That’s why we wanted her so desperately. Why we couldn’t stop thinking about her. Why we salivated over her like animals. Why we’d been willing to risk everything for her. None of it had been real.
Percy walked to the window, his back rigid. “She’ll be back soon.”
“What do we do?” Draco asked.
“Nothing,” Percy said, his voice deadly calm. “We cut her loose.”
“The bond—” I started.
“Isn’t real,” Percy cut me off. “According to these emails from the fucking Assembly Director herself, she fabricated it. Tricked our bodies and minds into thinking we were bonded.”
The realization made me physically sick. The woman I’d been dreaming about, fantasizing about, jealously watching with my shield brothers, she was nothing but a lie. A weapon pointed at the heart of everything I cared about.
“We need to report this to Director Waverly,” Draco said. “The Assembly can’t just?—“
“The Assembly and the school are behind it,” Percy interrupted. “Calla Orion orchestrated the whole thing, probably with Waverly’s blessing.”
I scrolled through more emails. Plans for how to handle us once the bond was secured. Strategies for keeping us compliant. Even contingencies for if we discovered the truth. There were details in here that nobody could have possibly known except for Jupiter.
“She never cared about any of us,” I said, the words tasting like ash.
Eris returned to the doorway, knuckles bloody, eyes wild. “The common room’s fucked,” he said flatly. “Just like us.”
We fell silent as footsteps approached in the hallway. Jupiter’s footsteps. I knew them by heart now, the light, quick pace that used to make my pulse quicken. Now it just made my magic flare with rage, golden light crackling across my skin.
“Ready?” Percy asked, his voice empty and utterly cold.
The door pushed open, and there she was, the axis we’d thought was ours, the woman we’d all fallen for, the most elaborate lie I’d ever believed.
“Hey,” she said, smiling as she entered, though it faltered when she saw us all gathered in her room. Her silver eyes darted to her laptop, then back to us, confusion evident on her face. “What’s going on? Why are you all in here?”
I watched her face carefully, searching for any sign that she knew what we’d found. Was that genuine confusion, or just another performance from the Assembly’s perfect actress?
“We were just leaving,” Percy said, his voice glacial as he pushed past her without a glance.
“Percy?” she called after him, then looked at the rest of us with growing alarm. “What happened? Did someone die or something?”
Eris laughed bitterly. “Something like that, lass.”
He followed Percy out, shouldering past her roughly. Draco stood next, his usually composed face a mask of pain.
“Draco, please,” she said, reaching for his arm. “Tell me what’s happening.”
He jerked away from her touch like it burned him. “Don’t,” he quietly warned before leaving.
I was the last one left, standing before the woman who’d played me for a fucking fool.
“Aiden,” she said, her voice small now, uncertain. “What the hell is going on?”
I looked at her—reallylooked at her. The silver eyes that had captivated me from the first moment. The dark hair I’d dreamed of running my fingers through. The lips I’d kissed so fucking deeply. Had any of it been real? Or was she really that good at her job?
“Your laptop was making noise,” I said flatly. “I came in to shut it off.”
She stared at me for a long moment. Without another word, she moved past me to the laptop, her fingers trembling slightly as she scrolled through the emails.
I watched her face carefully, searching for any sign of deception, any flicker that might betray her. But all I saw was genuine shock as the color drained from her face.
“I... I don’t understand,” she whispered, her eyes wide as she looked up at me. “Aiden, what is this? These aren’t my emails. I’ve never written these things. I didn’t—I would never?—“
