Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,17

the asshole, but maybe I was a sucker because now he was looking at me the way I’d always wanted him too and it felt really fucking good.

Darius was smiling his head off and the other Heirs looked awestruck. It felt so strange being the centre of attention after so long being locked up, hidden away and ignored. But I quite liked it too.

Tiberius started consoling his wife who’d broken down in tears and my heart hurt for Ellis as a noise of fury left her. She only had one Element, and it had to suck seeing us all gain more power than her. Max snorted, barely concealing a laugh and the other Heirs dove on him, the four of them suddenly tussling and cheering. But it was hard to focus on anything except the look in my father’s eyes. The way he saw me as someone of value for the first time in my life. My gut suddenly lurched and my happiness over that fact ebbed away as I realised what it meant.

I cursed the stars for this and their continued fuckery, because as much as I’d wanted my power, all I’d really wanted was a life without my father paying me any attention. But now he would watch me closer than ever, keep me under his heel, ensure this was splashed through every newspaper in Solaria. And I realised with a horrible, confining certainty, that I was never truly going to be free.

I woke up with a groan, my Atlas alarm telling me it was time to move. But no matter how much of a morning person I was, nothing could make me want to get up today. I’d only gotten three hours sleep since we’d been out hunting Nymphs half the night.

A weight shifted on my bed and my hands slipped into soft fur as I rolled towards the comforting heat of the body beside me. Seth’s Wolf form was damn huge, but he still managed to somehow fit in my single bed and leave me with enough room to breathe. I hadn’t asked him to stay with me, but I also hadn’t asked him to keep me company at the palace all summer and he often had. All the Heirs had.

Another groan in the room told me we weren’t alone and I cracked my eyes open, peering through a swathe of white fur to where Max was passed out by the window in a nest of blankets. I snorted at him as he pushed himself up onto his elbows.

“Why didn’t you go back to your room when Darius and Caleb left?” I asked through a yawn as I sat up.

“I was gonna, but then I touched this blanket and it was so soft. What’s it made of, fucking clouds?” Max brushed his fingers up and down it. “Anyway, I made this nest like some sort of Tiberian Rat and camped here. So…this blanket is mine now, yes?”

I blew out a breath of amusement. “Sure, take it.”

Seth was still dead to the world, laying upside down with his furry head crammed between the mattress and the wall and his tongue lolling out. Ridiculous mutt.

We’d stayed here talking last night after the Nymph hunt, trying to come up with new ways to save Tory, new ways to destroy Lionel, but what had been on all of our minds was Xavier. He had three freaking Elements. And from what the Heirs had said, Lionel was happy as hell about it. But as pleased as I was for Xavier, anything that made Lionel happy was just another kick in the teeth.

I’d been heartbroken to find out that Tory had been at his Awakening too. Right on campus. And now she was gone again and I didn’t know how to reach her. Going on the Nymph hunt had been what all of us had needed to keep our minds off of things. The problem was, no distraction ever lasted. It had been bad enough waiting for the Heirs to finish hazing all the freshmen before we left; it had served to remind me of my first night at Zodiac, and made me miss Tory something fierce.

I picked up our latest Tarot card from Astrum which was sitting on my nightstand, twisting it between my fingers. The words seek the fallen hunter gazed up at me in shimmering silver letters. As Orion’s name was the constellation of The Hunter, Darius had spoken to him about the card. They’d guessed it might have