“Denied,” Eris laughed bitterly. “She said the Assembly won’t allow the Nightfall Shield to abandon Dominion. We’re their prized weapons, remember? They need us here to look pretty and fight the bane. She told me to ‘weather the separation’ and that the bond might eventually snap if we stay apart long enough, or if she bonds with another shield.”
“I’ll kill her for even suggesting it,” I said, and meant every fucking word. “I’ll burn this entire fucking academy to the ground.”
“That won’t get Jupiter back,” Draco said, taking the bottle from Eris. “Violence won’t fix this. We broke her trust. If we want her back, we have to earn it.”
“How?” Aiden looked up, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “She won’t even let us feel her. She’s built a fortress in her mind. And she’s in London, surrounded by the Stardust Shield.”
A fresh wave of possessive fury ripped through me at the mention of those assholes. I remembered the way Lucas Bennett had looked at her. The way Rowan Nightingale had held her onthe dance floor. They wanted her. They knew exactly what we’d thrown away, and they were waiting to catch her.
“We’re going to London,” I said, the plan solidifying in my mind with crystal clarity. “Waverly won’t approve a transfer? Fine. We don’t transfer. We just leave.”
“Go rogue?” Draco raised an eyebrow. “The Assembly will hunt us down. We’ll be branded as deserters.”
“Let them try. We’re the Nightfall Shield. We’ve taken down dozens of Class Five breaches. You think a few Assembly lapdogs can stop us? I don’t give a fuck about our standing anymore. I don’t give a fuck about my fatherorDominion. Imperium would welcome us with open arms if it means we join their ranks. I’ll crawl on my hands and knees through the streets of London if I have to, but I amnotletting her go. She isouraxis. She ismine.”
Aiden stood up abruptly. “When do we fucking leave?”
“Tonight,” I said. “Pack nothing but your weapons and your passports. We’re going to get our girl back.”
4
Rowan
I couldn’t takemy eyes off her.
Sitting in the warm candle light of the restricted archives, surrounded by towering shelves of crumbling tomes, Jupiter Black looked like a painting of a tragic goddess. She was tracing the faded ink of a star chart with one finger, her brow furrowed in concentration. The inky black serpent tattoos on her arm seemed to shift and writhe in the candlelight. Sometimes I wondered if they were actually enchanted.
“You’re staring again, mate,” Jamie whispered, kicking my boot under the heavy oak table.
I didn’t look away. “Can you blame me?”
Jamie sighed, leaning back in his chair and running a hand over his face. “She’s looking for a way to break the Nightfall bond.”
“I know. And those bastards deserve what’s coming to them.”
I pushed my chair back, the wooden legs scraping slightly against the ancient stone floor, and closed the distance between us, Jamie following after me, not saying a word. As Iapproached, the scent of her cut through the musty smell of decaying parchment. She didn’t look up as I stopped beside her chair, scanning the dense, blocky script of the book.
“Old Latin,” I noted, leaning down just enough to get a better look at the page. “Mixed with archaic runic shorthand. It’s a bastard to translate if you aren’t used to it.”
Jupiter flinched slightly, her shoulders tensing before she forced them to relax. “It’s giving me a headache. I can make out about every third word. Something about ‘severing the astral tether’ and ‘blood price.’”
“Let me see.” I pulled up a chair, sitting close enough that I could feel the radiant heat of her body, but careful not to let our shoulders touch. I knew she was touch-starved and touch-averse all at once.
I traced the line of text she’d been reading. “It says,‘To sever the astral tether without the consent of the bound, the axis must endure the ice of the void. The blood price is exacted not in death, but in the tearing of the soul’s fabric.’”I looked up, meeting her startlingly silver eyes. “Jupiter, this is dark stuff. The kind that leaves permanent scars on your soul. If you try this ritual, it might kill you.”
She swallowed hard, looking back down at the book. “I don’t care. I can’t keep living like this, Rowan. It feels like I’m being drowned in acid. I need them out of my head.”
The thought of those bastards made my blood boil. “We’ll find a way. But we’ll find a way that doesn’t destroyyouin the process. You have my word.”
She looked at me, a flicker of genuine surprise parting her lips. “Why are you doing this? All of you. You barely know me.”
“Because I like you. More than is good for me, I think.”
“Am I interrupting?”
I didn’t need to turn around to recognize that voice, but I did anyway. Eliza Reece stood at the end of the aisle, her armscrossed over her chest. She was wearing the standard Imperium uniform, but she’d tailored it to cling to her curves, projecting an air of calculated obvious perfection. Her sandy blonde hair was styled in its immaculate bob, and her golden brown eyes were narrowed on Jupiter.
Eliza’s lip curled into a visible sneer, her gaze raking over Jupiter with undisguised contempt. “Rowan. Can I speak to you for a second? Alone.”
