Page 160 of Bonds of Starfall

She’d never seen this kind of single-minded focus from him before.

He was a stranger with a familiar face.

"You should not be here," Kit said, and his voice was so hard.

Rin flinched, feeling it cut her deep to the bone. "What do you mean? Why are you here, Kit? What happened to you? I thought you were dead. We had afuneral—" Jumbled-up words spewed from her trembling lips, stilled only when he loomed closer. So close, she breathed him in, finding his once-airy scent undercut with a tang of metal, and something else. Like—like grease?

"I do not know what you are talking about."

Rin stared at his throat as he spoke, watching the line of it bob beneath the tight neckline of his black bodysuit, which cuffed up to his Adam’s apple.

Kit reached for something by her side. His forearm brushed her cheek. Hard. Unforgiving. The warmth she remembered wasn’t there—only steel beneath the skin. Her stomach twisted.

His skin was paler than she remembered, too, like he hadn’t been in the light.

"Where have you been?" she cried.

He pulled away slightly, dark tangles in his gloved hands. "Stop talking."

Rin lowered her voice. "Are you in trouble? Is that what this is? Iknow," she stressed, "about your parents. Have they done this to you? Have they hurt you?"

Something in her words made his cold, dead eyes spark with unfathomable violence. In a flash, Kit reached out, dropping the tangles of wires on the floor as he gripped her neck, squeezing. She wheezed, fingers curling on the armrests, unable to move with the cuffs.

Her lips parted, dragging in any air she could. He squeezed tighter. Darkness speckled her vision the longer he choked her. She wheezed a moan, and he slammed her harder against the chair. She felt the metal of the chair dig into her skull and spine.

Kit got right in her face, brows drawn low, pale skin gleaming under the white light burning down on them both. The strength in his arms was indescribable.

"Please," she mouthed, unable to speak.

Kit’s eyes narrowed, and he released her—just enough for her to suck in precious air. He cupped her neck, fingers flexing in warning as he said without inflection, "Nothing was done to me. I was nowhere…" He tilted his head, released her, then stepped back.

As Kit stared down at her, she let her eyes slip shut as she drank in air, wishing that when she opened them back up, she would find herself curled up with Lucien.

Even Rhyden’s revenge would be better than here.

When her lungs were full enough for her to speak, she rasped, "I grieved you. We all did. I thought—" She bit her tongue so hard blood filled her mouth—she kept her thoughts to herself, afraid he’d snap again.

But the words were just there, lingering:

I thought your parents killed you.

Kit bent to pick up the wires. He untangled them, holding up an electrode. When he faced her again, his tone was cool. "You should not have grieved me, Vesperin. I am ungrievable." He reached forward with a free hand, sweeping her tangled, messy white hair that had fallen from her bun away from her face. "I am your nightmare."

The words sent a shiver down her aching spine, but his tone was utterly cold. Robotic.

It made her want to hit him and rage—anything for a reaction.

Rin’s neck strained as she jerked forward, restrained by her cuffs. "No, you’re not. You areKit. Kiton Blackfall. My best friend, my—my brother. My protector."

His hand shifted, ghosting over the side of her face until his pointer finger pressed right between her brows, forcing her back against the chair. Rin jolted, forehead throbbing from that singular touch.

"Kit, you’re too strong…"

He pulled away from her, then began to attach the electrodes to her temples methodically. When his hands gripped the neckline of her stolen shirt, he didn’t even look at her as he tore it roughly down the middle, exposing her bare chest to the cold air. Her breasts were revealed to him entirely.

"What are y-you doing?" Rin stuttered.

Kit didn’t answer as he placed the electrodes on her chest. His knuckles brushed her nipples, and she jolted as if he’dshocked her. He moved lower, to the waistband of her cargo pants.