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After all this time. After weeks of silence. Of pain. Of holding everything together like a crumbling wall.
He was alive.
And only now, with that truth echoing in her heart, did she realize just how badly she had missed him.
At this moment she wasn't the soldier Mia. Not the iron-blade princess Mia. But the girl who waited, and worried, and whispered his name into her pillow when no one could hear.
She buried her face into her sleeve, shaking, voice thick with tears. "You bastard… You idiot! Where have you been?!"
Kai swallowed. "I'm sorry. I escaped the predator. Take my revenge… After that…" He paused, then added. "I found a rift gate and entered it. I met the dawn blade. The Rift Gate collapsed and I got thrown to the southern forest. I awakened a new power, minutes ago. I tried to use it to reach you, because I missed you."