Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

Clara stood in the desolate land of the Shadow Realm naked and frozen, her arm still bloody from the sacrifice Lionel had made her offer before the dark stardust had consumed her. “Hush,” Lavinia’s voice filled the air and shadows coiled around her, cloaking her body. “I am here.” They wound tighter and tighter, and Clara gasped in fear as they sank beneath her flesh, taking root in her. “Go quietly, Fae girl, your body is mine.” Clara screamed and thrashed as the shadows possessed her until she was forced to her knees and blood dripped from her mouth as the shadow spirit of Lavinia ate its way into her body. Sickness ran through me, and I was half aware of releasing a shout I couldn’t hear. Wounds opened up across her skin and blood poured out from her in wave after wave, washing across the ground and rushing back through a fissure which was torn into the air. A portal ripped open by Lionel Acrux as a part of the ritual he’d forced us to bear witness to all those years ago, sacrificing my sister just for this. Clara started crawling back toward it in desperation as a horrid scream left her which made my entire being seize up with grief. She fell still before she made it to the portal and the shadows settled inside her, claiming her body, her soul. Lavinia took control of Clara as the wounds across her body healed, her features twisting as they lost the gentleness of my sister and took on the ferociousness of a Nymph Princess. She scrambled to her feet and rushed toward th...