Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,123

is for her.” He held it out then pulled a packet of Tory’s favourite chocolate wafers from his pocket.

I moved forward to take them and he caught the back of my neck, pulling me into a tight hug. I swear I’d never been hugged so much in my life as I had this morning, but I knew we all needed it. My gaze caught on Caleb and Seth standing further off in the trees, watching us with anxious expressions.

“Don’t ever let her go again, Darius Acrux,” I growled in his ear. “Don’t you hurt her or let her down or make her cry. I don’t know how we’ll fix everything, but we will. And when we do and you two can love each other like you’re meant to, I won’t take any shit from you.”

He chuckled in a low tone as he released me and tapped me on the nose. “It’s a deal, Gwen,” he said and I punched his arm playfully before turning away with a smirk.

I headed back inside and found Tory and Gabriel waiting in the lounge. I passed Tory her coffee and she eyed it for a long time when I told her who had brought it, but she didn’t say anything about him.

I set about laying the basket of food on the coffee table and we all sat around it on the floor, eating the incredible freshly baked food until we were stuffed.

Once Tory had been caught up on everything that had been going on without her around, we just talked and talked about some of the good in the world. Gabriel told us about how his baby boy was growing out of his clothes nearly every month and how his wife could feed him, clean the house and do a workout in some stupid amount of time because of the gifts of her Order.

For a while, the rest of the world just faded away and for the first time in a long time, I felt truly happy.

***

I stood up to my waist in the warm water of the lagoon in Water Elemental class in my last lesson of the day. Tory was feigning being ill with Fae flu so she could recover a bit more today and prepare to return to lessons tomorrow and Gabriel had insisted I go to classes for the day so we didn’t draw any attention to Tory.

The joy of getting her back was tainted by the fact she would now have to continue going to Lionel whenever he summoned her, pretending that she was still a slave to the shadows. I’d tried to fight it, coming up with any other option that I could think of, but in the end Gabriel had insisted it was the only option. And I really couldn’t argue with him considering he had The Sight.

“That’s it, Miss Vega,” Washer called, wading toward me. He parted the water around him with his magic so he was walking on dry land, giving me a full view of the bulge in his tight speedo before letting the water lap in all around him again. Was that really necessary??

“Let’s see it one more time,” he encouraged and I turned my attention to the water, placing my hand into it and causing a whirlpool to form around it, swirling faster and faster until it started to drag students in closer and they had to fight to get out of the current.

“Wonderful!” Washer cheered, slapping me on the back one inch away from my ass. “Now pair up with Miss Grus and let’s see you create a whirly wet hole together.”

“Er, sir?” Damian Evergile called over to him with pursed lips. He’d pinned his K.U.N.T. badge to his swimming trunks like a douche. “You shouldn’t be pairing people out of their Orders.”

Washer shot him a glare. “Well Miss Vega here has no other students of her Order in the class at this moment, so what do you expect me to do?” he snapped, and I swear I’d never seen him get so angry.

Max suddenly came surfing across the water on a wave, kicking Damian in the head and Geraldine started cheering, jumping up and down as her breasts bounced in her tight swimming costume.

“Hey Gerry, watch this!” Max called, circling around the guy until he came to a halt standing right on top of his head, casually leaning on a pillar of water he cast beside him.

“Wonderful work, Mr Rigel. Take twenty points for House Aqua,” Washer said as Damian