Page 42 of Storm of Stars

The hum of the plane’s engines roared around us, and somewhere in the corner of the cabin, a camera blinked its steady red light. I couldn’t imagine what they were seeing, me whispering into the empty air. I just prayed the noise drowned out my voice.

Tears welled in my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Kade,” I whispered. My voice cracked like glass underfoot.

His brows lifted. “For what?”

“For… for you. For what happened.” I swallowed hard. “It’s my fault.”

“Don’t be a dumbass,” he said, lips twitching in amusement. “You really think this is on you?”

“I’ve been convicted,” I choked out. “I’m guilty.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and I’mnotlying six feet under right now.” He laughed under his breath. “Bunch of horseshit. You’re as much a killer as I am alive. Which is to say not at all.”

He said it like a joke, but I didn’t really find the humor in it.

I stared at him, at the easy way he spoke, the way his smirk softened into something kinder.

“How are you here, Kade?”

He shrugged. “I’m not. Not really.”

“I don’t want to die,” I said. The words spilled out before I knew I’d spoken them. Raw and bare and honest. And I was surprised to realize just how true they were. There were nights, locked in that cell after he was gone, when I wondered if dying would be easier. But somehow, somewhere along the way, I found a reason to fight.

Her name was Brexlyn Hollis.

“I know,” he said gently, the ghost of a smile on his face. “You found a new family.”

“You’re still my family,” I said, the words aching in my chest. “You always will be.”

“I know that too.” He looked proud. Sad. Peaceful. “I’m glad you found them.”

“I’m in love with her,” I admitted, gasping through the words, dragging her image into focus, long dark hair, porcelain skin, eyes like blue fire. The scent of her skin. The sound of her laugh.

Then, unbidden, another face flickered into view, mischievous red hair, a lopsided grin, all bravado and warmth.

“And him too,” Kade added with a teasing wink. “You sly dog.”

I barked a short, strangled laugh that turned into a grunt of pain. My vision blurred. My limbs felt like sandbags. I was slipping.

The wheels hit the tarmac and the impact ripped a fresh scream of pain through me, but just as quickly, the agony receded. Something else was pulling at me. A void, soft and dark and strangely comforting.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t sit up. Couldn’t even lift my head. I was weightless and trapped all at once.

I heard shouting. Distant, desperate.

“Your Wildguard is coming,” Kade said. He stood, looking out across the runway, eyes narrowed toward the noise.

I wanted to turn. I wanted to see them, Brexlyn, him, all of them. Just one more time. But my body refused.

“I don’t blame you, you know,” Kade whispered. “And they won’t either. If you have to go.”

My eyelids fluttered. I fought to hold them open, to see, but I was losing. Losing everything.

“Goodbye,” I whispered. I didn’t know who I was saying it to. Kade, Brexlyn, the world maybe, but the word felt final.

Then the darkness took me.

And this time, I wasn’t sure I’d come back.