Page 18 of The Bound Zodiac

She turned to go. And then, because she was Jupiter, and because no amount of armor had ever fully covered her, she stopped. “The bond,” she said, with her back half to us. “I still feel it too. You should know that. Every day, whether I want to or not. So I’m not doing this to punish you. I’m doing this because the last time I trusted the four of you, I ended up getting hurt, and I promise you I’m never doing it again.”

Then she was gone into the mist, and the four of us stood in the cloister like chastised children.

CHAPTER SIX

JUPITER

Professor Saris waited only four days before he put us all in the arena together, which by his standards probably counted as incredible restraint.

The subterranean arena smelled like clay, stone and char. We came down the east stairs; Nightfall came down the west. Saris stood on the observation platform with his scarred arms folded over his barrel chest. There were several other shield teams down here with us, but I was pretty sure Nightfall was the most senior, save for Stardust.

The tension in the pit was nuclear. I could feel it rolling in waves off the other shield teams. Saris didn’t bother with a whistle or the usual roll call. Just “Listen up!”

A few of the other students here to observe in the small gathered crowd straightened in their uniforms, whispers ghosting between them. Nightfall was visible at the edge of the sand, all four of them black-clad, glowering. Stardust ringed me in a V, Lucas at my right, Rowan at my left, Phoenix, Theo and Jamie fanned out behind me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a handful of shield warriors squinting across the floor at the Nightfall Shield, clearly unsure what the fuck we were doing here together.

“Effective immediately, Nightfall Shield will be joining training rotations at Imperium. They will be working with Stardust Shield. This is not a drill. The two shields are to operate together as a single unit until further notice.”

If anyone had expected a polite explanation for why the most infamous transfer team was training with the local golden boys, they were about to be disappointed.

“Questions?” Saris barked.

Nobody said a word. Not even the gawkers on the balcony above.

“Didn’t think so. Let’s see if you can manage to cooperate without turning my arena into a soap opera.”

I tried not to smirk. I tried, and failed, because if I knew one thing for sure, it was that macho men lived for the drama, and no matter how much they were threatened by me or Saris, there was going to be lots of drama, probably hair pulling.

A containment magic field had been erected in the very center of the arena, and on the other side were several Class One bane. I could smell the dark matter through the shields, cloying and burnt, like sulfur and char.

“Simple exercise,” Saris announced. “Their energy patterns are erratic, but nothing you can’t handle. I want you to round up every last one, intact, and re-contain them in the cages provided.” He gestured to several black containment cages stationed around the arena. “If any of them escape into the gallery or up the stairs, you lose. If you disintegrate them? Also lose. If you can’t cooperate, you forfeit. Stardust, you’re in command.”

Lucas actually didn’t blink. Not even a crack in his composure. But I felt the first ripple of shock through the bond from Nightfall. If you wanted to get super technical, Nightfall was the most senior shield, but this wasn’t their turf, and they hadn’t earned their place yet.

Percy stepped forward, arms folded, eyes on Lucas like he wanted to shiv him in the kidneys. “Understood,” he said quietly, his voice so flat it was almost comical.

Aiden just scowled, the Leo fire in his gaze already simmering. Draco shrugged, expression unreadable, but through the bond I could practically taste the resentment layered beneath his control. Eris rolled his neck and let out a long, slow breath, as if he was seconds from muttering something mean under his breath that would most definitely cause a brawl, and we all witnessed how that turned out last time.

Rowan’s gravity magic flared out in a low-pressure wave, stabilizing our footing in the sand. Jamie scanned the cages, his body loose but ready, fingers curled and relaxed. Phoenix looked like he couldn’t wait to get his hands on a bane and dunk it straight into lockup.

Theo found my gaze, gave me the smallest ghost of a crooked smile. “Showtime, love.”

The second the wards dropped, the bane scattered, moving so fast that most of the bystanders missed it. Even Class Ones were lethal if they ambushed you. I’d dealt with many of them over the years, so this would probably be a walk in the park.

Lucas was already taking point. “Rowan, sweep left. Theo, take right with Phoenix. Jamie, with me. Jupiter, center. Nightfall covers the perimeter. Eris, cut off the north passage, Aiden, with me. Percy, we need you with Phoenix. Cover him. Draco, shadow the axis.”

The axis. Me, I was the axis. Soon to be the actual real life axis of not only four warriors, but nine of them. Fuck me.

To my absolute gobsmacked shock, every one of my shield mates nodded, not even trying to argue with Lucas. Through the bond though, I could have sworn I detected the barest hint of jealousy, but I couldn’t tell who it was emanating from. It was gone in a flash as we moved into our positions.

The bane fanned out fast, slipping over the sand in six different directions. Being made of pure, sentient dark matter, they didn’t have much in the way of physical features, save for talons and teeth, but those were dark matter too, and they were incredibly fluid, constantly morphing and changing shape. I felt my starlight crackle in my bones, every part of me wanting to open a portal and just end it in five seconds. But that was not the goddamn point of this little exercise.

This was a test. Saris wanted to see how well we could cooperate and function as one large shield. To be perfectly honest, so did I. This plan of ours was nuts, so we needed to be able to put the drama shit behind us when it came time to fight literal magic eating monsters from space.

Rowan was first to strike, using a gravitational sweep rippling from his hand to pin one of the bane to the ground. It twisted, buckling reality around itself, but that just slowed it long enough for Lucas’s water magic to flash-freeze the sand into a jagged cage. The bane thrashed, but couldn’t get any kind of grip.

It was hard not to stop and gape at them. I’d never really been around many Capricorns before Rowan. There weren’t many of them back at the Assembly headquarters, save for a security guard by the name of Devon, who I didn’t know that well. Other than that, I knew little to nothing about their designation. What I did know was that as a Terra based sign, they were skilled in gravity manipulation, commanding full control over not only magnetic fields, but also the force gravity exerted on certain objects.