Chapter 9 #5
Frozen in time, a young girl with soft brown hair, falling around her slim shoulders in the slightest of waves.
Soulful brown eyes—ones that he would know in every lifetime.
She looked to be in her early teens in the photo.
Surrounded by a man and a woman, both with dim smiles.
Her parents? And on her other side, a boy, a couple of years older than her, Cyrus guessed.
His body was turned toward hers, brown eyes dull, freckles scattered over the bridge of his nose.
"That’s you," Cyrus said softly.
She nodded, turning to place the photo back on the dresser, face down. She didn’t even spare it a glance.
"I wasn’t born… like this." She waved a hand toward her face and body, as if she wasn’t the most gorgeous thing ever.
"What happened? Why did you change?"
Vesperin hugged herself, arms wrapping around her small waist. "There was an accident. Five years ago. There was a Nova explosion in my neighborhood, and Rogues attacked. I was the only survivor. Just barely. The scientists and doctors still aren’t sure what happened, but the Nova infected my heart.
Combined with my Stella, they think it was an anomaly, giving me a…
cushion against the Nova. And a bit more time to live," she said bitterly.
Cyrus studied her. "Aether." He had a point to prove.
At the word, Vesperin seemed to deflate further, sagging against the dresser.
"It’s true, then? We really are Soulbonds.
How could you know my Stella, otherwise?
" She ran her hands through her hair, fingers curling in the strands and tugging slightly as if she wanted to wake herself up from some nightmare.
"God." She shoved past him, cherry scent teasing him, as she sat heavily on her bed.
"We’re Soulbonds, Vesperin Vox." Cyrus tasted her name as it rolled off his tongue. Another piece of evidence. "And I’ve been waiting for you for three hundred years, and when I saw you under those flashing multi-hued lights, it was like time stopped, and the world is spinning all out of order, and won’t go back to normal unless you’re in my arms." He wanted to fall to his knees before her again, but he was on thin ice with her.
No, she was the one on thin ice, feet slipping as she fought to gain traction, one quaking step away from shattering and drowning.
He felt her unease, tasted the flavor of it as it burst across his tongue.
"Three hundred years," she echoed, blinking up at him. He watched her pulse thunder at the delicate skin under her jaw. "L-look, I don’t know why, but from the moment I saw you in Forget You Not, I felt like I knew you. A part of me feels like you’re telling the truth. Even if the accident is why I don’t remember, and we truly are Soulbonds, that doesn’t change anything for me, Cy.
" Vesperin stood, and as Cyrus stared at her, he saw hundreds of memories; a different girl in a different time, but still the same Soul.
"I’m not someone you want to be tied to. "
Cyrus dared to take her hands. "You’re the only person I want to be tied to."
To love.
Her hands were clammy in his own, pulse fast as he stroked over her wrist. The air sparkled with glimmers of red as he sipped at her emotions, but they were changing too fast for him to keep track. Fear, elation, grief, sadness, desperation… want.
"Don’t you get it?" Vesperin jerked her hands away, slapping her chest. "There is Nova inside of me, and I could die before I hit thirty. Not to mention, you’re immortal. You won’t die, but I will. Soon. Do you still want me now?" she spat.
Understanding washed over him like frozen water. "Nova… There’s Nova inside you," he repeated. She had told him, but he had been too swept up in making her understand to put the pieces together. "You’ll die?"
She nodded.
"Then I’ll follow." It was Cyrus’s only option.
"You’d kill yourself for me?" she asked bluntly.
"I should have done it the first time, but then, I might’ve missed out on this.
" Though the words were heartbreakingly vulnerable, he said them with ease to her. "If you don’t remember your past life because of the Nova inside of you, there’s got to be someone who’ll know how to fix it.
" Desperate, he reclaimed her hands, squeezing them.
"This had to have happened before, right? "
Rin’s heart was beating so fast, her whole body thrummed like electricity ran through her veins. The organ cracked against her ribcage with such ferocity, she felt like it might erupt from her chest, a bloody, red mass lying still-beating on the carpet of her dorm apartment.
Fuck, it certainly felt like it.
The truth in the incubus’s words wrapped around her chest like a vise, squeezing her. They were Soulbonds. And somehow, Rin didn’t remember.
Cy’s purple eyes were aglow with desperation. She hated to squash his hopes.
"No, never." Rin’s throat was tight.
But… it had happened once, hadn’t it? To her.
Her eyes drifted to the clock on her small table, nestled between the bed and the wall. Not even an hour had passed since she first let Cy in. Her whole world had shifted, and she was without gravity.
She was wishing for someone to tether her feet back to the floor.
Lucien would know what to do.
Could Rin risk roping him in on this?
A plea lingered on her tongue, but for whom, she would never know.
A long, ominous beep sounded from the pocket of her shorts. She tugged her phone out, wary of what the news alert would say. All devices were programmed to have the same blaring tone for an important news alert, usually Rogue sightings or Nova evacuation notices.
She unlocked her phone and read the notice posted across her screen, written in bold letters above a picture.
PRINCE CYRUS SOLTREN OF SIBETH. MISSING.
The photo was more damning than the words staring back up at her.
Purple eyes, framed by dark lashes, half-lidded with sensuous boredom. Full, thick lips that she knew tasted of ripe berries. Red hair, deep like rich, crushed velvet. Maroon and scarlet, everything sinful and lustful.
And perched upon those unruly waves, a golden crown, tipped to the side.
Rin’s eyes widened, staring up from her phone to find the male in question standing before her—in her bedroom. On Earth. A stowaway. A runaway.
The male who was proclaiming to be her Soulbond.
Her heart stuttered dangerously in her chest, and she listed to the side as the air grew shimmery, black overtaking her vision.