Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,227

of them with ease, never once opening his eyes and somehow having his hand in the perfect place to make the catch no matter what way Caleb shot them at him.

"Satisfied?" Gabriel asked, smirking cockily and I grinned at him. That shit was stupid cool. I seriously had the best siblings.

"Okay, so we just need to hide it then," Darcy said thoughtfully. "Should we leave it here somewhere or-"

"Oh my lady, I don't believe it should ever be out of sight of one of the Vega Princesses. This is of tantamount importance in the fight against our evil overlord," Geraldine said hastily.

"One of you should wear it then," Max suggested.

"I have a chain that you could hang it from," Darius said, lifting me into his arms for a moment so that he could get off of the couch before placing me back down and heading across the room to the chest where he kept his treasure.

"You should wear it, Darcy," I said. "It's too risky for me to be bringing it near to Lionel whenever I go back there."

"Okay," she agreed, accepting the silver chain from Darius as he held it out to her.

He didn't actually let go of it though, a soft growl escaping him as he tried to fight his Dragon nature to hoard all of his treasure for himself.

"I could find a different chain if you don't want me to have this?" Darcy asked, looking amused as his muscles bunched with the effort of trying to make himself part with it.

I got to my feet and moved over to him, taking his hand in mine and meeting his dark gaze as I slowly peeled his fingers out of his fist one by one.

"Bad Dragon," I chastised and he almost smirked at me until the moment when I actually tugged the chain out of his hand.

He snatched my wrist suddenly but I’d already tossed the chain to Darcy. I could feel all of our friends watching us as he fought against his Dragon nature while staring down at me with all the intensity of the fire that burned in his soul.

"You shouldn't have done that, Roxy," he growled and a shiver of fear tracked through my core at his words which both made me want to run for the hills and move even closer to the danger in his eyes.

I forced myself to push through the fear, tiptoeing up and placing a kiss against the rough stubble lining his jaw, my lips just brushing the corner of his mouth as my heart galloped in my chest.

"You'll forgive me," I teased and his eyes flared with liquid heat as he slowly relaxed his grip on my arm and let me go.

I stepped back with my pulse pounding and turned to Darcy as she crafted an amulet out of earth magic to hold the star on the chain before hanging it around her neck. It was beautiful, but nothing about it gave away what it truly was, and I grinned at the knowledge that we'd finally gotten one up on the lizard asshole who had stolen our throne.

"So what now?" Seth asked eagerly and I looked around at everyone, wondering if any of them might have an answer to that.

"Well, Orion won't be able to read any more from the diary until the next full moon," Darius said. "And it's not like we can actually use the Imperial Star. So I guess we just keep looking into ways to break the Guardian bond, fighting Nymphs and hunting for any more advantages that we can get over my father between now and then."

"Well I suppose in that case, it is time for me to hit the hay," Geraldine announced, getting to her feet. "We should all try to rest our noggins awhile to refresh ourselves before class."

"I'll walk you back," Max announced, getting to his feet and heading out of the room with her.

"You wanna come for a sleepover with me?" I asked Darcy, giving her a look that let her know I was going to be getting answers about her and Orion the moment we were alone.

"Sure," she agreed and we said goodnight to the others as we headed out of the room towards the bedroom I'd claimed for my own here in the Hollow. We couldn’t stay here together nearly as often as I liked in case one of the K.U.N.T.s noticed her absence, so she often had to return to Aer Tower and I relished the chance to