Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,83

things to strengthen his power.”

“Perfect,” Orion growled. “Just what we needed – for him to be able to predict us coming for him.”

“The stars are against us as always,” I agreed on a sigh, but the smile stayed glued to my face as I reached out and brushed my fingers through his dark hair. “Didn’t you cut this while you were in there?” I teased and he rolled his eyes.

“I was too caught up pining for you, big boy,” he joked in return, his fingers tracing the pattern of the tattoos on my left bicep. It was kinda weird if I gave it too much thought, but the bond demanded we be together as often as possible and after months of surviving on half hour visitation slots, I knew damn well that we’d be glued to each other for a good few days while the magic got its fill.

“Anyway, you didn’t let me get to the best bit,” Lance went on. “Right before Lionel came and got me out, I managed to figure out how to unlock the diary. My father had left me a note and I really think it’s going to lead us to the Imperial Star.”

“Seriously?” I asked, my brows going up as hope built in my chest. “What do we need to do? Is there somewhere we have to go or-”

Lance caught my arm as I made a move to get out of bed and shook his head. “I can’t read any more of it until the next full moon,” he said, disappointment clear in his voice. “But this is it, Darius. The beginning of the end. I just know it.”

“So how are we going to get out of you helping my asshole father?” I asked, scooting forward until my forehead pressed to his and I was surprised when he started laughing. “What?” I demanded, smiling too because it was damn infectious.

“The arrogant motherfucker got me to make an oath to find it,” he explained. “But he didn’t say a thing about me finding it for him.”

I started laughing too and the relief of just feeling something good after so fucking long had my chest swelling with happiness. I knew it wouldn’t last, but for right now, we weren’t going to talk Vegas or Nymphs or Dragon overlords. I was just going to bathe in his company.

Orion dropped his head back against the pillow, his gaze roaming over my features like he was trying to memorise them and I noticed the movement as he ran his tongue over his teeth.

“Are you thirsty?” I asked and he groaned, nodding slowly.

“But I’m also having trouble keeping my hands off of you right now and I’m concerned that if I bite you we might end up fucking,” he joked and I barked another laugh.

“It’s probably inevitable after all this time anyway, right?” I carved a hand through my dark hair as he eyed my neck hungrily.

“If only you didn’t have that big Dragon dick between your thighs, we could have been perfect,” he joked.

“Oh please, we both know you’d be the girl in our relationship,” I told him and he rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say.” Lance ran his tongue over his fangs again and I gave him a hard look before tilting my head and offering him my neck.

He held out for all of two seconds before pouncing, grabbing my wrists and slamming them down on the pillows either side of my head as his weight crushed me to the mattress and his fangs slid into my neck.

I growled, caught between my natural desire to assert my dominance and my desire to see him happy.

I mean, we weren’t happy. Not really. But I was gonna steal this little bit of joy and hold it tight while I could because him being stuck in that hell had been tearing me apart. And though he clearly wasn’t free here, this was a million times better than Darkmore.

Lance finally drew back, smirking down at me with my blood on his lips as he kept me pinned beneath him and I growled as I lunged forward, flipping him off of me and making him into my little spoon as I rolled onto my side.

He struggled a little bit then just gave in because we both knew we needed the contact right now anyway and we were gonna roll with the weirdness like we always did.

“Tell me everything you had to hold back on while I was stuck in that place,” he begged, settling