Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,101

and I was knocked onto my back before a heavy boot slammed into my side over and over again, catching me in the face too.

I cursed as I clenched my teeth against my father's assault and rolled onto my side just as Roxy pulled the shadows back out of me.

"Heal him and make sure he's presentable before you join us on the balcony," Father's voice came from far away and I grunted in pain as I moved onto my hands and knees, spitting out a mouthful of blood as a procession of footsteps moved out of the room and Stella muttered something about me learning respect.

A soft hand caught hold of my chin and I looked up at Roxy in surprise as I found her there instead of Mom, tilting her head to one side curiously as healing magic slid from her fingers into my skin.

"Do you truly remember nothing?" I asked her as the taste of my own blood lingered on my lips.

I rocked back onto my knees before her as her touch awoke every aching piece of my heart, but as I looked closer, nothing in her expression said she knew me at all.

"About what?" she asked, her gaze cold, expression void. Other than the flickers of fear she sometimes directed my way I never got anything else from her and that was somehow more gutting than if she'd been sobbing and broken in a more obvious way. This felt like she wasn't even her anymore. Like every stubborn, infuriating, obnoxious, addictive, delicious, beautiful piece of her was gone. Like she might as well have been dead. And I was the one who had killed her. Father clearly had her in the grip of Dark Coercion as well as the shadows and whatever the fuck he’d done to her to make her fear me, and I was lost without a way to combat any of it for her.

"Us," I breathed, catching her hand as she moved to withdraw it and pressing her fingers to my cheek like if I just held her there, I could force her to feel it.

She stiffened as I held onto her but didn't do anything to stop me as she remained crouched in front of me with her gaze hunting mine. I didn't try to hide anything from her, showing her every broken, bloody, hurting piece of my soul because it belonged to her anyway.

"I remember..." For a moment it was like a cloud shifted across the sun and the light shone free within her. But I barely even saw it before shadows swept over her eyes and she drew back with a sharp inhale, wincing a little as she stood again, looking down at me. "I remember all the reasons I have to hate you. And you're just lucky my king doesn't want you dead, or I’d make sure you were."

"You don't hate me, Roxy," I growled as I got to my feet and towered over her, but as I tried to take a step towards her, I found she'd frozen my feet to the ground.

The chandelier above our heads began to make a loud jingling sound as vibrations rocked the foundations of the palace due to us being left alone, but I didn't fucking care. I needed to speak with her and the stars weren't getting a say in it this time.

"No, I don't hate you," she agreed and I swallowed thickly as she moved closer to me, brushing my father’s boot marks from my shirt before tucking it in for me. I inhaled deeply as she smoothed the creases over my shoulders then traced her fingers across my chin as she washed away the blood there using her water magic. She ran her dark gaze over me critically, tiptoeing up to push her fingers into my hair and I growled with the ache in my heart as my hands slipped around her waist and I tried to draw her closer to me. "I don't care about you at all."

I froze at the coldness of those words as she spoke them, and she was gone before I could fully comprehend how clearly she'd meant them too. That had been the truth. The honest to stars reality of the person she was now. She didn't care. Not about me or Darcy or any of her friends or anything at all aside from that fucking animal who had stolen her throne.

My blood pumped hot and furiously through my veins as my heart broke