Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,310

a beat before walking towards him, Phoenix fire lighting a path through my veins and promising me safety even as fear lit me up from the inside out.

The shadows slid over my skin as I fought to keep my mask in place externally and I stilled in front of Lionel as I waited to see where this was going.

He reached out casually, pushing his fingers into my hair and shoving the pins free that had been styling it as he roughly combed them through it like he was hunting for something.

I stayed still, focusing on the fact that I'd never seen him do anything like this to Clara before fucking her and trying to calm my thrashing heart.

"What is it?" I breathed as he pulled his hands back, his gaze sliding over my thin underwear critically.

"Turn around," he commanded coldly and I forced myself to swallow my complaints as I turned my back on him.

My hands curled into fists which ached to burst into flame as I stood staring through the window at the star filled sky beyond while I waited to find out what this was about.

A sharp prick stung my thigh and I gasped in alarm as the fire in my body shrank away like someone had blown it out and my Phoenix fell away from me into the dark.

“I had to be certain you didn’t have the antidote on you before I gave you a fresh dose of suppressant,” he supplied, tossing the needle aside as I realised too late that I was in serious trouble.

Lionel's hand caught my throat as I tried to lurch away, his grip tightening as he yanked me back against his chest and I cried out in panic.

I tried to call on my magic to fight him off, but I was overwhelmed with horror at the idea of hurting him as the Guardian bond on my arm burned in outrage at the suggestion.

"So, so clever," he sneered in my ear, his hand squeezing my throat until I couldn't draw breath at all and even then I couldn't force my body to fight back against him.

Someone grabbed my hand and I wheeled my gaze to my left, spotting Vard there and managing to blast him with fire magic before he could snap the cuff he was holding around my wrist.

Lionel snarled angrily at my back, squeezing my throat so tightly that spots began to swim over my vision and my high heels scrambled uselessly against the wooden floor. I brought my hand up to clasp his arm where he held me, but I couldn't even force myself to try and tear his hand off of me as the bond forced me to let him do this.

The stars beyond the window seemed to mock me as the darkness drew in even closer and I felt the magic restricting cuffs snap closed around my wrists just as I was certain I was going to black out.

But before I could escape into oblivion, Lionel threw me away from him with the full strength of his Dragon.

My forehead slammed into the corner of the nightstand on my way down and the pain of it almost blinded me as I crashed to the floor, gasping for breath with blood streaming down my face.

Clara cried out in victory, jumping from the bed before kicking me in the side with her bare foot and sending more pain splintering through my body.

She kicked me twice more before I managed to catch my breath enough to try and fight back.

I caught her ankle as she aimed another kick my way, yanking hard and unbalancing her so that she fell to the floor with a shriek of rage.

She dove at me and I punched her in her stupid shadow twat face with a snarl of fury for everything that her and the men in this room had done to me. Something cracked beneath the force of my blow and she screamed in pain before driving the shadows into me like a thousand knives peeling my flesh from my bones all at once, blinding me in agony.

My back slammed hard against something as I screamed and when she finally withdrew the shadows from my flesh, I found myself strapped to the chair from my nightmares, bloody and panting and filled with a fear so pure it was paralysing.

"My foolish son has been worming his way back into your heart, hasn't he?" Lionel sneered as he stood over me and I lifted my chin before