Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,50

will put you in detention for the evening.”

My lips parted on a demand to take it now and find some way to give it to Tory, but I stalled with a sigh. I trusted his gifts. I just had to fight the urge to snatch it, fly to Tory and try and inject her with it right this second.

“If you follow that line of thought, you will still be stopped and searched before you take it – ah, but if you take that route, you will be unable to give it to her. No, it’s just not going to work tonight.” Gabriel shrugged sympathetically.

I sighed and my wings dissolved away behind me. “I hate when you do that,” I said, but a smirk tugged at my lips.

He chuckled. “You love it really.”

“Yeah, I do,” I breathed a laugh but then my amusement fell away as the weight of this day fell over me again. He walked forward and wrapped me in his arms without a word, resting his chin on my head. For a moment the world paused and everything was okay. Just for a second. But what a perfect damn second it was.

“So the Imperial Star…” I started as he released me.

I sat on his desk and crossed my legs underneath me, toying with a lock of my hair. I’d changed into leggings and a crop top for the flight, but now my wings weren’t warming me, goosebumps spread across my arms so I urged fire into my veins to keep the cold out.

Gabriel’s wings fell away and I examined the artwork of tattoos on his chest, wondering what secrets were hidden within them. Things that had come to pass, things that were yet to. His gift was written into his flesh, future, past and present. There was a ring of star signs over his heart that were joined together in a beautiful circle and he scratched that very spot as he dropped into a chair in front of me.

“I can’t see where it is,” he said with a frown. “But I can see that Lance is the key to finding it.”

I nodded slowly, biting on my lower lip. “You probably already know this but-”

“You’re going to see him tonight?” he finished with a smirk. “He has something very important he needs to do. And you need to help him.”

“I’m going to free him from the star vow we made to each other,” I said, my chest compressing and I suddenly couldn’t meet his gaze. Gabriel could see so much, could he see right through me to the hurt I worked so hard to hide these days too? The love that still lived on in me for Lance as fiercely as ever?

“It’s more than that,” he said carefully, like he couldn’t say too much. “Just do whatever you can to help him.”

I frowned. “What can you see?” I pushed, the secrets lurking in his eyes making my heart beat wildly.

“So many paths,” he said with a pained expression that made me worry about how many of them were bad. “Just do your best, follow your heart and all that bullshit.”

I laughed softly, but it died away in my throat as I rested my chin in my hand, my elbow propped on my knee. “Is any of it good? Has the future got anything to look forward to, Gabriel?”

A crease formed between his eyes and he scooted his chair closer. “The future is just a roulette wheel, Darcy. Only every outcome is grey.”

“That doesn’t sound so good,” I murmured.

“It is good, and bad. That’s life. I guess that’s one thing The Sight makes me see clearer than anything else. It’s all about the choices you make, the actions you take. Cause and effect. If you do nothing, nothing will happen. If you do everything, everything will happen.”

“That’s…weirdly comforting,” I said thoughtfully. “But what about the stars, surely they’re deciding all of this? Isn’t it all just fate and we’re slaves to whatever they desire?”

“The stars will test us. And sometimes they may punish us or gift us for the choices we make, but they don’t make our fate. Only we can do that. So go make it, Darcy. You’ve got to get going if you want to be ready in time.”

I slid off the desk with a sigh and he stood up, grabbing a lock of my hair and tugging on it teasingly. “He’s going to eat his heart out,” he murmured and I rolled my eyes. “I hope he