Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JUPITER
The greenhouse was my favorite place on this entire campus. From the moment I’d stepped through the iron door into that humid, green-scented cathedral of glass and growing things, I’d known I was going to live here as much as physically possible.
It was enormous. Three connected glass domes, each one dedicated to a different climate zone, filled with plants and trees that shouldn’t have existed on Earth.
They were Aelari plants, grown from seeds and cuttings that were salvaged during the First Crossing, packed into pouches and pockets and the hems of robes, carried across the void by people who’d been running for their lives and still couldn’t bear to leave the last living pieces of their worlds behind.
I tried to come here every day if I could, but sometimes training wiped me out and all I managed was a quick meal in the dining hall, and then it was straight up to my room for sleep until I had to do it all again the next day.
Draco was crouched beside Phoenix near the second dome’s irrigation system.
Phoenix had been teaching him for the better part of an hour about the root structures of the Aelari trees, and Draco was asking question after question.
It was nice to see them bonding. Though I made the mistake of calling it ‘bonding’ out loud the other day, and received two identical glares in return.
Lucas was with me at the far end of the third dome, where we were pruning one of the fruit trees that had decided to go absolutely feral this season.
The fruit was small and round and a color somewhere between deep purple and black, with a faint iridescent sheen that caught the light when you turned it.
I’d asked Phoenix what they were called three times now, and each time I’d forgotten within five minutes.
I was just going to start calling them ‘not plums’ in my head.
“Hand me the shears,” Lucas said. He was balanced on the lowest branch of the tree, one arm braced against the trunk, his sleeves rolled to the elbows.
The tattoos at his wrists were of zodiac symbols and celestial designs in swirling black ink.
They flexed with his muscles, of which he had many.
I caught myself staring at those forearms too many times lately.
I passed them up, and his fingers brushed mine as he took them, and the contact sent a tiny, warm pulse through the bond.
It’s like the bond wanted to scoot us closer, urging us to touch as much as possible.
It was getting to the point where resisting it felt ridiculous and pointless.
I knew eventually we would lose all semblance of willpower.
I was just trying to salvage Draco, Eris, Percy and Aiden’s sanity for as long as I could while Horizon was still new.
Now that they deserved it. Well, Draco didn’t deserve it.
But we hadn't exactly told anyone that we were on more than speaking terms again, although it was pretty damn obvious to anyone with eyes.
Lucas was precise with everything he did, whether it was combat or manuscript restoration or pruning a tree.
Each cut was clean, the branch falling away in a gentle arc to land in the basket I was holding.
His jaw was set in concentration, his turquoise eyes narrowed behind the glasses I wasn’t even sure he needed, but made him look like a hot teacher.
His dark brown hair was floppy in his face, and I had to stop myself many times in the last few hours from pushing it back for him.
“You’re staring,” he said without looking down.
“Am not.”
“We’re bonded now, I can feel it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s creepy. Stop feeling things.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. He made another cut, and another branch joined the basket.
I tilted my head, trying to poke at the bond a little, just to see what everyone was up to. Not to be a creep or anything, but Lucas was right, the bond was strong, and growing stronger every day of training, especially with the meditations Tala was trying to drill into our heads.
The nine threads were quiet, running at that low, steady hum that had become the background music of my days.
Percy was somewhere in the tower, reading an old book of ancient symbols.
I could see them flashing before my eyes, and I got the sense that he was frustrated.
Aiden was in the combat arena with Eris and another shield team that I couldn’t remember the name of.
Might have been the Dawn Star shield, but I wasn’t sure.
Rowan and Theo were in a classroom, speaking to a professor, and Jamie was nearby somewhere.
A flutter of black feathers caught my eye, and I turned just in time to see Gretchen land on the iron railing near the greenhouse door. The raven tilted her head, fixing intelligent eyes on me, and I felt the faintest whisper of something at the edge of my mind.
‘Hello, bright one.’ Gretchen’s voice being in my head now was still jarring. I was used to Noodle’s nonsensical commentary, but at least Gretchen was gentle.
“Morning Gretchen. ” I said, eyes going to the door again. Any minute now Noodle would head this way now that his favorite familiar was finally here. The two of them were the unlikeliest of friends, but I loved it.
Lucas glanced over, saw Gretchen, and nodded once. He was used to hearing her voice in his head, but I still laughed at the wide-eyed look some of the guys got when they heard Noodle. Noodle was loving this new bond. It provided him with a wider audience to, as he put it ‘bask in his wit.’
Gretchen hopped down from the railing and strutted across the stone floor. She stopped near the irrigation system where Draco and Phoenix were working, watching them with her head cocked.
Jamie stepped through the door next, pulling his hood down as he ducked under the low frame. He was dressed in his usual black hoodie, cargo pants, boots that made almost no sound on the stone. His cat-like green eyes swept the space, landing on me immediately.
“Hey, Jupe.”
“Hey yourself,” I called back. “Gretchen already ratted you out. There’s no sneaking around for you anymore.”
He shook his head at his familiar, who was now preening on the railing.
Draco straightened from his crouch beside Phoenix, brushing soil from his hands. His eyes were still on Gretchen, and I could see the question forming before he asked it.
“That’s your familiar,” Draco said. It wasn’t really a question.
Jamie nodded. “Gretchen. She’s been with me since I was sixteen.”
His eyes met mine, and the story of how that came to be flashed through my mind. I could feel sadness emanating from Jamie, like always.
“How does it work?” Draco asked. “The familiar bond. I’ve read about them, obviously, but most instructors don’t even mention it. Was it always this rare?”
Jamie snorted. “Wasn’t rare on the home worlds. Back then, a lot of Aelari had animal familiars.” He tossed Gretchen a strawberry from a plastic container on the bench. She snatched it in midair and made a show of crunching it so the juice ran down her beak.
I leaned back against a stone bench, pushing my hair back from my face.
Draco looked skeptical. “I don’t get it. I mean, obviously Gretchen’s intelligent. And I can feel Noodle poking at the bond when he’s bored. But ninety-nine percent of zodiacs don’t have that connection. Is it bloodline or designation, or what?”
Jamie considered for a second. “On Earth it’s just rare.
Something about the environment, maybe. Or just that animals here aren’t as evolved as the ones we left behind.
On the home worlds, the animals were further along their evolutionary process.
Most of them could communicate telepathically, at least with certain zodiacs.
Pisces, mostly. Sometimes Cancer. Ophis, obviously. ”
“Obviously,” I echoed. “Why ‘obviously’ for me?”
Jamie’s mouth curved. “Ophis were adept at communicating with pretty much any type of serpent, but over time the ability grew, and many of them could speak with any animal that bothered to speak back to them.” He shrugged.
“Pisces were best at it. Our magic is rooted in the mind, so it came more naturally.” Jamie looked at Noodle, who had decided to appear finally, and dangled himself from a branch overhead, his tongue flicking lazily at the greenhouse air.
“I’ve heard of maybe three or four zodiacs with animal familiars, and one of them was a professor when I started here. They’re that rare.”
“So Earth animals are just less evolved then,” Draco mused like it all was finally clicking.
Gretchen ruffled her feathers and fixed Draco with a look so withering I felt it through the bond. ‘As if I’m not standing right here.’
Draco smirked. “No offense, of course. You’re obviously highly intelligent.”
‘Noodle smart,’ came a hissing voice from the tree. He slithered down the branch, coiling himself in a series of lazy S-shapes until he landed, perfectly balanced, on the edge of a wide planter. ‘Smarter than you.’
I laughed at the look of shock on Draco’s face. “You were asking for that one, I’m afraid.”
Gretchen hopped down from her perch and strutted over to Noodle, eyeing him up and down.
He flicked his tongue at her, and she croaked a little greeting.
The two of them just sort of stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up, then wandered off together toward the far side of the greenhouse, clearly deciding we were no longer entertaining.
‘Don’t break anything!’ I called after them.
The next morning, they guys were already arguing, and I had barely even cracked my eyes open and dragged my ass downstairs.
“It’s meant to be just off the boil,” Lucas was saying as he measured out coffee grounds. “Let it rest for twenty seconds, then pour.”
Aiden tipped his chin up. “That’s a myth. Full boil gets the best extraction. More caffeine.”