Page 132 of Bonds of Starfall

It tickled the back of his mind with a memory. So long ago, it felt like another life for him—even if he hadn’t been the one who’d died.

She had always eaten like that after he’d tired her in the sheets.

Vesperin pushed her empty plate away, tiny red circles of a blush on her cheeks, but her voice was confident as she spoke. "I’ve eaten, I’ve called you by your name, now I want answers. Why did you let me out of mycage?" she stressed.

He gritted his teeth. Fuck, she tested his last nerve.

She was so different than the meek girl of his memories, swathed in a striking contrast of innocence and sensuality. The girl sitting before him held none of that. She was cold and quiet, calculating but in a strangely endearing way. Like she expected him to ignore how her grey eyes darted around, picking up on the fact she had a dull spoon in front of her, while he had a knife and fork.

Challenge sparked in her eyes the longer he stayed quiet.

"My bed isn’t a cage. If you want to see a real cage, I can show you, wife," he taunted. Something unreadable flickered over her face. He sighed—he couldn’t put it off any longer, no matter how hard he’d fucking tried.

That was what he and Daryk had been talking about before she snooped.

"One week from now, there’s going to be an exchange…" Rhyden told her what Miro had shared with him—everything except the location.

"Where?" she finally asked, wariness in the set of her shoulders.

Rhyden blew out a breath. "Solar City."

15

COLLISION

Rin was called to the dining room the next night.

Night? Or day? In this windowless place, time held no meaning, but regardless, it marched on outside these walls.

Unable to hear his voice, she dodged Lucien’s calls, sticking to texts. Valkar always monitored them, but Rin didn’t think she’d ask for Lucien’s help—not quite yet.

Rin had to get back to Solar City for the drop. She might’ve searched for a way out if she knew the exact location, but Valkar was smart—he hadn’t told her where, only that it was in Solar City.

So, the next night, when the door opened, she rolled back her shoulders and stalked down the hall.

Another night of stilted words and the scrape of a dull spoon on the plate as she ate her food. Valkar rarely spoke, but when he did, each word was a growl—like it took monumental effort not to sink his fangs into her neck.

The bruises were a blotch of darkness on her pale skin.

There in the fogged-up mirror in the bathroom. There, when she sat across from Valkar and his eyes dipped, watching as she swallowed her food. And there, when she woke up froma restless, lonely sleep, fingers tangling in the sheets as she dreamed of her gun, then marched down the concrete halls to that underground space, always empty. But Rin had a feeling that was only because of her.

There, she met Cyrus, who wrapped her in his arms and looked her over, ensuring she wasn’t harmed. She never was, strangely enough.

Electrodes on her temples and cuffs on her wrists, the price to uncover Lucien’s truth.

The next time, Nessen switched the mode of testing, but still, his words were the same:

No Stella.

She had known she was an anomaly, had spent the last five years before doctors and scientists…

When four nights had passed—she only knew because of the date changes, ticking by on her phone screen—the door opened again, and Rin padded down the carpeted hall, right to the double doors of the dining room.

Valkar was inside, waiting. As always.

She wasn’t as frightened of the vampire anymore, after being in close quarters, alone, with him now. He’d had many opportunities to hurt her. And hehad, when he’d taken her blood against her will, but even then, his fingers hadn’t been too rough. He could have torn out her neck, but he hadn’t.

"Wife," said Valkar.