Epilogue
Jupiter
Nine mates. A cross-galactic portal.
My mind spun, trying to categorize and process the sheer volume of insane information that had just been dumped into my lap. Noodle shifted around my neck, his cool scales pressing against my collarbone.
‘Much thinking,’ Noodle hissed softly, his tongue flicking against my cheek. ‘Brain is loud.’
“You have no idea, buddy.”
I glanced at the clock on my nightstand.
The glowing red numbers read 11:48 pm. It was late, especially considering everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, but there was no way I was going to be able to sleep with this tornado of anxiety tearing through my head.
I needed the one thing that always managed to anchor me when the magical world threatened to pull me under.
I reached for my phone on the coffee table, my fingers trembling slightly as I unlocked the screen and scrolled. I pressed the call button and brought the phone to my ear, listening to the steady ringing, praying she was awake.
“Jupiter? Honey, is everything okay?” My mom’s voice came through the speaker, thick with sleep but instantly laced with maternal panic. I heard the rustle of sheets in the background, and the faint murmur of my dad asking who was calling.
Just hearing her voice caused the tight knot in my throat to loosen, and a shaky breath escaped my lips. “Mom. I’m sorry to wake you up. I just… I really needed to hear your voice.”
“You never have to apologize for calling me, sweetheart.” I heard a door click shut—she’d stepped out into the hallway to give us privacy. “What happened? You sound exhausted. Did something else happen with Nightfall?”
“Yes. And no.” I leaned my head back against the couch cushions, closing my eyes. “It’s everything, Mom. Everything is happening all at once and I feel like I’m drowning.”
“Take a deep breath, Jupe. Start from the beginning.”
And so I did. I told her about Draco nearly dying from the neurotoxin, about the frantic, desperate portal I’d torn through spacetime to bring Lucas and Rowan to Dominion.
I told her about the confrontation with Aiden in the classroom, the way my hand had stung after I slapped him, and the miserable, hollow feeling it had left in my chest.
“The guys at Imperium—the Stardust Shield—told me the truth tonight. They’re part of a secret society. The Order of Ophiuchus. They’ve been waiting for me for centuries. They believe that with enough power, I can open a portal back to the original zodiac home worlds.”
My mom was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was a hushed, incredulous whisper. “Go back to the home planets? Jupiter, that’s fairy tale stuff.”
“It’s not though, Mom. They have texts and artifacts that the Assembly suppressed.
But that’s not even the craziest part.” A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye, tracking down my cheek.
“They want me to merge the shields. They want Nightfall to transfer to Imperium, and they want me to bond with all nine of them to act as a massive magical battery to make the portal work.”
“Nine?” she gasped.
“Nine lethal, bull-headed, incredibly powerful men who currently want to rip each other’s throats out. And I have to decide if I’m going to let them try. I have to decide if I’m going to let Nightfall back into my life.”
“Oh, my beautiful girl. That is a terrible weight to carry.”
“I’m terrified. I don’t want to be hurt again.
What Nightfall did to me… the way they looked at me when they thought I was a monster who manipulated them…
it broke me. I just started putting the pieces back together here in London.
But now I have this huge, cosmic responsibility shoved onto my shoulders.
If I say no, I’m denying our entire species a chance to go home.
If I say yes, I’m walking straight back into the fire that burned me. ”
“Listen to me, Jupiter,” she said firmly, her voice radiating that unshakeable strength I’d always relied on.
“You are not responsible for saving the world. Or any other world, for that matter. You are responsible for your own heart. If allowing Nightfall back into your life is going to destroy you, then the answer is no. A portal is not worth your soul.”
I wiped at my wet cheeks. “I know. But the physical distance from them is literally killing me. And Stardust… I care about them. I really do. Lucas, Rowan, Phoenix, Theo, Jamie… they’ve been so good to me. They’re offering me a purpose. A real one.”
“If they care about you, they won’t force this.”
“They aren’t. Lucas made it very clear it’s entirely my choice.
” I sniffled, sitting up a little straighter.
“But Mom, you have to promise me something. You can’t tell anyone about this.
Not the Assembly reps, not Waverly or Orion, not anyone.
The Order is a secret, and if the Assembly finds out what Stardust is planning, it could start a literal civil war. ”
“My lips are sealed. You know you can trust me. Honey, do you need us to come out there? Your father and I can book a flight to tomorrow.”
My immediate instinct was to say no. Imperium was dangerous right now, the politics were messy, and the Assembly was clearly sniffing around my shield with lethal intent if in fact they were responsible for the neurotoxin.
“No, it’s too complicated—” I started, but the words caught in my throat.
I looked around my quiet, stone-walled room, feeling the sheer, crushing isolation of my existence.
I was the only Ophis. The only one who could do what they needed.
“Actually,” I whispered, the word trembling on my lips.
“A visit might be exactly what I need right now.”
I could practically hear her smile through the phone.
“Then it’s settled. We’ll look at flights first thing in the morning and make plans to come stay for a few days next week.
We’ll get a hotel in the city, take you out for a proper dinner, and you can take a break from saving the galaxy for an afternoon. ”
A genuine, albeit watery, smile broke across my face. “That sounds perfect. Thank you, Mom.”
“I love you, Jupe. You’re stronger than you think. Sleep on it. Things will look clearer in the morning.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.”
I ended the call, letting my phone drop onto the sofa beside me.
My mom was right. Talking to her had bled some of the frantic, buzzing panic out of my system.
I let out a long exhale, feeling the exhaustion of the day finally catch up with me.
My muscles ached, and my magical reserves felt entirely depleted.
Moving sluggishly, I made my way to my bed. I crawled under the heavy duvet, bringing my laptop with me. I didn’t want to sit in silence with my thoughts, so I opened it up and clicked play on the movie I’d paused two days ago—Eclipse.
I watched Bella Swan navigate her supernatural love triangle, wrapped in a blanket in a freezing tent while a vampire and a werewolf bickered over her body heat.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. A love triangle seemed so quaint, so wonderfully simple compared to the nine-point geometric nightmare I was currently trapped in.
I let the mindless, familiar drama of the movie wash over me. Noodle slithered out from under the covers and coiled himself around the warm exhaust vent of my laptop, his eyes slipping shut.
Eventually, my own eyelids grew too heavy to keep open. I closed the laptop, plunging the room into darkness, and let my head sink into the pillows. Sleep pulled me under almost instantly, dragging me down into the deep, quiet dark.
But the dark didn’t last.
The transition was seamless, a gentle fading of black into a vibrant, impossible spectrum of color.
I opened my eyes, expecting to see a familiar cliffside, but instead, the sky was a swirling, majestic shade of purple, completely devoid of clouds.
Hanging low on the horizon were three moons.
One was massive, glowing with a brilliant silvery light.
The other two were smaller, pale and translucent blue, flanking the silver giant like loyal guards.
I was standing in a field of grass that reached my waist. But it wasn’t the coarse, green grass of Earth. It was soft as silk, a shimmering, iridescent teal that rippled and swayed like ocean waves. I reached a hand out, letting the long, silky blades slide through my fingers.
The air here was perfectly temperate, carrying a scent that was equal parts crushed lotus blossoms and fresh rain. I took a deep, shuddering breath, the vibrancy of the world around me washing away the lingering exhaustion of my waking hours.
Through the undulating sea of grass, a figure was moving toward me. The tall stalks parted effortlessly around him, and as he drew closer, my breath hitched in my throat.
It was Jamie.
His dark hair was thoroughly disheveled, falling across his forehead in loose, messy waves as if he’d been running his hands through it for hours. His green eyes, usually so guarded and careful in the waking world, were glowing.
He closed the final distance between us and reached out, his large, warm hands cupping my face, his thumbs gently brushing the skin beneath my eyes where the exhaustion had settled in deeply.
I leaned into his touch, a soft, broken sigh escaping my lips.
Then, he leaned in and pressed his mouth to mine.
My hands found their way to his waist, gripping the soft cotton of his black shirt, anchoring myself to him as if he were the only solid thing in a universe spinning out of control.
His lips moved over mine with a slow, torturous reverence, tasting of cloves and mint, sending a cascade of warm, liquid heat straight to my core.
When we finally broke apart, my forehead rested against his chest. I listened to the steady, comforting thrum of his heartbeat. “Where are we, Jamie?”
“We’re on the Pisces home world.”