Page 25 of The Bound Zodiac

I crouched and took a photo of the prints, the camera’s shutter breaking the quiet. Then I followed them, pushing aside ferns with careful hands. The trail petered out after about ten feet, the ground turning to stone and moss, but I could see where something had passed through. There was bent grass, a snapped twig at knee height, the faintest impression in the moss that might have been a hoof or might have been nothing.

I straightened and looked back at the pool. The water was perfectly still now, the surface reflecting the canopy overhead like a mirror. Nothing moved. No ripples, no shadows beneath the surface, no flicker of anything that shouldn’t be there.

I sat down on the bank, cross-legged, and set the camera beside me. Noodle reappeared from somewhere in the ferns and draped himself across my lap.

An hour passed like that. Maybe more. I lost track of time the way you only can when nobody is waiting for you and there’s nowhere you’re supposed to be. The sun shifted overhead, and the light moved across the bank in slow, golden arcs. Noodle had fallen asleep across my thighs, his scales warm and heavy, his breathing a faint, rhythmic hiss against my skin.

Eventually, I shifted him carefully onto the grass and stretched my legs out, easing my feet to the water’s edge. The cold hit my toes, then my ankles as I slid them in. The water was so clear I could see the pale stones at the bottom, moss-covered and smooth. My reflection wavered on the surface, fractured by the ripples my feet made.

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. Sunlight found my face through the gaps in the canopy.

I felt him approaching. A feeling of underlying turmoil churning in slow circles, filtered through the bond. I didn’t open my eyes. Didn’t turn my head. Just kept my face tilted up to the sun and my toes trailing through the water, and waited.

He sat down beside me on the bank. Not too close. A careful distance—close enough to talk, far enough that we weren’t touching. The grass rustled under him, and then went quiet.

“I wasn’t following you,” Draco said. His deep voice was always just slightly rough and scratchy, but somehow I knew it so intimately that it sent waves of goosebumps over my skin. “I’ve been out here three times this week, but I thought nobody came out this far.”

“It’s fine, Draco. I was just kelpie hunting.”

“A kelpie,” he repeated. “You know a kelpie will see you long before you see it, right? They’ve been avoiding humans for centuries.”

“I’m not a human though, am I?”

“Close enough, from their perspective.” He paused. “Why a kelpie?”

“Because Mara said there might be one here, and I’ve been trying to find magical creatures since I got to Imperium.” I pulled my feet out of the water and tucked them under me, turning to face him properly for the first time. “I have a whole plan for capturing a pixie, actually. Or at least interacting with one. The Stardust guys think I’m insane.”

A flicker of jealousy reared its head before he shoved it away.

“Are you happy with them?”

I shrugged. “I think I can be eventually.”

I didn’t want to hurt Draco, but I also refused to lie to him. Or any of them for that matter. I was accused of lying once, and we all saw how that turned out.

I could feel him thinking. Not the specific thoughts, but the general vibe of them. His emotions and intentions. The shield bond was still so new to me in so many ways.

“We need to talk,” I said finally.

He exhaled through his nose. “Jupiter⁠—”

“I need to say this, so just… let me.” I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, staring at the water. “You never touched another woman. After everything. After the misunderstanding, after you thought I’d betrayed you. You didn’t try to move on with anyone else.”

“How do you⁠—”

I pressed my forehead against my knees. “And I punished you as if you had. I punished you, and you didn’t deserve it.”

He was very still beside me. “The guys weren’t able to follow through. With the women. They didn’t even try really. They thought they could prove to themselves that you didn’t break them. That they⁠—”

“I know. But the intent was there, Draco. That’s what hurt. That’s what I’m still working through. The fact that they could get over what we were building so fast, without even so much as talking to me. You were all so fucking quick to believe I lied and manipulated you that it’s almost like you were hoping for it. Like you were waiting for a reason to reject me. The intent to replace me was there, and that’s the part that doesn’t just go away because none of them actually went through with it.”

He flinched, trying to disguise as a shift in posture and failed completely. His hands were clenched on his knees, knuckles white.

He drew a breath and raked a hand through his silver hair. “There isn’t an explanation that makes it better. I’m not even going to try to give you one.”

“Good. Because I don’t want one.”

The waterfall kept rushing. The birds kept singing. Noodle shifted in the grass beside me, his tail curling around my ankle in a gesture that felt almost protective.