Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,53

He smirked, turning to face the doors again and my heart thrashed harder against my ribcage.

“Why are you smirking?” I narrowed my eyes at him and he shrugged innocently.

“This is just my normal face,” he said, trying to flatten his smirk and failing.

“No, your normal face suggests you’re deciding whether or not to eat the Fae in front of you,” I pointed out. “You only smirk when you’ve decided you’re actually going to do it.”

He released a low laugh. “Maybe I’m hungry.”

“Well maybe you should have brought a snack.”

“Maybe I did.” He gnashed his teeth at me and I snorted.

“I’d cook your ass if you tried it.”

“Hmm, that’s a point. How will I fry you up if you don’t burn?” he mused and I laughed.

“Sucks to suck, Darius,” I said lightly. “I’m uncookable.”

The doors opened and we stepped out into the waiting room. We were only sat down a couple of minutes before we were called, but those minutes felt like an eternity as my nails bit into my palms almost hard enough to break the skin. Darius tried to distract me with a few jokes about how he was going to eat me raw like sushi but I couldn’t focus enough to laugh this time.

I followed Darius through the security doors and down the bland corridor, my instincts telling me to turn back, to not walk through that door and see the man waiting beyond it. Because this place was where I’d shattered before, and I couldn’t do that again. Not ever.

I stopped in my tracks, frozen in place as doubts gripped me and a voice in the back of my head screamed at me to leave. But in the pit of my stomach, I knew that I couldn’t do that. For everyone I loved, I had to walk through that door and face Orion. For us to even stand a chance at finding the Imperial Star, we needed him. And regardless of that, he was suffering in here. Despite everything that had happened between us, I’d never wanted that for him. I couldn’t just leave him here to the wrath of the stars. If I didn’t help him, he could end up dead the next time some assholes attacked him.

Darius paused by the door, waiting for me with a patient expression. “Are you ready?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready,” I admitted, forcing myself to move and stand at his side. “But let’s get it over with.”

He pushed through the door and I followed him inside, finding the room empty as I took a steadying breath. I nudged the door shut as Darius flicked his fingers, casting a film of ice over the cameras, covering us from view.

“You’ve got as long as you want, I’ve paid off everyone who might cause us an issue today,” Darius said, giving me an intent look.

“I told you, I only need five minutes, maybe not even that,” I said determinedly.

Darius stepped toward me, dissolving the magic concealing me as Dante Oscura and taking my hand. He squeezed once, giving me an apologetic frown. “Sorry, shrew.”

He stepped past me, moving back out of the door and slamming it shut in my face, ice growing over the handle as I lunged at it and tried to open it. I used my fire magic to try and melt it, but the asshole somehow kept it locked.

“Darius!” I snapped, smacking my hand against the wood. Bastard!

The door opened behind me and I felt him enter the room before I even turned around. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and a shiver raced down my spine that made me squeeze my eyes shut. How can he still affect me this way? After all this time, is it always going to be this hard?

Fae up, Darcy Vega. Get it over with.

I took a breath, fixed an emotionless mask into place and turned around.

Orion stood there in his orange jumpsuit, the sleeves rolled back to show his thick forearms and a layer of new muscle that seemed to cling to him all over. I dragged my eyes up to his face as my pulse pounded wildly and found a thick beard on his jaw, his mouth flat, his hair getting overly long.

I expected to see a wall in his eyes, forcing me out like the last time I’d seen him, but it wasn’t there. He looked…broken. As broken as he’d been back then, only this time all the sharp pieces in his eyes had settled.