Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Aiden
I pushed the Capricorn girl away so abruptly she stumbled backward, her eyes wide with confusion. “What the hell, Aiden?” she complained, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Get out,” I said, my voice barely audible as I zipped up my pants with trembling hands. I was soft anyway and seconds from vomiting all over her. I’d already gagged at least five times since closing the classroom door.
“Excuse me?” Her expression morphed from confusion to indignation. “You can’t just—“
“I said get the fuck out!” I roared, my magic flaring gold around my clenched fists.
She flinched, gathering her things and backing toward the door. “Whatever. You’re all fucking insane.”
The door slammed behind her, and I collapsed against the desk, struggling to breathe through the aftershocks of what Draco had just shared through our bond. Jupiter curled around Percy’s shirt, sobbing until she retched, clawing at her own skin like she was trying to tear the pain out.
I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, but I couldn’t unsee it. Couldn’t unfeel the agony that had poured through our bond.
My phone buzzed. Percy.
P: Library. Now.
I didn’t bother responding, just pushed away from the desk and headed out. The halls were mostly empty this late, just a few students giving me a wide berth when they saw my expression. I must have looked unhinged, my hair disheveled, eyes wild, magic still crackling at my fingertips.
Percy was waiting near the ancient texts section, pacing between the stacks.
When he looked up, I was shocked by what I saw.
His eyes were bloodshot, the skin beneath them puffy and red.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’d been crying.
I wouldn’t call him on it. Not now. Not when I was barely holding myself together.
“Did you see?” he asked without preamble, his voice rough.
“Yeah. Draco sent it to all of us.”
“Why are we in the library?” I asked, irritated.
Percy glared down the empty stacks. “I was meeting Melissa here, but she’s a no-show, not that I give a fuck.”
“She’s a nasty whore,” I spat.
“What do we do about Jupiter, Aiden? That kind of pain can’t be faked,” Percy said, running a hand through his hair. “Even with Ophis magic.”
“So what are you saying?” I croaked, though I already knew. I had been thinking it myself in the darkest hours of the night when doubt crept in despite my best efforts. “That someone set her up? That those emails were fake?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding more uncertain than I’d ever heard him. “But something isn’t adding up.”
“If she didn’t write those emails—” I couldn’t finish the thought. If she was innocent, then what we’d done to her... Christ, we’d destroyed her. “Percy, can she feel what we’ve been doing through the bond? When she shut us out I thought it went both ways.”
His eyes met mine and I saw the answer. “Draco told me she can feel everything on her end. The block is only one way.”
Every atom in my body went ice cold, horror washing over me.
“We need to talk to her,” Percy said. “Tonight. Get the others and—”
He fell silent suddenly, head tilted toward the end of the row. I heard it too, a familiar voice coming from the restricted section at the back of the library.
“No, it’s working,” Melissa hissed, her tone hushed but unmistakably her. “They’re completely broken. You should see them, they can’t even function anymore.”
Percy and I exchanged a look before silently moving closer, edging along the shelves until we could peer around the corner. Melissa stood with her back to us, a tablet propped against a stack of books, the screen illuminated with a video call.
“And the Ophis?” asked a deep, older male voice I couldn’t place. “Has she left Dominion yet?”
“No, but she might as well have. She’s a fucking wreck. Barely leaves her room. No one will even talk to her.”
“Good,” the man said, sounding satisfied. “The Nightfall Shield believes the emails were real?”
“Completely,” Melissa replied, a smug smile in her voice. “They didn’t question it for a second.”
My blood turned to ice in my veins.
“Excellent work,” the man continued. “With her out of the way and the bond severed, you can petition to become their new axis. Our family will gain access to Charles Whitlock. The Assembly won’t be able to resist our influence once we control both the Nightfall Shield and then Stormwatch when your sister gets to Dominion next year. ”
Percy’s hand closed around my arm with bruising force. I glanced at him and saw the exact moment everything clicked into place for him.
Melissa had set Jupiter up. Had somehow fabricated those emails, planted them for us to find. And we, the fucking idiots that we were, had done exactly what they wanted. We’d destroyed our bond with Jupiter without a single question, without actually looking deeper into it.
“How soon can you make your move?” the man asked.
“I’ve already started,” Melissa replied.
“I was with Percy a few hours ago, and Aiden the other night, but they’re resistant, pushing me away before things go far enough.
I’ll keep on them though, but we have a few bitches who keep sniffing around them.
I’ll dispose of them the same way I did the Ophis. ”
I felt sick, remembering how I’d stood there pathetically while she tried to get me hard the other night in her bedroom.
How I’d been willing to use her to burn Jupiter’s memory from my mind.
But no matter what she did, my cock wouldn’t work for her.
I’d spent the next few hours dry heaving into the sink.
“And the other two?”
“Draco’s harder to reach, but Eris is a drunk mess. He’ll be easy once I get Lyssa Martin out of the way. But if I can convince Percy, the rest will fall in line.”
Percy’s fury radiated through our bond, a crimson tide of rage that matched my own. We’d been played for fools. And Jupiter had paid the price.
“Don’t move,” Percy whispered, his voice deadly calm. He stepped out from behind the shelves, but I followed, unable to look away from the train wreck about to unfold.
“Hello, Melissa,” Percy said, his voice cold enough to freeze fire.
She whirled around, face draining of color. “Percy! I was just—”
“Yeah, we heard.”
Her eyes darted between us, then to the tablet where her accomplice had already disconnected. “You don’t understand,” she stammered, backing away. “Jupiter was manipulating you—”
“Save it. We heard everything. I want to know how and why. The real reason, Melissa, before I rip your fucking spine out of your asshole.”
Melissa’s expression shifted to bone chilling fear. “My father works directly under your father, Percy, and bonding with you is our family’s ticket to the elite. It wasn’t my fault. He made me…I swear he made me.”
I wanted to wrap my hands around her throat. The only thing stopping me was Percy’s hand on my arm.
She kept stammering. “My family has been waiting for a chance to move into the inner circle for generations. When Jupiter showed up and the Assembly made it clear they wanted her with the Nightfall Shield, we knew we had to act.”
“So you decided to ruin her life?” I snarled.
“She’s nothing!” Melissa shouted, the mask slipping completely now.
“A nobody with no family connections, no history. She didn’t deserve you!
Any of you! I’ve been waiting for years while you ignored me, and then she walks in and you all fall at her feet?
No. That’s not how this works. That’s not how our world works. ”
Percy’s expression was terrifying. I knew there was darkness inside of him, waiting to slither out, but this was utterly merciless. “You’ve made a critical error in judgment, Melissa.”
“What are you going to do?” she squeaked, trying and failing not to sound like she was wetting herself. “It’s your word against mine. And who’s going to believe you after weeks of telling everyone how Jupiter manipulated you? You’ve already destroyed her reputation.”
We had done that. We’d been so hurt, so angry that we’d spread the poison through the entire school. We’d made sure everyone knew Jupiter was a liar, a manipulator, the Assembly’s puppet.
“Percy. We need to go to her. Now.”
He nodded, his dark eyes never leaving Melissa. “This isn’t over, bitch. You just fucked up. If I were you, I’d start running now.”
We left her standing there, trembling, and practically ran from the library. As we burst into the cool night air, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Draco and Eris.
A: Jupiter’s room. EMERGENCY. She didn’t do it. It was Melissa.
We raced across campus, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst through my ribs. All I could think about was Jupiter, alone and broken, believing we all hated her. Believing we’d abandoned her.