"Your Star…"
Auren lowered her hands between them, and blood filled her tingling limbs, making her wince. "It is no longer a concern of mine." He let her hands go, and there were red imprints on her wrist from his touch. He stared at them for a long while, silent, and she hated that.
"It’s okay. I loved it, Auren." Her lashes fluttered. "I love you."
He kissed the marks on her wrist. "I love you, Vesperin. My Soul is yours."
Rin’s voice was achingly soft, as if she spoke too loudly, she’d splinter the wooden walls. "What did you mean—it’s no longer your concern?"
Auren kissed each of her fingertips. "I—" His breath cooled her palm. "I have a new charge on Earth."
He pulled out of her then, and she winced. He’d made a perfect space for himself inside her, and without him, she felt empty and aching.
Auren grabbed a blanket and settled beside her, enveloping her. She was pressed against the back cushions, snug and safe. She sighed, bundling the blanket to her chin and breathing it in. It smelled like him. His whole home did.
Now that she’d seen the place he called home, she realized more about him. He was dutiful and reserved, finding solace in the quiet. He was a mountain with snow settled on the highest peak, untouchable. She wanted to be the sun that warmed him from above.
He wrapped his arm around her, pressing her close. She rested her cheek on his shoulder, feeling his come slowly begin to drip out of her.
"Did you forget?" she asked, lips pressed to his bare shoulder.
Auren was silent for so long she thought he’d fallen asleep.
"No," he finally said. "I did not."
Auren would never forgetthe taste of Vesperin on his tongue, nor would he forget the sounds she made as he moved inside her tight warmth.
This was the thing he had been deprived of for centuries. Now he had it, and he was undeniably changed.
With his Soulbond in his arms, her soft little sighs and contented huffs as he kept her curled tightly into him, her small toes brushing his bare leg every so often, he wondered if he could freeze time.
Could he call back the Celestial who made him swear an oath? Could he drop to his knees and beg for something in return for the knowledge he’d been given?
It was a foolish thought, not at all like him. He was a disciplined Soul Searcher. Could he not be selfish just this once?
A bitter thought welled inside him as he rubbed his thumb over her bare shoulder.
He hoped the Celestial had watched. A shadow could not know the intimacies of the flesh, forced to always watch and wonder.
Auren had something a god did not.
"I have never felt like this before. I have been chasing this since I first took up my scythe—pleasure, pain. Together." Aurenkissed the top of Vesperin’s head. "You tasted so sweet. You felt so right. This is better than the Stars." Anger filled his eyes again as he stared up at the ceiling. "I would rather pray to your taste, the altar between your thighs, than the Celestials. If they smite me, so be it. Let them." His lips curved into a mocking half-grin. "I am unafraid."
16
ARSON
Rin was tired and scared. She had shoved down everything for so long—her failing heart and impending demise, her sadness, her parents’ deaths,Kit, everything with Sabine and Talor.
And all it took was one day to have everything come crashing down around her as she finally realized:
She was going to die, and no one could save her.
She would leave her Soulbonds, the men she was coming to trust, to know, tolove. They would be left alone to pick up the pieces. Just as she had been shattered by the belief that Kit was dead, they would face the same.
Would they stand at the graveyard where she’d be buried, drop to their knees, and cry? Would Lucien finally break his stoic mask? Would Cyrus vow never to feed again? Would Rhyden lose himself to revenge once more?
Would Auren’s devotion to the Celestials break? But it already had. She had seen the precise moment his allegiance shifted, when he had been above her, inside her, blonde hair matted with sweat as he’d made love to her in his mountain home. They had fallen asleep together on the couch, and when she was the first to wake up, nestled in his arms, she had pressedher lips to his chest before he had taken her again. It had been even sweeter, even softer, the second time. After they’d finished their cold cherry blossom tea, they both dressed solemnly, and he had portaled back to Rhyden’s penthouse with her. He had left her with a firm kiss on the lips before whispering goodbye.
