Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,31

show of magic to make her back off before a dark voice interrupted her ramblings. I looked up to find Darius standing there, perspiration now coating his flesh where it was on show and his breathing heavier than usual like he’d been running. I stayed silent as I took him in, the faintest niggle of recognition stirring in me again like his morning routines were supposed to interest me for some reason.

"Now isn't the time, Geraldine," Darius said in a tone that didn't allow for arguments and I cocked my head at him as I tried to figure out what he wanted.

His gaze darkened as he looked back at me and for a moment, I swear I could taste the pain on him as the shadows rose up in me, hungering for more of it.

He placed a mug of coffee down in front of me and I eyed it like it was a bomb set to detonate, though it just sat there innocently.

"I know you're still in there, Roxy," he said in a low voice that made the hairs along the back of my neck stand on end. "And sooner or later, I'll figure out how to save you from this."

Darius turned away without me responding, taking hold of Geraldine's arm as her sobbing turned hysterical and he directed her across the room.

I watched them go with the faintest urge to follow them rising in me before the shadows smothered it out and let me relax back into my chair again.

But as I took a sip of the coffee Darius had left for me, the strangest stirring twisted my gut and for the first time in months, even the shadows weren't enough to quiet the whispers in my mind. But I still couldn’t hear what they were trying to say.

I flew through the sky with Dragon fire pouring from my mouth time and again as I worked to exorcise some of the ever-present rage in my heart as my wings beat madly in the cool air.

Father had summoned me and the rest of the Heirs to join him at the Palace of Souls tonight and I knew he’d invited the other Councillors too, but I just couldn't decide if this was what we'd all been dreading or if it was just some new power play.

I'd checked with Darcy after we'd been given the summons and she hadn't had a clue about us turning up at the palace which was her home tonight. It wasn't exactly unusual for Father to invite himself wherever the hell he wanted to go and do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, but the location of this had me on edge.

Darcy had gone to speak to Gabriel about it and I was left circling the clouds to try and calm myself enough to endure an evening in his company. I hated pretending to have been thoroughly put back into my place by the things he'd done to Roxy and how he’d left Lance to rot in prison.

I blew out a final breath of fire accompanied by a roar loud enough to rattle the windows in all of the nearby buildings before cutting through the sky towards Ignis House. I hurtled towards the open floor length window on the top floor where my room was, tucked my wings and shifted back into my Fae form at the last moment. I ran several paces across the carpet to counter my momentum and strode towards my closet to dress for the meeting.

Whatever the fuck we were doing, it was official business which meant I needed to be suited and booted, looking my damn best or he'd happily punish me the moment we were behind closed doors.

Over the summer he'd summoned me to his office more than once and commanded me to take a beating from him under threat of Roxy's life, and I'd had to take it like a good little bitch because I knew the evil bastard was capable of anything. Not that I was certain he wasn't hurting her anyway. But aside from my birthday, I hadn't seen her once over the summer. Even though I knew she was being kept somewhere in the manor and I'd searched every fucking brick in the place, used every spell possible to try and reveal the concealment. But there was nothing. The only clues I had gotten at all were the times I'd woken in the night, certain I'd heard her screaming, calling for me, begging me to find