Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,146

while everyone else was caught up watching this horror show play out.

“Step aside, Lance,” Lionel growled with a frustrated huff.

“You know I can’t do that,” Orion snarled, baring his fangs as Darius cursed in pain behind him where Clara still held him in the clutches of the shadows. Orion’s hair was damp and he was wearing a fresh white shirt and jeans but his feet were bare, making me think he’d been in the middle of changing when he’d felt Darius’s pain and been drawn here by the Guardian bond to protect him.

“See your brother back to his accommodation, Clara,” Lionel hissed, his venomous gaze still locked on his son while he bled out on the floor behind Orion.

“No!” Orion threw himself at Darius, reaching for him with green healing magic flaring in his palm a moment before Clara hit him with a shockwave of shadows so powerful that they made the air in the room ripple all around us.

The shadows in me tried to rise up to meet them automatically and I groaned involuntarily as pleasure rolled down my spine, fighting with all I had to keep them back so that I could think clearly. Catalina stared at her son in horror from her seat, seeming unable to even call out to him while she remained locked in her place.

Xavier’s grip on my arm was the only thing stopping me from diving forward to help too and I choked back a sob that lodged in my throat as I fought with the desires of my heart and the desperate need we all had to keep my cover intact.

Orion still tried to crawl towards Darius, crying out in pain as Clara smiled wickedly, allowing him to get just close enough to brush his fingers against the knife protruding from Darius’s gut before yanking him upright with the shadows again.

“Walky, walky, little brother,” Clara purred, miming the action with two of her fingers as Orion’s legs carried him towards the door despite how hard he was clearly trying to stay and help Darius.

His white shirt was stained with Darius’s blood and his desperate gaze met mine with what was undoubtably a plea for me to do what I had to to save his friend’s life.

Clara leapt up onto the table and ran the length of it before diving over Vard's head and scurrying out of the room behind him as Lionel advanced on his son once more.

“Don’t forget your place, boy,” Lionel snarled, grabbing a fistful of Darius’s shirt and yanking him half off of the ground so that they were nose to nose. “I may have use for you thanks to your brother’s disgusting condition, but the moment you put an Heir in Mildred’s belly, your value will greatly diminish. Perhaps you should consider making yourself more valuable to me before then.”

Darius gritted his teeth against the pain of the knife lodged in his gut, grunting as Lionel threw him back down against the wooden floor and blood pooled out to further stain his blue shirt red.

Lionel slammed his foot into Darius’s side as he straightened and only Xavier’s grip on my arm held me in place as tears burned the backs of my eyes and I fought with everything I had against the desire to start screaming. But I couldn’t do anything about it. Even now, I couldn’t bring myself to truly consider hurting Lionel and the knowledge of that was cutting into me as surely as the knife piercing Darius’s flesh.

"Fix my son up and see him to his quarters, Roxanya, and make sure he stays in there for the night. I'm finding the current company less than stimulating." Lionel sneered, tossing his napkin down on the table and heading from the room. "You can meet me in my chambers when you've made sure he's locked away."

Vard stood too, sighing like we were boring him before stalking out of the room after his king and allowing us to act freely.

The moment they were gone, I darted forward, dropping to my knees and pressing shaky fingers to Darius’s stomach as I looked down at the blade protruding from his gut. Xavier leaned in close too, but without the training required for him to help, there wasn’t anything he could do.

“I can do it,” Darius grunted, reaching for the knife like he was going to rip the damn thing out himself and I smacked his hand away as I shook my head.

“I’ve got you,” I growled, wrapping my own fingers