Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,276

them. Even though I knew Clara had full control over them, that didn't stop me from expecting them to attack at any moment. Knowing Diego had been good only eased my fears like one percent. Because of all the Nymphs I’d come into contact with, he was the single one who hadn’t looked hungry to eat my magic, and who had tried to help us. So I was assuming he was an anomaly. Oh Diego.

Clara was in her element tonight, prancing around on Lionel's arm, cooing and clucking about how sad she supposedly was over Catalina's death while making less than subtle hints about her desire to be Lionel’s new queen.

I stayed silent, only responding to anyone who addressed me directly and ignoring all the suspicious looks I was drawing. People didn’t know what to make of me anyway so they never really had anything to say.

The Heirs and their parents were here tonight too and I'd caught their gazes more than once, taking some comfort in knowing that I had friends here even if I couldn't speak with them.

Lionel was oozing smugness in a cloud so thick that I was choking on it as I hung from his arm and I was just glad that I'd been in the habit of keeping my face blank as a shadow bitch so that I didn't have to fake smile along with his bullshit.

I was listening though. Every word that spilled from his lips, all the lies about Tiberian Rats and Minotaurs and Sphinxes and all the plans he had to bring them to heel was absorbed and noted. Then anything that might be able to be used to counter his vile plots was passed on to Hamish Grus and his rebels who might be able to do something about them.

More often than not, Lionel had already carried out his atrocities before I reported them, rounding Fae up and holding them in the Nebular Inquisition Centres before anything I passed on could be of any help. But occasionally, Hamish and the Fae he'd gathered around him who wished to stand against Lionel's tyranny would help get people to safety before the King could get to them. And every time I heard that something I’d passed on had saved a life, it made this role I had to play a little easier.

"Ah, if it isn't my first born son," Lionel called, breaking me out of my thoughts as Darius strode out of the crowd dressed all in black.

Black suit, black shirt, black cufflinks, the whole lot. The darkness of the outfit just made him seem even bigger and more intimidating than usual, highlighting the black rings in his eyes and drawing attention to his ebony hair and the stubble on his jaw. I mean shit, he was freaking edible. It had been too damn long since we’d stolen that time alone together from the stars and I was seriously tempted to ask him if he wanted to try for round two somewhere soon. Maybe somewhere less muddy, though it had to be somewhere open…like a desert. Sun, sand, sex…but then there would be sand everywhere and that was never fun. No one wanted a sandy vag. Dammit stars, why do you have to be such fucking V blockers?

"Father," Darius said curtly, his gaze sliding to me for a lingering moment that made heat rise in my cheeks as I decided I’d totally risk a sandy butt crack for him before he dragged his eyes away again.

"Where is your beautiful bride?" Lionel asked him, looking around curiously.

"She got a sudden bout of the shits," Darius replied with the hint of a smirk that told me exactly who was responsible for that. "And let's not bullshit by calling her beautiful, Father, we all know she looks like the rear end of a warthog that's been hit by a bus."

I snorted a laugh before I could stop myself, trying to cover it with a cough and drawing Lionel's attention to me as I worked to school my features.

"Does that amuse you, Roxanya?" he asked, narrowing his eyes on me which wasn't all that surprising as I generally only laughed if I was shadow torturing people in my fucked up shadow dick state.

"It has a ring of truth to it, sire," I replied, giving him the adoring eyes and running my hand up his arm and over the curve of his bicep. It had the strange effect of making me buzz with joy at being so close