Chapter 273

HIS LEGS WENT GIDDY. PATEL forced his body forward while his mind struggled to make sense of the apparition before him. Alek. The boy he'd trained, the man he'd mourned. Yet there he stood beside his flame haired princess.

Tremors ran through his limbs at the sight of the two of them.

Gold and red light surrounded them, Catherine's hair twisting through the air, molten tendrils of flame. Any trace of the boy he'd trained seemed gone from the handsome stern-faced man before him. Alek held himself with something more than confidence. Patel had witnessed his return from many missions but Alek had still been Alek, confidence mixed with a certain level of cockiness and uncertainty.

The man before him bore a striking resemblance to Nikias after he lost Ariadwen, the lines of experience wrought on his face.

Patel stopped before the couple then bowed low. A moment ticked by before Catherine's voice bid him to rise. Meeting first her eyes then his, Patel felt a certain measure of relief. T