The transition was rough. Not for everyone in the vehicle. No, just for me. The moment the transport’s tires crossed the threshold of the wards of the academy, the mental barricades I’d been leaning on vanished. It was like stepping out of a soundproof room into the middle of a screaming hurricane. The axis bond, which had been a dull, manageable ache, suddenly snapped completely taut, vibrating with the sheer, unadulterated force of four desperate men.
Jupiter!Percy’s voice exploded in my skull.Where the fuck are you going? The wards just dropped—what are you doing?
Baby, what’s happening?Aiden’s voice layered over his.
Jupiter, stop!Eris shouted down the mental bond.
The psychic assault was so heavy, so sudden, that I actually gasped out loud, my hands flying to my temples. Across the transport, Rowan instantly leaned forward, his hand hovering just inches from my knee.
Leave me alone!I shouted back through the bond, pouring every ounce of my rage and exhaustion into the mental projection.Get out of my head!
Jupiter, please,Draco’s thoughts slipped down the tether, bypassing my initial defenses. If I hadn’t known any better I would have thought he was using Pisces magic.We know you’re deploying. We can feel the adrenaline. You’re heading into a combat zone without your shield. Please, you have to listen to me. Let us come to you.
No,I snapped back.I have a job to do. I don’t need you. I don’t want you. Stay the fuck away from me.
Before Draco could respond, before Percy could unleash another wave of possessive fury, I gathered every scrap of my magic and slammed my mental wall into place. I built it thicker this time—starlight and darkness until it was harder than diamond. The voices were instantly severed, reduced to a muffled, distant pounding against the fortress of my mind.
I dropped my hands from my head, breathing heavily. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.
“They felt you cross the wards,” Lucas guessed.
“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.
