The Reckoning (Zodiac Academy, #3)

by Caroline Peckham

I turned to look at him and for a brief second all I wanted was to throw myself into his arms and beg him to take me away from here. But I didn’t find anything in his eyes but a wall of cold, hard acceptance. His jaw was locked tightly and his eyes were filled with regrets which he didn’t voice before he turned away from me.

“Darius?” I whispered, begging for something even though I wasn’t sure what. He looked back at me, a well of pain in his eyes but he didn’t have anything to offer me. “Don’t cry,” he breathed, wiping my tear away like he thought it would comfort me but I recoiled from his touch, pain flaring in me as he abandoned me to this fate, whatever it would be.

Orion’s gaze fell on my sister and it was like something was breaking in him. “Blue...” he breathed, a thousand words seeming to go unsaid as she held his eye, shaking her head at him. “It’s okay,” she murmured over and over beneath her breath, even as he continued to struggle, seeming desperate to save her.

I needed a release. I had to go to the shadows but to do so meant letting Darcy go and I’d sooner burn forever more than do that.

We’d survived. And more than that, our Orders had emerged. And we weren’t Dragons at all. For a moment I was at a loss as to what we were, but the knowledge came to me like it had been there all along. We’d been reborn from the flames, rising from the shadows like... “Phoenixes,” I said, staring at Darcy in complete and utter fascination.