Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,319

I could reply, Mildred yanked me away from him and I stumbled against her muscular frame as she reached out and grabbed my junk in her massive hand and squeezed.

"Come on, lover boy, I'm going to rock your world," she promised as I managed to knock her fucking hand off of me.

She still had hold of my arm though and she dragged me towards the door at a fast pace, clearly desperate to get to the next part of this while my heart was racing with the horror of it.

I couldn't go through with it. How the fuck could I? She was vile and vulgar in every single way and even if she hadn't been, she wasn't my girl. I didn’t want her or anyone else. Only Roxy. Only ever her.

I twisted to look around at my girl as Xavier stood at her side, his fingers curled around hers. The pain in her green eyes as she watched me go fractured something in me that I wasn’t sure would ever be mended. I’d sworn I’d never hurt her again and here I was tearing her heart out when I wasn’t even worthy of owning it.

I tried to dig my heels in, Roxy’s name catching in my throat as I ached to call out to her, rip my arm free of Mildred’s death grip and run back to her. But as Father stepped up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, I knew it was no use. I had to do as he said if I wanted to save her, but how could I go through with that when I was certain it would destroy us?

Mildred clearly didn't share any of my concerns as she dragged me back towards the palace and I was forced to leave my girl with that monster yet again, I began to wonder if I was seriously going to end up doing this.

If I thought the wedding had been awful then I had no fucking idea how I was supposed to survive the consummation.

I'm so sorry, Roxy.

I ’d expected to die, not to wake up cold and shivering in a damp, dark cell. My eyes cracked open and I groaned as I pushed myself onto my knees, my heart clenching as I found my wrists bound in glowing blue magical blocking cuffs. My Phoenix lay dormant inside me and there was a needle puncture wound in my arm that spoke of the Order Suppressant I’d been given.

Basically, I was fucked and as I looked around the dank space, from the ancient bricks curving up around me to the iron bars in front of me, I knew there was no way out.

I reached up to my throat in a panic, but found the Imperial Star miraculously still hanging there. Lionel didn’t know. He doesn’t know.

“Blue?” Orion’s anxious voice reached me from beyond the wall to my right and I wheeled around in hope, rushing toward it. “Are you awake?”

One of the bricks was missing between our cells so I could see into his. His hand shot through the hole and clasped mine, tugging it through to his side, his mouth pressing to the back of it. The heat of his lips was like a bonfire, burning through the cold clinging to my bones. I rarely felt the cold these days, always able to use my Phoenix to keep me warm and I’d almost forgotten how deeply it could bite.

Orion’s magic cuff bumped against mine as our fingers locked together and panic sliced a path through my chest. I had no idea how long it had been since Lionel had captured us or where we were or what that bastard had planned. And the unknown was worse than the fear. Worse than even this dungeon we were locked in.

I pulled my hand free, looking through the gap instead and his gaze met with mine.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” he swore, but whatever Lionel had planned for us, we weren’t going to be able to fight. Without our magic and Orders, we might as well have been mortals.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Lance,” I breathed hopelessly.

He growled, swiping his hand over his face as tension lined his features. He looked desperate, lost to a sea of fear, but the way he kept glancing at me told me that fear wasn’t for himself.

“I know I broke your trust before,” he said with pain coating his voice. “But only because I thought it was the right thing