“Just because youcandoesn’t mean you should exhaust yourself. Remember, we’re a team. Use our energy too.”
She glanced at me, surprise flickering across her face. Then, slowly, I felt a gentle tug as she accessed the ambient magic I was projecting. The connection wasn’t intrusive—nothing like the bond she must have shared with Nightfall—but it was intimate in its own way.
Rowan must have felt it too, because he shifted closer to her other side. Mark and Peter exchanged puzzled glances, clearly sensing something unusual happening but unable to identify it.
“That’s it,” I encouraged as I felt Jupiter stabilize the spatial distortion with our combined energy. “Perfect, baby.”
Oops. That slipped out. Maybe she didn’t hear…
The strain visibly eased from her face, her starlight brightening as she drew on our power. The bane’s prison solidified, becoming an impenetrable bubble of altered space-time, as if it were inside of a spherical portal that went nowhere.
“Hold steady!”
She’d fallen into a rhythm now, drawing on our combined energy in perfect balance. The creature thrashed uselessly within its prison, growing increasingly more frustrated with its confinement, salivating for our magic to feed on.
The bane were truly sickening creatures. Some said they were born from the depths of a black hole, strong enough to claw their way past the event horizon, and strong enough to rip portals open, traveling several lightyears at a time. Humans couldn’t see darkmatter, nor could even the most powerful scientific instruments. But the Aelari could. We could see darkmatter as easily as regular matter. The universe was alive with it. Nowhere near as empty as it appeared to the humans. But with that life came predators, and we’d been forced to fight them since the dawn of time.
“Time!” Professor Saris finally announced after another full minute. “Excellent work, team. Containment wards reactivating.”
The humming of the magical barriers rose around us as the wards snapped back into place. Jupiter carefully released her hold on the spatial distortion, letting the bane slide back into its proper containment field. Her shoulders relaxed visibly as the creature was once again secured.
“Well done,” I murmured, giving her an appreciative nod. “That was textbook perfect.”
Jupiter wiped a light sheen of sweat from her brow. She was smiling now, her eyes alight with excitement rather than wariness.Fuuck, that smile did things to my body.
“Okay that was actually kind of fun.”
“See?” Rowan grinned, clapping her on the shoulder. “Told you there was nothing to worry about.”
We moved to the observation area at the side of the pit where we could watch the remaining teams complete their exercises. Jupiter settled between Rowan and me on the stone bench, herbody language noticeably more relaxed than when we’d first entered the dungeons.
“Different from Dominion, huh?” I asked as the next team took their positions.
She nodded, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Night and fucking day. The wards here are solid. I can actually feel how deeply they’re anchored into the stone.”
“Imperium doesn’t cut corners on safety.” Team Two struggled with their bane. The creature was giving them more trouble than ours had, darting between their containment efforts. “Some of these wards have been in place for centuries, constantly reinforced by generations of Aelari.”
For the next hour, we supported the other teams. When class finally ended, Professor Saris dismissed us with a nod of approval. “Black, excellent work today. I expect great things to come from you. Dismissed.”
She smiled widely and saluted at the professor, who arched a brow her way.
“Heading back to your tower, princess?” I asked as we reached the main corridor.
“I should probably shower and change before dinner.” She sniffed her shirt and made a face. “Yeah, a shower is needed.”
She smelled fine to me. “Mind if I walk with you?”
“I’d like that.”
Rowan checked his phone and grimaced. “I’ve got to meet Professor Harris about that independent study project. The deadline’s tomorrow and I’ve barely started.”
“Procrastinator,” I teased, earning a mock scowl from my shield brother.
“Some of us have better things to do than study all hours of the day, Hargrave.” He leaned down and placed a quick kiss on Jupiter’s cheek. “See you at dinner, love.”
I watched him jog off down the corridor, then turned back to Jupiter, whose cheeks were pink. “Shall we?”
We walked in comfortable silence through the winding hallways of Imperium, climbing several flights of stairs until we reached the upper levels where the residential towers were located. Outside the tall windows, the afternoon sun cast dark shadows across the ancient grounds. This place had been home for several years now and I never got tired of the view.
