Page 123 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Trying to catch her breath was pointless. Her vision blurred. She blinked furiously, the emotions swirling within her heart fighting for attention: shock, joy, anguish, love—
Love.
She brought a shaking hand to her mouth. A single choked sob escaped her fingers. A few people turned toward her, their expressions skeptical, but she didn’t care.
Kase.
Shehadrecognized the pilot’s flight patterns. Kase had taken down the enemy without any effort. He’d swept right over her head without her even knowing.
Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she didn’t try to stop them. Her chest was going to explode.
She dropped the jacket. Fely said something, but she couldn’t hear anything else, see anything else but the cocky pilot frozen on the hover wing, his hand raised mid-wave.
Another breeze rustled her wayward strands of dark auburn hair, wisps sticking to her damp cheeks. A watery smile split her face; it ached, but she couldn’t relax it. Not when Kase was looking at her like she’d hung the moons in the sky, like the universe had finally given him a gift instead of a curse.
All she could see were those blue eyes and windswept hair, the teary smile meant for her. All she could feel was her pounding heart, the tingling having moved to her extremities. For that one moment, she could pretend she didn’t carry the world on her shoulders.
Another moment of uncertainty passed, then Kase leaped down and landed with a dancer’s grace, shoving through thecrowd with his eyes anchored to her. She’d never seen him smile so broadly. He’d never had cause to. Not before.
He blurred in her vision once more, and she blinked the moisture away.
“Go.” Fely shoved her forward, and Hallie dropped her pack.
Then she was running, and he was running, the crowd parting, and Hallie leapt, crashing into his arms, forgetting the onlookers. He held her so tightly his heart pounded beneath her chest. She buried her head in his neck. He smelled of leather and woodsmoke and…home. He smelled like home.
All the terror of the last few days fell away with a single touch.
After spinning her around in circles, her feet floating weightlessly with each twirl, he set her down and pulled back to look in her face. Tears budded in his eyes, his voice husky as he breathed, “It’sreallyyou.”
All she could do was nod, because if she opened her mouth, she might start blubbering. She’d seen him not even a week ago, but she’d lived an eternity in those few days.
She hadn’t expected to survive taking on and using her power, but she had. And she’d been rewarded by finding him again. She refused to think that maybe it was a boon that would eventually lead to something worse—the calm before the storm.
Even if she only had this one moment, it was worth everything.
Another smile lit Kase’s face like the sun as his hand tightened around her waist. He let his other hand trail down her cheek and rest, cupping the back of her neck, his thumb lazily tracing her jawline. He lowered his lips to hers.
Someone cleared their throat.
Hallie sucked in a breath and pulled back, her breathing heavy and her head lighter. Words wouldn’t form—couldn’t form. He washere. Her impossible hope had come true.
And she wasn’t dreaming. This was real.
“As much as I hate to interrupt,” Niels said, finally speaking.
The back of her neck prickled with annoyance as she turned slightly in Kase’s arms.
“Yes?”
With each passing second, the sounds of the crowd came back, and the world unfroze. Fely winked at her, but then she subtly nodded in the direction of the soldiers, who were staring daggers at Kase.
Niels set down her pack, the sword sticking up and falling over from where it’d been hanging. “We have information that needs passing along.”
Kase looked at Fely quizzically, his arms still wrapped around Hallie. “And you are? You look familiar.”
“A friend,” Fely said simply. She tucked a stray piece of midnight hair behind her ear and looked away, back toward the soldiers.
Kase held out one hand, the other not letting Hallie go. “I’m Kase.”
