Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,284

gone a breath later.

"That way," Gabriel commanded, pointing down the sloping tunnel and I started moving, helping him along though he seemed to be leaning on me less already.

We took several turns and he finally stopped beside another blank patch of wall, taking his arm from my shoulders and breathing in deeply as he straightened.

"You good?" I asked him and he nodded before levelling me with a dark look.

"Yeah. But I wanted a word with you alone about Tory," Gabriel said, rolling his shoulders back as he straightened up.

"Oh?"

"Just don't fuck this up," he warned, fixing me with a death glare. "Because I see a series of scenarios playing out for the two of you and in at least half of them you act like a fucking ass. If you break her heart a second time, she'll never give you the chance to claim it again. Do you hear me?"

"You seriously think I don't already know that?" I growled. "I don't wanna hurt her. Not now or ever. But you can hardly expect me to just roll over and offer her the throne after all the-"

"I'm not talking about that shit," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm talking about you and her. Just do it right. And the next time you wanna defy the stars to be with her maybe give me some warning so I can take a sleeping potion or something," he added with a look of disgust.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"That I caught way too many flashes of the two of you rolling about in the mud and I don't wanna see that shit. I can block those kinds of things out most of the time, but that was damn hard with the heavens so fucking angry at the two of you and all of their attention fixed on ripping you apart."

I smirked at the reminder, shrugging a shoulder at him. "Well it wasn't exactly planned."

"I know. But if the two of you are determined to go up against the will of the heavens over this then I think you should know that you'll be making plenty of enemies amongst them along the way."

"She's more than worth it," I assured him and his pissy mask broke into a smile.

"Good. That's all I needed to hear. Now fuck off back to the party before your father misses you." Gabriel used his ring to open the hidden door and I clapped a hand on his shoulder, feeling like we actually saw eye to eye on something for once.

"Are you gonna be alright getting out of here?" I asked him and he nodded, frowning slightly.

"My head is so full of visions at the moment that I can hardly make sense of them, but my family helped me build a room at our winter cabin which helps me to focus. I'm fighting the visions off for now but once I get there, I'll sort through them and hopefully we will have more to go on."

"I can stay with you and make sure you get out of the palace safely," I offered as his gaze seemed to slide in and out of focus with the visions that were pressing in on him, but he shook his head.

"I'll be alright. I have another Dragon waiting for me at the far end of the tunnel out in the trees. You need to get back to the party."

I nodded my agreement, watching him as he started to walk away until I was confident that he could manage alone before slipping through the hidden door and heading back out into the corridor within the palace.

At the first opportunity we could get, we were all going to have to try and figure out the meaning of that prophesy. I just hoped that it was good news. Because it sure as fuck hadn't sounded all that promising.

W e’d hunted nearly every inch of the forest when my Faelight lit up something ahead of us.

“There!” I called, pointing it out and Orion shot over to it, letting me down off of his back.

He plucked the hat from a jutting out branch which was low on the tree trunk and my heart lifted as he passed it to me, a sigh of relief falling from my chest.

My foot caught on something on the ground and I bent down, pushing the leaves aside and finding Diego’s clothes there. My heart split apart as I pulled them from the mud and grief held me in a cold, unyielding grip.