Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,170

to do that for her, but having her hand beneath my waistband was a sure fire way to achieve it.

I watched her as she looked at the tattoo, tracing the words with her fingertips and breathing them into the silence. "There is only her." She continued to paint the marks that made up the Gemini and Leo constellations followed by the lines of the geometric design that charted the pattern of the moon and stars the night she’d said no to me. It was pretty complex, an interlinking design of triangles and interlocking lines that mapped out the alignment of the heavens on the night that had changed everything. Gabriel was the one who’d told me to get it, showing up at my room and telling me he’d seen it. The moment I laid eyes on the design he’d sketched out I’d known in my soul that he was right about it being destined to mark my flesh.

Distant thunder was closing in on us and I knew we'd find ourselves in yet another storm if we continued to linger here, but it was just too hard for me to pull away from her. I needed to know if she felt this too. I needed to hear the words she'd never spoken to me even though I knew I'd never deserve them.

"Are you still afraid of me, Roxy?" I asked in a low voice as her fingertips traced the tattoo and she followed the lines of the ink right along the length of it.

"Yes," she breathed, raising her eyes up to meet mine and making my gut twist with a hurt so sharp it stole my breath away. "But it's a good kind of fear."

I stared down at her with my heart pounding at those words, wanting nothing more than to pull her into my arms and taste the sweetness of her lips against mine, but she was already backing up.

And as the thunder boomed overhead once more and the earth trembled beneath our feet, I knew she had to go.

But it didn't make it hurt any less as I watched her walk away.

H aving Orion’s new number was a treat in itself. I sent him daily photographs of me and Darcy together with captions like #sheaintblueoveryounomore and #teamDeth. He’d blocked my number after threatening to rip my intestines out and strangle me with them – amongst other murderous threats - but then I got a magical app which sent my texts from anonymous numbers so he couldn’t keep me away. It was hilarious. And very intentional. Because I was officially kickstarting Mission: Get Darion Back Together.

It wasn’t a complex or layered plan; it was based on one simple little emotion that made Fae fucking crazy. Jealousy. Orion had shown his cards as clear as day when I’d visited him with Darcy and Gabriel. I knew what jealousy tasted like, looked like and felt like. Just yesterday, I’d made a girl cry when I overheard her planning to sneak into Caleb’s room dressed in nothing with glitter covering her naked body to ask him if he was horny for the horn. Firstly, Cal was not into that shit as far as I was aware (but I’d be the first to paint my body in glitter and strap a dildo horn to my head if he was). And secondly, no bitch. Just no. I made her do a lap of the school while some of my pack chased her with pokey sticks.

So when Orion had thrown me face first into a window, I’d had an inkling he wasn’t over Darcy.

I ran with my pack in the early hours of the morning, the lasting light of the moon giving way to dawn as we made it to the pond out in The Wailing Wood. My pack slipped into the water to bathe and I padded off into the trees to be alone. I knew as soon as they shifted that washing each other would give way to fucking and I’d been avoiding that for a while now. Which made them all kinds of crazy for me, but they knew I liked fucking other Orders.

Now the law was in place to stop that I wondered how long it would be before they questioned me on it. They’d never snitch on me either way, but I actually hadn’t fucked anyone else for ages. Since I’d shared Rosalie with Cal, I was more hung up on him than ever. Even though the one I really should