8. Callum
CALLUM
I felt it the stars-damned minute my hand had collided with her bronzed skin as I stopped her from tumbling to the floor in a heap of fury.
They say that all it takes is one touch with your starbound, one graze of skin, for the mark to appear.
I didn’t need to look down to know what had happened—the familiar prickle of pain as a mark was inked on my skin was all the confirmation I needed.
She was mine.
Mine to protect.
Mine to cherish.
Mine to claim.
And yet . . . I didn’t know if I could.
It had only taken the briefest glance across her exposed forearm to know the mark hadn’t appeared for her .
. . at least, not yet. And I suspected that it had everything to do with the darkness that had spread over Solis Quarter—with the fact that they had turned from Aeternus.
Because why would one be able to see their starbound mark—a gift from the Eternal himself—if one didn’t even believe in Aeternus to begin with.
Not that any of that knowledge stopped my mind from wondering what this meant for my future. Why had I marked with someone who didn’t even believe in the Eternal? How was that even possible? It shouldn’t be. And yet—
I shook my head, because I didn’t have time to worry about a stars-damned starbound mark appearing.
I didn’t have time to figure out what that meant or how it was even possible.
And I most certainly didn’t have time to focus on developing a relationship—much less a bond—with a female who lived in an entirely different Quarter than I did.
I had a mission to focus on. A Quarter to scout out.
I most definitely didn’t have time for a starbound.
“So . . .” The steady drawl sounded from my side, and I turned toward Axel, finding his gaze focused on the new ink on my inner wrist. On the three interconnected triangles with two lines through them, representing past, present, and future, now all entwined with the stars.
“We going to talk about what just happened back there or . . .” He trailed off as I shot him a withering look before I began stalking away.
“All right then. Silence it is,” his voice grated as I walked in the opposite direction of the female whose eyes glimmered like starlight in a forgotten oasis.
I didn’t even ask her for her stars-damned name.
It would have been so simple to ask. Raelyna, the name had rolled through my mind on repeat since I’d seen it in the High Temple.
Not that I could clue her in that I knew her name, since she believed me to be a Solis Guard.
Yet another problem I didn’t wish to deal with.
“How long will it take to look into the male who snuck into the marking room? The one we suspect to be associated with the Remnant?” I inquired as we rounded a corner, slipping out into the sand-coated streets.
“Not long,” Axel retorted as he walked up to his bike, tugging his dunewrap up higher on his face.
“What’s not long?” My frustration rose as I tugged on my leather gloves, securing the straps.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize we were doing the whole answer each other’s questions thing,” Pierce bit out as he swung a leg over his bike, and I rolled my eyes.
“Not really sure what you’re wanting from me,” I bit back.
“She’s just—” I couldn’t even say no one .
. . not anymore. “I can’t afford distractions on this mission, not with Elion relying on us.
And that’s all she’d be right now—a distraction.
” Even as I said the words, I felt an unexplainable pull inside me, demanding I find her.
A pull I shut down because I didn’t have time for distractions.
“If you say so,” he responded with a disbelieving look as he flipped his visor down and kick-started his bike.
My own engine roared to life beneath me, and I snapped my visor down, blocking out the granules of sand insistent on pelting through the air during the summer months, and peeled out of the parking lot.
Heading far away from the Solis Court.
Heading away from her.
Even as every fiber of my being now protested the very action.