The Awakening (Zodiac Academy, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

The window was a tiny thing with a metal latch digging into my stomach. But I was under fed and had the determination of a Pitbull. You've met your match, Mr Window.

We'd be a force to be reckoned with in jail, queens of the condemned. Like Thelma and Louise if they hadn't driven themselves off a cliff. Mental note: discuss with Tor if jail is a decent Plan B.

Tory had been doing something much more illegal. She never really went into it because she didn’t want to implicate me, but I could hazard a guess at what it was. She always came home at ungodly hours of the night smelling of gasoline and adrenaline.

This was it. Half the reason I took these risks. Riding these machines made me feel alive unlike anything else.

I turned to leave and found my way blocked by a wall of muscular chest wrapped up in a crisp white shirt.

He was tall, his brown hair pushed back in the kind of careless I’ve-spent-ages-making-this-look-accidental way that guys with too much time and money on their hands often went for. I guessed he was five or six years older than me, probably mid-twenties. Kinda hot in a strait-laced way which wasn’t really my bag.

He did have a beard, but it was carefully styled to look a certain way.

“I’m Professor Orion.

Heat invaded every cell in my body as his eyes fell on me, coal-like and dark as sin. He looked like a quarterback squeezed into a nice shirt and grey pants. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal muscular forearms and that trend continued from his biceps to his battering-ram shoulders. A short beard clung to his chin, but he had an air of youth about him which suggested he was only a few years older than me and Tory.

I realised Mr Shoulders was staring at my pyjamas with an expression that said he was wholly amused.

“I thought I was coming here to collect a couple of eighteen-year-olds. Must have gotten the wrong apartment, little bunny.” He laughed at his own joke,

I stared at him, his gravelly tone suddenly sending a bolt of recognition through me. Shit. My mouth opened as the penny dropped. “You’re a cop. You were there today.”

The guy took it with a word of thanks then tipped it into his mouth. Glug, glug, glug. I watched his throat the whole time, lined with stubble, moving up and down.

“So, what do you want?” she demanded. “People don't just hand cash over unless they want something for it, Mr Orion.”

“Professor,” he corrected, and I frowned.

“Old enough to be a professor.” His eyes swung to me and seemed to suck everything in like a blackhole.

“You're going to listen to me and remain calm and collected,” he said in a powerful tone, and I felt an instant desire to obey.

He beamed at us and there was that dimple again. Just the one. Denting his masterpiece of a face and somehow making him even damn hotter.

“Since your eighteenth birthday, you have both been giving off a signature that my kind can sense from a world away. Literally.”

You're Fae. Which means you have an un-Awakened power in you defined by the stars themselves. You belong in Solaria: a mirror world of earth where Fae rule.

“You're both Gemini,” he stated. “Hot-headed, hence the Coercion I've used on you to keep this all running smoothly.

lifting his wrist to check his watch. Dials and silver cogs spun wildly on the strange thing; it was unlike any watch I'd ever seen.

“Gemini is an air sign so once your powers are Awakened, you'll-”

“We're a different race. A better one.” He shrugged and I scowled. “Careful Miss Vega, expressions like that are punishable in my classroom.”

“That is your true surname in Solaria. No one will call you anything else once you get there, mark my words.”

The ‘professor' gave her a predator's smile that made my stomach knot.

Pictures of us as babies, newspaper articles about the day our parents had died in a house fire. How we'd been pulled out of the ashes, two perfectly unharmed babies. A complete miracle.

Orion sifted through all of it, extracting a photograph of our parents, arm in arm on their wedding day. My father's hand lay on our mother's large belly, their eyes gleaming with happiness. I'd never known them, and I never would. And having that picture held in my face right at that second undid every chain that seemed to hold my emotions in check.

“They're not your parents,”

of everything we'd ever known about ourselves. “You're Changelings. Fae born. Elementals with natural magic flowing in your veins. Your real parents swapped you for the twins born to that couple.”

Why would they do that?” I demanded. “My guess? You were in danger,”

“Shame to lose out on your inheritance though. Your real parents were the wealthiest family in Solaria.”

The fact that they're dead is a tragedy but they aren't your blood. And blood's all that matters in my opinion.”

“You two would do anything for each other, I hope? Because this shitty life can go away like that.”

“All you have to do is agree to enrol at Zodiac Academy. You'll get full board, have your own beds-” He gave the couch a pointed look, “-and your inheritance will cover the cost of your stay plus you'll receive a monthly stipend from it. Once you gra...

“Water, air, fire, earth. You will both possess one Element, perhaps two. Your parents were very powerful, so I expect you will be immeasurably gifted.” Something about his tone told me he wasn’t happy about that.

He prised open his small silk bag, pinched something between his fingers and sprinkled it in his palm.

“The rarest substance in Solaria and the quickest way to travel. Stardust.” He lifted his head with a demonic smile. “Welcome to your Awakening.”

Thick, black glitter cascaded over us, and I prepared to splutter, lifting a hand to shield myself, but instead my body felt like it had turned to vapour. Our apartment faded away and all I could see was the sparkling black substance clouding around me. It seemed to spread out and out until I appeared to be floating within an entire galaxy of the stuff.

I staggered forward and my forehead bumped into a hard body. I blinked as my vision restored and found myself face to chest with Orion. My hand was pressed flush to his stomach, and I realised it much too late as he took hold of my s...

“You are of air and water girls. Your powers will be great indeed just like your parents.”

You have Earth as well. Three Elements is very rarely heard of. You will be among the most powerful students at Zodiac.”

The other students were muttering, and I caught strange words like 'Celestial Heirs' and 'Vega Twins'.

“You hold every Element,”

“Looks like my boyfriend has competition,” one girl said, throwing a sharp glare in our direction.

“Are you really dating one of the Heirs, Kylie?” “Yeah, we've been together since forever, he texts me like every other week.”

If you have two – or more- powers, you will choose between them and pick an Elemental house to join. Your head of year will now take you to The Orb where you’ll join the rest of the students and make that decision.”

As the students moved in a tide toward him, his eyes locked on me. His gaze drank me in for an endless second, then he turned and looked away toward the dark line of trees at the edge of the meadow.

The Awakening had left me reeling, trapped within my own body as I tried to adjust to the sudden onslaught of power which had filled a void I’d never known I had.

Only Darcy remained, taking a few hesitant steps before waiting for me while her eyes lit from within with the same writhing power that I could feel harnessing itself to my soul.