Restless Stars (Zodiac Academy, #9)

by Caroline Peckham

“Tell me, brother, how many stars did you have to fuck to be given another chance at life?” Orion asked. Darius turned to him with a smirk creeping across his face. “No stars, Lance. But your dad took it like a pro.”

“The goons have finally accepted their goonishness. Each of you have found your place and it is upon your nellies before the great and all-powerful Phoenixes.”

“Yes, you loon of a lampfish, my Petunia has never jittered so much as it does now for you!”

“And there was me about to crack through the spells on the door with some level of subtly,” Orion said dryly.

“What the fuck?” Seth breathed, but his words were drowned out by Darius’s deep growl. “That’s not my fucking wife.”

“It’s me,” I said fiercely. “What can I do to prove it?” “No need, Blue,” Orion said, taking me in with a piercing look. “I’d know you anywhere.”

I petted his head, and everyone looked at me like I’d gone insane while Geraldine continued to shriek like a banshee.

“He’s all good, Geraldine,” Tory said calmly. “Darcy’s great at taming feral creatures. Just look at Orion. All grumpy and twisted up inside once upon a time. Now he’s…well, actually he’s still those things, but he’d do anything for her. I think the Shadow Beast might be the same.”

“Tell your dead father to back the fuck up.” “Sure, I’ll just light a scented candle and whisper my wishes into the flames as soon as I locate my aromatherapy set,”

“You’ve had at least one long haired brunette pinned beneath you moaning your name recently.” Seth dropped a mug in the kitchenette and it smashed at his feet, making him curse.

“How do you know? Did you watch them?” she asked. “Was it hot?”

“Not as long as getting fucked by a Werewolf,” she muttered. “What?” he asked, his head snapping around to look at her and I smirked.

Darius jumped off his back, clapping him on the shoulder. “Good boy. I’ll give you a sugar lump later.” “And I’ll shove it up your ass,” Orion said dryly.

I went to lay my palm on the door and Orion shot forward, capturing my wrist and giving me a stern look. “Don’t.” I smiled innocently and he looked down, finding my other hand now on it instead.

My mate turned to me, offering me his hand like he was some gentleman from a period drama, not a heathen who’d just thrown a man ten feet.

“Come on, baby, let’s go flying,” Orion said, then he threw himself at Darius, locking his arms around him before the two of them plummeted off the edge.

“That’s a whole lot of cows,” Orion murmured as he took in the rows of agents, stumbling into me and I caught his arm. “I’ve got a lot of milking to do. It’s gonna take me all night.”

Don’t kill the Wolf. Blue has a fondness for it. A misplaced fondness, but still.

Seth lasted probably around the twenty-minute mark before he spoke again. “That’s gotta be an hour.”

“You can get naked too if you want, and then you can make a thicker bed with your clothes.” “No, Seth, I will not be getting naked.”

“Oh yes, everyone,” he squeaked. “All the way from up by the ceiling and down, down, down to the floor. It was a long time. A very long time. People took photographs, but don’t worry, my lady, I will make sure they are all deleted post haste!”

“I think you forgot to bow, Arnold.” I clapped a hand onto the Minotaur’s shoulder, shoving him down and making his knees buckle. “There you go. Good boy.”

“Just keep this on and baste it with oil twice a day.” “No.” “I think you’ll find it helps.”

“Fuck,” I breathed. “Fuck,” Luca echoed. “Exactly,” I said to him. “Okay, little dude. We’re gonna go on an adventure.”

They glanced up as if feeling my eyes on them, and I offered them a grin before flashing a peace sign at Seth and winking.

“Hit me here.” He tapped his jaw. “What?” I balked. “I’ll have a go,” Darcy offered with a hopeful grin, and Orion shot her a heated look.

her tight-fitting swimming costume that had A.S.S. stitched over her tits. I wasn’t certain if she had it on backwards or if it was some kind of cunning plan to confuse her enemies so they didn’t know whether she was facing them or not.

“I didn’t just flim-flam down to the belly of the slog, you Nemean numskull,”

Geraldine’s face twisted, turning into a magpie that cawed at me. Caw, caw, caw, it went. Saying things only a bird would know how to reply to. But I was no bird, I was a beast, the king of the jungle.

Shrieks went up from my Nymphish enemies, charging towards me, but the ground had turned into a dance floor, and the call of music carried through my head.

It was so freaking hot in this swamp, didn’t they ever turn the AC on? I bet the alligators couldn’t manage the dials though with their clumpy little claw fingers.

The Christmas tree tried to hug him from behind, but Gabe twisted around and cut its head off with a black sword and it turned into tasty bubbles. I gasped in horror, shoving to my feet and grabbing hold of the banana. “I’ll eat you for that,” I snarled. “You’ve ruined Christmas. There’ll be no presents for baby Riblet now.”

I took him from my froget (my frog pocket) and held him up to his banana father.

Riblet slipped from my hand, jumping off away into the bushes and making me cry out for him as he abandoned me.

I win the bet at least?” I asked. “No,” he said with a frown. “Geraldine won. You took down one Nymph and eight trees though, so…”

I looked to Tory in desperation, trying to think of what would help us most that didn’t involve death.

Hello?! The fucking guild stones?!

Gabriel Nox: I saw this coming and could have stopped it #forthepubes #pubemeonce #revengeofthebush

“I need to see it,” Seth insisted, and Caleb shot him a frown. “For science,” he added quickly. “Darius, touch it, go on.”

Seth appeared from the kitchenette with a set of silver cooking tongs, jabbing them at my crotch.

Geraldine stumbled away from me, turning into Darius’s chest and weeping there while he vaguely patted her back.

She engraved the words ‘blue means you’ on the inside of the metal then handed it back to me with a sniff.

“If that’s true then I hope you know I will love and protect her like no other man might hope to.”

“Who sent the whistling motherfucker?” Tory’s furious voice cut through the air.

Max caught her arm as she made to intercept me, holding her back with a wide grin on his face as he read my intention in the air.

“And if my queens try to tell me no on this then I think I’ll just have to go ahead and commit treason. You are in my head morning, noon and night, your presence invigorates me and your absence leaves me aching. I dream of you whenever I sleep and burn for you whenever you are near. I can’t hide it anymore. I won’t hide it anymore. I want you to be mine, Seth, I fucking need you to be mine.”

GODDDDDDD

“I love you, Seth Capella, even more than the moon loves the sky.” He slapped a hand over my mouth, eyes wide and jerking to look at the moon as though she might have heard and taken offence.

You might feel a sense that something big is coming between you and a beloved Libra, a moment that will place an important choice at your feet.

“No way you just took that lying down,” he said. “You mean like Caleb did?”

“Well I haven’t died yet,” I said brightly. “The word ‘yet’ is delightfully comforting, Blue,” he drawled.

Seth held out a hand, gagging as if he had just vomited in his own mouth. “I need to be alone,” he gasped before pressing his fist to his mouth and heading for the door.