Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,185

to the stairs then head up one flight and exit there. No one will ever even suspect your hand in what happened to Catalina. And me and Dante will make sure she gets to Hamish safely once Darcy lets us back out of the tunnel at the far end."

"You're certain my boys will be okay?" Catalina asked, pinning me in her gaze, clearly not sure what to make of Gabriel.

"You can trust him," I swore to her. "He has The Sight. If he says this will work, then it will."

"Okay," she agreed hesitantly.

"I'm sorry, Catalina," Orion rumbled, stepping closer to her with his eyes full of pain. "If I'd known what Lionel was doing to you, I would have-"

"Shhh," she breathed, reaching out to cup his jaw in her hand and soothing him like he was her child. "I want you to know I'm sorry too. For flirting with you and making you so uncomfortable. I've never seen you that way, Lance. You're like one of my boys." A tear slid from her eye as she pulled him close and wrapped her arms around him. "I was just trying to warn you about Lionel but the spells he put on me made it almost impossible, and now it's too late-"

"It's not your fault," Orion growled, holding her tightly. "I'm sorry I didn't see it, but I swear we'll make him pay one day. You're free now. That's all that matters."

"We have to go," Gabriel said so firmly that none of us questioned it and Orion released her so that we could all go our separate ways.

Orion lit a Faelight as we hurried up the passageway and I kept close beside him, hoisting my skirt up so that I could move faster in my dress and heels.

When we reached the end of the passage where Gabriel had told us to exit, Orion caught my arm suddenly, his eyes full of anguish as he looked at me.

"She was trying to tell me," he said roughly, his fingers digging in.

"Tell you what?" I asked in confusion.

"Whenever she came pawing at me or flirting with me, she always used to say the same things over and over. Always the same words in the same order and I was so caught up in being horrified that my friend's mother was trying it on with me that I never really thought about what she was really saying."

"What words?" I asked.

"Handsome, enamouring, lovely, powerful. And sometimes she’d add unbelievable and sexy too."

"So..."

"The first letter of each of those words spells out the message she was trying to give me. ‘Help us.’"

My throat tightened and tears pricked the backs of my eyes as I realised he was right. How long had she been suffering under her husband's control? How long had she been forced to do anything and everything he wanted while watching him abuse the children he wouldn't even let her show affection to?

"He's a fucking monster," I hissed, throwing my arms around Orion as I saw the devastation on his features so clearly that it made me hurt even more.

"If I'd understood sooner-" he began in a horrified whisper, but I shook my head violently.

"There was nothing you could have done. But there is now," I said fiercely. "Find the Imperial Star. We’re so close, Orion. The full moon is only a few days away and then you'll be able to read your father's diary and we can get our hands on it. A few days and we will have what we need to destroy him. For all of our sakes."

"You're right," he agreed with a determined snarl. "Just a few more days."

W ith Catalina gone, something in me settled. But to see the woman who’d been suppressed within her all these years had left me feeling guilty and ashamed. She’d tried to ask for my help and I hadn’t seen the wood for the trees. It was another black mark against my name. I wondered if the queen had told my father what I’d become. Just a nothing, nobody who made too many poor choices.

I’d spent years trying to ensure Darius could be strong enough to fight his father, my own hunger for vengeance thriving on his. But the Vegas returning had changed everything. And with hours alone with just myself for company, I started to run over all the decisions I’d made and started questioning everything. Every one of them but her. I couldn’t regret her.

I should have done more to help Clara.

I should