Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,92

in, shaking his head then his face returned serious. “I can’t really say.”

“Oh come on,” Seth pushed. “You can’t do us like that.”

Gabriel shook his head. “If I say, it’ll change everything.”

“So it’s good news?” I asked hopefully, but Gabriel said nothing, obviously fighting the urge to laugh again.

“Come on, let’s get on with it,” Darius said, turning me to face him again and Orion stood beside us, watching closely. Yep, him just standing there like a big hot Vampire ex-boyfriend is really helping me focus.

I took a breath, reaching up and resting my hands on Darius’s shoulders and letting my eyes fall closed to concentrate. My Phoenix flames burned hotter under my skin as I tried to feel out the shadows living in Darius. He brought them to the edge of his body and they brushed against my flesh like a cold caress. They didn’t call to me anymore. There was no way for them to get past my defences. I just wished I could offer the same to those I loved.

My flames rushed out along my arms to meet with the darkness in him, burning it back, but I could only destroy those that coiled outside of his flesh.

“Do it,” Darius commanded and I knew he’d cast himself into my flames and be consumed by them if it would help bring Tory back. Because I’d do the very same.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to do it, pushing my flames into his flesh and urging them to seek out the shadows in him. He hissed between his teeth and my eyes flew open, meeting the deadly gaze of a Dragon as he allowed himself to burn in my power. His skin began to blacken and I groaned as I forced the flames deeper, hating myself for hurting him but knowing I had no other choice.

Orion groaned then suddenly dragged me away from Darius, forcing my arms behind my back and burning himself in my fire as it circled up around me.

“No!” I cried, but he held onto me as he drew me away from Darius and I realised it was his Guardian bond. It wouldn’t let him stand by as I hurt his Ward.

Orion clutched me hard against his chest and I quickly extinguished the flames, my heart hammering at the scent of burning flesh. Seth rushed over to Darius, lending him magic to heal fast and I twisted around in Orion’s arms, inspecting the damage I’d done to him with frantic hands. My fingers brushed the burns on his chest and arms as I quickly cast healing magic, my breaths coming heavily, matching his. The scent of cinnamon hung around him and I wanted to lean in and drown in it. Oh god, oh god.

“Stop,” Orion grunted, catching my wrists and I looked up at him, finding his eyes were a sea of pain that I wasn’t sure had anything to do with the burns I’d laid on him.

His jaw tightened and he released me, shooting away across the room to stand behind Gabriel on the couch.

I straightened my spine, averting my gaze from him and making sure he didn’t see how shaken I was. I was flushed, angry, hurt, turned on, all the emotions that burned. It suddenly struck me that all the times I’d hurt Darius in an attempt to burn the shadows out of him, I’d been hurting Orion too. He felt all of Darius’s pain, cursed to feel it and know his Ward was in trouble. But he could never come and help. I couldn’t even understand the kind of agony that must have caused him. All this time I’d been torturing him and I hadn’t even known. It made me feel sick.

“You can’t do it while I’m with you,” Orion said with a sigh, but I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. If I did right then, he’d see through me to the deep and bloody wound he’d left on my heart that still wasn’t healed. “Keep practising at the academy.”

“You can record it,” Gabriel said to me and Darius, reaching into his pocket for something then tossing Orion an Atlas. “Here, it’s got all our numbers in it. No, don’t hide it there,” he said as Orion took one step toward a large blue dresser with little sea animal ornaments on it. “Hide it in the cupboard under the sink.”

“Got it,” Orion muttered, pocketing it.

I frowned at Darius, silently asking if he was alright and he nodded, but his jaw