Page 57 of The Bound Zodiac

I looked away, focusing on the line where the mist met the surface. “You swim out here a lot?”

“It helps,” he said. “Burns off the energy. The anger. The restlessness.”

I knew exactly what he meant. I felt it in my own body every fucking day.

“Does it help enough?”

He shrugged again. “Nope. Not really.”

We floated in silence, letting the water and the quiet fill the spaces our words couldn’t. Eventually, I paddled closer. “You know, you’re not bad company when you’re not actively threatening to kill someone or pretending to be an asshole.”

He snorted, but his eyes softened. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

We drifted together, the current pushing us toward the embankment wall beneath the waterfall. The sound got louder as we approached, the air filled with mist. He ran a hand through his long golden hair, slicking it back, and then he looked at me like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.

“Spit it out,” I said, my chest tight. “Whatever it is.”

He hesitated, and for just a second looked a little nervous, which for Aiden Reece, was extremely weird to witness.

“I heard you,” he said finally. “This morning with Eris.”

My heart detonated. The heat flushed up my neck and out across my cheeks, so intense my vision went spotty. “You… what?”

He grimaced, looking away. “Didn’t mean to. Your walls were thin and I couldn’t shut it out even if I tried.”

A flush like molten lava rolled down my spine. “Oh my god.” I threw my face in my hands and shook my head before splashing them into the water with a groan.

“You should know… it wasn’t just me. I think we all heard.” He looked away, and even slightly guilty.

My face was so hot I thought I might actually die. “Yep. That’s fucking mortifying. I think it’s time for me to find the nearest cliff and take a swan dive off of it.”

He shook his head, lips twitching. “Don’t worry, you’ve still got your mysterious cool girl aura locked in.”

I arched a single brow. “I have a mysterious cool girl aura?”

“You know you do,” he teased, splashing me a little.

Still, I rolled my eyes. “If only the world knew the real me,” I said wistfully.

“Oh, you mean the you that for some reason has an ungodly amount of Twilight merchandise, and tries to fish for pixies with marshmallows in the dead of night?”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “You’ve been listening to Noodle, haven’t you? Such a gossip.”

I drifted a little nearer, letting the water push me lazily sideways. We floated in silence for a second, except for the low roar of the falls and the gentle lap of warm currents against my ribs.

Then he asked, as if he couldn’t hold it in anymore, “Are you happy here?”

I took a breath, looking up at the sky, so beautifully gray and endless. “Yeah. I think I am. It’s weird, right? It’s not what I pictured for myself a year ago. But Imperium…it feels like home to me somehow.”

He nodded, and I could see the relief there, a tension in his shoulders unwinding, just a little. I swam in a slow circle around him. “But if I’m being honest, there’s still this part of me that’s terrified. Like, actually, ‘I can’t breathe and my chest hurts and I want to puke’ kind of terrified. I know I’m supposed to be the one to open the way home, to bring everyone back to the home worlds, but the thought of actually leaving, of stepping through and not coming back…I don’t know if I can do it. Earth is all I’ve ever known. All any of us have ever known.”

He was quiet for a long time. Then he moved, pushing off the bottom and closing the gap between us, just a foot or so.

“I get it. I feel the same way, if I’m honest. It’s fucking terrifying. But also…” He paused, searching for the words. “Part of me just wants to see what’s out there. Not for the Assembly, or the Order, or anyone else. Imagine it. A whole new planet to explore. No rules. Just us. And those who want to come with us. That’s kind of fucking exciting, actually. I mean, literally repopulating a new world. Not to be cheesy or anything but that sounds like the adventure of a lifetime.”

I laughed, and the anxiety in my chest began to ease for real. “You’re saying you want to repopulate a planet? That’s a lot of stamina, Reece.”