Chapter 65: Exhaustion
That night, exhaustion dragged me under the surface of consciousness, and I slipped into a dream that felt too real to be a mere dream.
I was standing in a sunlit courtyard, the scent of blooming jasmine thick in the air. The academy was alive with students laughing and training, their voices echoing softly around the marble columns. I was not alone.
Lucas stood before me, his sharp green eyes holding a warmth I hadn’t seen in ages. He smiled, the kind of smile that made my chest tighten and my heart race.
"Athena," he said softly, stepping closer. "You made it. I was starting to think you wouldn’t."
I blinked, searching his face as if trying to remember every detail etched into memory. "Lucas... is it really you?"
He laughed, low and genuine, and reached out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "In more ways than you know."
The world around us blurred as he pulled me into an embrace. Our lips met, gentle at first, then deeper, full of things left unsaid. I felt a rush of warmth and safety, a moment stolen from a time before the pain.
When we finally parted, breath mingling, I looked into his eyes. "I’ve missed you," I whispered.
"Me too," he said, voice thick. "But there’s something you need to understand—something I’ve been trying to tell you."