Page 112 of Never Kiss a Fae
Such a stark contrast to Exos.
And yet, I adored them equally. For entirely different reasons.
By the time my back hit the mattress, my clothes were already gone, thanks to Titus’s precise use of energy. He’d burned away every inch of the fabric from my body. I began to return the favor, when power sliced through my heart, eliciting a sharp cry from my mouth.
Titus pulled back, his gaze full of alarm. “Claire?”
The pain struck again, this time to my mind, cascading my vision in shades of white and black as if someone had slammed a fist into my head.
I pressed my palms to my temples, fighting to understand, but the ache only grew. An emptiness formed a cavern deep inside, creating a black void of nothing.
“Claire!” Titus shouted, his hands on my shoulders. But I couldn’t see him. Could hardly feel him. All I sensed was this immense torment of loss. As if something had been ripped from my very spirit.
Oh God…“Exos!” I sat up abruptly, my head connecting with Titus’s hard chest. I still couldn’t see, the fog behind my eyes a mist my senses refused to navigate. “He’s…Oh…Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong with Exos, Titus. Something’s… I don’t… It hurts!” I clutched my head again, whimpering as fractures of light pierced my pupils. “He’shurt.”
“Claire…” Titus cradled my face, his familiar presence cascading heat over my quivering form. Exactly what I needed, a call to return to the present, to the bed, to his mostly naked body.
I blinked at him, my cheeks damp from tears I hadn’t realized I’d shed. Somehow Iknewtime had passed without my knowledge, as if I’d lost consciousness when something hit me—no,Exos—upside the head. I tried to reach out to him, to sense his presence, our link, but I felt empty and alone. My heart raced. “He’s… he’sgone.”
What does that mean?
Did he sever our bond?
No. He wouldn’t do that. I had felt his emotions, strong and vibrant and true.
So what happened?
“Where is he? Where did he go?” Frantic sparks clawed over my skin, scattering goose bumps up and down my body. Coldness unlike any I’d ever experienced solidified in my veins. “He’s… Titus…Where is he?Why can’t I feel him?”
A sob caught in my throat, worry and panic overwhelming whatever he said in reply. Pounding flourished in my ears, and the room began to spin again, my entire existence being swallowed up into a void of confusion and despair.
“Where’s Exos?” I repeated again and again and again. He wouldn’t leave me. Not after everything. Right? Our spirits were bonded, not quite as deep as the one I had with Titus, but still just as powerful.
“Claire.” Titus’s voice finally penetrated the rhythmic beating clogging my ears. “Breathe.”
I inhaled sharply, my lungs weeping with joy from the much-needed air. I swallowed, exhaled, and repeated. It overwhelmed me, sending shudders through my limbs, eased the dark edges of my vision, and grounded me once more in the present.
The torment inside lessened to a dull ache, my connection to Exos wounded and almost completely dissolved. More tears came, the pain of loss destroying my heart.
I couldn’t control it, couldn’t stop it. Like a dam had opened and refused to be sealed off. My limbs were stiff, and my body strained in an anguish my mind hardly comprehended.
Part of me wanted to fight. To go find Exos. To figure out what the hell had happened.
But the other part of me—the one that drove my motivations—just felt broken.
Because my spirit is gone.
My soul.
My other half.
Flames roamed over me, Titus reminding me of his presence, his adoration, hislove. I collapsed into him, and his lips went to my hair, his arms a cage of comfort around me.
Seconds, minutes, hours, later, I finally remembered how to think, how toexistagain, and I looked at him once more. Concern radiated from his handsome face, his gorgeous eyes flooded with protective energy I longed to bathe in.
“Can you feel him at all?” Titus asked, his deep voice soothing and soft.
I shook my head. “I… I don’t think so.”
