Chapter 8 #2
“I handled it. They’re blocked. I’m focused.”
“Good. Because we’re here.”
The transport lurched to a halt, the heavy rear doors immediately groaning open to reveal the damp, chaotic night of central London. We filed out rapidly, boots hitting the wet pavement in perfect unison.
Waterloo Station loomed ahead of us, a massive structure of glass and stone. To the human eye, it probably just looked like a busy transit hub experiencing some kind of internal emergency. But to us, with our Aelari sight, the reality of the situation was a nightmare.
Immediately, I spotted the portals. There were three massive tears in the fabric of reality hovering just above the main concourse roof, jagged holes bleeding black, viscous dark matter into the night sky.
And pulling themselves through those tears were the bane.
They were Class Three entities—hulking, shifting masses of shadow with elongated limbs, razor-sharp claws, and insatiable hunger.
They were pouring out like a disturbed nest of spiders, sliding down the glass exterior of the station and slipping through the vents and doors.
“There will be more inside,” I said, drawing my curved Scorpius iron daggers. The metal hummed in my hands, eager for the fight.
“Stardust, form up!” Lucas ordered, his magic already manifesting as a freezing mist that rolled off his shoulders. “Keep the civilians clear. Exterminate with extreme prejudice.”
We rushed the main entrances, moving at speeds that blurred us to the human eye.
The Assembly’s illusion magic was already blanketing the area—a massive, localized ward that kept the humans from seeing the bane or our celestial magic.
But illusion magic couldn’t hide the physical consequences of an incursion.
As we burst through the main doors into the vast concourse, the terrifying scale of the chaos hit me.
It was absolute pandemonium. Thousands of commuters were screaming, running blindly toward the exits, driven by a primal, inexplicable terror that the bane projected as a hunting mechanism.
The temperature inside the station had plummeted to freezing, the air thick with the foul, rotting stench of dark matter.
Humans were dropping. The bane didn’t need to physically bite them; they fed on life force. All around the concourse, people were collapsing, clutching their chests as the shadowy entities loomed over them, drawing the energy right out of their lungs.
To my left, a businessman in a tailored suit was thrashing on the tile floor. Two medical first responders were already hovering over him, frantically administering CPR, completely oblivious to the massive, multi-limbed bane that was crouched directly on top of the man, feeding on his dying gasps.
“Get off him!” I roared.
I didn’t wait for the others. I lunged forward, channeling my starlight into the blades of my daggers. They ignited with a blinding, silver-white brilliance. I vaulted over a ticket turnstile and drove both blades directly into the center mass of the feeding bane.
The creature shrieked, a sound like grinding metal that only zodiacs could hear, and exploded into a cloud of harmless black ash.
The businessman beneath it suddenly gasped, his eyes flying open as the paramedics shouted in relief, thinking their chest compressions had miraculously worked.
Little did they know, the man had been less than two seconds from heart failure.
“Spread out!” Lucas shouted. “Rowan, take the east wing! Phoenix, Theo, hold the main gates! Jamie, with me. Jupiter, take the center!”
I didn’t answer, already spinning to meet my next target. The combat took over, that familiar, beautiful flow state where my mind emptied of everything except the axis points of reality and the enemies in front of me.
I danced through the fleeing crowds, a blur of silver light and lethal steel.
I ducked under a swipe from a bane, sweeping its legs out from under it before driving my dagger through its skull.
Another dropped from the ceiling, aiming for a terrified mother holding her child.
I threw my left hand out, using my Ophis magic to rip a momentary tear in the space between us, effectively teleporting myself directly into the creature’s path.
I caught it mid-air, starlight flaring from my palms, burning it to ash before it could touch the ground.
Across the concourse, the Stardust Shield was in full-on destruction mode.
Phoenix was swinging his glowing war hammer, every impact sending shockwaves of emerald Taurus magic that shattered bane into dust. Theo was manipulating the very stone of the floor, creating spikes and barriers to trap the entities while Rowan moved like a lethal dancer, his broadsword coated in freezing water magic that sliced through the shadows effortlessly.
Jamie was everywhere and nowhere, his illusions confusing the bane, making them attack each other before he materialized to slit their throats with his throwing knives.
The other two shields were holding their own as well.
They were just as fierce, just as lethal.
We were holding the line. We were pushing them back.
But then, my mental walls shattered.
Jupiter!
“Jupiter!”
The voices weren’t in my head anymore. They were in the room. I froze, my breath catching in my throat. I spun around, scanning the massive, chaotic concourse.
Bursting through the shattered glass of the southern entrance, was the motherfucking Nightfall Shield.
Percy was at the front, his Aries magic flaring so brightly around his fists that it cast red shadows against the walls.
Aiden was beside him, his eyes locked onto me across the sea of fleeing humans and fighting warriors, his twin blades drawn.
Draco and Eris flanked them, both staring straight at me.
The shock of seeing them, of feeling the bond suddenly flare to full, agonizing life now that they were physically in the same space, short-circuited my brain.
For one crucial, fatal second, I forgot where I was.
I forgot the job. I just stared at Aiden’s face, remembering the way he had looked at me when I left him in that smoking room.
“Jupiter, move!” Rowan bellowed.
I snapped my head back around, but I was too late.
A massive Class Three bane, easily the size of a transport truck, had dropped from the upper balcony directly behind me. I didn’t even have time to raise my daggers. The creature’s elongated, shadowy arm swept out like a battering ram.
The impact felt like being hit by a freight train.
The bane’s claws tore through the reinforced leather of my combat harness, biting deep into my ribs. The sheer force of the blow lifted me completely off my feet. I was thrown backward through the air, the world spinning in a dizzying blur of lights, shadows, and screaming faces.
I crashed violently into a heavy wooden ticketing kiosk. The wood splintered around me, and my head snapped back against the stone pillar behind it.
Pain exploded in my skull, a blinding flash of white light that immediately faded into ringing darkness. I slumped to the floor amidst the wreckage, my daggers clattering away from my numb fingers. I could feel warm blood pouring down my side, soaking into my shirt.
JUPITER!
The scream wasn’t just through the bond. It echoed physically across the concourse. It was Percy, his voice tearing at the vocal cords, completely unhinged.
I blinked, trying to clear the dark spots dancing in my vision. My ribs felt like they were in pieces, and every breath was a jagged knife of agony. I tried to push myself up, my hands slipping on my own blood. Through the ringing in my ears, the sounds of battle escalated to a deafening roar.
The bane that had hit me let out a victorious screech, raising its claws to finish the job. I raised a trembling hand, trying to summon my starlight, but the blow to my head had scattered my focus. The magic flickered and died in my palm.
But the bane never brought its claws down.
A blur of golden light intercepted the creature.
Aiden hit the bane with the force of a meteor, his Leo magic roaring like a physical lion.
He drove both of his long blades into the creature’s chest, his face contorted into pure, murderous rage.
He butchered it, ripping his blades outward and tearing the shadow entity completely in half.
The bane dissolved into ash, coating Aiden’s dark combat gear. He didn’t even pause. He spun around, dropping to his knees beside me in the wreckage of the kiosk.
“Baby,” he choked out, hands hovered over my bleeding side, terrified to touch the wound. “Jupiter. Look at me. Look at me, please.”
I blinked, trying to focus on Aiden’s face.
My ribs screamed in protest with every shallow gasp of air I managed to pull into my lungs.
They felt shattered, the jagged parts grinding together inside my chest. Beneath my torn combat gear, the wound was already beginning to knit itself back together—Aelari healing working its magic—but it wasn’t fast enough to stop the agonizing, throbbing pain that radiated from my side.
Aiden’s hands were shaking so badly they were practically vibrating. “Where else?” he demanded. “Jupiter, where else are you hit? Tell me!” His eyes were wild, darting over my body, searching for more blood.
I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him to back the fuck off, but I couldn’t pull in a full breath. A wet, rattling sound escaped my throat instead. I reached for my magic, wanting to push him away, but the starlight only flickered weakly at my fingertips before dying out completely.
A second later, Eris dropped to his knees beside Aiden. His copper hair was disheveled, his face streaked in ash. He didn’t say a word, his movements quick and efficient as his hands ghosted over my limbs, assessing the damage.
“Eris, she’s bleeding—“ Aiden started, panic choking off whatever else he was going to say.