Page 213 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Kase.” Hallie clenched the ring so hard, it indented her palm. She looked back up at him, the words so thick she could barely spit them out. “It’s not…I just…I’m sorry.”
Kase smiled a small smile, a sad smile, one that nearly broke Hallie’s resolve right then and there. He gave her a soft kiss atop her head before pausing at the entrance to her cell, one hand drawing the curtain aside. “I’ll wait until the stars fall so long as I get to be with you in the end.”
Chapter 41
BROKEN PEOPLE
Kase
HOT AND COLD. SWEAT AND shivers.
Kase didn’t know what to feel. His body didn’t know what to do. He raced away from the hospital ward like a coward, the empty space where Ana’s ring once sat mocking him. At least he made it away from the ward before he lost control of his emotions.
He didn’t know what had come over him. After fighting with Harlan and then with Hallie, it’d just hit him, and he hadn’t been able to wait a second longer.
He’d known for a while he wanted to marry her, start a family with her, live the rest of their days in the shadow of the mountains—but he’d also known that was his delusional side talking. From the moment she’d brought down Achilles with whatever power she’d taken, he’d known it was impossible. He’d been in denial ever since.
He shouldn’t have asked. What in the blazes had he been thinking?
And what wasshethinking, with all that nonsense about only marrying her because the world was ending?
Kase hadn’t asked because of the tragedy they were all barreling toward. He would have asked even if Saldr had announced he’d found a new prophecy that stated Jagamot was going to take his sweet time, and they’d all be Burned long before the world met its end. All he knew was they were running out of time, and if everything was spiraling toward destruction, then why not have a little joy as they welcomed the end? Wasn’t love enough? It always was in the stories.
Reality really was a two-blistered wench.
Some of the books Ana had loved to read were those sprawling romances with soulmates bound together by the universe, brought together against all odds in a bond that transcended time and space. It was a comforting notion, if unrealistic. Kase and Hallie weren’t like that; they had been thrown together by fickle chance. Their decisions alone had led them to each other, not some otherworldly bond or something out of their grasp.
If he’d not taken the fall for the greenie that rainy night in late September or if he’d turned his brother down when asked to pilot theEudoramission, he might never have met her. If she hadn’t taken her family’s savings and attended University, she wouldn’t have become a scholar. If she hadn’t needed the money, she would’ve told Jove no when asked to go on a mission from which she might never return. Maybe it had been something or someone guiding them unwittingly to each other, but Kase didn’t think so. All his life he’d been told what to do, what to think, how to feel. He knew what having no choice felt like. Even his slight deviation into the Crews had only been possible with his father’s begrudging blessing.
But it wasn’t like that anymore. KasechoseHallie. He would always choose her, whether it was just for a day or, by some miracle, the next fifty years.
He rubbed the spot where he’d worn Ana’s ring. His sister would’ve been proud. Zeke, too. Maybe that was what they’d been trying to teach him all along, and he just hadn’t wanted to listen.
What he’d said to her was true. He’d wait forever for her if he had to.
His breathing finally eased. He nodded to Saldr as he passed him in the corridor. Hopefully the perceptive Yalv couldn’t see the desperation or despair or whatever it was Kase knew had to be showing in his eyes. The man nodded back, then greeted Sergeant, who followed close behind.
With it being the second day of reintegrating groups of people into the city for cleanup and normalcy, the corridors were less crowded than usual. The shouts and footsteps still echoed too loudly to concentrate on anything in particular, but it was nice to move at a steady pace without having to shoulder past people. Kase didn’t know where his destination was. He just needed to think.
Before he knew it, he stood in front of the hangar.
Of course, even with the events of the day, he would end up here. He just hated that his safe space would now include the memory of Hallie’s lifeless body replaying in his mind over and over again. He shouldn’t trust the hover. Despite what she said, he wasn’t sure the Soul Tech hadn’t interfered with her power.
He wouldn’t fly it again. Just being in the hangar might be enough to process everything. Then he could go back to the ward and check on Ben and…well, should he go see Hallie again? Would she want to talk with him again? Would it be too awkward?
He’d figure it out once he got there.
His first clue should have been the lack of guards, but alas, he wasn’t entirely in his right mind as he tugged open the doors and stepped inside.
Sergeant tried to say something, but whatever he’d been about to say was drowned in the loud alarm that went off as soon as he walked past the first hover.
It was a screaming, whining whistle coming from Merlin, his hover. Kase jumped out of his skin and reached for his Cerl pistol, but it was missing. Blast it. Where had he left it? In the hover? He fumbled for the knife the greenie had given him. He wrenched it from its sheath and whirled around.
“Watch it, Shackley.” Eravin stepped out of the shadow of the nearby hover. “Tell your pet to be quiet.”
Merlin went silent, but Kase didn’t know if that was because it had read his thoughts or not. He also wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He turned his attention back to Eravin.
His old friend looked even worse than the last time he’d seen him in the corridor, the day Kase had threatened to end him if he laid a finger on Hallie.
