For a single, suspended heartbeat, everything held…before the world suddenly broke. Not with violence, but with release—like something long restrained finally giving way.
The cracks beneath our feet sealed, the fractures knitting themselves whole. Above us, the stars flared to life, their light steadying, filling the sky with something vast and enduring. Something in Evander shifted, settling back into place as though it had only ever been waiting to return.
The dream around us dissolve around us—not into nothingness, but into something brighter and whole…allowing us to at last wake up together.
CHAPTER 23
Awareness returned slowly—not all at once, but in fragments. First came the warmth, the faint sensation of something solid beneath me. Sound soon followed—the sigh of a breeze that blew a willow branch softly against the window, the soft trills of birdsong, an insect’s hum.
Light flooded my vision as my eyes fluttered open. For a moment, everything blurred together, shapes and shadows indistinct as I struggled to make sense of what I was seeing. The details enfolded me, no longer distant and muted, but immediate in a way that felt almost overwhelming after the fragile unreality of the dream.
The air no longer felt frozen in time. Dust that had once hung motionless—waiting for the clocks to restart—now drifted freely, swirling through a bright shaft of sunlight that streamed through the window. The once suffocating silence lifted, replaced by something quieter, but undeniably alive, as though the world had begun to breathe again.
Yet I held my breath, every sense attuned to the man who still lay against me, still and warm. A movement beneath my hand drew my attention downward—a subtle, almost imperceptibletwitch of fingers against my palm, so faint I thought I had imagined it.
My gaze lifted to his face, every part of me stilled, as though the slightest disruption might unravel whatever fragile thread had just begun to weave itself back into place to pull him back to me.
“Evander…” His name left me softly, barely more than a breath. For a single, suspended heartbeat, nothing happened. I didn’t dare move, afraid that even the slightest shift might shatter the fragile miracle before it could fully form.
The stillness that held him began, almost imperceptibly, to loosen its grip. The shift was so slight it might have gone unnoticed if I hadn’t been watching him so closely, hadn’t learned the quiet language of his smallest movements, the details others overlooked.
His fingers twitched again beneath mine, the smallest motion, and yet it struck through me with more force than anything that had come before. I tightened my hold on his hand, as though I could anchor him there, keep him from slipping back into whatever place he had been lost within.
“I’m here, Evander,” I whispered, the words rushing forward now, no longer restrained. “You can wake up. Your kingdom is waiting for you…I’mwaiting for you.”
A faint crease formed in his brow, the first true sign of awareness breaking through the stillness that had claimed him for so long. Hope surged.
“Come back,” I pleaded, my urgency giving way to something steadier, more certain. “Come back to me.”
For a moment, everything seemed to hover on the edge of possibility, the world holding itself in quiet anticipation, as though even the air had paused to witness what would happen next.
Then a shaky breath shuddered through him—shallow and uneven at first, as though his body had forgotten the rhythm and had to learn it again. The rise of his chest was slight, but unmistakable. My own breath caught in response.
“Evander…” His name left me in a fragile, disbelieving whisper.
His chest rose again, his breath deeper this time. Then slowly, his eyes opened, those deep grey eyes that had become so dear to me. He blinked blearily, like someone emerging from a long, endless night, as though he couldn’t remember what had happened or where he was. His gaze didn’t focus at once, but shifted unfixed, as though awareness was returning to him in gradual, reluctant fragments.
And then he saw me. His breath caught and everything stilled. The confusion didn’t vanish, but reshaped itself into quiet disbelief, as though I were the one thing in this world he hadn’t expected to find.
“Mirelle…?” The sound of my name spoken in his voice enfolded my heart, causing something in my chest to give way all at once.
He didn’t move at first, save for the slight tightening of his hand around mine, as though confirming the reality of what he felt before allowing himself to believe it.
“You—” His voice faltered, rough with disuse, edged with something deeper than sleep. “You’re…here.”
My breath broke free before I could stop it. “I’m here.” My voice trembled despite my attempt to steady it. “I told you I would be.” The words softened as they settled between us, carrying the quiet weight of a promise fulfilled.
For a moment, he only looked at me—as though he didn’t quite trust what he was seeing, or that I might vanish if he blinked. And I could not look away from him either.
A quiet, almost disbelieving laugh escaped him. “You…” He drew in a breath, as though testing it, feeling it fill his lungs. “You’re even more beautiful than in my dreams.” Something shifted in his expression then—not confusion or disbelief, but something deeper that seemed to settle into place, as though it had been missing and had only now returned.
His gaze searched mine, desperate and uncertain all at once. “Is this real? Have we truly awakened?”
Emotion rose too quickly for me to contain. “Yes,” I whispered. “It’s real.”
He leaned closer, his gaze tracing my face, as though confirming that I was real—that whatever had separated us before no longer stood between us now. “You came back for me,” he said.
“You chose to come back,” I replied softly.
