Chapter 22 #2
Jupiter listened without interruption, her face unreadable. When we finished, she didn’t say anything for a long time. She just stared into the distance, lips pressed into a thin line.
Finally, she sighed heavily, running her fingers through her long hair and said, “Well, shit.”
Theo offered her a refill on tea, which she took.
Rowan cleared his throat. “If you want to leave, we’ll understand.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to leave. I just need to think.”
“Take all the time you need,” Phoenix said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
She sipped her tea, eyes fixed on the swirling liquid. “You know what’s funny? I thought this would make things worse, knowing there’s a reason I’m drawn to all of you. But it actually makes it easier. At least now I know I’m not just crazy.”
“You’re not crazy,” I said, meeting her eyes.
“And there’s no magical draw or compulsion.
What we have is very real attraction and free will.
The Ophis heir could have been anyone, and our mission would not have changed.
It just happens to be that you’re the single most breathtaking woman any of us have ever encountered. ”
She sucked in a breath, and her eyes glittered. “Watch out, James, you’re going to inflate my ego.” For the first time in weeks, I felt the knot in my chest loosen. “So what now?”
“Now, it’s up to you. The Order—our families—have extended an official invitation for you to join us, if you want.”
She blinked. “Join you how? Like, sign a contract and get a commemorative mug?”
Rowan huffed a laugh, but I could see how tense he’d gone, like the rest of us. “More like training. Mentorship. Access to everything the Order has kept hidden from the Assembly for centuries. They’re even willing to allow your parents to join. We don’t want you having to keep secrets from them.”
Jupiter eyed us skeptically. “So you want to train me up so I can fulfill the prophecy and open a portal to the other side of the galaxy.”
“If you choose to,” Lucas said. “The Order is not the Assembly. We don’t conscript people. But you’re the only one who can do this.”
She folded her arms, and her knuckles went white. “How long do you expect me to wait before trying to portal us to another fucking planet? Because I barely made it across the Atlantic without blacking out. You’re talking about leaping an entire arm of the Milky Way.”
“That’s why you need training,” I said. “No one expects you to do this tomorrow. Or even next year or five years. The Order has been passing down their knowledge for generations, and we can wait a little longer. There’s information in the old texts, formulas and rituals that—”
“Formulas,” she repeated. “Hate to break it to you, but I couldn’t math my way out of an unlocked closet.”
“We’re not asking you to do calculus.” Theo laughed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“You know those portals aren’t something you unlock with a formula.
That’s not how your ability works. But the Order has journals.
Handwritten, by the last Ophis. Everything he did to bring us here, step by step.
With enough study and practice, there’s no reason you couldn’t do the same.
” He paused. “The catch is, you can’t do it alone.
You’d need a shield behind you. A real one. ”
She nodded, as if that’s exactly what she’d been expecting to hear. “So the pitch is, I join your cult, and in return, I get you as my shield team.”
Rowan’s lips quirked. “That’s the start. With all of our power behind yours, the records say you could open a portal the size of a city block. You could bring everyone home.”
She stared at the floor for a while, her lips pressed tight. “You know I’m still bonded to Nightfall, right? That’s not going away.”
“We’re aware.” The words tasted like poison in my mouth. We all felt the lingering shadows of the Nightfall Shield hanging over her. Even separated by an ocean, their presence was like a phantom limb she couldn’t separate herself from.
Jupiter’s eyes dropped to the surface of her tea. Her thumb traced the rim of the ceramic mug, over and over. “Draco gave me a proposition while we were at Dominion last week. He wants Nightfall to transfer here.”
The silence in the room was instantaneous. Theo actually choked on his own breath, coughing into his fist, while Phoenix’s eyes flared a dangerous, vivid green.
“They want to come here?” Rowan spat. “After what they bloody did to you? They think they can just—“
“Strictly as my shield team,” Jupiter said.
She looked up, meeting Rowan’s angry gaze, then mine.
“Draco said they would petition the Assembly to transfer as a professional combat unit. Nothing romantic. No attempts to win me back or force a relationship. The distance is killing them—killing all of us—and technically, we’re stronger together. ”
“Strictly professional,” Phoenix scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Right. Because four men who are soul-bound to you, who are clearly in love with you, are just going to politely shake your hand in the mornings and keep their distance. That’s a load of rubbish, Jupiter, and you know it.”
“I didn’t say I believed they could do it,” she shot back.
“I’m telling you what he proposed. The problem is, the physical distance is unsustainable.
When Draco was dying from that neurotoxin, the bond nearly tore me in half.
If they’re here, at least I can keep an eye on them.
At least I won’t wake up every morning feeling like my chest is caving in. ”
I watched Lucas now. Our shield leader hadn’t said a word. He’d stepped back toward the window, arms folded, his icy eyes fixed on the floor.
“You’re actually considering it,” Theo said, taking a step toward her. “Letting them come.”
“I told him I’d think about it. I don’t want to hurt like this anymore. If having them here as a combat unit stops the constant bleeding ache I feel every second of every fucking day, I have to at least consider it.”
“Nine,” Lucas said suddenly.
We all turned to look at him. He slowly lifted his head, his gaze locking onto Jupiter with a crazy intensity that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Nine, what?” Jupiter asked.
“Nine mates.” He stepped away from the window. The calculating coldness in his eyes had been replaced by a sudden, blazing fire. “Nightfall is four. We are five. If they transfer to Imperium to act as your shield, and we bond with you too…”
Rowan shook his head, holding up a hand. “Lucas, no. You’ve lost the plot, mate. You can’t seriously be suggesting—“
“Think about it,” Lucas pressed. He looked at Rowan, then at Theo, then back to Jupiter.
“The Order’s texts state that the original Ophis required a massive conduit of celestial energy to tear a rift wide enough to cross the galaxy.
But that power surge came from ending his own life.
We can’t ask Jupiter to do it that way obviously.
A standard shield is four or five warriors, which in theory could work, yes, but nine?
Nine elite, fully-trained, powerful shield warriors, all channeling their power into a single axis? ”
“It’s insane,” Phoenix muttered, though he looked intrigued despite himself. “The magical feedback alone could burn her out.”
“Not if we balance it,” Lucas argued, pacing now.
“Nightfall has Aries, Leo, Scorpio, and Gemini. We bring Aquarius, Libra, Pisces, Taurus, and Capricorn. That’s nine distinct celestial frequencies, connecting to nine potential points to travel between.
With all of us together, surrounding her, feeding her magic; Jupiter, you would be the most powerful axis in existence.
You could recreate the crossing without hurting yourself. ”
Jupiter stared at him, her lips parted in shock. “You want to merge the shields. You want me to bond with nine men who currently want to murder each other, and use me as a battery to rip a hole in spacetime. I just want to make sure I have this square.”
“We could go home,” Lucas said. “Yes, I want you to merge our shield teams if it means getting us home.”
Jupiter shook her head, pulling the throw blanket tighter around her legs.
“Why? I don’t understand this obsession.
Earth is fine. We have lives here. We have coffee and television, hot showers and Taco Bell.
Why do you want to go back to planets that have been abandoned for thousands of years?
Why risk everything just to see what’s on the other side of a portal? ”
The room went quiet. Lucas opened his mouth, but the words seemed to fail him. Rowan looked away, his jaw tight.
“Because this isn’t a life,” I said quietly.
She looked at me, her brow furrowed. “Jamie...”
“Look at us.” I gestured around the room.
“We live in fortresses. We hide our magic from the humans. We’re trained from the moment we show our designations to be soldiers, to be weapons against the bane.
That’s all the Assembly sees us as, fodder for the cause.
We don’t have our own nations. We don’t have our own governments, not really.
We live in the shadows of a world that doesn’t even know we exist, fighting a war that never ends. ”
I took a step closer to the couch, my heart thundering. My scars ached, a constant, phantom reminder of the sacrifices we made, the blood I’d shed for a world that wasn’t truly mine.
“On the home worlds, we weren’t just warriors.
We had functioning planets. We had entire societies.
We had art, culture, and history that didn’t revolve entirely around killing monsters until be burn out.
We built cities that touched the stars. We had peace.
” I held her beautiful gaze, pleading with her to understand the generational grief that every member of the Order carried.
“We deserve to have that again. We deserve to be more than just shields and axes. We deserve a home where we don’t have to hide who we really are. ”
Jupiter stared at me, some of the defiance slowly melting out of her posture. The silver light in her eyes flickered, and she looked down at her hands, taking a slow, shaky breath as Noodle slithered onto the couch, curling up in her lap.
“Nine mates,” she whispered to herself. Then she looked back up at Lucas. “If I say yes to Draco, if I let them come, you really think we could work together? Without blood being spilled?”
“If it gets us home,” Lucas said with absolute certainty, “I will tolerate Charles Callahan himself. Hell, I’d agree to bring all four of them in on the secret if we can make it work. But it’s your choice, Jupiter. Only yours.”
She closed her eyes, rubbing her temples with her fingertips.
The exhaustion radiating from her was palpable.
She’d been through so much in the last several weeks—an assassination attempt on her former shield, portaling across the world, facing the men who broke her heart, and now this.
A revelation that shifted the entire trajectory of her universe.
“I need to think,” she said finally, opening her eyes. “I can’t give you an answer right now. About the Order, about Nightfall. It’s too much. Please, just... give me the night. I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”
“Of course, love,” Theo said immediately, already moving to stand. “Take all the time you need.”
“Tomorrow, absolutely,” Lucas agreed, giving her a respectful nod. “We’ll be waiting. Whatever you choose.”
We all stood up. No one wanted to leave her, but we all knew she needed the space.
Phoenix was the first to approach her. He leaned down, pressing a lingering, tender kiss to the crown of her head. “Sleep well, pretty girl.”
Rowan went next, his large hand gently cupping her cheek as he pressed his lips to the other side of her face. “Lock your door,” he told her gruffly, though his eyes were completely soft. “Call if you need us.”
Jupiter rolled her eyes at his order.
Theo offered a warm, reassuring smile, leaning in to kiss her temple. “Sweet dreams, beautiful.”
Lucas paused beside the couch. He bent down and pressed a firm, decisive kiss to her lips, and she sucked in a quick breath and kissed him back.
I was the last. I stood awkwardly for a second, my hands tucked into my pockets, my heart doing that terrifying flutter.
I hadn’t initiated physical contact with a woman in two years outside of the dream I shared with Jupiter.
Not since Eliza. But looking at Jupiter, curled up under her blanket, carrying the weight of two worlds on her shoulders. .. I couldn’t just walk away.
I pulled my hands from my pockets and leaned down. She tilted her head up slightly, her eyes meeting mine. I brushed my lips against her cheek. Her skin was incredibly soft smelling like those damn pears.
“Goodnight, Jamie.”
“Goodnight, Jupiter.”
I straightened and followed the others out the door.
Before I pulled it shut behind me, I glanced back.
Jupiter was sitting exactly where we’d left her, her legs pulled up to her chest with Noodle now around her neck.
She was staring into her half-empty mug of tea, her brow furrowed, looking so deeply thoughtful and utterly alone that it took every ounce of my willpower to close the door and leave her there.
The hard part was over. She knew our secret, and she didn’t leave. All that mattered was that she didn’t leave.