Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,299

still an abyss parting us that couldn’t be crossed. “It wasn’t your fault.”

He pushed to his feet, not letting go of my hand as he towed me after him with a harsh and distant expression dawning on his face. I eyed his wrists, noticing the shadow cuffs were gone and it made me feel so fucking good that I’d finally been able to free someone else from Clara’s dark control. And maybe I’d be able to do it again.

We walked through the large, empty halls of Gabriel’s house and I peeked into the beautiful nursery with light blue walls and an array of stuffed toys in the cot from a giant snake to a fluffy lion with a dark mane. Orion was quiet and brooding, his jaw continually flexing as if he was struggling with some demon inside him. We made it downstairs to a large kitchen built of beautiful honey wood and cream fixtures. He led me to a stool at the island with five seats, picking me up and planting me on it before heading to the fridge. I frowned in surprise, gazing at the taut muscles of his back as he started taking out food and piling it on the counter.

“I’m not hungry,” I said, taking Diego’s hat from my pocket and laying my Atlas on the island. “We need to-”

“You’re gonna eat,” he growled in his bossy professor tone and my lips pursed.

“No… I’m going to try and find out what Diego wanted us to see through his hat.” I moved to put it on but he shot toward me, snatching it away and shoving it into the back of his waistband.

“You’re gonna eat first,” he reiterated, placing his hands on my thighs to keep me in my seat, making anger and lust wash together inside me. He was intoxicating when he was up this close, his breath on my skin making me heady. But I wasn’t going to give in to the raging emotions in me because if I fell for his allure tonight, I’d never stop falling.

I pushed his hands away, slipping out of my seat, but he didn’t move a single inch so I was caged in by his arms and trapped in the delicious cinnamon scent of his bare chest.

“Give it back,” I growled, fighting to keep my voice level. I was not in the mood for an argument after all the shit we’d just been through.

“No,” he said simply, grabbing my hips, lifting me up and planting my ass back on the seat, crowding in even closer to me. Dammit, I didn’t want a fight but he was asking for one.

“Lance,” I warned, holding out my hand. “Give it back.”

He leaned near to my face, his breath brushing against my lips and tasting like a cardinal sin. “Not. Until. You. Eat.”

I reached around his back to try and grab the hat and he shot away with his Vampire speed. The second he stopped running, I used a whip of air magic to pluck it from his waistband.

I caught it and cast a dome of air around myself as he sprinted forward to try and grab it again. I smirked as he crashed into my shield and he growled. He opened his mouth, no doubt to try and boss me about so I lifted the hat, defiantly tugging it on.

Everything went dark and I was half aware of falling off of my chair before my mind drifted into the pitch. Someone’s hand was gripping mine as the power of the shadows drew me into them and something in my soul told me it was Diego. Emotion clutched my chest and I was caught between sadness and joy at feeling his presence again. My friend. A boy who’d given his life for me, for the whole kingdom really. He’d tried to stop Clara and shown what his soul was truly made of.

The shadows wound around me but couldn’t get beneath my skin as they carried me down, down, down into an eternal darkness. Orion’s presence drifted closer and I felt him pulling on my consciousness demandingly. But I wasn’t going anywhere. I exerted my will, forcing him to come with me as I fell into the black and suddenly a cloud of white opened up ahead of us, flashing with the memories of the past.

I felt the weight of it in the atmosphere, a thousand lives, a string of ancestors stretching back hundreds of years. The hand slipped from mine and I glimpsed