell still before she made it to the portal and