Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne Read online

  ZODIAC ACADEMY

  Fated Throne

  by

  Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Campus Map.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..53

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Author Note

  This book is dedicated to the stars. Thanks for sending us mixed messages dudes, you’re a real bunch of sparkly assholes.

  In light of that we asked Gabriel Nox to write you a prophesy about this book…

  “Paiiiiiiin, immense, unimaginable paiiiiin lies in your future if you continue reading this book.

  However, there is also some good which awaits, slivers of joy, laughter which will lighten your soul only to ensure it is crushed more thoroughly in the fist of fate subsequently.

  Both incredible happiness and intense suffering are coming to you…but if you spill enough tears, you may find the authors of destiny show mercy. It is an unlikely fate, but a possible one.

  So spill those tears dear one, capture them in jars and look to the sky to ask the stars to be kind. Because every once in a while, they listen.”

  P.S. we are the stars - sorry, not sorry.

  Gabriel also has foreseen you joining us in our reader group on Facebook so follow your fate and we’ll see you there!

  Welcome to Zodiac Academy, here is your campus map.

  Note to all students: Vampire bites, loss of limbs or getting lost in The Wailing Wood will not count as a valid excuse for being late to class.

  Click on the map to explore it more closely.

  A gony ripped through my side as a Nymph got close enough to drive its probed fingers into my flesh and I roared a challenge as I swung towards it. The axe Darcy had forged for me in Phoenix fire blazed with blue flames as it carved a path through the air and the Nymph’s neck in turn.

  The foul creature didn’t even have time to shriek in pain before it died and it crumbled to dust which swirled around me on the storm Darcy and Seth had summoned to hide our advance.

  Not that that plan had worked. The fucking Nymphs had realised we were here the moment we stepped foot outside the clearing where the clubhouse was concealed. I didn’t know if we’d set off a magical alarm when we arrived via stardust or if we’d just been unlucky enough to be spotted, but it didn’t matter now. We were right in the thick of the shit storm with Nymphs closing in on all sides.

  I pressed a hand to my side, healing the worst of the wounds with a curse as I was forced to pause my advance.

  Caleb appeared as nothing more than a blur of red and blue flames as he shot all around the forest with his Vampire speed, the twin daggers Darcy had crafted him tearing through the Nymphs before they even realised he was close.

  My skin prickled with the urge to shift and a Dragon’s roar left my lips as smoke coated my tongue, but there was no room for me to shift here between the trees. Besides, I liked the way it felt when my new axe carved through my enemies too much to abandon it.

  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. But instead of crumbling beneath the agony of their loss, she’d risen to the challenge and spent the summer helping us to try and track down the Imperial Star. Roxy had made the sacrifice Gabriel had predicted, stopping Father from finding it for now and we refused to allow her sacrifice to be for nothing. And now that Darcy had armed the four of us with weapons that could withstand the Nymphs and cut through them as easily as if they were made of paper, there was nothing that could stop us from finding it.

  Max bellowed a challenge from his position on Seth’s back in his huge white Wolf form as they charged through the clearing and he fired an arrow flaming with Phoenix fire right over my head. A Nymph exploded into dust as the arrow punched a hole in its chest and Max guided it back to him on a gust of wind in a move he’d been practicing tirelessly since Darcy had forged his gift. He instantly placed the arrow in the bow and aimed again as I raced forward behind them. Seth’s front paws were clad in gleaming metal, the claws able to ignite with Phoenix fire and tear through the barky flesh of the Nymphs like a hot knife through butter.

  I swung my axe with savage abandon, black blood splattering my face and arms as I killed again and again but no matter how many enemies I destroyed, it felt like the tide was never ending.

  My heart was pounding to a frantic rhythm as I searched the darkness between the trees for Darcy. She’d run ahead using a concealment spell despite my command for us to stick together, and panic was warring beneath my skin for every moment that passed without a sign of her. I’d given Roxy my word that I’d protect her sister before she’d fallen into the shadows and been taken by my father and it was the only thing I could do for her at the moment.

  Besides, I’d formed a bond with Darcy of my own in the last six weeks. We’d been meeting up as often as I could get away from the manor in secret so that she could try and burn the shadows out of me. If I could just get free of them then Clara couldn’t control me anymore and I’d be able to strike at her and Father. But it wasn’t fucking working. I was pushing and pushing for Darcy to use ever stronger flames, but they were coming closer to roasting me alive from the inside out than they were to destroying the shadows. She’d refused to attempt it at all this past week since I’d passed out from the agony of them and Max had struggled to heal me in time to save my life. But I didn’t want to stop trying. I needed to break free so that I could stand against my father and rescue the girl I loved.

  The pain of my separation from Roxy cut me open and made me bleed with every day that passed.

  Father held her life in his hands and he’d threatened her to stop me from trying to track her down. Not that that had stopped me. I knew he held her somewhere in the manor and I’d been spending every waking hour searching for her, but I’d never even found a clue to her whereabouts. But
sometimes, in the dead of night, I woke suddenly, sure I’d heard her screaming, alone in the dark.

  I hoped that I was just having nightmares. But I was almost certain I wasn’t.

  A huge blast of Phoenix fire came from the clubhouse at the centre of the clearing and Nymphs screamed as they died beneath Darcy’s wrath.

  I raced forward, cutting through the Nymphs who were trying to escape her flames until I finally made it to the stone house where she was waiting for us.

  For a moment the light from her fire cast her in shadows, making her blue hair appear black as she smiled savagely in victory, looking so like her sister that my heart dropped right down into the pit of my stomach. Guilt rose up in me like an all too familiar curse and I forced my mind off of it so that I could focus on this fight.

  “Did we get them all?” Darcy called as her flames guttered out and the illusion was lost to me.

  “What the fuck was that?” I demanded as I came to stand before her, my muscles burning with fatigue from hefting my axe which now hung loose in my right hand. “The plan was to stick together.”

  “Calm down, Darius,” she replied, flicking a lock of blue hair back over her shoulder. “I was just rounding up the stragglers.”

  “You could have gotten yourself killed,” I snarled as Seth padded up beside me in his Wolf form and Max slid from his back.

  “Well, I didn’t. So you don’t have to worry about breaking your precious promise,” she muttered bitterly.

  “It’s the only thing I can do for her at the moment,” I growled in reply, my heart twisting with the truth of those words. We’d vowed to do everything we could to get Roxy back, but it turned out that there was nothing we could do. Not so far anyway. Even Gabriel hadn’t been able to see anything to help us. The whole situation was fucked.

  Darcy’s gaze softened at that and she nodded. “I know. But I’m not some fragile thing that needs protecting.”

  “Well you are a princess,” Seth teased as he shifted back into Fae form.

  Darcy rolled her eyes as she turned away from him flashing his junk and Max tossed him a pair of sweatpants from his bag.

  Caleb shot towards us as we waited for him to pull them on, a wild look in his eyes as he extinguished the Phoenix flames which coated his daggers.

  “There are more coming,” he panted as he pointed away through the woods. “Too many. We need to search this place and get the fuck out of here.”

  I cursed as I looked up at the huge stone building which had once been home to the Zodiac Guild. Darcy had discovered this place mentioned in an old tome which had been kept at The Palace of Souls and we’d come here as soon as we could, but the damn Nymphs had still been faster. Just like they had at the last four places we’d searched.

  I didn’t know how they were managing to do it, whether the stars really were against us or if they were spying on us somehow, but it was like we couldn’t catch a fucking break.

  “Let’s make this quick then,” Darcy snarled as she turned towards the building and made a move towards the door.

  I caught her shoulder, my gaze flickering to Dragon slits as she huffed at me and I moved her aside so that I could go in first. She might not want me to protect her, but I’d promised Roxy and I wasn’t going to back down on that.

  The door was heavy and stuck as I tried to open it, magic locking it in place. I quickly placed my axe in the holster on my back so that I could concentrate on opening it.

  I closed my eyes as I focused on the lock, working my own magic into it and cursing as I struggled to break it.

  “Hurry up, man,” Seth hissed behind me and I grunted in frustration as the lock continued to hold me back before finally breaking through it with a surge of power.

  The door swung open with a groan and I threw a handful of Faelights into the dark space to illuminate it ahead of us as we stepped inside.

  The clubhouse was immaculate, dominated by a huge open area filled with leather armchairs and dark wooden furniture. A few doors led off of the central room and we glanced around as we moved further into the space. It must have been spelled to stop the dust from settling here, because though the room looked untouched, the taste of magic on the air was long since faded. No one had been here in a long time.

  “We’ve got five minutes, tops,” Caleb warned. “Then we need to get the fuck out of here. I’ll check the back rooms.” He shot away without waiting for us to reply and the rest of us fanned out to search for anything that could relate to the Imperial Star.

  We hunted with a feverish desire that was bordering on aggressive as we tore through the room, using detection spells to locate anything that might be hidden.

  I cursed as we failed to find anything, tossing books, ornaments and anything else I came across in a heap on the floor and my pulse pounded as the minutes ticked down.

  “Shit,” Darcy gasped and I whirled around, finding her in the middle of the room with a tarot card in her hand.

  She’d explained about the messages Astrum had been sending the twins from beyond the grave a few weeks ago and the look in her eyes said she’d just found one more.

  “What does it say?” I demanded.

  The last person who we suspected to have been in possession of the Imperial Star was Astrum and I could only hope that this breadcrumb trail he’d been leaving the twins was designed to lead them to it.

  “Seek the fallen hunter.” Darcy looked up at me as she held out the card for me to see.

  The World tarot card looked back at me, a naked woman dancing above the earth holding a staff in each hand while she was watched by various creatures. That at least was positive – the card symbolised things falling into place, even if the message that went with it seemed like nothing more than a riddle.

  “I can’t find anything,” Max called from across the wide space.

  “Me either,” Caleb announced as he shot back into the room, his blonde curls dishevelled.

  “I don’t think it’s here,” Darcy said bitterly. “We wouldn’t have found a card if it was.”

  A terrifying shriek sounded from somewhere out in the woods and we all looked around in alarm as the Nymph army drew closer.

  “Then I say it’s time to go,” Seth said, moving to join us as he opened an old bottle of whiskey, drinking the few inches in the bottom of it before tossing it aside.

  “Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here,” I agreed, pulling a pouch of stardust from my pocket.

  “One moment,” Caleb said, shooting away before I could object.

  The howls and shrieks of the Nymphs outside were so close that my muscles tensed and magic raced to my fingertips.

  Caleb reappeared with a jerrycan beneath his arm which he must have found outside and as he twisted the cap off, his eyes lit with excitement.

  “Faesine,” he announced, upending the can in a whirl of motion as he shot around us so that every surface in the building was coated with the incredibly flammable substance.

  Seth howled with excitement and I tossed the pouch of stardust to Max as we all moved closer together.

  The Nymphs were so near that I could hear their rattles now, the cold feel of their presence dampening our magic as Max took a pinch of stardust out of the bag and grinned around at us.

  Darcy caught my eye just as the first window shattered and the Nymphs shrieked with excitement as they spotted us.

  Darcy sucked in a sharp breath and my heart leapt as they fought their way inside and the horrifying sight of their gnarled bodies and soulless red eyes made my pulse race.

  Max tossed the stardust and I flicked my fingers, flames leaping from my palm and hitting the Faesine. The tremendous whoosh of the fire met with a blaze of heat that washed over us and the screams of the Nymphs filled the air as they burned half a second before the world spun around us and the stars whipped us up into their embrace.

  Our feet hit solid ground and Seth howled excitedly as we found ourselves in the dark woodland beyond my family’s estate.

>   I could just make out the colourful lights which had been strung up in honour of my birthday in the grounds. I fought back a snarl as I realised I was going to have to sit through an evening of bullshit as Father put on a show of family love and respect for the press and his fake ass friends. I couldn’t even attempt to pull out of it. He’d made it clear that any public show of dissent would cause him to hurt Roxy and I couldn’t risk that. He had me by the balls and he knew it.

  He’d effectively leashed and muzzled me and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it. And the way he looked at me since the start of the summer made my insides boil with hatred. His eyes glinted like he knew something I didn’t. Like he held this great secret he was just bursting to spill and every time I thought of him doing it, I was filled with a mixture of dread and a desperation to know what it was.

  There was one small sliver of hope which I clung to all the time he continued to taunt me and hold Roxy captive at his mercy. Ever since the night I’d almost killed him, he hadn’t once come near me without Clara at his side. In fact, she never seemed to leave his side at all anymore. And I was filled with this deep hope that the reason for that was fear. He knew just how close I’d come to besting him that night. To ending him. And only Clara and her control over me via the shadows kept him safe from my wrath.

  So if I could just get him alone, figure out a way to take her out of the picture, then I was sure I could finish him for good. But he was proving to be an un-Fae asshole as well as a treacherous bastard, putting his Guardian between us rather than face me like he should.

  “Will you be alright alone in the palace tonight?” Seth asked Darcy, a soft whimper escaping him as I handed her the stardust so she could head home. Obviously a Vega wasn’t welcome at a party filled with people who backed our claim for the throne so she couldn’t come in. If the press caught wind of how much time we all spent together these days they’d have a fucking field day. It certainly didn’t seem like we were on opposing sides of a war to me.

  “I’m always alone now,” she said in flat tone which made my heart twist with guilt. I was starting to seriously worry about how she was coping. First Lance had been taken from her and now Roxy; I knew Geraldine had been staying with her a lot, but it wasn’t the same.