Page 4 of Bonds of Starfall

He sighed, soft brown eyes flashing with intense emotion for the briefest of seconds before he controlled himself. "That’s different, Rin. And you know it. I don’t need anyone to take care of me." He stepped forward. "Not like you."

Hurt bubbled up in her chest. "Really?Really?" Her fingers curled against his stomach as she pushed him back. But he didn’t budge—another reason to solidify his claim. "What? You think I’m weak because I’m a girl?"

She raised a hand, but Kit grabbed her wrist before she could move—she didn’t even know what she was attempting to do. Hit him? Like she would… like shecould. He was right, after all. Compared to him, she was weak.

The leather of his gloves scratched against her skin as his fingers completely enclosed her wrist. He raised her hand to his face, thick lashes fluttering as he stared at the way her pulse thundered against the thin skin of her inner wrist. His thumb absently rubbed over her skin, tracing the blue veins running on the inside of her forearm. They couldn’t see the Nova flowing inside her, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, pumping through her body with every beat of her poisoned heart.

"Thisis why," Kit said, touching the inside of her wrist with reverence. "You’re too delicate for the Hunter’s Guild. Your heart…" His throat worked with restrained emotion. "You shouldn’t put unnecessary strain on yourself."

At his words, Rin became acutely aware of the way her heart fluttered in her chest. Her breath stuttered at his touch, as innocent as it was. "You think it’s unnecessary to help people?"

It hurt. God, did it ever.

Rin loved him.Dearly. Kit was her rock, her best friend. Her adoptive brother. The only good thing she had ever had in thislife, after the murder of her parents when she was seventeen. She wanted his validation—craved it. But either way, she would do this. It would just hurt more not to have his support.

But she could manage. She always did.

"No, of course not," Kit said, "but you have to admit, your situation is different." With a gloved hand, he reached forward, tucking a strand of her white hair behind her ear. He sighed, the heavy sound filling the kitchen. "I just want to keep you safe, Rin. You know that." His voice turned playful. "Ever since we were little kids and you sprained your ankle on the swings in your yard, trying to trick me into thinking you could fly. I’ll always be the one you can run to when you need someone to carry you to safety."

She gave a melancholic smile. She had blocked out most of her memories prior to the accident five years ago—that’s what trauma did, she guessed. Everything was a blur, and with Kit being three years older, his memories were better. He would always tell her the strangest of stories, leaving her confused that she used to be so carefree—fun, even.

That girl had died when she was seventeen. When Rogues attacked her neighborhood, killing her parents in the night. Rin would have died, too, but her Stella awakened—Aether, the rarest of types—and blasted outward to protect her, the Pulse immediately killing the remaining Rogues in the area. But the Nova released from the dying Rogues had done something strange and irreversible. It had poisoned her heart, somehow. She didn’t fully understand it. Neither did the doctors.

Now, every beat of her heart was the tick of a clock, running out. And she wanted to make the most of the time she had left.

"I’m twenty-two, Kit. I’m not that little girl anymore." Rin stepped under his arm, trying to ignore the pang of hurt at leaving him.

He didn’t turn, and she studied his profile, taking in the strong line of his nose, the smattering of freckles across his cheeks. His light brown eyes were like pools of burnished sunlight as his head tilted, catching the evening light that filtered in through the open blinds.

Kit weighed the envelope in his gloved hands. "Trust me, I know." He sounded bitter.

She didn’t know what to say to that…

The timer on the oven beeped, breaking them from their battle of wills.

"The lasagna is ready," Rin announced, walking to the oven to open it. The aroma of spices and meat filled the kitchen on a waft of smoke as the oven door creaked open. "I would have made more if I knew you were going to be in town."

She grabbed an oven mitt and pulled the pan from inside. It was golden brown and bubbling in the middle, but the edges were blackened slightly. She huffed. She was never a good cook—that had always been Kit.

A hand settled on her waist, and she nearly slammed the hot dish down as she felt Kit come up behind her. She watched as he reached above her, opening a cabinet and grabbing a stack of plates. His arm brushed her cheek.

Just as he turned to place the gilded plates on the dining table, a loud beeping sound rang out from the living room.

"Emergency evacuation protocol. This is not a drill. If you live near Verus Valley, evacuate immediately. Emergency evacuation protocol…"

The words of the newscaster drifted to Rin and Kit, and they met each other’s eyes, immediately abandoning their dinner and going to stand in the living room before the television. The lamp on the side table was on the lowest setting, the warm yellow light making the ambiance dark and private.

Kit grabbed the remote and turned the volume up. On the television, a woman in a business suit stood outside the gates of one of the Nova Zones, a microphone held before her face as she spoke.

"A Rogue outbreak has the area in a panic. From where I’m standing, just outside of Nova Zone 6, Hunters say a Rogue broke through the barrier this morning. It has breached the Verus Valley community." The camera panned to the dilapidated remains of the Nova Zone—Zone 6, Rin knew from her studies, which was filled with lowlevel Rogues, easy enough to take down alone, but when there was more than one, they were bitches to kill.

In Rin’s back pocket, her phone beeped. She knew what it was going to say before she even looked.

A text message popped across the screen from Kit’s mother, Sabine; though, she was also Rin’s adoptive mother:Won’t be coming home today. Eat without us. Be safe.

Her message was short and to the point, just like the woman herself. Rin showed the text to Kit, who merely sighed.

"Guess there’s enough lasagna, after all." Kit ruffled her hair as he walked past her, back toward the kitchen. "Coming?" he asked.