Chapter 13 #2
Samara Hargrave snapped her mouth shut, appropriately chastised. I let out a slow breath, my hand dropping from the jade pendant at my chest. I’d been waiting for him to speak. He called me earlier in the afternoon to fill me in on a special visitor to the shop.
“I met her today,” my father continued, his warm brown eyes sweeping over the gathered elders before settling on Lucas, then me. “She came into the shop in the village.”
A ripple of surprise moved through the older generation. They lived and breathed the prophecy, but few of them had actually laid eyes on Jupiter Black. To them, she was still just a vague concept. To us, she was flesh and blood, and everything I ever fucking wanted in a woman.
“She didn’t swagger in demanding attention like the Assembly’s elite so often do.
She came in to buy a gift. A beautiful silver and opal pendant for her mother.
We spoke only briefly, but I saw her kindness in her eyes.
Genuine warmth in her smile when she spoke.
When I handed it to her, our hands brushed.
It was entirely accidental. But the moment we made contact.
..” He shook his head, a look of profound reverence crossing his face.
“I felt the current of power thrumming beneath her skin. It was immense. Staggering in fact. It felt like touching the molten core of a star. I’m not sure she even noticed the transfer of energy; perhaps she’s grown so accustomed to the sheer volume of her own magic that it feels normal to her.
But I felt it. I felt the void, and the stars, and the endless cycles of time.
” He turned to face the eldest members of the council.
“There’s no doubt in my mind. She is the one.
She possesses the power to do exactly as the prophecy states. She can open the way home.”
A frantic whispering broke out among the elders, a mix of fervent prayers and eager strategizing. This was exactly what we’d been afraid of.
“Silence!” my father commanded, striking the base of his wooden walking stick against the stone floor.
The sharp crack echoed like a gunshot. “We will not rush this. Like our sons have wisely stated; if we swarm her with our expectations, if we drag her down here and demand she fulfill a prophecy, she will very likely disappear.”
He turned his back on the elders and faced the five of us. “You must focus on keeping her safe, son. Make her feel welcome. Give her a home here at Imperium—a place where she is valued for who she is, not just what she can do. You five will be the ones to slowly integrate her into the Order.”
Lucas straightened. “You want us to tell her the truth.”
“I want you to slowly reveal yourselves. Teach her about her own history. Teach her the truth about the thirteen worlds and the First Crossing. Teach her about the Order of Ophiuchus in pieces she can understand. Build a foundation of absolute trust, and then, only when she’s truly ready, will you introduce her to the elders face to face. ”
My grandmother stepped forward. “Malakai, time is a luxury we may not have. The bane incursions—“
“Will be fought as they always have been. Tala, you cannot force a flower to bloom by tearing open its petals. You will only destroy it. If Jupiter is really the prophesied one—and I swear to you on my Taurus blood that she is—then when she understands the truth, she will want to help. She will not flee. But she has to choose it. It must be her choice.”
The room fell into a heavy, contemplative silence.
My father’s pragmatism was the bedrock of the Order, and few possessed the will to argue against his logic.
I felt the tension bleed out of Rowan’s shoulders beside me.
Theo gave a slow, respectful nod. Jamie remained perfectly still, his face unreadable under his hood, though I could sense the chaotic swirl of his Pisces magic settling into something calmer than only moments ago.
Something told me he’d been seconds away from forcibly manipulating their emotions to make them more agreeable.
“The Stardust Shield accepts this charge,” Lucas said after a moment. “We’ll protect her. We’ll teach her. And we will not let anyone, Assembly or Order, push her before she is ready.”
My father nodded, a faint smile touching his lips. “Then the path is set. See to it, warriors. Go with the stars.”
“Go with the stars,” every person in the room repeated in unison, and then one by one, each member of the order placed their right hand over their heart, fingers curved to form the ancient symbol, the eternal Ophis that had guided their order since time immemorial.
I trailed slightly behind the others, letting my hand drag along the damp granite walls.
The earth felt settled and content. I drew on that stability, letting it anchor my racing thoughts.
I wasn’t a man of many words. I processed the world physically, through texture and weight, through the slow, methodical observation of my surroundings.
“He’s right,” Theo murmured, breaking the silence as we began the long ascent toward the main campus cellars. “If we hit her with the prophecy now, she’d likely try to portal herself back to New York just to get away from us.”
“We take it slow,” Lucas agreed, his mind already working through the directive. “We’ve already established a routine with morning training. We keep that up. We show her we’re reliable. We don’t push for anything more than friendship and camaraderie right now.”
Rowan let out a low grunt, his broad shoulders shifting under his dark robes. “Friendship is going to be bloody difficult when every time I look at her, my magic and my cock tries to claim her.”
“Control it, Nightingale,” Lucas snapped, though there was no real anger in it. “We all feel the pull.”
Jamie flinched slightly, pulling his collar up around his scarred cheek.
I filed the observation away. Jamie had been spending an inordinate amount of time asleep lately, heading to bed at least two hours earlier than he usually did, his familiar Gretchen keeping watch.
He thought nobody noticed, but I saw everything.
“We start with the history,” I said. “She likes old things. She was in the antique shop today, and also spent hours in the archives reading. We don’t need to sit her down for a lecture. We just... show her things. Let her ask questions.”
Theo’s eyes lit up. “The artifacts. The relics we have from the home worlds. We could bring them out, under the guise of advanced magical theory studies.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Drop the breadcrumbs. Let her follow the trail herself. She’s smart. She’ll piece it together, and when she does, it will be because she sought the truth, not because we forced it down her throat.”
Lucas clapped a hand on my shoulder, his grip firm. “Good plan, Phoenix. We start tomorrow.”
The next afternoon, the sky over Imperium was a heavy gray, threatening rain that never quite materialized. The air smelled of thick, damp soil and dead leaves. My favorite kind of weather.
I was in the greenhouse, a colossal glass and wrought-iron structure tucked behind the botanical sciences building.
It was my sanctuary. While the others practiced flashy elemental magic or combat drills, I spent my free time here, tending to the rare flora and maintaining the intricate rock garden I’d cultivated since my first year.
I was kneeling in the dirt, my hands buried in the rich, loamy soil around a cluster of luminescent cave-ferns, when I heard the soft crunch of gravel behind me.
I didn’t need to turn around to know it was her.
My earthen magic registered the subtle shift in gravity, the delicate, almost imperceptible hum of starlight that accompanied her every step.
“Am I interrupting?”
I wiped my hands on a rag and stood, turning to face Jupiter.
She was wearing an oversized gray sweater that swallowed her frame, her dark hair falling in loose, messy waves around her shoulders.
She looked tired, the shadows under her eyes prominent.
Noodle was draped loosely around her neck like a scarf, his little tongue flickering out and tasting the thick air.
“Not at all.” I stayed where I was, giving her space. “Just repotting some ferns. They need the soil aerated.”
She stepped further into the greenhouse, scanning the rows of exotic plants before landing on the rock garden taking up the entire back half of the structure. It wasn’t just decorative; it was a map, of sorts. A topographical layout of the old worlds, crafted from stones.
“It’s beautiful here,” she mused, walking slowly toward the stones. “Quiet.”
“It calms me,” I said, moving to stand a few feet away from her. “When the noise of training gets too loud, sometimes I just need silence to balance it out.”
She offered a small, self-deprecating smile. “I know that feeling.”
We stood in comfortable silence for a moment. I watched her kneel, studying a large, jagged piece of obsidian that represented the First Crossing point. She reached out, her fingertips hovering just inches from the dark glass.
“I went to the village yesterday,” she said softly, not looking at me. “With some people from my tower.”
“I know.”
She finally turned her head, meeting my eyes. “There was a man in the antique shop who sold me a pendant. He knew my name, but I never told him what it was. And... he looked like you. A lot like you.”
I couldn’t help the slow, helpless smile that spread across my face. The tension that had been gripping my shoulders since the moment she walked into the greenhouse finally began to bleed away into the damp earth beneath my boots.
“That was my father. My family owns that shop. We have for generations.”
Jupiter’s delicate brow furrowed. “But how did he know my name? I didn’t tell him who I was. I just bought the pendant and left.”