Page 59 of The Bound Zodiac

He fucked me through the water, driving me into the stone, his cock hitting every perfect spot inside me. Every thrust made me moan, made me dig my heels into his back and pull him closer, harder, deeper.

He kissed me the whole time, lips and tongue and teeth, until I was dizzy with it, apologies tangled with moans. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I need you, I can’t stop needing you, please…”

I shut him up with my mouth, biting his lip until I tasted blood. We moved together, desperation turning to rhythm, rhythm turning to ecstasy. The water steamed around us, the golden glow rising and falling with his thrusts, bathing us in light.

I came first, the orgasm ripping through me so suddenly I screamed into his shoulder, my whole body locking up as the pleasure crashed through every nerve. He felt it, felt my walls clench around him, and he lost it too, slamming into me one last time and spilling himself as he groaned my name.

We floated there, the world gone quiet except for the crash of water and the sound of our breathing. My legs trembled around his waist. I couldn’t feel the cold anymore. All I felt was the heat of him, the weight of his arms, the wild, dizzying thump of my own heart beating against his chest.

He held me like I might vanish if he let go as his mouth found mine. He kissed me like it was the only thing that kept him alive, hands turning gentle, slipping up to cradle my jaw, thumb tracing along my cheekbone, brushing away water and tears I hadn’t realized were there.

I opened my eyes. He was already looking at me. “If I ever hurt you again, and I don’t mean petty little arguments, I mean if I ever betray you, if I ever break your trust or make you feel small, you kill me where I stand. That’s all I deserve. I mean it.”

He meant every single fucking word. I could feel the conviction through our shared bond. His regret was so potent it was staggering. But there was also relief. Knee-buckling relief, telling me he was all in.

For a second, I just stared at him. Then I laughed. “Be careful what you wish for, Aiden. I’m a lot meaner than I look.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

JAMIE

It was not lost on me, the irony of sitting on the icy ruins of a dead moon, with the most powerful Ophis in ten thousand years curled against my chest like a lifeline, and thinking, for the first time in a decade, that I might actually be at peace.

The cracked bone-white regolith stretched in every direction, the smear of stars overhead so thick they looked painted on. The planet hung low and massive above the horizon, a monster of silver and violet and emerald so beautiful it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Crystalline rings surrounded the planet, made of ice and rock that sparkled in the light of the binary stars.

This was her dreamscape, but she let me build the details. I made sure the gravity was just right, the air breathable, the emptiness not so crushing. No darkness tonight. No tendrils of shadow, no screaming. I wanted to replace the nightmare with something to look forward to.

I sat with my back braced against a fragment of moon rock. Jupiter leaned into me, her shoulder blades aligned with my sternum, the fall of her hair warm against my chin. My arms were looped loose around her waist.

Draco was perched on the edge of a ridge above us, knees drawn up, hands laced in front of them, eyes fixed on the planet. The violet from the surface caught in his hair and made it look like moonlight. He’d gotten good at dream walking, and bringing him into the fold was easy.

We’d been doing this every night for weeks now. Sometimes she brought one of the others through, usually Phoenix or Lucas, but most nights it was just the three of us. I didn’t mind. I liked the company. And if I was honest, I liked the way she relaxed in the dream space, the way her laughter came easier here, the way she let herself be unguarded.

I smoked, of course. In dreams, the cigarettes never ran out. The taste was always perfect. I let the smoke curl and drift, watching it catch in the low lunar breeze.

Draco shifted, still watching the planet with a scholar’s eyes. “You ever wonder if any of those old cities are still standing? I mean, the bane didn’t glass the surface. They just drank up the magic. The structures might have survived, at least the ones built out of crystal or alloy.”

Jupiter twisted a little to look at him. “Wouldn’t nature have taken it all back by now? It’s been ten thousand years, right? If the forests are anything like Earth’s, it should be all ruins and trees and moss.”

“The atmosphere is different,” Draco pointed out, his tone gone into full academic mode. “Higher oxygen. The plant life is aggressive, but some of the cities were built to last. Aelari crystals could regenerate after trauma, and some of the towers were engineered to withstand tectonic shifts. Even if the smaller stuff rotted away, the major structures could still be there. Maybe even functional.”

He looked down at us, eyes gone a little dreamy.

“Would you want to even imagine it that way?” I asked Jupiter. “All abandoned and swallowed by forests and time?”

“I want to see it as it is,” she said simply. “I’ve always hated the cleaned-up versions of history, the ones that pretend you can just reset the clock and start over. If it’s half-ruined, I want to walk through the ruins. If it’s wild, I want to see how wild it got. But I guess I can’t help wondering if any of it will feel like home when we get there, or if it’ll just be a graveyard.”

I tightened my arms around her.

Draco nodded. “After the Crossing, the Assembly tried to stamp out that kind of thinking. They didn’t want anyone going back, didn’t want anyone studying the old technologies that might let them open the doors again, because they’d lose their control over the Aelari on Earth.”

“Do you think they’ll want to build new academies on the home worlds?” She asked, looking up at me. “Shield warriors are kind of our culture now, right? It would make sense to be ready, just in case the bane ends up following us back someday.”

I shrugged. “Most likely, yes. But the Assembly’s going to want to take control of whatever is created. They’ll run it the way they do on Earth. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with our academies. It’s not like the Assembly is some kind of evil entity or anything, but the politics will carry over.”

“I want to go before them,” she said, chin lifting. “I want to see it before the Assembly gets their claws in. I want us to be the first ones to set foot on the home worlds.”

Draco smiled down at her, and I could see the naked adoration in his eyes. “I’ve already started compiling supply lists. Malakai’s been helping me. If we’re going to have one shot at making it to Ophiuchus, then we need to make sure we’re prepared.”