Page 88 of Bonds of Starfall

Cyrus winked at her as he twisted his hand, and the water flowed in a lazy stream from his fingertips until it swept underneath a crack in the desk. There was a faint popping noise, like a lock being broken, and a hidden drawer slid out.

Rin stared at the incubus. "How did you do that?"

Cyrus called his water back to him, but not before a tiny droplet curled over her cheek, leaving only the impression of wetness on her skin. He fluttered his fingers. "I’m good with my hands. Trick of the trade. Any time you want a more personal demonstration, you know where to find me, doll."

"I—stay focused," she warned, hands shaking slightly as her fingers crept inside the drawer. Inside, she found a stack of papers, but nothing else.

Rin pulled the top sheet from the stack. Cyrus took the flashlight from her so her hands could be free. She couldn’t stop trembling.

"I’m scared," she whispered, hands shaking too hard to hold the paper steady. "What if… he’s bad?"

The incubus wrapped his arm around her, not giving her any time to speak a rebuttal. She breathed him in—berries and something that might’ve been like home. "Then he’s bad," said Cyrus, "and you’ll never have to see him again if you don’t want to."

"You make it sound so easy."

He hummed, the sound rippling through her. "It is. If he’s ever hurt you, I won’t let him near you." What went unspoken was what would happen if Lucienhadn’thurt her.

Rin wanted to ask how this incubus could be so uncaring that her heart was clearly wrapped up in another, but she held her tongue and stared down at the papers.

Subject 371, Subject 372, Subject 373… She traced over the words, a pit in her gut. A column at the side read even more numbers that she didn’t quite understand. Blood pressure readings, heart rate fluctuations, and was that…

Rin narrowed her eyes and brought the paper closer to her face. "They’re all Aetherborn," she said brokenly. "Each one of them." She pointed at the word in bold at the top:STELLA. And underneath for each subject,AETHERBORN. Rin flipped over the sheet, finding nothing on the back. "I n-need another."

She searched in the drawer, blindly grasping for the next sheet of paper in the stack. It was the same, a list of subjects, but most on this page had a line crossed through them.

"Dead?" Cyrus whispered.

"I guess," Rin replied. "So Lucien has been… experimenting"—it hurt to say the words—"on Aetherborns?"

It was Cyrus who went for the next paper, eyes scanning over it. "This one is different." He shone the light on it. "It looks like—fuck," he seethed.

"What? What is it?"

"Proof of ownership." Cyrus threw the stack down on his lap. "It looks like the Aetherborns were purchased illegally from Lunar City. Look at this stamp, here." She looked where he was pointing, in the top right corner, where a small image of a moon slashed through with a jagged line was pressed into the pages with blood-red ink.

"A trafficking ring?" Rin questioned, heartbroken.

"It looks like it. I’ve never been to Lunar City. The criminals there would kill a prince in a heartbeat for the bragging rights. Not exactly safe…"

The proof was right before her eyes, so why did a part of her still want to believe the best of her doctor?

"No, no." Rin shook her head, leaning up to grab more papers. "There has to be something in here. I can’t believe it. Not Lucien. Not him. He wouldn’tdo this to me," she sobbed quietly.

A tiny piece of paper fluttered to the floor as she lifted the stack. She grabbed it, hoping, wishing, it would prove his innocence.

Scrawled in Lucien’s familiar handwriting:

Every day, remember who you are lying for.

"This is proof, right?" Rin held the note in the dull beam from the flashlight. A pale pink note, the sticky edges dulled from time.

Cyrus gave a strange smile.

She hated it.

Rin flipped through the stack and tucked between more papers—documentation of illegally purchased Aetherborns and sheets of damning evidence—another note fell.

For the memory of your diamond tears…