“Save it.” The pain in my chest was unbearable, like someone had carved out my heart with a dull blade. “We’ve read enough.”
“But this isn’t me!” Her voice cracked as she gestured wildly at the screen. “I don’t know what these are or where they came from! You have to believe me?—“
“Have your things packed by sunset,” I said, cutting through her desperate words. “Or we’ll do it for you.”
“Aiden, please?—”
I turned away from her, unable to look at those eyes for another second. Every memory we’d shared now felt tainted, poisoned by the knowledge that it had all been orchestrated, every touch calculated for maximum effect. I walked to the door, pulled it open.
“Sunset,” I repeated without looking back.
I closed the door quietly behind me. Not a slam, not a bang, just a soft click. In the hallway, I leaned against the wall, my legs suddenly weak. Through what remained of our bond, I could feel her panic, her confusion, her desperation.
But I couldn’t trust that either, could I? If she could manipulate our emotions to create a false bond, she could certainly fake distress now that she’d been caught.
Percy was in the common room, standing amid the destruction Eris had left in his wake. Shattered glass crunched under my boots as I approached him.
“She’s claiming they aren’t her emails,” I said, my voice hollow.
“Of course she is.” Percy’s eyes were fixed on the broken window where Eris had put his fist through.
Draco emerged from his room, a duffel bag in hand. “I’m going to train. I can’t be here when she comes out.”
I nodded, understanding completely. None of us could bear to look at her right now.
“What about the bond?” I asked after Draco left. “If it’s artificial...”
“We’ll find a way to break it,” Percy said with cold certainty. “The Assembly created it; they can undo it.”
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling like I was drowning. “And if they won’t?”
Percy finally looked at me, his dark eyes flat and lifeless. “Then we’ll find another way. I won’t be tethered to a lie for therest of my life. If I have to fuck half the women at this school to break it then I fucking will.”
From Jupiter’s room came the sound of something heavy hitting the floor, followed by what might have been a sob. The noise twisted in my gut like a knife.
“I need air,” I muttered, heading for the door. I couldn’t stand another second in these quarters, surrounded by memories of her—Jupiter sprawled on the couch during movie night, Jupiter laughing in the kitchen as Eris tried to teach her to cook, Jupiter’s scent lingering everywhere like a ghost I couldn’t exorcise.
Outside, the autumn air was crisp and cold, filling my lungs as I gulped it down. Students passed by, giving me a wide berth when they saw my expression. I must have looked dangerous, feral with rage and pain.
I found myself at the edge of the training field, watching a group of first-years practicing basic combat forms. Their movements were clumsy, unpracticed, so different from Jupiter’s grace when she fought. Hadthatbeen real, at least?
How much of what I knew about her was truth, and how much carefully crafted fiction?
My phone buzzed in my pocket half an hour later. A text from Percy.
P: She’s gone.
Something twisted in my chest.
A: Where?
P: Don’t know. Don’t care.
But I did care, and that was the worst part of all. Even knowing what she’d done, some traitorous part of me wanted tofind her, to hear her explanation one more time. To believe her when she said it wasn’t her.
I shoved the feeling down violently. It wasn’t real. None of it had been real.
TWENTY-TWO
