Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,98

my ass walking again and I flicked a glare at Gus while he smirked like he'd won some point here. I mentally promised him a horrible death if he kept pushing at me like that.

The golden gates before The Palace of Souls opened and a fucking horse and carriage pulled up before us to take us to the palace doors. It was a long walk but this shit always seemed unnecessary to me.

Xavier exchanged a look with me, rolling his eyes where no one could see and I hopped up into the damn thing before taking a seat as the cameras continued to flash like mad as we were driven away.

I tossed a silencing bubble over us and sighed loudly. "I don't know how much more of this I can endure," I growled, heat lining my palms as my fire Element moved to the surface of my skin.

"I know. I hate having to come and see him too, but Mom is all alone here with him and I worry about her," Xavier said, reminding me that I was failing yet another person I cared about.

"I feel so fucking useless in all of this. Why can't we catch a damn break?" I asked bitterly. "Everywhere I look, people I love are being hurt by that monster and we can't even stand against him publicly. He has me by the fucking balls and the longer it goes on the more reckless I feel like becoming. Like maybe I should walk right into the palace and shift on his psycho ass and bite him in half before he even realises what happened."

"You know that's not how it would go," Xavier said sadly. "Tory would jump between you and Clara too and then-"

"I know," I snapped, hating that I was now being a dick to him too, but this useless feeling was driving me to be the worst version of myself.

Xavier clapped a hand on my arm and I sighed as I forced myself to get it together.

The carriage pulled up before the palace doors and we got out of it, heading inside as two doormen tugged the doors wide. We followed Father’s butler, Jenkins, as he offered up a formal greeting.

By the stars, I hated that old bastard. He'd seen so much of what our father had done to us over the years and I swear he got off on it or something. His expressionless face never so much as twitched to give his feelings away, but more than once when he'd found me bleeding on the floor after one of Father's beatings, there had been this wild kind of light in his eyes that told me he would never be someone I could ask for help. I didn't know what my father had done to earn such unyielding loyalty from him. Maybe it was nothing more than admiration for the sick and sadistic creature who had been responsible for bringing me into this world, but whatever it was, I wished nothing but ill will to him.

We finally arrived in the sprawling throne room and I had to force myself not to react as I found Father sitting on the dark stone throne with its back shaped like fifty Hydra heads for the Savage King’s Order.

Roxy was perched on the step sitting by his fucking feet like a dog while wearing a trailing black gown and the Dragon in me shifted angrily at the sight of her. She flinched a little as she saw me and my teeth snapped together as I fought to contain my rage.

Clara was perched on the arm of the throne, stroking Father’s hair and kissing his neck as he barely even seemed to notice she was there, his cold eyes fixed on me and Xavier as we approached. Mom stood on his other side in an emerald dress, perfectly made up as always with that plastic doll look on her face that I loathed so much. Lance’s mother, Stella was beside her, all in black like a gothic Barbie doll and a cruel smile on her lips as she watched me and Xavier carefully.

"Seriously?" I snarled as Jenkins left the room and the door closed behind him. "Claiming the throne wasn't enough? You have to sit a Vega at your feet too?"

"Well, I could have her sucking my cock if you don't think it's enough," Father replied with a cruel twist to his lips and it took everything in me not to lunge at him as my entire