‘I don’t like many people.’
“You don’t like any people. Except me.”
‘Correct,’he said, satisfied, and then he found my pillow and arranged himself comfortably.
I thought for a second, how blissful it must be to live as a snake, with no worries, no cares in the world save for your next meal or next nap.
I unpacked methodically, clothes in the wardrobe, gear tucked flat under the bed where I could get to it fast if needed, books on the desk, the small framed photo of my parents on the nightstand where I could see it from the bed. When I was done, I sat at the desk and opened the orientation packet, and I was deep into the section on training protocols when my phone lit up with a text.
L: We’re on the second floor. Tye already charmed someone into telling him where the best wifi spot is.
J: Of course he did. Meet for dinner?
L: Obviously. There’s a dining hall on the main floor. 6pm?
J: I’ll be there.
I set the phone down and went back to the orientation packet. Then I turned to page seven and found the full details of the declaration ceremony. My stomach did a few cartwheels. Students would approach the declaration podium in alphabetical order and by designation, the casting stone would read their zodiac, and the result would be announced to the room. In front of everyone. We manifested our zodiac at 18, but there were initiations if you wanted to join officially.
I was going to have to stand up in front of twelve hundred people and announce that I was a zodiac that everyone thought was a myth.
I was absolutely fine with it. Cool as a fucking cucumber. I’d fought monsters in the dark for three damn years and had come out the other side. This was a declaration ceremony at a school, and I was not going to be rattled by a crowded room.
In reality, I was about three seconds from a full-blown meltdown.
‘You’re doing the thing,’Noodle said from the pillow.
I hadn’t realized I was tapping my fingers on the desk. “What thing?”
‘Your heartbeat is very fast.’
“Thank you for that, Nood. Very helpful.”
‘You’re welcome,’he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or sarcastic. Little butthead.
I spent the rest of the morning unpacking and then orienting myself to the building, taking a solo walkthrough, checking exits, pathways, corridors and the places where the light didn’t reach.
Dominion was massive, built across multiple wings that had clearly been added to the original structure over centuries. By midday I had a workable mental map of the first two floors and the training level. I had to admit it was gorgeous. There were many modern amenities, but most of it was original architecture. I took my time appreciating the sweeping staircases, the arched doorways, the tapestries murals and rune etchings in the wood.
There was so much history here. I could almost imagine my own parents walking these same halls, going to their classes, talking with friends, learning their magic for the first time.
After three years of a solitary existence working for the Assembly, I had to admit that this situation wasn’t so bad.
Not all zodiac students would become warriors. Not everyone became a member of a shield team. Only those with substantial defensive magic. Both my parents had gone to school here and graduated with teaching degrees. They were both Scorpios, and met in their dorm their first year. All my life I thought I’d have followed in their footsteps to become an academic. But the fates loved a good joke.
The library occupied an entire wing and I wanted to move in and stay for the rest of my life. There were gorgeous cathedral ceilings with star charts painted across them, shelves that rose to the upper floor galleries with stone balconies, long reading tables in old, rich mahogany, everything lit by warm brass lamps.
I stood in the entrance for a moment and just looked at it. The Assembly housing was functional and secure andaggressively impersonal. This was a monument to history that spanned unimaginable time. Something warm filled my chest at the thought of spending the next four years here exploring. It was the closest thing to belonging I’d been allowed to want.
I turned away before I made too much of it and went back to the main hall, and that was when I first saw the infamous Nightfall Shield. One of many shields this academy produced, but arguably the most sought after. I knew them on sight.
There were four of them, standing near the far end of the entry hall in a loose group, clearly not waiting for anything in particular, but speaking in low voices.
The tallest of them had dark ash blonde hair that fell past his shoulders, pushed back from angular features that were genuinely unfairly pretty for a man, with golden eyes that were currently aimed at something across the room. He had the lean muscular build of someone who trained to fight. There were small piercings in his ear that caught the light. That would be Aiden, a Leo zodiac. I’d been given information on all of them.
Beside him was a man with pure white hair paired with black expressive eyebrows. He had gauges in his ears and a barbell through his brow and what I was fairly certain was a tongue ring from the way he was clicking something against the backs of his teeth. His forearms were covered in tattoos that disappeared under his sleeves. This was Draco. Scorpio zodiac. His hazel eyes were currently aimed at the floor and he looked like he was only physically present in this conversation while most of him was somewhere else entirely.
The large muscular one with copper hair, shorter on the sides and longer on top, had a well-kept beard and amber eyes and was saying something to the man beside him that involved some kind of intense hand gesturing I couldn’t read from here. His name was Eris. Gemini. Scottish, I believe. He was incredibly large. Not overly muscled, but rather thick and dense.
