Use your time well.
I looked up to meet their gazes again. What?
I watched as the young girl on the left reached into her robes and pulled out a silver pocket watch. My brow furrowed as I stared at it, its emerald gem reminding me of another one I had seen.
The three of you will have until sunset, and then your training will begin.
The three of who?
My mouth opened to ask what they meant, who they meant, but before I could, I was thrown backward. My eyes shot wide and Caelan smiled ferociously at me, amusement sparkling in his gaze as he watched me fall off the marble slab and tumble through the sky.
Chapter 41
Zara
Air filled my lungs, and I shot my eyes open as I coughed through the pain. They felt stiff, as if they hadn’t worked for a long while, as if I was forcing them to move against their will.
Above me, a vast domed ceiling stretched, its expanse dominated by stained glass that filled my vision. It was breathtaking, and my gaze skated across the intricate vines that snaked across the glass, adorned with countless blooming roses. I watched as some sort of spell made them recede, only to reappear and re-bloom elsewhere. A metaphor, I guess, of life and death, and its ever-changing, shifting currents.
My body felt peculiar, despite the fact that I was resting on something that was soft and silken. I was cold, stiff, and my limbs felt heavy, empty.
I didn't belong here, and a wave of discomfort washed over me.
I was back in Nexia. I could feel it in my soul, in the very air around me, as if a tangible connection to the heart of this world had been forged, allowing me to know and see it.
I should have felt my pulse racing from the unease, but there was nothing. Not a beat, not a pulse. And then I remembered, I was dead. Blood no longer flowed through me and whatever body I was in was just a corpse I was puppeteering. Fear and disgust crashed over me, and my chest rose and fell rapidly but only from the air I forced into my decaying lungs. I wanted to vomit, but the nausea wouldn't come. I felt nothing but the biting cold. Why did they send me back here? I shouldn't be here—I—
“Took you long enough.”
I shot up, my aching limbs forced to comply as I gasped. It couldn’t be. But that had been his voice.
I was still disoriented but as I turned, my eyes locked onto bright, emerald orbs.
Without hesitation, I lunged.
The sound of his silky laugh caressed every inch of my soul, and my arms went around his neck, my mouth crashing onto his as he pulled me from wherever I had been lying and into his arms. He smiled against my lips and, fuck, if that wasn’t everything.
Xavier spun me around, my feet landing on the floor as he held me tightly to his chest, our mouths devouring one another in a desperate, feral kiss. His hands laced through my hair, drawing me nearer until no space remained between us. Our lips parted, our gazes locking as his breath, a phantom touch against my mouth, sent a shiver through me.
He was alive. He was here. He was—wait.
My eyes widened and Xavier smirked. Hope surged through my soul and my grip tightened around his neck.
“Does this mean… are you… are we?”
“Dead?” Xavier’s smirk widened. “Yes.”
“But are we—are you?” I said frantically, needing to know, needing it confirmed.
Xavier's eyes flickered, a brilliant, glowing blue erupting within his irises. “Yes, love, we are,” Xavier said, running his fingers through my hair.
A happiness I'd never known washed over me. I didn't care how or why this happened. We could be together. Truly together. We'd get to have lifetimes, among the stars, in other realms. He was finallymine.
I lunged at him again, and he let out a hearty laugh as we tumbled to the floor. I grinned, our limbs entwining as he rolled me onto my back. Our mouths met once more in a passionate kiss, and I wished it would never end.
“As much as I desperately want to see where this was heading,” Xavier said, groaning as he pulled away from me, a grin still plastered on his face. “We only have until sunset, and we are on a schedule.”
I didn’t understand, not fully, but I nodded and let him pull me off the floor. My gaze swept past him, and I realized we were in some sort of mausoleum.
