Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

When Darcy had presented us with these weapons, my heart had ached for her. For the pain she was in with her sister and Lance gone and the weight of the world pressing down on her. I shared the torture of their loss with her, so I understood the burden of it more than well enough.

Besides, I’d formed a bond with Darcy of my own in the last six weeks.

“We won’t die,” he said with a shrug. “We’re the Heirs and the Savage Princess. Darcy and the dudebros. Wolfman, Bitey C, Fish Fury, Dragzilla, and the Phoen Dream.”

I was on strict orders to eat three meals a day from Darius after he’d figured out I’d been using healing magic to skip meals back in August.

😣

One small mercy I’d been gifted was that I’d found a bond with him I’d never expected to have. And though trust was something I doubted I’d ever feel again for anyone besides family, Darius Acrux came surprisingly close. And so did the other Heirs sometimes.

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.

“Because he’s in love with my sister which makes him about as appealing to me as a three-day-old tuna sandwich – no offence,” I tossed at Darius and he smirked. “You’re an old tuna sandwich to me too, Gwen,” he agreed, and I punched him over the name, but couldn’t fight a smirk.

I strode up to him, slapped him hard then hugged him firmly, because dammit I needed him right now. “You had no right.” He held me close and the feel of him casting the identity illusion tumbled over my flesh. “I know, but you haven’t given up on me and Roxy. So, I have the same sentiment when it comes to you and my best friend.”

I hated being tactile with anyone. Anyone except Darcy. Alright, and Darius. Apparently, I only liked the D.

He leaned closer again, whispering it to me in a slow and measured breath. “Ankaa.” My lips parted as I recognised that word. “That’s-” “The brightest star in the Phoenix constellation,” he answered for me, smiling even wider.

I pulled on the suit I’d worn the day I’d been dragged away from Zodiac and tied on the friendship bracelet Tory had given me.

“That’s enough,” Darius snapped, and my eyes flicked over to where he’d pinned Seth to the bed by the throat, Seth’s tongue lolling out his mouth as he panted. “No more licks.”

“Lionel is having his Nymphs bring me all kinds of shit that could be concealing the Imperial Star.” Gabriel started laughing, cracking up and we all turned to him while he tried to pull himself together.

“Do it,” Darius commanded, and I knew he’d cast himself into my flames and be consumed by them if it would help bring Tory back. Because I’d do the very same.

Gabriel lost his shit as he laughed, this clearly being the exact thing he’d seen before.

my arm twitched where it hung beside Roxy’s. The back of her hand slid against mine, causing heat to prickle across my skin and for the briefest moment, her little finger hooked around mine, making my heart leap as I looked down at her. She didn’t look back, didn’t blink, or react in anyway as our hands stayed joined for just a few seconds before she released me again. But it had happened. I just didn’t know if that was proof that some part of the girl I loved was in there fighting to get out or if I was kidding myself because I needed to believe that so desperately.

It would be genocide. And I knew in my soul that the Rats would just be the beginning.

sounds familiar

“You’re not coming out of there until you’re yourself again,” she growled and before I could reply, a mournful roar sounded from somewhere overhead.

Memories of our childhood were bubbling up in me until I felt like I was overflowing with them. The good, the bad, the downright fucking miserable. And yet no matter what we’d experienced over the years, I’d always had this one burning light right beside me, like my very own star set to guide me back home always. Darcy. My other half. My one, truest love.

It had taken me more than five hours of just sifting through the memories of pain and fear that filled Tory’s mind before I’d even been able to get down to the roots of them. Lionel had done a damn good job of forcing her to associate every moment of torture he’d inflicted upon her with a memory of Darius.

He had a thermos in his grip and as he looked to me, he frowned. “This is for her.” He held it out then pulled a packet of Tory’s favourite chocolate wafers from his pocket. I moved forward to take them and he caught the back of my neck, pulling me into a tight hug. I swear I’d never been hugged so much in my life as I had this morning, but I knew we all needed it. My gaze caught on Caleb and Seth standing further off in the trees, watching us with anxious expressions.

All the time Father had you, he spent every single minute searching for you, fighting back against the Nymphs, letting Darcy burn him half to death with Phoenix fire just to try and remove the shadows from his body so that he could challenge Father without Clara being able to stop him. It broke him losing you… So, I guess what I’m saying is that I think you should give him the chance to make things right between you two. He’s been to hell and back losing you, Tory. Please don’t let Father win by keeping you away from him now.”

The moment I was certain there was no one else around, I dropped my resting bitch mask, grinning at Orion in greeting and he shot towards me, a breath of laughter passing his lips as he swept me up into a fierce embrace. I smiled like an idiot as I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight as he spun me in a circle.

“We’re all at least a little fucked up, Tory,” he said roughly. “But the people who love us don’t give a shit about that. Better still – they love us even more for it.”

My gaze snagged on the friendship bracelet I’d made for him all those months ago and my heart felt full as I smiled at him. “I missed you, asshole,” I said in a low voice. “Missed you too, savage.”

Roxanya Vega was the kind of girl who pick-pocketed from strangers to survive and rode fast motorcycles while calling mean bastards out on their shit and making no apologies for who she was.

She was so beautiful. Why hadn’t I just let myself see that before? I’d been so caught up on the idea of it just being lust and wanting to hate fuck her that I’d refused to see that her beauty went so much deeper than her appearance. She was everything I wasn’t and everything I wanted. A princess, born to live her life in a specific way just like I had been and yet she refused to blindly follow any path.

Having Orion’s new number was a treat in itself. I sent him daily photographs of me and Darcy together with captions like #sheaintblueoveryounomore and #teamDeth. He’d blocked my number after threatening to rip my intestines out and strangle me with them – among other murderous threats - but then I got a magical app which sent my texts from anonymous numbers so he couldn’t keep me away. It was hilarious. And very intentional. Because I was officially kickstarting Mission: Get Darion Back Together.

I was naturally protective of her. I wanted to be around her all the time. And I’d finally realised that the way I felt about her was the exact way I felt about the Heirs.

“You’d love being dominated by me, Roxy,” he promised. “I’d pin you down and make you scream so good you’d forget all about trying to stop me as I marked you as mine so thoroughly that you’d never doubt that it was true ever again.”

oh??

“What about Darius?” “Darius may have forgone the butt plug, but the stick is most likely still pretty firmly up there. But the stars won’t let me get him naked to check.” “I’ll be sure to tell him you want to get him naked when he crawls into my bed tonight,” Orion said.

“The first letter of each of those words spells out the message she was trying to give me. ‘Help us.’”

“No,” he scoffed. “Of course not. I don’t intend to let them take the throne just because we’re friends now. Where the hell did you get that idea?”

oh well this is awkward

“No one look them in the eyes, they’ll rip the soul right out of your body if you do.” “They’ll do fucking what?” Max balked.

Geraldine was standing on top of a stone sarcophagus whirling her flaming flail like a freaking baton of death as she crushed skulls and hollered to the moon.

The moment he was healed, I released his hand, gripping his face between my palms and kissing his forehead before pulling him against me.

“It’s me, Roxy,” he said roughly, his hands moving to grasp my waist as he looked at me like I was the answer to every question he’d ever asked of the world. Relief spilled through me in an overwhelming torrent that made me sag forward as I pressed my forehead to his for the briefest of moments before rearing back again. “You fucking idiot,” I snapped, punching him in the chest as I realised he was okay. “Why the fuck were your eyes open?” “Because I wasn’t going to risk them getting past me to you,” he snarled like that was the most obvious thing in the world and I punched him again. “And what would I do without you?” I demanded, making his eyes widen with surprise before I even realised what I’d said, but fuck it.

I saw memories scrolling through my mind of this girl. Her standing before me for the first time, her hair dipped in blue, her eyes wide and curious. Then her sitting in my class, me stealing looks at her I had no right to steal. The taste of her lips against mine for the first time, hidden at the bottom of a pool, then the way she’d looked dripping wet outside my front door with a single word on her lips. A word that meant everything to me. Because it meant her. My girl. My queen.

You’ve found the final card. The stars have aligned, my duty is done. When all hope fails, Vega Princesses, find courage in the light.

“Oh, what fun,” Geraldine guffawed, slapping her thigh. “I’d like to make that odious beast stand in a pool of ravenous fishes who feast on his scrotum and tallywacker until there is nothing left of him downstairs but his questionable morals.”

Caleb climbed in behind me and slung an arm over me too as a tendril of amusement slipped from him. “You’re my little spoon, Maxy pad,” he laughed

Yeah, so, I’m fucking with him to send him into a jealous rage that will force him to tell her how he feels and therefore make her listen and forgive him and then they can be endgame, happily ever after and all that shit. I expect to be best man

“It’s you, dumbass,” Roxy snapped, shoving me again and making me growl even louder. Why the fuck did she think it was a good idea to bait the beast in me when I was ready to- “It’s only you. Even though it can’t be, it fucking is.”

“What?” I asked, my brow pinching but her mouth was on mine before I could further form that thought.

FUCKING FINALLY

She was mine. Destined to be mine by the stars. The girl who should have been my Elysian Mate and was so much more besides. I needed this. I needed her. I’d been like the moon without the light of the sun without her all this time. Cold and pale and void of life. But she lit me up and made me burn. And I never wanted to stop burning with her.

“I’m the girl no one ever loved, Darius,” she said. “No one but Darcy, my whole life. And though I never let it show, I used to dream of finding someone who would love me like a prince in a fairy tale so I could be their princess. But I don’t love you like a princess. There isn’t anything soft or sweet or easy about us. It’s wild and unpredictable. It hurts more than any pain I’ve ever felt and consumes me more completely than anything I ever could have predicted. You make my heart race with all the best kinds of fear and my gut clench with the angriest butterflies I’ve ever known. I have hated you more than I even knew I could hate a man and I think if I love you with as much fury then I’ll burn up in it.”

“I think I’m already burning, Darius,” she breathed. “And it’s time I stopped pretending I’m not.”

“They’re my real pack. The ones I count on over anyone else. The ones I’m there for before anyone among my Wolves. I know it’s fucked up, and I do love my pack. But they’re not family. The Heirs are. And so are you now. Your sister is too…though I don’t think she likes me that much.” “Well, you keep bringing her snacks and then stealing them back.”

“You mean when he sacrificed himself for you so you might have a chance to take down Lionel? So that you wouldn’t lose everything including your place at the one academy capable of training up a Fae of your power level and giving you a real chance for the throne? By the stars, what an asshole,”

“How dare you disrespect me in my own classroom?” she hissed, and I tucked my Atlas into my pocket. “I don’t need to disrespect you, miss, you manage that all on your own,”