Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,197

said with a grin, remembering visiting the place as a boy. My dad had taken me there to steal bones, using his gifts to gain access to some of the crypts and graves that were less protected, though he’d always warned me not to attempt it at night. And never alone. We didn’t have much choice but to go this second though; there was no time to waste with Lionel out of town and the stars in alignment for us.

“Fuck yes. Then we’ll go to Zodiac. You can get into King’s Hollow and you’ll find all of the artefacts in the chest in my room while I get the ring from Roxy,” Darius said.

“Okay,” I agreed, my heart pumping with excitement for the first time in a long time. “Let’s go and get one up on the King.”

“I can feel your amusement from a mile away,” Max drawled from his seat as me and Geraldine tried to sneak up on him with an orb of water cast between us, hanging over his head.

“You can feel no such thing, Maxy boy,” Geraldine said airily. “I am feeling nothing but contempt for you, you salacious sealion.”

“Bullshit.” Max twisted around in his armchair and Geraldine and I dropped the water on his head.

He threw out a palm, casting it away from himself at the last second as he wrangled the Element and we dove to the floor as the water went crashing over our heads while we squealed. Caleb shot out of its path just as Seth burst through the door behind him into the Hollow, taking the full brunt of it and tumbling back down the stairs.

We all burst out laughing and Seth came running back into the room with a vine in his hand which he struck like a whip, breaking a hole in the floorboards. “Alright, which one of you water Elementals did it?” He narrowed his eyes at me and Geraldine on the floor, then looked to Max who had slipped casually back down into his chair like nothing had happened.

“Right, c’mere.” Seth whipped the vine and grabbed Geraldine by the ankle with it, dragging her toward him.

I caught her hand with a laugh as she wailed like a banshee and I was hauled across the floor with her.

“Let me go, my lady!” Geraldine cried. “I shall go into the eternal night for you. You must live on to produce many a babe with the most handsome of kings!”

“Well that would be me then.” Caleb shot forward, diving onto my back and clinging on as Seth heaved us all across the floor.

“Caleb,” I laughed as he tickled me to try and make me let go of Geraldine.

“Let the Wolf have her!” Caleb cried dramatically and I lost my grip on her, leaving Seth to yank Geraldine across the floor at his feet and he started binding her with more vines.

“Fungal festoons!” she wailed. “I die in the name of my queens! I will be remembered as Grus the Great. The most loyal of friends, fiercest of allies-”

“Not today, Gerry!” Max leapt over me and Caleb, running at Seth, his footsteps pounding across the floor.

He blasted Seth with a gust of air that sent him stumbling back and Seth howled as he cast vines at Max’s legs to trip him up.

“I’m your real enemy!” Max cried.

“You did it?” Seth feigned shock with a snort of amusement then Max Pitball tackled him as he leapt over Geraldine and they started wrestling on the floor.

Caleb shot to his feet, whipping me up and throwing me over his shoulder before racing over to toss me into the dog pile, diving into it himself. Seth’s teeth sank into my arm and I yelped, smacking him with a laugh.

Geraldine broke her binds, launching herself at us with a yell and grabbing a fistful of Seth’s hair, wrapping her legs around his waist from behind as she fell backwards to wrench him away from me. My leg got caught under hers and Max’s face smooshed into my stomach as Caleb kicked him in the head. We were a tangle of limbs and we all started belly laughing as none of us could get up.

The door flew open and my laugh stuttered out like a car running out of gas as I stared up at Orion in the doorway, gazing down at us all in shock. Ohmagod.

“What the fuck?” Max balked, managing to get up and pulling me after him.

I knew that Tory had given him a