Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,54

He’d accepted his fate as I’d accepted mine, and there was a painful knowledge in that which ripped at my insides.

His gaze travelled over me with slow and hungry movements, like he was trying to make an eternity out of seeing me.

“Hello,” he said at last, his voice deep and holding an edge of desperation in it that made me ache.

“Hi,” I said stiffly, wetting my lips and taking a step closer. “Darius locked me in here, so…”

“Asshole,” he muttered.

“Yep.” My heart thundered out a wild and yearning tune as it begged me to get nearer to him, to feel the heat of his body meeting mine in the air, to smell his familiar smell and brush my fingers over the lines of his face, seek out the single dimple hiding in his right cheek. But I’d be doing none of those things. Not now, not ever.

When I was close enough, I stopped moving, trying to ignore the way every fibre of my flesh seemed to pulse with energy, driving me toward him. “I don’t know how to break the promise, so if you could just show me how,” I said, my tone sharp.

He reached out and took my hand, his rough palm meeting mine and gripping it tightly. A small and involuntary gasp escaped me as a light but potent energy rushed through me from his touch. It was addictive, demanding and horribly familiar.

His jaw ticked furiously before he tugged me closer so I was right in his personal space, forced to look up at him and my breath caught in my throat.

“Lance,” I warned, unsure what I was even warning him of.

I just needed it to stop. All of it. I couldn’t believe after all this time I still felt like this. Like the world began and ended with him and I would never belong to any other man. But that’s not real anymore. He’s not mine and I’m not his.

“Fuck,” he growled, clamping his eyes shut for a moment before looking at me again with a tight expression. “How are you?”

I yanked my hand free of his, anger curling up through my body like flames. “How am I?” I scoffed. “That’s what you have to say?”

His jaw tightened and he said nothing. Nothing. I wasn’t going to demand an explanation from him again though. He’d had his chance the last time I’d come here. But he’d frozen me out and told me to go. That it was over and I needed to move on. So I had.

Every part of me was hot and I snatched his hand again, fire blazing against my palm as I fought not to scold him. “How do I break it?” I demanded.

“Just say the words,” he said defeatedly. “Recite the promise and tell the stars you release me from it.”

I nodded, keeping my eyes on his as I refused to look away. I thought back on that day we’d made the promise and how, no matter what we’d faced back then, we’d known we’d always have each other. Somehow, I’d fooled myself into believing that. I’d really thought we had a future. I would have fought the stars themselves to keep him. I guessed the sentiment had never been shared.

“I promised to fight for you, whatever it took and you promised it in return,” I didn’t let my voice shake as I held his gaze and saw a flicker of regret in his eyes. He probably had a helluva lot of regrets when it came to me. “I release you from that bond,” I said firmly, keeping my mask locked in place.

I wouldn’t break, or cry or let him see a single crack in my façade. I was stronger now. And no man, not even him, would be able to hurt me again.

Magic crackled between us and the feeling of something snapping against our palms rang through my body before I felt the promise lift from my heart. There was something so final about it, our worlds cleaving apart fully like an axe severing the final ties between us. My hand lingered in his for two more seconds before I pulled it free. Done.

“Thank you,” he sighed and I nodded stiffly. It felt like a thousand words hung between us in the air. But as I backed away, the window of opportunity to say them closed forever. And as I reached the opposite side of the room, it might as well have been a whole universe parting us. His and mine. Planes