Page 122 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“I’ve been missing the jacket for a while,” the man explained, flushing as he took his hand back. He pointed to Hallie’s shoulder.
Hallie looked down at the name embroidered there.Private Yolen.
Oh, right. Kase had filched this one before they’d left Kyvena.
“Listen—” Hallie began, removing the jacket. She didn’t take off her satchel, which made the entire action awkward in the enclosed space in the crowd. Finally extracting her other arm from the sleeve, she held it out to him. A nice breeze skittered across the back of her neck, now exposed without the jacket. “It’s a long story, and I’m so sorry.”
The man shook his head, pushing the jacket back to her. “No, it’s fine. You probably saved my life.” He held up a hand and gave her a quick smile. “Thanks for stealing it.”
Huh?
Then he walked off, joining the rest of the crowd.
Fely gave the man a thoughtful look before turning back to her. “Jaydians are odd.”
She huffed. “Just how many different accents can you do?”
“A good amount,” Fely said with a smile. “When you grow up in the home I did, you find ways to entertain yourself.”
“I helped my parents run the inn. I’ve met dozens upon dozens of people from all parts of the planet, but I can’t seem to replicate any of them so accurately.”
“Didn’t stop you from trying,” Niels said, a small smile poking out.
Hallie raised her eyebrows. He must’ve been feeling better if he was bringing up old memories again. She remembered many a night entertaining the inn’s guests with one of their plays. Those were some of her favorite memories with her brother and Niels. They were also some of the more painful.
She gave him a tentative smile back. If they could simply return to that friendship, everything would be all right, she thought.
But the emotion on his face disappeared as quickly as it had come about.
Enough of that, then.
“Well, it’s only useful in the most ridiculous situations,” Fely said, noticing Hallie’s face and Niels' demeanor. “Good for party tricks. Estate dinners are quite a bore.”
Hallie laughed a little at that, breaking the earlier tension. It was nice. The heaviness in her soul hesitantly lifted a little with it. This side of Fely, she found she liked. In a different world, they might have even been friends.
However, after everything they’d gone through in the last hour, from the fight with Loffler and her betrothed dying to the tumultuous trip to Kyvena, the woman looked…remarkably relaxed.
When she thought about it that way, it seemed clear something was off. She just couldn’t pinpoint what, exactly. She glanced at Niels, but he hadn’t seemed to notice. He was glaring toward the rogue hover.
She folded the jacket over her arms. It was getting warm anyway. She turned back toward the hover, where the pilot had finally stood and waved to the cheering crowd.
Fely gasped. “Wait, isn’t that…of course, I cannot be certain, because I only saw him that one time with that horrid display of the General’s…but then Achilles…”
But Hallie didn’t hear a single word she said. She couldn’t. Everything in her mind went silent—all the thoughts and misgivings about Fely and the underlying dread of what would happen now that King Filip was dead. Her ears rang with silence, like an explosion had gone off right next to her head. Tingles danced down her entire body and back up again, flashes of hot and cold taking turns flaring through her skin, like she had just used her power again.
The pilot’s curly brown hair was more tousled than ever, made worse by his hand running through it as his eyes scanned the crowd. It had been a while since he’d shaved, a short beard decorating his cheeks. Her heart thumped harder.
How was he here? The timing didn’t add up.
But she didn’t care. She couldn’t care.
The last time she’d seen him, he’d disappeared into the twisting corridors beneath the Nardens, the memory of his lips on hers was all she had left. She’d said goodbye with tears streaming down her face. A part of her had believed she’d never see him again. Never. She’d accepted her fate and prayed her fears would prove to be wrong.
He’d also been uncertain of what he would face when he reached Kyvena—whether he would be executed for his many crimes or locked in a dungeon cell. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how much she’d dared to hope. The thought of him amidst the turmoil in the Gate chamber had brought her there, to this exact moment in time, to make this possible.
Kase Shackley stood in front of her, alive and well, against all odds.
And then his eyes found hers, and the impossible became real.
