Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

I watched her as she looked at the tattoo, tracing the words with her fingertips and breathing them into the silence. "There is only her." She continued to paint the marks that made up the Gemini and Leo constellations followed by the lines of the geometric design that charted the pattern of the moon and stars the night she’d said no to me.

"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."

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.

"Because, from the moment I arrived here I swore I wouldn't let anyone decide my fate for me. So despite the fact that you're literally the rudest, most pig-headed, infuriating asshole I have ever met, I still want you. So fuck the stars. Fuck the moon and the meteors and the fucking clouds. Let the sky watch me as I tell it to get fucked. Nothing up there or down here gets to tell me what to do. You told me I was yours and I think that you're mine too." "You think?" I asked. "I told you I love you. I tattooed it on my flesh, Roxy, I feel like I've made my feelings pretty clear. You're all I want for myself. The only choice I wish I could make and the only one I can't. So you don't think anything. You know I'm yours, every damn piece of me. But you've never told me what you want out of owning me or if I own you too."

There is only him.

"And yet all the time this hangs between us, aren't we always going to be fighting deep down? When it comes down to it, your family betrayed mine. Your father took everything from us. A chance to grow up loved in the world where we belong, the chance to come into our powers early and learn all the things you were gifted so easily. And even after everything that's happened, you still want to keep stealing from us, don't you? You still believe that you and the other Heirs are more suited to sit on the throne than we are. Even though it's our birth right. Even though we are more powerful than you. Even though we had to lose everything to get to where we are." Her eyes flashed with emotion which she rarely allowed anyone to see and I was caught between wanting to hold her and shake her.

Death would have to try and rip her from my arms itself if it wanted her, and even then, I would not let go.

If we have to die, at least let us die together.

“Don’t let go of me,” I begged against his mouth. He held me tighter as he tried to get up once more, but too many of them were pinning us down. “See you in the stars, Blue,” he swore, his lips brushing mine.

Geraldine Gundellifus Gabolia Gundestria Grus!

“We’re sisters, see?” she said forlornly. “Sisters are so very precious. But the queen betrayed all of her sisters.” “I don’t understand. You were related to her?” “Not in that way, oh don’t you see, little Vega princess? How very naive you are, and how arrogant too.”

Foreshadowing? This has to mean something, right?

"One year," the voice breathed. "To love her like you ache to. To be the best of yourself. One year and no more."

"A year to live the life you yearn for. A year to find out if you really are the man you wish to be."

"Blood of the oathbreaker," the voice came again, rich with even more power now as the energy in the cavern made my entire body tingle. "Descendant of the deceiver. Son of the destroyer. Do you offer your life in payment for the breaking of the bonds?"

"I accept your terms," I growled in a deep voice that echoed with finality. "And I offer my life in payment."