Page 27 of Bonds of Starfall

He held out a hand. "I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Keir."

Xara laughed under her breath and reached forward to take his hand. "Xara," she said, and just as their fingertips brushed, it happened.

Rin wasn’t sure the exact moment that all the breath was sucked from between the concrete walls, but somewhere between the third year trainee falling to his knees, the cup dropping out of his limp fingers, and Xara’s eyes brimming with tears, she realized they were Soulbonds.

Oh.

Keir was on his knees, motionless and shocked.

Tears fell freely from Xara’s eyes as she wept. "Oh, god. Keir."

Xara knelt before Keir, hands shaking as she cupped his cheeks. As they met eyes, Rin realized the sound of the crowd had grown hushed, watching this union forged for too many lives, most likely.

The neon lights kept pulsing, the bass of the music thumped through the room, rattling the walls like Rin’s heartbeat, and she was left on the fringes. Watching. Always watching.

"My Keir, my sweet, handsome boy," Xara cried as she cupped Keir’s cheeks. At her touch, he seemed to break free of his stupor, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and tugging her closely to his chest.

"I’ve missed you," Keir breathed.

The crowd applauded, and cheers swept through the warehouse.

Rin was speechless. A small part of her was… jealous.

Not jealous of Keir or Xara, but the fact that they had each other now, while Rin had no one.

An arm was slung over her shoulders. "Well, there goes my chances of fucking Keir again. Or Xara."

Rin tore her eyes from the reuniting, teary-eyed Soulbonds. "Yeah," she said, but her voice was toneless.

Jasver sighed. "Oh, don’t get sad. Get used to it," he said, not unkindly, as he waved a hand toward them. "That? Most of us won’t get that this time around. Just by being in the same room as them, our chances decrease drastically."

Ouch. But he wasn’t wrong.

"So… want a drink?" Jasver asked.

Rin blew out a breath, knowing her friends were going to be occupied now. She shook her head, quietly stepping away from him.

Her chest seized. When had the concrete walls she first thought were beautiful, cast in an array of neon, turned stifling? She felt trapped.

"I have to go," Rin whispered, already tearing away from the couple and Jasver, who raised a hand out toward her in question.

She walked fast, shoving past faceless bodies and finding her way to a staircase. She took one step, then another. Then another. Until she was running up the stairs in her heeled boots, heart thundering in her chest. As she knocked into people, shouts rang out after her at her rudeness. She didn’t care.

She wanted freedom. To see the Stars.

Rin didn’t stop until she broke free at the very top of the winding staircase, chest heaving as the night air kissed her flushed face.

She bent on her hands and knees, breath ragged. But at least she was free now.

The sound of the pulsing music was underneath her, echoing up the stairs and the floor of the roof she stood upon.

She fisted her hands in her shirt as she walked toward the edge of the roof. The ledge was crumbling, barely there. She could fall easily without a barrier.

She was destined to die, loved to flirt with death.

So, she did not care as she stepped closer, without hesitation, toward the edge of the roof, the tips of her boots hovering over the drop below. She stared out at the field of deadened grass and parked trucks and cars, bodies weaving in and out as they left, searching for dark corners to give in to desire.

So small from way up here.