Cursed Fates (Zodiac Academy, #5)

by Caroline Peckham

I’d thought the most painful moment of my life was being dragged from the court room, but I’d been wrong. It was her coming here, seeing the hollowness of her cheeks, the broken look in her eyes, the thinness of her frame. I’d known this would hurt her, but I’d never expected her to fall apart so severely. The most agonising part was, I hadn’t been able to drag her into my arms and give in to the desperate, clawing ache inside me at seeing her. I wanted to fall to my knees and beg for her forgiveness and promise I’d banish that hurt in her eyes if it took me the rest of my life to heal it. Instead, I’d done the only thing I could do and forced her away, broken her harder. I could never show her an ounce of warmth again. Never give her hope for us. Because she needed to move on from me and live the life she was meant to before I’d ever come along to fuck it up. Three months later, I still couldn’t bear to ask Darius whenever he came here if she’d moved on. We had an agreement that he wouldn’t mention her unless I asked. But asking could open myself up to a world of destruction I wasn’t ready for. Because if Blue was moving on, I was going to have to accept that. And despite the fact that it was what I knew needed to happen, I was still terrified of the day when it was confirmed. Because I knew it was going to destroy me.

She could say whatever the fuck she wanted about me, but I wasn’t going to let her cast shade on Blue.

I didn’t want to be transferred to some locked down house where Lionel could keep tabs on me twenty-four seven. That was worse than being in this hell.

This was what my mother cared about most. Power. And she’d always been willing to do whatever it took to get it. Even if she had to degrade herself in the process.

“The Imperial Star,” she breathed, and my heart jolted sickeningly.

The Imperial Star had supposedly fallen from the sky thousands of years ago, found by the first queen to ever sit on the throne of Solaria after she’d seen the blazing arc it had made through the sky as it fell. Once she had it, she started receiving visions in the night, whispers as if from the star itself that told her the ways of dark magic. She was the first Fae to learn it, wielding the powers to her advantage.

So, a society was put in place called the Zodiac Guild, made of powerful Fae who were trained in the ways of dark magic to protect the Imperial Star and ensure it never left the hands of the royals. There were a thousand versions of how the star was kept, some saying it was embedded in the hilt of a sword or blade, others a crown, a ring, a chalice. And the legends surrounding its power were even more wild and varied. There was one thing most versions of the story generally agreed on, and that was that the star held a gift to make its possessor invulnerable to magical attacks. So if it really did exist and Lionel got hold of it, it wasn’t just a threat to our world, it would be the end of life as we knew it.

And even though I was fully aware that she found it a lot easier to express herself physically than to open up emotionally, I now had every reason to believe she wanted both with me. It was a blessing and a curse.

she was standing in the locker rooms at the Pitball stadium, pouting at the camera in an overly suggestive way as she wore my Pitball jersey like a dress.

“Why are you grinning like someone just offered to suck your cock?”

“I don’t grin,” I replied, rolling my eyes at him. “I occasionally smirk. That’s about it.”

“Well, what are you occasionally smirking about?”

“Why does it feel like you’re gonna blush?”

“Fuck off. I definitely don’t blush.”

“Tory’s bought him a present,”

“I can’t help it,” Max groaned. “She’s like my own personal brand of fucking insane, curvaceous, utterly addictive Killblaze.”

I watched her from the corner of my eyes as she approached the bike. I’d thrown a cover over it, but I was wondering if I should have put a bow on it or something too. But she didn’t really seem like a bows kind of girl, and I wasn’t really a bows kind of guy either.

“Holy shit, Darius,” she breathed as she stepped closer and ran her fingertip over the diamonds. “How much did this cost you?”

“I’d buy you fifty of them if I knew they’d all make you smile like that,”

“This is a limited edition, they didn’t make ...

“It’s called a Phoenix Kiss. And it’s basically a conduit,” she explained. “I think I can use it to place an ounce of my Phoenix fire beneath your skin. But when I do, the bangle will fuse with your flesh and brand you, kinda like your Guardian mark-”

“You set me free,”

“I wasn’t going to let you head back to that house with that fucking monster for the summer and be at his mercy,”

“I already told you I love you, Roxy,”

“But now I’m telling you I want you too. Only you. No matter what it takes to make that happen.”

“Why would you want to spend forever with me after what I did to you?”

“You were offered true love by the stars and opened your heart up to it willingly, only to have me crush it in my fist. So why would you want a second shot at this at all?”

“Because in my heart I know I deserved the answ...

“I wasn’t worthy of your love then and I’m still not worthy of it now. But if you gave me forever then I’d spend ...

“Forever?”

“Forever,”

I’d been fighting all my life for one thing or another, but there was nothing I’d ever wanted like the girl standing before me. And I was willing to fight for her until my dying breath.

“You’d better mean this, Darius,” he growled. “If you’re not going to offer her the world then I’m not going to help you. And if you ever hurt her again, I’ll hunt you down, cut your balls off and wear them as a necklace.”

“Chaos, carnage, despair, death,” Gabriel’s voice echoed off of the walls and an unbearable coldness slid into my veins. “Unless you find the Imperial Star first.”

“What?” Roxy demanded. “What is the price?”

“A royal sacrifice,” he announced. “Of the highest kind.”

“Lionel took Darcy.”

True Fae didn’t let fear stop them. My sister needed me and that was all that mattered. Terror would consume me if I let it. But I wouldn’t let it. I hardened the walls around my emotions, locked down the paralysing fear deep inside my heart where Lionel Acrux couldn’t touch it and sprung into motion.

“Please just come. I can’t lose her. I just, can’t.”

She was the light to my dark, the joy to my pain. I loved her more than life itself and there was no life to be had at all if I didn’t have her by my side.

“Everyone’s coming?”

“Of course they are,”

but I’d face anything to get my sister back.

“My sister is in there, Diego,” I growled. “Even death itself couldn’t stop me from going to help her.”

“I need a Vega who is willing to bow to me,”

“I’d sooner die,”

No matter what he did to me, I wouldn’t become his puppet.

If he’d hurt my sister, I was going to kill him. I’d bring every ounce of my Phoenix fire down on his head and burn him out of this world forever.

Today was the last day Lionel Acrux would hurt someone I loved. I’d been born to rule. And I was going to claim my place in blood.

Clara Orion needed to die. And this time, she wouldn’t be coming back from it.