Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,115

alleviate what was making her look at me that way. Memories of our childhood were bubbling up in me until I felt like I was overflowing with them. The good, the bad, the downright fucking miserable. And yet no matter what we'd experienced over the years, I'd always had this one burning light right beside me, like my very own star set to guide me back home always. Darcy. My other half. My one, truest love.

"Okay," I agreed on a breath and Max took my hands in his.

"We'll figure this out, okay little Vega?" he murmured, catching my gaze with his deep brown eyes and for some reason, I really did trust him.

"Alright," I agreed.

"I need to do this with her alone," Max said, not looking away from me for a moment. "So that my sole focus is on her emotions at all times."

Darcy looked ready to refuse and Geraldine threw an arm over her eyes as she sobbed loudly. "You'd better bring my lady back to me, you prize pufferfish. Or I'll cut your fins from your fanny and throw them in a fire!"

Max rolled his eyes at her, smiling warmly at me as his fingers tightened around mine and he continued to push soothing emotions into me.

"I don't want to leave her," Darcy growled defiantly.

"Look," Max said in a rough voice, breaking my gaze as he turned towards her. "Your sister has been through something seriously fucked up. I can't even begin to explain to you the complexity of the emotions she's feeling right now, but if you want me to have even the slightest chance of reversing this shit then you need to get the fuck out of here and let me show you why Sirens are the best fucking Order there is. Because right now I'm pretty sure time is of the essence. Her mind is fractured and malleable with the shadows pushed back and all of that Dark Coercion broken. But every moment that passes, more and more of the things she's feeling are becoming fixed. So do you want me to help her remember who she was before that motherfucker got his hands on her, or do you wanna just stand there and fuck up her chances?"

Darcy glared at him for a long moment then shot me an apologetic look. "I'll be back, Tor," she promised. "Just as soon as you're ready to see me again I'll be here."

I nodded as she grasped Geraldine's arm and tugged her from the room, their footsteps disappearing down the stairs as Max and I regarded each other.

He stepped up to me and took a deep breath as he reached out to cup my face between his large hands.

"Don't fight anything, Tory," he murmured. "Just feel all of it and I promise, I'll help you figure this out."

My heart was racing with panic and fear and I was filled with the desire to bolt and this urgent need to see my king. But as I looked into the depths of his brown eyes, something in me settled and though the tears tracking down my cheeks didn't slow, I managed to release a shaky breath that seemed to hold the weight of the world on it. And then I gave myself to the hold of his powers and let him sweep me away on a tide of pain and heartache.

I t had taken me more than five hours of just sifting through the memories of pain and fear that filled Tory's mind before I'd even been able to get down to the roots of them. Lionel had done a damn good job of forcing her to associate every moment of torture he'd inflicted upon her with a memory of Darius.

I'd gotten a clear look at so much torture in her memories that it made me feel sick to my core and bile kept rising up in my throat as my gifts allowed me to feel every single second of it.

I could have shied away, refused to absorb the worst of it and protected myself from it, but she needed this outlet. I was certain of it. She needed to work through each and every time he'd taken her down to that room beneath the Acrux Manor and played out these dark and twisted fantasies on her.

If there had been any doubt in me at all about the depths of Lionel Acrux's depravity before, then there was absolutely no illusions left in me now.

He hadn't just cut, burned and electrocuted