Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,104

as he looked down over them. "Every Tiberian Rat in the kingdom is formally requested to come to the new Nebular Inquisition Centre that I have opened up in outer Caronis. It is a holding facility where you will be questioned by a Cyclops who will get to the bottom of these accusations. If you are innocent, then there is no need for you to refuse this request and you will of course be released. But if you are guilty then the people of Solaria will have their answer - and I will demand payment for this theft in blood!"

The crowd roared even louder as my father stood there, lording it over them and smirking in that fucking way I'd always known proceeded violence in him and it fucking terrified me.

That wasn't going to be an inquisition. There would be no Tiberian Rats found innocent. I wasn't a fucking fool. And once he'd proclaimed the lot of them to be guilty of stealing everyone's goddamn luck, he’d come calling for that blood payment.

It would be genocide. And I knew in my soul that the Rats would just be the beginning.

***

King’s Hollow was full with all of us here, Geraldine bustling about like a mother hen while Darcy sat in the armchair opposite mine beside the fire. The others had plenty to say but I just gazed into the flames with my brow furrowed and my heart aching.

"It will work," Darcy insisted and I glanced up to find her looking at me. Or more like glaring at the doubts which were clearly written across my features.

"I know," I agreed. "She won't be able to escape the cage or cast the shadows beyond the confines of it. But..."

"But?" she demanded and I knew she was just worked up on behalf of her sister, and if she needed to use me as I punching bag she could.

"I just know my father. He's not one to do things by halves. Yeah, he got her to give herself up to the shadows and he bonded her to him to make her feel loyalty to him even when the shadows are numbing everything else. But I don't think that would be iron clad enough for him. He would know that the moment she was away from him we'd be trying everything we could to bring her back to us and yet he still sent her here alone. There's more to this that we aren't seeing, and I'm just concerned that releasing her Phoenix isn't going to be enough to bring her back to us."

"You're wrong," Darcy growled angrily, getting to her feet. "I know my sister and I know she is still in there fighting for us. I'm not giving up on her and once her Phoenix is released, I just know it will be enough to pull her back from the shadows. He could have placed a thousand Dark Coercions on her, but it won’t matter because they’ll all be burned away the moment she can use her Order form again. Once the shadows’ grip on her loosens we’ll be able to figure the rest of it out."

"There still isn't any way to sever the Guardian bond though," I muttered bitterly, knowing I was only riling her up, but I couldn’t help it. All the time that I was parted from Lance while he was in prison, I’d felt the ache to be close to him so desperately that it cut me open. And even though I could visit him more frequently, it still wasn't enough. I'd been going back there almost daily and yet I still yearned for him, worried about him, cared for him. We couldn’t do anything to stop Roxy from feeling that way about my father too. And it would be even worse for her because the Guardian felt it all five times over. As the Ward, I got the easy ride, only really feeling that way because he’d been gone for so long.

"Well, there is one way to sever the bond," Darcy growled. "We just have to cut Lionel's head off."

"Assuming that won't kill her too," Seth piped up helpfully. "Because my mom once told me that Guardians can't survive the death of their Ward. She said they’ll throw themselves between them and death or follow them into it if they fail, so-"

"Shut the fuck up, Seth, that's bullshit," I snapped.

I got to my feet and glared at him and he stepped up to me instantly, bumping his chest against