Page 21 of Bonds of Starfall

At the sound of her voice, the man’s scythe fell to the ground. Before she could blink, he was before her.

A low, masculine noise tore from the pit of his chest as he stood before her, hands reaching for her shoulders.

Dazed by his quick movements—unnaturally quick—her reaction time was delayed.

Rin jabbed her elbow into the man’s stomach, and as he doubled over, she used that brief moment of distraction to tangle her fingers in the back of his cloak. She ripped the hood away from his head, revealing messy, soft blonde hair and wide blue eyes.

She raised her gun, pressing the muzzle right into his forehead.

"Let me go now," Rin warned. The stranger’s grip on her shoulders released. He went to raise a hand, his blue eyes wideand filled with flickers of heavy emotion. She jabbed the muzzle harder against his temple. "Don’t move."

His lips parted. He obeyed.

Without his hood keeping him shrouded in shadows, she studied him.

God. He was… beautiful.

Porcelain skin, bright blue eyes like the sky on a cloudless summer day, and light blonde hair that fell over his forehead in soft, messy waves.

But what made her pause was the tiniest mark on his cheekbone, right under his left eye.

A small Star with five perfect points was inked into the skin underneath his eye.

A Soul Searcher.

The scythe, his beauty… She should have known.

"You’re a Soul Searcher," Rin breathed. "Why are you here?"

The stranger opened his mouth, and then he spoke.

Auren Neris was goingto lie to her.

He knew before he even opened his mouth that what would spill out would only be lies.

The first time he had ever lied to her. And it tasted sour on his tongue.

He had centuries—so many years that they blurred together, broken up only by the appearance of her—to hone his intelligence. That was why the immortal Soul Searcher knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Vesperin Vox did not know him in this life.

The muzzle of her gun was cold on his forehead, and her eyes did not well up with tears at the sight of him, nor did she feel theache of remembrance that brought her to her knees—the same one that nearly crippled him.

Aurenknew. He had never forgotten her. Not for a second. Cursed to watch her tremble in each life as wave after wave of memory crested over her upon their first meeting. But not this life.

This life—the first time Auren had seen her in a few hundred years—and she looked at him like he was a mere stranger. Parts of her looked strange to him, too; though, she was undeniably the woman he had loved for centuries.

But something about the utter strangeness of it all made him lie:

"I was called to this place by a Soul in waiting, tasked with returning it to the Stars." Auren swallowed as the muzzle let up, unable to blink, lest she disappear. "I did not know I would meet you." The words had more meaning than the surface level.

"This Zone is Hunter property. Soul Searcher or not, you’re trespassing and infringing on a Hunter-ordained mission." Her voice. He had missed it.

Auren found that he had forgotten its exact cadence, eroded by years, but now faced with it, he wondered how he could have ever forgotten.

The last time he had seen her…

The sky was dark, and in Auren’s arms, Vesperin lay, dying.

Always dying. This was the third time Auren had held her through death—their third life together, cut too short, brought to an end at their meeting.