“What do we do?” Aiden demanded. “We can’t just watch her die!”
Through the haze of agony, I saw Percy’s face. “There’s one thing we can try,” he said grimly. “A temporary axis bond.”
“Are you insane?” Eris exclaimed. “That’s not something you just do in an emergency. It requires preparation, compatibility testing?—“
“She’s compatible,” Draco said. “I can feel it. We all can.”
“It might kill us all,” Aiden warned.
“She’s dying anyway,” Percy said. “And she saved your fucking life.”
I tried to speak, to tell them no, that it was too dangerous, but all that escaped was another scream as the fissures spread across my chest, inching toward my heart.
“Do it,” Draco said. “All of us together.”
Through tear-blurred vision, I watched as the four men positioned themselves around me. Percy knelt at my head, Draco and Aiden at my sides, Eris at my feet. They joined hands, forming a circle around my convulsing body.
“Jupiter,” Percy said, his voice cutting through the roar of pain. “We’re going to try to stabilize your magic. It’s going to hurt, and it’s not a permanent solution, but it might save your life until we get you to a healer.”
I managed a jerky nod, beyond caring about the implications. The pain was too much. If they could make it stop, I’d give them anything.
“On my count,” Percy instructed the others. “Three, two, one?—”
All four men released their magic simultaneously, four distinct energies flowing toward me in streams of red, gold, purple, and the shifting colors of Eris’s Gemini power. The energies collided with my wild starlight. For a moment, the pain intensified beyond bearing.
I screamed until my voice gave out, my back arching off the ground as their magic forced its way into my system, seeking connection points, trying to establish temporary bonds where none had existed before.
And then, suddenly, blessed relief. The foreign magic encapsulated my own. The fissures in my skin began to close, the starlight retreating from the surface back into my core.
“It’s working,” Draco said, his voice strained.
“Keep going,” Percy ordered, though he sounded equally taxed and breathless.
I felt their presence inside me, four distinct signatures mingling with my own. It was intimate and almost invasive. Their magic moved through me like cool water on burned skin, soothing the raw, ripping edges where my own power had torn me apart.
The temporary bond wouldn’t last. I knew that instinctively. It was an emergency measure or like a magical tourniquet. But it was enough to stabilize me until we reached the surface and the healers could do their thing.
So why did the feeling of four brand new souls invading the back of my head, feel so damn comforting?
TEN
Jupiter
I woketo the sound of voices arguing, their words muffled as if coming through water. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, my body weighted down like I was sinking in quicksand. The pain had subsided to a dull ache, but compared to the agony I’d experienced in the Abyss, it was almost pleasant.
“...unprecedented magical integration...”
“...need to understand the mechanics before...”
“She’s not a lab rat, you fucks!”
That last voice cut through the fog in my brain. Percy. He sounded furious.
I forced my eyes open, blinking against harsh fluorescent lights. I was in what appeared to be the infirmary, surrounded by medical equipment and monitoring devices. And people. So many people in suits, hovering around my bed like vultures.
“She’s awake,” someone announced, and suddenly all eyes turned to me.
Director Waverly stood closest to my bed. Beside her was a man in an Assembly uniform I recognized as Deputy DirectorKwan. Three other officials I didn’t know stood nearby, tablets in hand, clearly taking notes on my condition.
