Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,6

be passed from hand to hand as I was greeted with enthusiastic handshakes and praised over everything from the breadth of my shoulders to the cut of my suit to the noble sacrifice I’d made when I’d chosen to become Star Crossed. It was a fucking sham and I hated every moment of it but I smiled and nodded, complimented fugly dresses and praised the beauty of women older than my mother as they pressed their fake tits against me and offered up flirtatious suggestions.

Father was nowhere in sight yet thankfully, but Mildred sped through the crowd with a squeal of snookums! before planting a wet kiss right on my mouth and painting aubergine lipstick all over my jaw.

My smile was tight, my posture rigid, but no one noticed. No one cared. They wanted to buy into the pretty lie of my perfect life and get as close to the most powerful Fae in the room as they could manage.

Eventually there was a call for us to take our seats for dinner and Mom appeared out of the crowd. She offered me a pat on the cheek and her eyes burned with understanding before she whisked Mildred away, directing her to a seat further down the table from mine so that I at least didn’t have to endure her pawing me throughout my meal.

I sat to the right of the chair at the head of the table with Xavier on my left and mother opposite him.

Father’s newest groupie slunk into the room while everyone was distracted by finding their places and my gaze snagged on him as he moved to claim a seat at the table. Vard was a Seer who had turned up at the start of the summer claiming to want to help my father rise to greatness, and of course the vain bastard had accepted instantly. I didn’t like the Cyclops one bit. There was something seriously disconcerting about him and as he swept his long, black hair away from his face my attention caught on his mismatched eyes. There was a scar running through one of them which had left it swirling with darkness that seemed all too clearly linked to the shadows for my liking.

There were around a hundred guests in attendance and the other Heirs took seats further down the table with their parents where they shot me sympathetic looks as I forced myself to engage in polite conversation and we waited for my father to show up.

Lance’s mother, Stella, strode along the table, shaking her ass as she walked and looking like she thought every man here was hers to choose from. But it was more than obvious to me that the only one of them she wanted was my father. Unfortunately for her, despite her continued loyalty and devotion, Father seemed more than happy with the trade he’d made to her daughter so she could shake her ass all she wanted but it didn’t seem to be luring him back.

“Happy birthday, Darius,” she purred as she dropped down into the chair opposite mine, to the right of where my father was due to sit. “I do hope you’ve had an exhilarating day.”

I hesitated a beat before responding as I tried to figure out if she knew something or if she was just being her usual odd self. The bulk of Father’s Nymph army were currently camped out in the grounds of her estate and I’d been hungering to strike at them there since we figured that out. Especially since Darcy hoped to get hold of the soul hat Diego had left for her somewhere in the woods. But there were far too many of them there for us to be able to risk it.

On the raids we’d completed up until now, we’d been diligent in making sure not a single Nymph survived us. Just one witness would have our cover blown and if Father found out we’d been working against him with Darcy, everything could go to shit fast. But as Stella gave me that plastic smile of hers, I felt certain her question hadn’t been relating to the fight we’d just had so I just gave her a bullshit smile in return.

“Who doesn’t love birthdays?” I deadpanned, making it clear I wasn’t much of a fan. At least not this year. But of course she just grinned like I’d told her it had been the best day of my life and took a moment to adjust her short, black hair as