Beneath The Same Stars – Sylvie Mercer (1)

It was magnetic. It was terrifying. Lucas knew how this story usually ended—for him, at least. You open up. You lean in. And then they leave. And you’re left bleeding where no one can see. So he kept his distance. Joking when things got too heavy. Looking away when the silence between them thickened into something almost physical. And yet… Every time Aiden reached for a map or a wrench, his fingers brushed Lucas’s like it was accidental—but never quite fast enough to be an accident.

Every time Lucas caught his gaze, Aiden held it a fraction longer than he should have before looking away. Mixed signals. Like the two of them were trapped in the gravitational pull of a star neither could escape, spiraling closer, slower, almost helpless. One night, after a long evening of fine-tuning the outdoor scopes, they stood side by side on the observatory deck, looking out at the endless sweep of stars. Lucas shivered slightly—the mountain air had dropped sharply after sunset—but he kept his hands jammed into his jacket pockets, unwilling to break the moment.

Aiden stood stiffly, arms crossed, face tilted up toward the sky. His profile was sharp in the moonlight— beautiful in a way Lucas wanted, fiercely and suddenly. “You cold?” Aiden asked gruffly, not looking over. “I’m fine,” Lucas lied. Aiden didn’t press, but he shifted imperceptibly closer, enough that their shoulders nearly brushed when Lucas moved to take a sip of his coffee. The contact—or almost-contact—was electric.

Lucas could feel the heat of him, the solidity. He could feel himself wanting to lean, to tip into that gravity and close the distance. But he didn’t. Couldn’t. Because even as the air crackled between them, he could sense the walls Aiden had built—high and thick and lined with barbed wire. Walls Lucas knew too well, because he’d built the same ones around himself.

This story grew from a simple idea: that sometimes, the most beautiful constellations are the ones we make ourselves, out of second chances and quiet bravery. When I sat down to write Lucas and Aiden’s story, I wanted to create something soft and fierce at the same time—a love story that doesn’t shout to be heard, but instead hums in the spaces between words. A story for anyone who’s ever been afraid to stay, to trust, to love—and who dared to do it anyway.

At its heart, Beneath the Same Stars is about finding home not in a place, but in a person. It’s about reaching across the distance and deciding that some risks are worth taking, no matter how scared you are. I hope Lucas and Aiden’s journey leaves you feeling a little more hopeful, a little more brave—and maybe a little more in love with the idea that it’s never too late to choose yourself, and someone else, too.

Thank you for trusting me with your time, your heart, and your imagination. It means more than you know. With love under the stars, Sylvie Mercer Chapters Chapter 1 – Under Strange Skies Chapter 2 – Drawing Constellations Chapter 3 – The Pull of Gravity Chapter 4 – Beneath the Same Stars Chapter 1 Under Strange Skies Escape Velocity Lucas could still feel the city in his bones—the restless hum of car horns, the neon burn of late nights, the heavy weight of being watched, judged, doubted.

Even now, three hours and a world away from his old life, his fingers twitched against the steering wheel like he was bracing for impact. The mountain road to Silver Hollow twisted sharply, climbing higher than Lucas was comfortable with. His rental car, too small and too new, coughed at the turns, but he kept driving, jaw tight, windows cracked just enough to let in the crisp, pine-scented air. The town wasn’t even on most maps. That was the point. He needed a place no one would look for him.

A place where no one knew his name, or cared about the scandal he’d left smoldering behind him—a reputation shattered by a careless advisor, a ruined project, and a media circus that had needed a scapegoat. Lucas had been good at hiding before. He figured he could be good at it again.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 26e6a7e975bbbf0d
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 459,503 bytes (0.438 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 114
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 75.8 minutes
• Total Words: 15,159
• Total Characters: 90,059
• Average Words per Page: 132.97
• Average Characters per Page: 789.99

Most Frequent Words

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