Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,127

moment and I paused as I spotted a new tattoo which curved over his left hip bone and disappeared beneath his shorts.

But before I could get a good look at it, he hitched his shorts an inch higher and hid it from view.

"You're gonna have to get my pants off if you wanna see that one, Roxy," he teased and I found myself replying before I could think it through.

"Nice try, asshole."

We both paused for a moment, looking at each other like we'd somehow stepped back in time and I offered him the briefest hint of a smile before moving inside, feeling his eyes on my back as I walked away.

I tugged the shadows closer as I spotted the H.O.R.E.S. and K.U.N.T.s waiting for me, wondering what the fuck my life had come to to find myself heading into their company for the day.

I grabbed a tray and headed over to pick out my breakfast, my stomach growling loudly as I looked at the sweet pastries on offer and I remembered the bland meals I'd been eating over the last few months. The shadows were so consuming that they’d pushed out my desire for food and I'd forgotten to even eat at all half the time. But now that I was pushing them back, my appetite was returning with a vengeance.

I stacked cinnamon buns on my plate four high then moved along to the coffee machine where Darius was pouring out two mugs. He placed one on my tray as I hesitantly approached him and I stilled, looking down at it as my stomach knotted. All the memories of all the times he’d brought me coffee in the mornings came flooding back in on me at once and I was overwhelmed with the desire to reach out to him even while I fought off the desire to recoil from him.

Darius didn't say anything else to me with so many people around and I had to ignore the urge to turn and watch him walking away with my heart pounding as I headed over to join the least desirable people in the room.

"Did you hear?" Mildred asked, crumbs flying from her mouth as she failed to finish chewing her food before speaking.

I didn't respond, assuming she wasn't talking to me seeing as there were like eight other people sitting around her but as her little beady eyes swivelled over to look at me, I realised she was.

"What?" I asked, lifting my first cinnamon bun to my lips and forcing myself not to groan as I bit into it. Shadow bitch Tory didn't take pleasure from anything except shadow torturing people, so I had to pretend my food wasn't the best thing I'd eaten in months. But fuck me with a buttery bagel, this was good.

"Daddy was involved in a Nymph raid on a Tiberian Rat nest last night. He caught six of the little squealers trying to run and lit them up like a bonfire!" she gushed excitedly and suddenly the food in my mouth didn't taste so great anymore.

"He killed them?" I asked, my tone harsher than it should have been and I hastily reached for the shadows to help deaden the rage that ignited in me as I had to fight not to leap to my feet and scream at her.

"Of course! My family are nothing if not loyal to the crown and as the future queen, I am always encouraging him to go above and beyond in the name of our king. When me and snookums are married, I'll personally help him eradicate any and all threats to the throne and our royal line to make sure our children have a clear route to a peaceful rule," Mildred said proudly.

My gut twisted at the thought of her impending nuptials with Darius and I was gifted a vivid memory of the time I'd punched her stupid troll face until she blacked out on the floor not far from here. I had a deep and urgent desire to do it again and the shadows rose up within me, hungering for that too.

“Good,” I ground out, knowing I had to seem pleased by her little announcement even as the word burned my tongue like acid on the way out.

With a force of will, I stood up and walked away from her, my face a mask of nothingness as the shadows pushed deeper into my veins and I found myself forgetting little by little. But I couldn't afford to do that. I