Exodus - The Khiara Banning Series Book Two

Fifteen

Cael

Khiara's been restless. I don't know what she's going through and that makes me uneasy. Our connection is closed off and the gap hurts.

I watch as her lids move and I think back to when I had to guard her as she slept.

My love for her was unrequited for obvious reasons back then, number one being that she didn't know me.

I was actually okay with the fact that she didn't know me, but Verchiel invited me to that party on purpose, and then we met, and I couldn't stop what happened.

I couldn't have predicted that her soul would recognized my own somehow. That she'd fall in love with me too.

I'd wanted it. I'd hoped for it. But when it happened, I'd been so surprised. Caught off guard.

She loved me.

Loves me.

Sometimes she mumbles in her sleep, or she tries to. I can see her emotions on her face sometimes, and I wonder what she's going through. Who she's talking to.

Before I know it, my turn is up. I don't want to leave her side, but I need to sleep.

I lean in and place a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I love you," I tell her.

And she stirs. Tries to say something and fails due to the tube in her throat.

She's choking on the tube, suddenly, and I think what the fuck, she's not passed the trials this quickly has she?

Her eyes open and they focus on me, and for just a second I hear her, in my own mind, clear as day.

She says only one word, and it's a gasp, a deep inhalation that I can literally see. Camael she says, before going slack again, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.