Page 142 of Once the Skies Fade

Had they found the cure?

Someone must have.

But all I saw around me was a white expanse that both delighted and terrified me at the same time. I tried to open my eyes, but no matter how many times I blinked, I was still here. Alone.

Yet…not.

There, pulsing through my confused elation, was something else.

Panic, but not mine.

I closed my eyes again, and Matthias’s face flashed into focus.

That smirk. That mischievous spark in his eye.

Neither were present now.

He stared at me so intensely, like he was seeing me—really seeing me—for the first time.

My chest caved inward one final time, as if saying goodbye to the hollowness I’d nurtured these past months. No, my whole life.

Gasping for another breath, my heart burst from where it had lain shattered and broken, not simply healed, but new. I had loved Brennan—of course I had, but only as much as a flawed heart could.

This…this was something different, something incredible, something impossible.

Like having every dream fulfilled, every wish granted, every hope realized.

My heart pounded furiously against my sternum, filling my ears, as if it were trying to reach him.

I needed to find him.

I needed to wake up.

I needed to get back to him.

Back to…my mate.

Chapter 62

Matthias

My world imploded the moment my lips touched hers.

Everything I’d ever known, ever desired to know, and ever yearned to forget vanished—all replaced by one single thought: Calla.

I’d thought myself whole, but I’d been a fucking fool. I’d been happy, content, but I’d been blind to the cracks and crevices and hollow spaces of my soul until she filled them all—like parts of me I’d never known were missing had finally been restored to where the stars had always intended them to be. I had spent my whole life loyal to my friend and his kingdom with the sole purpose of serving them, and while that duty remained, she dwarfed them all.

I couldn’t let her go even if I’d wanted to, and I never wanted to.

How in the stars had Connor run away from Lieke in that moment? How had he released her, let alone abandoned her?

I clung to Calla with desperate hands, my lips silently begging her to respond, to return my kiss, to wake up. Softly, I parted her lips, sweeping my tongue against hers, mentally screaming at the stars for there to be some of the antidote left there to save her—my mate.

Reluctantly I pulled back as far as I dared, nuzzling my nose against hers as I opened my eyes. But no deep brown stared back at me. She was as motionless before.

Had she felt the bond? Had she sensed even a sliver of what I had in that kiss?

Her face gave no indication she had.

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