Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,200

Darius would leave any of us here,” Seth said but Darius folded his arms with a look that said he would and everyone fell into line.

Orion strode to the door just as my Atlas buzzed and I took it out, finding a message from my brother.

Gabriel:

The K.U.N.T.s were out in force when I stardusted home an hour ago. Let the Vampires take you and your sister to the boundary. The others won’t be stopped.

Good luck tonight.

He started sending a bunch of pictures of his baby and family and my heart squeezed. Dammit that baby was cute. I just wanted to squeeze his chubby cheeks and tickle his round belly and – oh right, I’ve got a life or death mission to go on that needs my attention.

“Lance,” I called to him, jogging over and showing him the message before letting the others see.

“Caleb, take Tory,” Orion commanded then scooped me up before I could disagree and shot off down the stairs.

I clung to him, stifling a scream as he clutched me to his chest and moved at the speed of light, sprinting faster than he ever had with me in his arms before. I couldn’t draw a single breath until we stopped and the world spun. We were standing beyond the fence of the academy and the cool night air whipped around us.

I stared up at Orion as his eyes roamed my face and my toes curled.

“You can put me down now,” I said breathily, my heart hitting a wild beat and I tried to convince myself it was from the speed we’d been moving at. But who was I kidding?

He placed me on my feet and silence rippled between us as I remained snared in his eyes.

“Happy birthday,” I forced out.

I’d been considering messaging him all day, but hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it. Now he was right in front of me, I didn’t want him to think I’d forgotten. Maybe I should have been a dick about it, but he was already spending this day as a prisoner with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Well, until now I guessed.

“It’s not as happy as my last,” he murmured then Caleb arrived with Tory, setting her down beside me, leaving me trapped in a happy memory of the past and wishing I could go back to it.

“Did you really need to do a lap of the whole academy?” Tory tutted, flattening her messed up hair.

“I needed to limber up before we go into battle,” Caleb said with a smirk.

“We’re not going into battle, we’re going to a graveyard where all kinds of bullshit spells are waiting for us,” Orion said.

“Well I limbered up for creepy spells then.” Caleb shrugged.

Seth appeared in Wolf form with Darius and Max on his back and they all slipped through the gap in the fence. Seth shifted back, putting on some sweatpants and sneakers as Max threw them to him and pulling his hair up into a topknot. Geraldine appeared in her Cerberus form, one of her three large brown dog heads jamming between the bars as she tried to squeeze through. She was damn huge. Bigger than Seth in his Wolf form and he could barely fit.

She shifted back into her Fae form with a laugh, her breasts squashing against the bars as she moved through the gap.

“By the sun, Gerry,” Max snapped, stepping forward to try and shield her from view.

“Oh do stop being a possessive porpoise, Maxy boy. It really is unbecoming.” She took her clothes from him, pulling them on before snatching her flail from Darius who’d been carrying it for her.

“Let’s go to war,” Seth said excitedly, knocking his shoulder into Caleb’s as he howled.

“We’re not going to fucking…argh, never mind,” Orion said, stepping closer to me and Tory. “Have you got the rings?”

“Yup. Here you go, dude.” Tory held hers out, but I grabbed it before Orion could, pushing it onto my finger beside the other ring.

“Wherever these go, I go,” I said with a challenge in my voice. If he thought he was going to ditch me at any point tonight for my own safety or some bullshit, it wasn’t gonna happen. I was going to personally make sure that star was brought back here no matter what.

“Dammit,” he muttered and I grinned triumphantly. I knew it.

Tory laughed. “You can’t get one over on her anymore, asshole.”

“I wasn’t trying to-” Orion stopped himself mid-sentence, shaking his head. “Let’s just fucking go.” He took