Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,107

to my king. I knew it had to be this way, but five days had never felt so damn long.

"I am more concerned about practicality than flamboyance," Mildred scoffed at some comment Marguerite had made. "The main thing that matters is that it comes off easily for our wedding night so that I can produce a fine Dragon Heir for the next generation of Acruxes-"

My fist snapped out so suddenly that I wasn't even certain when I'd decided to strike her, but as my knuckles collided with her bristly jaw, a dark smile pulled at my lips and the shadows in me stirred with hunger.

"What the-" Mildred began, rolling her shoulders back and bunching her muscles as the Dragon behind her eyes glared at me like it wanted to bite my head off.

"Go blather about weddings somewhere else," I growled, shadows slicking down my arms and pooling around my fingertips. "The shadows are hungry. And if you don't fuck off, I'll let them feed on Dragon tonight."

"Catch you guys later," Marguerite gasped before scurrying away, but Mildred wasn't so smart.

"You might be important to the King, but I am going to be an Acrux before long, so you'd do well to remember that I-"

With a flick of my fingers, I sent her sprawling back away from me, driving the shadows into her chest as she squealed like a stuck pig.

"I'll be telling the King about this!" she gasped.

"The King doesn't care about you," I growled, advancing on her with my eyes full of shadows and pleasure tracing patterns down my spine. "You're just a walking womb with Dragon blood in your veins. And guess what? You don't need legs to give birth. So I suggest you listen to me when I tell you to run from me or you'll be finding yourself without the necessary limbs to comply."

Mildred shrieked in pain as I drove the shadows deeper into her but before they could get a true hold on her, she shifted, tearing through her clothes and expanding in size so rapidly that all I could do was watch.

She roared at me in her mud brown Dragon form, swinging her head around to glare down at me with beady eyes set deep in the scales of her head.

The shadows rolled over me as I stood my ground, my heart pumping furiously as I felt fully awake for the first time in a long time and Mildred released a blast of Dragon fire right at me.

The shadows rose up in a cloud to meet her flames and my eyes lit with hunger as I fought to control them, their power almost overwhelming me.

An enormous roar broke through the air, drawing my gaze skyward as a golden Dragon five times the size of Mildred dove from the sky and collided with her.

I sucked in a breath of fright as my gaze fell on Darius and the echoes of a thousand tortures bit into my flesh. Memories of pain and suffering surfaced in me at the sight of him and the fight went out of me as I pulled the shadows close defensively.

As the Dragons tumbled across the path, a torrent of students appeared from The Orb to watch and scream in shock so I took off.

I strode away with the shadows curling through my fingers as I took the path into The Wailing Wood and left Mildred and the other Dragon behind. Though I tossed more than a few glances over my shoulder as my brow furrowed with concern over something I couldn’t quite place.

I tugged my Atlas from my pocket so that I could just look at the screensaver of my king for a few moments, but a notification flashed up on it which I’d been tagged in.

Tyler Corbin: Looks like love’s young dream isn’t so sweet after all. @DariusAcrux was just seen swooping in to give his fiancé @MildredCanopus a beat down Dragon style in the name of love for his true mate @ToryVega. This young Pegasus saw it all going down and I swear, Mildred still has that moustache in Dragon form as well as that pig snout. Anyone else think she might have some pig grandparents hiding somewhere? For all that the great and honourable King Asscrux has to say about pure bloodlines, you’d think he might have noticed that the Canopus family have been boning farm animals…

#isawtrotters #hewontwannaporkthepork #ibetshehogsthecovers #jurassicpork #porkasaurusrex #piginawig

Stacy Denny: Someone needs to wrap that pig in a blanket and roll it off a cliff!

Desinie