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, his love. 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 to exist again, 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.”
He massaged my wrists, considering. “Sometimes those Powerless Champion cuffs can leave a residual essence behind that hinders your ability to connect properly to your elements. It’s one of the downsides. Maybe that has something to do with it?”
“But I took them off right after we left the gym.” I’d only worn them to gym class because we had suspected someone might try to frame me again. And they had. However, this time I’d worn physical proof of my innocence—the cuffs that blocked me from my powers. “They didn’t make me feel weird at all, just human again.” Something I admittedly indulged in, at least temporarily. The elemental fae world was overwhelming, strange, and not at all like the reality I grew up experiencing.
I shook my head, clearing it and focusing. “It’s not the cuffs,” I said, certain. “Something… something has happened.”
Titus considered for a long moment, then nodded. “All right. You said he was going to call his brother, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go to the tower. I doubt he’s still there since it was hours ago, but we can see if you can pick up on his essence. Okay?”
“Hours ago?” I repeated, my eyebrows lifting.
“Yeah… It’s almost midnight, Claire. You lost consciousness for a while, then woke up screaming before passing out again. It’s been, well, an eventful afternoon and evening.”
So I’d been right about time escaping me. I swallowed. “What do you think happened?”
“I’m not speculating. Not until we go to the tower.” He slid off the bed, fully clothed and more than proving that we’d lost several hours. “Vox is here, so he can probably help. He brought an Earth Fae with him—Sol. River is here, too.”
Oh, good. An audience for my breakdown.
I groaned, feeling like hell turned over. Titus must have been worried if he called everyone here. Not that I blamed him. A part of me felt, well, dead. I shivered at the realization, refusing to accept that fate for Exos.
He can’t be… He was too strong. Too otherworldly. No, there had to be another explanation. I just didn’t know what.
“Uh, Titus?” Vox’s familiar tone came through the door. “You need to—”
“Move.” The deep tenor sent a chill down my spine. It reminded me of Exos, but not quite. And the face that appeared in the doorway a second later was a near spitting image of my Spirit Fae, only with lighter blue eyes that glistened with a silvery hue in the light.
Titus immediately fell to his knee, his head bowed. “Your Highness.”
The fae didn’t even look at him, his enigmatic focus entirely on me. “Hello, Claire.”
I pulled the sheets up to cover my bare breasts, my throat working as I attempted to formulate a response. His athletic build, light hair, and aristocratic jaw told me exactly who this was even before Titus knelt.