Page 74 of Bonds of Starfall

Thumps sounded from the other side. She kept knocking.

The door opened with a loud curse. "What the fuck is it?" Plin stilled when he saw her on the other side of the door, dressed in her Hunter uniform with her hair in tangles and blood on her cheek. "Oh. What do you want?" He wore no shirt, and his pants were low-slung, revealing a gross strip of hair under his navel.

"We’re leaving early. The mission is done. The Rogue has been eliminated." She spoke in near-monotone, trying to ignore the pressing emptiness inside her.

Plin scrubbed a hand over his face. In the dim light, the lines on his forehead looked starker. He shot a look over his shoulder, mumbling a quiet, "Give me a minute," before stepping out in the hall. "Look, kid, I know you’re going through some shit right now, but fuck, I don’t know—I’m not a father. Just… maybe you need to relax."

She had tried that. It didn’t work.

Something in her stare must have looked so broken, even though she tried to hide it away.

Plin sighed. "We’ll leave in the morning."

She nodded, turning to leave. And go where, she wasn’t sure. She was scared to return to her hotel room. Every twinge in her hips was a memory of what she had done in there, and she wasn’t sure she could face that room again.

"Vesperin," Plin called. She turned to look at him, seeing a flash of a real man—worn down by life—instead of a pilot. "If you need anything…"

"Thank you," she said quietly. With that, Rin walked to the elevator, letting it carry her down to the city street—not sleeping, never did it sleep.

And neither did she, these days.

Cyrus’s limbstingled with numbness.

He pressed a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn. Fuck, if he’d known fleeing a planet would be so exhausting, he would have slept a bit longer.

But the incubus had had work to do before stowing away on the Fleet ship that was now rumbling to life.

The cargo hold was cramped, metal crates and luggage stuffed on either side of him. A hard-edged suitcase dug uncomfortably into his hip. He barely felt it. His body thrummed from his recent feed—more filling than anything he had had in centuries.

He still smelled Vesperin on his skin.

It would be a long journey. But worth it. His measly bag contained only the essentials. He had left the hotel room and made straight for the palace, sneaking in through the servants’ quarters and hurriedly stuffing some clothes and coin in his bag. And a few other things—he had a Soulbond to impress.

Voices murmured faintly from the cockpit above, footsteps thudding across the metal overhead. A soft, feminine voice carried to him, too low for him to make out the words, but heknewthat voice.

Engines roared to life, heat bleeding into the cargo hold until sweat prickled at his nape. He shifted, restless.

It was worth it. God damn it all, she was worth it.

Cyrus was Earth-bound.

Everything was too quiet.

The kitchen countertop of Rin’s dorm was littered with half-empty bottles of water, a notebook opened to a page with a scrawled grocery list, and a few packages of chips with little smiley faces on the brightly colored bags.

Feeling too small in the cozy clothes she had changed into after her long, scorching shower—where she had scrubbed herskin red, the space between her thighs twinging—she hugged herself, hollow andraw.

She had done it.

Rin had chased a ghost, yet the ghost still fled from her.

Her suitcase was thrown into her room. She hadn’t bothered unpacking before ripping her clothes off and jumping in the shower. She had to scrub off the memory of what she had done on Sibeth.

True to his word, Plin had piloted them back to Earth that morning. She hadn’t slept a wink. After she had fled, unable to enter her hotel room, she had found a hazy, dark bar to spend the rest of her night in, perched atop the dark wood of the counter, nursing a drink she didn’t indulge in, listening to the mumble of conversations around her. All while she had spiraled.

The flight back to Earth had been tense. As if she feared her luck would run out and the same fate that took Kit would claim her, too.

Her phone beeped softly where it rested on the countertop. She grabbed it, desperate for a distraction.