Zodiac Academy 6: Fated Throne
Fated Throne: Chapter 46

I’d expected to die, not to wake up cold and shivering in a damp, dark cell. My eyes cracked open and I groaned as I pushed myself onto my knees, my heart clenching as I found my wrists bound in glowing blue magical blocking cuffs. My Phoenix lay dormant inside me and there was a needle puncture wound in my arm that spoke of the Order Suppressant I’d been given.

Basically, I was fucked and as I looked around the dank space, from the ancient bricks curving up around me to the iron bars in front of me, I knew there was no way out.

I reached up to my throat in a panic, but found the Imperial Star miraculously still hanging there. Lionel didn’t know. He doesn’t know.

“Blue?” Orion’s anxious voice reached me from beyond the wall to my right and I wheeled around in hope, rushing toward it. “Are you awake?”

One of the bricks was missing between our cells so I could see into his. His hand shot through the hole and clasped mine, tugging it through to his side, his mouth pressing to the back of it. The heat of his lips was like a bonfire, burning through the cold clinging to my bones. I rarely felt the cold these days, always able to use my Phoenix to keep me warm and I’d almost forgotten how deeply it could bite.

Orion’s magic cuff bumped against mine as our fingers locked together and panic sliced a path through my chest. I had no idea how long it had been since Lionel had captured us or where we were or what that bastard had planned. And the unknown was worse than the fear. Worse than even this dungeon we were locked in.

I pulled my hand free, looking through the gap instead and his gaze met with mine.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” he swore, but whatever Lionel had planned for us, we weren’t going to be able to fight. Without our magic and Orders, we might as well have been mortals.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Lance,” I breathed hopelessly.

He growled, swiping his hand over his face as tension lined his features. He looked desperate, lost to a sea of fear, but the way he kept glancing at me told me that fear wasn’t for himself.

“I know I broke your trust before,” he said with pain coating his voice. “But only because I thought it was the right thing to do. I wouldn’t break a promise to you unless the alternative was worse. So when I did it, I was sure it was.”

I rested my forehead to the wall above the hole, taking in a breath. “I know,” I admitted.

At some point during our time together these past few months, I’d come to see the truth in how he saw things. It didn’t make it right, or better. But the bitterness over him abandoning me had become less sharp. Now we were sitting in the Dragon King’s dungeon awaiting an inevitably terrible fate and there was so much left to say.

Why we weren’t dead yet was a mystery, but maybe Lionel planned on torturing us first. If he had any inkling that we knew the location of the Imperial Star then maybe that was what he was after. But why weren’t we strapped to some torture device right now if that was the case?

I traced my finger over my necklace and Orion shifted closer, sharing an intent look with me.

“I wish you could use it,” he sighed.

“I’d have to be a queen,” I said sadly.

“You are,” he growled and the ferocity in his voice made me wrap my hand around the Imperial Star. There was a faraway echo of power thrumming within it, but there was no way it could answer my call.

“You always had so much faith in me,” I said sadly. “I’m so grateful for that.”

“I would have been horrified at myself once if I’d seen what a royalist I’d become,” he laughed humourlessly. “Master of the Zodiac Guild,” he scoffed at himself. “No regrets when it comes to that though, beautiful.”

“Do you still have the diary?” I asked him and he nodded, patting his pocket. As it was concealed to look like a coin, I guessed Lionel hadn’t bothered to take it from him. I quickly pushed my hand into my pocket, finding Diego’s hat there and a sigh of relief left me.

“Darcy, I…” He shifted closer to the wall, reaching through it once more and I laced my fingers between his as my heart ached. “If this is my last promise, please know I won’t break it. I swear that no matter what happens, I will fight to save you.”

Tears burned my eyes as I gripped his hand tighter. “I’ll fight for you too,” I swore. Just like we had all those months ago. Before I’d lost everything.

“I know this means nothing now, but if I don’t say it I’ll hate myself,” he said, his voice dark and rough. Silence stretched for a long moment as I waited for him to continue. “I love you, Blue. I loved you then, I love you now, I’ll love you tomorrow even if I’m no longer on this earth. No time exists where I won’t love you.”

“Lance, please don’t say goodbye,” my words caught in my throat as pain burrowed into my core.

“I have to,” he rasped. “Just in case. I’m so fucking sorry for everything I did to you. To us. I ruined everything. And I know it can’t be fixed. That I made it nearly impossible for you to trust me when we first met, and when you finally did and I earned your heart, I broke that trust irreversibly.”

“Maybe it was always meant to be this way,” I said heavily, my chest tight. “You wouldn’t have accessed the diary if you hadn’t gone to prison. Your father knew that. It was where you had to end up for us to get the Imperial Star.”

“But it cost me you,” he said, his tone full of loss and regret.

I clutched his hand harder as tears spilled down my cheeks, accepting that I had to open my heart one last time, because I may never get a chance to do it again.

“Lance,” I said, my voice breaking, shattering. His words were the sweetest poison, tailor made to kill me. I wiped my tears away and summoned the courage to tell him what needed to be said, but then the sound of a door opening reached us and heavy footsteps pounded this way.

Orion’s grip on my hand tightened painfully and I peered through the hole as a Faelight illuminated his cell and fear yanked on my heart.

A clunk sounded as his cell door unlocked and two large men strode in wearing the uniforms of the King’s Taskforce.

“Hey look, it’s the princess fucker,” one of them sneered and a growl built in my throat. “You’re on trial again, you power shamed piece of shit,” the other one said, smiling cruelly. “My bet’s on the King showing no mercy. You’d better say goodbye forever just in case.”

They lunged at Orion, dragging him to his feet and his hand was ripped from mine. He tried to fight, throwing furious punches, but without magic, they quickly tied his hands with a vine and hauled him to the door. One of them slammed their knuckles into his gut, making him snarl and my breathing stuttered.

“Wait!” I cried as panic tore at my heart with sharp claws. “Take me too! Take me with him!”

They started laughing, ignoring me as Orion turned his head to meet my gaze with an agonised expression as they dragged him away.

I started screaming his name with a raw desperation, because I had a horrible, heart-breaking feeling it was the last time I was ever going to see him.

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