EPILOGUE
Rowan
The plane jerked with turbulence, but I barely noticed. My mind was consumed with silver eyes, and a power that hummed beneath skin like a living current.
“You’re brooding again,” James said from across the aisle, not bothering to look up from his book.
I didn’t deny it. What was the point? Jupiter Black had crawled under my skin in a matter of hours, and I couldn’t shake her if I tried.
The memory of her in my arms as we danced kept replaying.
The perfect weight of her hand in mine, the subtle floral scent of her hair, the way her eyes had widened when I’d pulled her just a fraction closer than propriety allowed.
“We all feel it, mate,” Theo said quietly from beside me. “It’s not just you.”
I glanced at Lucas in the seat ahead, his knuckles white where he gripped the armrest. Our shield leader hadn’t spoken more than ten words since we’d left the gala. After two years of watching him keep every woman at arm’s length, the sight of him so thoroughly rattled was unsettling.
“She’s already bonded,” Phoenix reminded us, though the strain in his voice suggested he was trying to convince himself as much as us. “To four warriors who looked ready to tear us apart just for breathing near her.”
I closed my eyes, remembering the murderous glare from that Aries zodiac—Percy—when I’d whispered in Jupiter’s ear. The possessiveness radiating from him had been violent.
“They don’t deserve her,” I snapped.
The cabin fell silent. Even James looked up from his book.
Lucas finally turned in his seat, his icy blue eyes finding mine.
“The rumors,” Theo said, his eyes darkening. “About them rejecting her, spreading lies about her manipulating them. It’s clear there’s truth to them. You saw how she was tonight. She barely looked at them.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened. “If even half of what we heard is true, then those fuckers deserve pain.”
“She really is an Ophis,” I said, leaning forward, running my fingers through my long hair loosened from its tie. “Gran used to tell me stories about how they would return when we needed them most. I just didn’t think it would be in my lifetime.”
The cabin air seemed to thicken. They’d been told the same things. For generations, our families had preserved the knowledge that most had forgotten, that the Ophis line wasn’t extinct, merely dormant. That someday, when the time was right, the thirteenth would emerge.
And now she has.
“She felt it too,” James said thoughtfully. “I saw it in her eyes. I felt something.”
Lucas’s gaze snapped to him. “Explain.”
“Recognition, I think. Not conscious, perhaps, but it was absolutely there. Like something clicking into place. Our magic is perfectly aligned to hers.”
I remembered the slight catch in her breath when our hands first touched, the way her eyes had widened for just a moment before she composed herself.
I’d thought it was just attraction, but what if it was more?
What if some ancient part of her magic recognized something in ours?
Each one of us hailed from a family of elite warriors, a sect dedicated to preserving history, and locating the one who would bring our people home.
“It doesn’t matter what any of us felt,” Phoenix said pragmatically. “She’s bonded to Nightfall. We all saw the presentation. It’s official.”
“Then why is she transferring to London? Why would she do that if the bond was solid? They would never allow her to leave them. The bond would stretch too far after too long apart, and they’d all feel agonizing pain.”
I remembered the tension I’d felt while dancing with her, how her body had been stiff at first before gradually relaxing. How she’d seemed to use me as a shield against them, keeping me between her and their burning gazes. That wasn’t bonded behavior.
“Something bad happened between them,” I said. “Something bad enough to make her willing to stretch a bond across an ocean.”
The rumors were thin, and could only be taken with a grain of salt. But I had a distant cousin who was bonded to a Dominion axis. According to Beth, there was drama. Some axis candidates had been after the Nightfall Shield, and they’d managed to turn them against their own axis. It was pathetic.
Lucas’s eyes met mine, and I saw the decision form before he spoke it. “When she comes to London, we’ll be there waiting. All of us.”
“Lucas,” Phoenix cautioned, “we need to be careful. After what happened with Eliza—”
“This isn’t like that,” Lucas cut him off sharply. “Jupiter is different.”
We all fell silent at the mention of Eliza.
The wound was still raw, even two years later.
She had been perfect. Powerful, brilliant, and compatible with us all.
We’d courted her for months, certain she would be our axis.
And then, a week before the formal bonding, she’d chosen another shield without explanation, leaving us reeling.
Lucas hadn’t touched another woman since. None of us had formed any meaningful connections. The betrayal had cut too deep.
“We agreed,” Theo said quietly. “No more axes. We function perfectly well without one.”
“This is different,” I insisted, echoing Lucas. “She’s the thirteenth.”
“I feel the pull,” James murmured, almost reverently.
Lucas nodded slowly, still scowling, as if he couldn’t quite figure out what he was feeling. “When she arrives in London, we make her feel welcome. We show her what a real shield looks like, one that would value her, protect her, and never betray her trust.”
“And if Nightfall makes it a problem?” Phoenix asked.
Lucas’s smile was cold. “Then they’ll learn what happens when they step onto our territory.”
I leaned back in my seat, something utterly possessive unfurling in my chest. The image of Jupiter in that white dress that showed off miles of smooth skin, her eyes meeting mine across the ballroom floor, flashed through my mind.
The way she’d fit against me during our dance, like she’d been made to be there.
I wanted to kiss her, and fuck her and smuggle her out of the country, back to London with me that moment.
Through our shield bond, I could feel the shift in us all. The purpose solidifying, the plan taking root. For generations, our families had waited for the thirteenth zodiac to return. Had preserved knowledge and traditions and prepared for this moment.
Jupiter Black was coming to Imperium Academy. To us.
End of Book 1