Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

I’d sooner burn my own heart from my chest than put her in harm’s way.

And I guessed that was the new normal. Living as though he was wholly separate to me, like he’d never owned my heart, like I’d never pledged to love him no matter what.

Maybe I didn’t want to let go of the girl I’d been before the two people I loved most in the world had been ripped away from me.

I might have been broken, hurt, and ruined by destroying us. But the sacrifice had been worth it. She was becoming the queen she was always meant to be. It was just hard to accept that I was never going to be her king.

“Lance,” I warned, unsure what I was even warning him of. I just needed it to stop. All of it. I couldn’t believe after all this time I still felt like this. Like the world began and ended with him and I would never belong to any other man. But that’s not real anymore. He’s not mine and I’m not his. “Fuck,” he growled, clamping his eyes shut for a moment before looking at me again with a tight expression. “How are you?”