Page 105 of Bonds of Starfall

"Good. Keep quiet, and he’ll live," the human hissed low.

The authorities helped Rhyden up, his shoulders straining from the cuffs locking his arms behind him.

Rhyden stared at her. "What? Vesperin? What is this?"

"She apprehended a criminal, of course. Who knew the acclaimed Rhyden Valkar was dealing in illegal blood trades?" The human man tsked, and Vesperin’s eyes grew wide, and she bucked against him.

"No, you never said—" Vesperin cried.

The man’s fingers tightened on her, and she whimpered. "Shut up."

A masked vampire stepped forward, a gleaming silver sword on his hip. He was covered head to toe. "We’ll take him to the jails for the night, but the illegal sale of blood is a criminal offense. He won’t be coming back to hurt you."

"I’m so thankful that my daughter found out this monster’s plans. I can’t imagine someone wanting to trick a human into marriage just to sell their blood to the highest bidder." The human man shuddered, but it was slimy and vile. Fake.

This wasn’t happening. Not to him. It was all a dream.

Vesperin’s sobs grew louder as the authorities began to take Rhyden away.

He couldn’t speak. Words had been stolen from him.

He could only watch as his Soulbond, his wife, stood by and let him be taken away, the two humans at her back, holding her with force as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Forgive me," she cried.

It was all a blur. A blur of shock, one of which Rhyden didn’t quite awaken from for some time.

The first night in a cell of silver. His damning hearing—no justice to be found as the evidence had been clearly laid out.

Planted documents of Rhyden’s so-called plans to marry Vesperin, then sell her blood. A con, they all called it.

Never knowing that she had been the biggest con and liar of them all.

She never even showed up to his hearing, not even as his sentence was read:

Five hundred years in Dark Star Hold, the galaxy’s most revered prison ship.

So, for five hundred years, Rhyden sat and waited. He made friends with all the wrong criminals, took every beating, fought his way to the top of the food chain, renounced everything.No jewels, no money. It was all meaningless. Possessions were what got him into the trouble he was in—his money had painted a target on his back for those con artists.

And in those five hundred years, he knew his mortal bride and Soulbond had died, so had her father. Her death shouldn’t sting so much; though, it did. When his sentence was served, he still searched for her. But the girl named Vesperin Vox—Vesperin Valkar—was a ghost, if that had even been her real name.

Rin woketo a cold room and a pounding head.

She moaned lowly, blinking blearily to clear the fuzziness from her vision. It didn’t seem to be working. She tried again. And again. Reached up to rub a hand over her eyes, except?—

She couldn’t move her hand.

"What?" Rin mumbled, yanking on her arm, only to find resistance and a soft clanging noise.

Thatwoke her up.

Wide-eyed, Rin twisted, finding a pillow under her, cotton rubbing against her cheek as she craned her head up. Her arms were tied above her, dark silk looped around her wrists, tethered to a wrought iron frame of a headboard.

Suddenly, it all came crashing back to her.

The motel, Cyrus’s hands on her, the shattered window, and…

Rhyden Valkar.