Page 117 of Bonds of Starfall
"Get away from me," Rin gasped, scooting back against the pillows, only for a catch in her chest to make her jolt and freeze up.
Rhyden Valkar sat beside her, red eyes piercing in the dim light. A lamp was beside him. Silver rings shone on his fingers as he twirled a bloodied hairpin with expertise.
"Ves, it’s okay," Cyrus said from her other side. The incubus was half-lying against the bed, his elbows pressed near her hip, indenting the mattress. He took her hand, where it was twisted in the blanket, and brought it up to his mouth, running his nose along her pulse point and up to her palm.
Her breath caught as his lips skimmed over her sensitive flesh, and her eyes found Valkar, where he hadn’t looked away from her.
The vampiric leader of Noctis did nothing but watch her, however—he made no move to hurt or threaten her, or imprison her once more. His shoulders were rigid, yet his hands were loose as the hairpin twirled in between his long, surprisingly elegant fingers.
Blood was still crusted on Valkar’s shirt and leather jacket. Rin felt her own neck, the skin tender and bruised from his bite—where his jaw had hinged around her like she was a mere animal of prey and he the deadly predator. But she felt no blood.Her grey shirt was coated with it from where she had stabbed him as he had lain over her, but her flesh was clean.
Rin curled closer to Cyrus, exhausted and weary. Valkar could do anything to her, and she couldn’t stop him. So why wasn’t he taking advantage?
"What happened?" she croaked, keeping wary eyes on Valkar.
Cyrus kept petting her, stroking anything he could touch—her hands, wrists, shoulders, the side of her neck, her cheek. It made her melt.
"You almost died." Valkar’s cold tone cut through the quiet of the room, infused with steel. "Do you remember anything before you passed out?" His voice spoke volumes, and her head pounded as she sifted through her sluggish, dazed memories, bits and pieces slowly coming to her.
A flash of red-hot fire. Fear. Interest and horror.
And her heart, beating too fast to be contained inside her body.
Rin struggled to sit up, Cyrus helping her with gentle hands on her shoulders while Valkar watched.
Somehow, all she could think to say was:
"You’re a Fireborn."
At her words, small flames crackled at the tips of Valkar’s fingers. A menacing threat—or not. Rin recalled how the flames hadn’t burned her, how they had seemed to dance happily under her touch.
"And you’re an Aetherborn," the vampire countered darkly.
Her thoughts tripped over each other in her haste to keep up. "H-how do you know that?" But then Rin remembered. "Oh."
"Yes,oh," Valkar echoed, watching as Cyrus held her. Unreadable emotions, dark and deadly and tinged in something she didn’t want to uncover, passed over his face. His jaw was a severe line, his white hair rumpled, and scarlet eyes shining inthe dim lamplight. "It seems like I’m not your only Soulbond, wife."
She met Cyrus’s eyes. The incubus smiled, but it was forced. "I told him, Ves."
Her hands shook as realization hit—this was not her first life. What else could she not remember?
And why was Rin cursed with two immortal Soulbonds—one a prince and one who wanted to enact revenge on her?
"Everything?" she questioned.
"Most things," Cyrus said softly, rubbing his wrists absently. The skin wasn’t red anymore—he healed fast, but she would never forget the consuming fear that had hit her when she had seen him chained like that, surrounded by fire.
Rin swallowed, staring at the sheets. "You don’t want to kill us?"
"No. I never wanted to kill you. Your little incubus pet, however…" Valkar trailed off. "Until he told me he was your Soulbond. And everything else. I guess you were telling the truth when you said you didn’t remember your past life."
"I didn’t lie," Rin asserted, "and I have no idea what happened in our past life or why you think you need to get revenge on me, but I would never hurt anyone for the sake of it."
Never. Life was painful enough. She wasn’t evil or sick. Not like this monster sitting beside her.
"I’m not lying, either, wife. You say you don’t remember, and I believe you only because I saw with my own eyes the effect of the Nova in your heart." His words slammed against her. "You look different, and not once have you used your Stella on me—even when you could’ve."
"I can’t. I’m a level one." Her brow furrowed. She wasn’t, though, was she?
