Page 131 of Fearless

It can’t be true. I can’t let myself believe this, and yet, I scramble to my feet. Palms pressed to the door that separates me from hope, I mutter, “Kai?”

The muffled shout that returns has me laughing through a disbelieving sob.

“Pae!”

I shove away from the door, my heart pounding at the presence of its other half.

“Your Highness, we have strict orders from the king to—”

The door flies from its hinges.

As it falls to the floor with a thud, there is nothing left to separate me from the ghost behind. Not even Death himself.

Our gazes meet.

Smoke meeting fire; life meeting the walking dead.

He stands there, so perfectly intact. His chest heaves, free of my dagger and the bloody handprints I left beside it. A storm brews in his gray eyes, so unlike the last time I saw them glassily pinned on the sky above. Everything about the Enforcer is impossibly exactly how I’d left him the night before that final Trial.

I can’t seem to move, afraid this is some cruel dream, some phantom that will slip between my fingers. But then his eyes are welling with tears. Familiar lips are pulling into a relieved smile, those dangerous dimples framing it.

Kai’s words are choked. “I heard you killed me?”

That is all it takes to have my feet tripping over themselves.

I am more than his shadow. I am a moth to his flame.

A sob swells in my throat, springing hot tears to my eyes. I can hardly see through the blur of disbelief, but still, I race toward him. He doesn’t hesitate before striding across the room, heading right for the hand that helped kill him.

I trip into his arms before my knees can buckle beneath me. My hysterical laugh is muffled against his tunic, face buried above a heart that beats wildly.

Alive. He’s alive.

The feel of his arms tightening around me is so familiar, so seeminglyright, that I cry harder at the thought of truly losing him.

Alive.

He is so stunningly alive, and strong, and standing for the both of us. Kai’s chest shudders against me as tears leak from his eyes, same as mine. I pull away slowly, scared that I might startle back to reality and find him to be nothing more than a figment of my grief.

But nothing this exquisite could ever be imagined.

My trembling fingers brush his face, and the whispered touch has Kai’s eyes fluttering closed. A tear slips down the sharp planes of his face, colliding with my fingers. I shake my head while struggling to speak past the lump in my throat. “How are you here?” My voice is a cracked whisper. “I watched… I watched youdie.”

His hands slide down my body, as if to ensure I’m real as well. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything you were put through—”

“I don’t care.” I cup his face, my own earnest. “I don’t care so long as this is real, and you are alive.”

“This is real,” he almost laughs. “Not pretend. Not ever.”

I nod and press my palms to his neck as a smile pulls at my quivering lips. “I just don’t understand. My dagger… I felt it slide into your chest.”

My fingers trail down to his chest, finding no trace of the blade that was once buried there.

“I know.” His voice is suddenly as icy as the eyes flicking between mine. “I wouldn’t have let it happen, but I was drugged that night before the Trial.”

My mouth falls open. “What?”

“I was supposed to sleep through the Trial. The Healers locked me in my room.” A muscle flexes in his cheek. “The cheering from the Bowl woke me up, and I… I knew it was you. So I fought off the drug and stumbled to the arena. Imperials held me back before I could get in, but I saw, Paedyn. I saw you fightingmyself. And it…” His voice breaks. “It destroyed me. I tried to push my way to you, but the drugs weakened me, and I just… stood there while you fought for your life. Foughtme.”

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