They stopped outside her door. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she asked, fiddling with her holoblock when they stopped outside her door.
And Lee pulled her in for a kiss, holding her there as he studied those laughing eyes that were much too good for him. “See you tomorrow,” Lee agreed, capturing that bubbling joy for what he wagered would be a very restless night.
Afterward, Lee slipped around to his portal door to drop off his things. He was almost to the door again when he scuffed his boot on something on the floor. And when he bent down to see what it was, his fingers caught on a thin band.
Holding it carefully in his hand, Lee stood back up, staring at the dark band—his radiation monitor from Segura. He musthave knocked it onto the floor weeks ago, he hadn’t even realized he’d misplaced it. He rolled it between his fingers again, letting it sit there in his palm. And here he was again. “Did you also leave something here for us?” he asked the quiet dorm.
Finding out about his ancestor had felt like a breath of fresh air. A source of strength for him as he stood on the threshold of the biggest decision of his life. As another former raider who’d actually declined Placement, maybe it was a sign that Lee was making the right decision. Even if he hadn’t expected to find that resolution so soon…
But he couldn’t help but wonder whether, if Leland I had had a Kat in his life, would he still have left the raider life? And if he hadn’t, would there have ever been a Thea? Would Lee have ever happened? Maybe there was a reason he was here today. Maybe there was a reason he’d found the band again right after deciding to go after Segura. And maybe it really was just karmic synergy and the cosmos extending their twisting threads once more.
Tucking the band into the pocket of his all-terrain suit, Lee slipped down to the training levels. Let’s see if he couldn’t wear down some of that anxious energy.
A handful of cadets were in the training room, but they paid him no heed as Lee swept past them to where Zane finished up some reps. He met Lee’s gaze briefly in the mirror, completing a set, before setting the dumb bells back down on their rack.
Lee was settling down onto the bench when Zane crossed over to him. He had a water bottle in his hand, and a towel draped about his neck. “I’ll spot you,” Zane nodded, setting his water down beside the bench.
Fine, perfect. Lee could use the spot.
“How many kilos?” Zane asked coolly, adjusting the towel against his neck.
“Ninety.”
Zane pursed his lips. He looked as if he might advise otherwise and against it. But then he nodded, coolly. “Ninety.” He loaded up an even distribution on each end of the barbell.
Once Lee was situated on the bench below, the desperation and frustration pounding up his arms and down his torso, he curled his fingers around the bar. “Let’s go.”
He grunted out ten reps, then looked up again at Zane. “Add.”
Like before, Zane looked as if he might interject. But instead, he added the weight to either end.
“Let’s go.”
Lee grunted out another ten. “Add.”
Another ten.
Another.
Lee wasn’t sure if Zane would have obliged or not with one more add after he finished that set. He might have, if he’d felt Lee really needed it.
But Lee was done. His craze-induced fuel spent.
He slowly sat up, arms and chest shaking from the force, his brain too exhausted to do more than allow oxygen back into his body. He sat there for a few minutes, before common decency reminded him of the favor offered him. He went to offer it back in exchange, but Zane just shook his head, instead taking a seat on the next bench over, facing him. He didn’t say anything. But he didn’t leave yet, either.
“You good?” Zane asked.
Lee snorted. He didn’t remember the last time he had beengood. Maybe when he was ignorant. When all he cared about was completing the program. When his biggest worry was getting Zane off-top of Kat.
“I’m thinking of doing something—different.” Lee flexed a hand in front of him, studying the veins there, the way they tightened, even as the rest of his arms still shook, swollen.
“How different?” Zane asked, suddenly serious.
Lee only raised his eyes to meet Zane’s gaze for a second before dropping it again.
“I see.”
This time, Zane didn’t try to talk him down. He didn’t reprimand him, he didn’t demand explanation beyond a simple, “I’m assuming you’ve thought this through.”
