average human’s Reviews > The 13th Zodiac > Status Update

Their mouths were moving rapidly, talking over each other, hands gesturing wildly. Percy’s eyes were bloodshot, Aiden’s hair was a disaster like he’d been running his hands through it for hours, Draco’s normally composed face was twisted with anguish, and Eris—god, Eris looked like he’d been crying.
I stared at them, paralyzed by their sudden appearance. The ancient leather-bound book on bond-breaking rituals lay open on my lap, pages marked with sticky notes where I’d found particularly promising (and dangerous) options.
I slowly pulled my headphones off, the music still faintly audible as they dangled around my neck. I felt strangely calm, like I was watching this scene happen to someone else.
“I didn’t hear a word you just said,” I told them flatly. “But you need to leave. Now.”
“Jupiter, please,” Percy stepped forward, his voice breaking. “We were wrong. So fucking wrong.”
“We know you didn’t write those emails,” Aiden said, his golden eyes swimming with unshed tears. “It was Melissa. She confessed to everything.”
“Please,” Draco whispered. “Just let us explain.”
I looked at each of them in turn, these four men who had destroyed me so completely. Three weeks of agony. Three weeks of feeling them try to replace me with other women. Three weeks of whispering and stares and complete isolation.
Something cold and dead had taken root inside me where my heart used to be.
“Leave,” I repeated.
“Jupiter, honey—” Percy started.
“Don’t you dare call me that,” I snapped. “Get out.”
“We’re not leaving,” Eris said, stepping forward. “Not until you hear us out.”
They didn’t understand. They couldn’t see that it was too late, that they’d broken something inside me that couldn’t be fixed with explanations or apologies.
The calm shattered. Rage exploded through me like a supernova, and I scrambled to my feet, standing on my mattress so I towered over them.
“GET OUT!” I screamed, my voice raw and savage. “GET THE FUCK OUT!”
They flinched but didn’t move. My magic surged in response to my fury, starlight coalescing in my palm, forming a jagged shard that pulsed with deadly energy.
“Jupiter—” Percy stepped closer, hands raised placatingly.
I hurled the starlight shard past his head, deliberately missing by inches. It struck the wall behind him with a sizzling crash, scorching a black hole through the stone. The acrid smell of smoke filled the room.
“I HATE YOU!” I screamed, my voice breaking. “I hate all of you! You didn’t even give me a chance to explain! You just believed the worst of me and threw me away!”
Tears streamed down my face now, but I was beyond caring. Three weeks of bottled agony poured out of me in a torrent.
“I’m going to find a way to break this bond if it kills me,” I snarled, another shard of starlight forming in my palm. “And then I’ll find a shield that won’t fucking break my heart the first time someone lies about me!”
“We deserve that,” Draco said quietly, not flinching away from my rage. “All of it. We failed you.”
“You did more than fail me,” I hissed. “You destroyed me. I felt everything—EVERYTHING—you did with those women. Every kiss, every touch, every time you tried to fuck them to forget me.”
Aiden made a strangled sound, his face ashen. “Jupiter, we didn’t know⁠—”
“Bullshit!” I hurled the second shard, this time at the floor between them. It exploded in a shower of silver sparks. “You knew exactly what a bond meant! You knew I could feel you! You just didn’t care!”
Percy looked physically ill, his hands shaking. “We thought you were blocking us. We thought⁠—”
“You thought wrong,” I cut him off. “And now you want what? Forgiveness? To pretend none of it happened?”
“We want a chance,” Eris said, his voice breaking. “A chance to make it right.”
“There is no making it right,” I said, my voice dropping to a whisper as exhaustion suddenly replaced the rage. I sank back down onto the bed, all my energy drained. “It’s too late.”
“Don’t say that,” Percy moved toward me, reaching for my hand.
I jerked away from his touch. “Don’t. Don’t you ever touch me again, Percy.” I tried to breath through my nose, desperately stifling a sob. “I can’t do this right now. I need you to leave.”
“We’re not giving up on you,” Draco said quietly. “On us.”
“There is no more us, don’t you get that? Maybe there never really was. It’s not like you chose it in the first place. I don’t know what I even expected. Maybe this whole thing was my fault for believing I could be this lucky.
Percy’s eyes were swimming with tears. “Baby⁠—”
“I said LEAVE!” I shouted, my magic flaring around me in warning.
They exchanged glances and slowly backed toward the door.
“We’ll go,” Aiden said, “but we’re coming back. Every day if we have to. Until you believe us.”
“Don’t bother,” I said, picking up my headphones. “I won’t be here much longer anyway.”
Their alarm spiked through the bond. “What does that mean?” Percy demanded.
I met his eyes, letting him see the emptiness in mine. “It means I’m leaving Dominion. I’ve already spoken to Director Waverly. I am enrolled in London academy. I start there next in two weeks.”
“You can’t leave,” Eris said, panic rising up in the bond. “The bond⁠—”
“Will stretch,” I finished for him. “It’ll hurt like hell, but no worse than what I’ve already been through. I’m going to sever it anyway so it won’t matter much longer. In two weeks I’ll be gone. You never have to see me again, and you can go back to hooking up with anyone who’s willing to drop to their knees in the hopes that you’ll spare them a pity fuck.”
Every single one of them flinched.
“And Melissa?” Aiden asked. “You’re just going to let her win?”
I laughed bitterly. “She already won the moment you chose to believe her over me. And you know what? I deserve better than what you have to offer me. I deserve to be loved. I deserve to be treated with some fucking respect. I thought for a second you could make me happy. I thought I could trust you with my whole life, but it turns out I can’t even trust you with my heart.”
They had no answer for that. Noodle slithered out and began hissing at them, snapping his jaws as they backed away. One by one, they filed out, each looking back at me with such naked anguish that in another life, it might have moved me. Now I just felt numb.
Percy was the last to leave, his hand on the doorframe. “We’ll fix this,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “I swear to you, Jupiter. Whatever it takes.”
I slipped my headphones back on without responding, turning the volume up until it drowned out everything—their retreating footsteps, Noodle’s concerned hissing, and the traitorous part of me that wanted to run after them.
As the door closed behind Percy, I let myself fall back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. The book on bond-breaking lay forgotten beside me.