Page 35 of The Bound Zodiac

“Horizon,” I said. Nobody spoke. “Horizon Shield. Because that’s the whole point, isn’t it? A horizon isn’t a wall. It’s just the part you can’t see over yet. It moves when you move.” I shrugged, suddenly self-conscious, kicking at a nonexistent pebble on the stone floor. “And also it sounds cool, so.”

Malakai’s laugh boomed off the vaulted ceiling. “It does sound cool.”

“Horizon Shield,” Tala repeated, testing it, and then she nodded, and it felt weirdly like being knighted. “Recorded and witnessed.”

“Recorded and witnessed,” the chamber echoed, thirty voices at once, and the sigils under my feet flared silver-white and went dark.

That’s when one of the hooded figures at the back walked toward us, and I watched Lucas’s shoulders drop about two inches, and Rowan actually took half a step backward.

Oh, that’s not good.

The figure stopped at the edge of the scorch mark and pushed back her hood. Red hair, silver streaking through it softly. Slate gray eyes.

“Ms. Black,” said Headmistress Winters.

I stared at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I get that a great deal.” Her mouth twitched just slightly.

“You?” I placed my hands on my hips. “You literally just gave me a lecture about attendance policy last week.”

“You were skipping classes.”

“I was in the restricted archives! As you obviously knew since you’re in the freakin Order! Why didn’t you say anything?”

She folded her hands in front of her, entirely unbothered. “I’ve been a member of the Order for a long time, Ms. Black. My mother before me, and her father before her. I prefer to remain sidelined. Someone has to actually run Imperium, and it’s difficult to do that while attending clandestine midnight gatherings in the basement. The Order has kept its distance from academy administration for a very long time, and that distance is the only reason we’ve survived the Assembly’s attention. But the merger changes things. So.” She looked around at the nine men, and the amusement drained out of her face and left something much harder underneath. “Practical matters, as Elder Tala says. As of tonight, all nine of you are moving into Ophiuchus Tower.”

“Is that wise?” Jamie suddenly asked. He stepped closer to my right side, and over Winter’s shoulder, I could see his uncles narrowing their eyes on their nephew.

“It is the axis’s tower, and we prefer bonded shields to remain in close quarters. It’s more comfortable for everyone that way.” Winters said. “It is the only tower on this campus with the capacity to hold nine of you.”

“Both former shield teams will vacate their existing quarters by morning at the latest. Visiting shield accommodation on the east side is being reallocated as of eight a.m. Scorpio has been notified they’ll be expanding their shared access to the common room.” She turned back to me. “You’ll keep your existing room at the top. The rest of you may choose from what’s below it. I’d suggest doing it quickly and without violence, but I confess I’m not optimistic.” Her eyes narrowed on each of the guys.

Malakai stepped forward then, and I understood immediately where Phoenix got the presence, because the man didn’t have to raise his voice at all to take the whole room. “Training begins tomorrow, here in the Nexus chamber and adjoining chambers.”

I nodded. Good, better to begin now. If we were going to pull this off then we needed to start immediately.

The walk back up the spiral stair took a hundred years. My legs were shaking so badly by the third turn that Draco put his hand under my elbow without a word, and by the sixth turn Aiden had taken my other side, and by the ninth I gave up entirely and let Phoenix carry me the rest of the way like a sack of flour.

It wasn’t even physical exhaustion. No, it was all mental. All I wanted to do was sleep for a few years just to recover. But we had training tomorrow.

The night air hit us as we came out of the low stone building into the western courtyard. It was well past two, and the fog had come down so thick that the towers were nonexistent in the distance.

“You can put me down,” I murmured, tapping Phoenix’s shoulder.

“You sure?”

“No, but I’ve got to salvage what little pride I have left, right?”

He chuckled and set me on my feet, one hand hovering at the small of my back for a second.

The ten of us stood there in a loose cluster, the academy silent around us. Now that we were in the open air, some of my walls had dropped. It was like standing in a room with nine radios all tuned to a different station and turned down low, and I could pick any one of them up and turn it loud if I wanted to, and none of them could stop me.

‘Test,’ I said in my mind.

All nine of them flinched, cursing as they gripped their heads.

“Christ,” Lucas said, wincing. “Warn a man.”