Ezekiel POV
"Are you ready to enter, Ezekiel?" Viola asked.
I looked ahead at the cliff and the dark ocean stretching far below, still wondering where exactly this gate she mentioned was supposed to be. No matter how much I looked, there was nothing unusual about the place.
Then Viola suddenly began walking toward the edge.
Step by step, she moved closer to the cliff until she stood only a few steps away from the drop.
"Viola, wait… be careful."
The words had barely left my mouth when she took another step forward.
And fell.
For a moment my mind went blank as I watched her body disappear over the edge of the cliff. I saw it clearly, yet my thoughts couldn't catch up with what had just happened.
But my body moved before my mind could.
I rushed forward and jumped after her without hesitation, the only thought in my head being that I had to catch her and pull her back.
The wind rushed violently past my ears as we fell.
Viola was slightly ahead of me, yet she turned her head during the fall, and when our eyes met something inside my chest tightened.
Her hair flowed freely around her, silver strands dancing in the air as if the fall itself had slowed down time. The moonlight caught those strands and for a strange moment the entire scene looked almost unreal.
And she was smiling.
Why was she smiling in a situation like this?
Without thinking, I stretched my arm toward her, my hand cutting through the rushing air as I tried to reach her. For a moment it felt like the distance between us was too great and that my fingers would miss.
Then her eyes widened slightly, as if she understood what I was trying to do.
Viola extended her hand toward me.
The space between us slowly closed while the wind roared around us, the ocean rushing closer beneath our feet. My fingers brushed against hers for a split second and I thought we might miss each other entirely.
But then our hands finally locked together.
Her fingers tightened around mine, warm and soft despite the cold wind rushing around us, and the moment our hands connected something inside my chest stirred in a way I couldn't explain.
We continued falling through the air side by side, the ocean still approaching rapidly beneath us, yet the fear I expected to feel never came.
Instead, an unexpected thought crossed my mind.
If I died like this, I probably wouldn't regret it.
Facing death with someone beside me didn't feel lonely at all. It was completely different from the moment I died in that dungeon, where the cold ground had been stained with blood and the darkness had slowly swallowed everything around me.
That death had been painful and silent.
This one somehow felt… peaceful.
But just as I expected us to crash violently into the rocky waters below, the surface of the ocean suddenly began to glow. A soft light spread across the water like ripples, and before I could even process what was happening the world around us changed.
The next moment we hit the ground.
Except it wasn't water.
The ocean had completely disappeared.
Instead, we had landed on solid ground.
Just before the impact I had moved beneath Viola so that I could take the force of the fall instead of her, and now we remained in that position for a moment in complete silence.
Viola was lying on top of me.
My arms were still wrapped around her from when I tried to shield her earlier, and only after a few seconds did either of us realize the position we were in.
Her face slowly turned red.
Mine probably did too.
We were so close that I could hear her heartbeat clearly, the sound echoing in the quiet space around us.
For a brief moment my mind froze, but I quickly forced myself to move and loosened my arms before helping her sit up.
"Viola, are you alright?" I asked, unable to hide the concern in my voice.
When she didn't respond, my chest tightened with worry.
"Viola?"
She looked completely frozen, her eyes staring somewhere past me as if she had disappeared into her own thoughts.
---
Viola POV
What just happened?
Oh my sugar biscuit and pie!
Ezekiel just hugged me.
The thought appeared so suddenly that I immediately smacked myself mentally.
What kind of ridiculous delusion was that?!
Still…
When I stepped off that cliff, I already knew the gate was hidden beneath the ocean. I knew I wasn't actually going to die. I just wanted to be the one to enter it to see if it's safe for I can heal myself if anything happens.
But Ezekiel didn't know that.
He jumped after me.
The moment I saw his face while we were falling, I could see the panic and fear in his eyes so clearly that my heart almost skipped a beat.
He was worried about me.
Then he reached his hand out.
And we held hands.
My heart started beating so fast that I thought it might burst right out of my chest.
And then—
He hugged me.
Okay, maybe technically he was just trying to protect me from the fall, but that still meant I ended up in his arms while we were falling through the air together.
And then we landed.
And I was on top of him.
And—
I—
I—
Also he smelled really good.
Wait.
Which cologne was that?
Was it one of the ones I bought and secretly left for him at the house?
And his heartbeat!
No wait.
That might have been mine.
Actually it was probably both.
Just someone please help.
My heart cannot survive this situation.
"Viola! Viola, can you hear me? What's wrong?"
Ah.
Someone was calling my name.
And that voice sounded very heroic and very handsome.
Wait.
That voice—
My brain suddenly snapped back to reality.
Oh.
Right.
Ezekiel was right in front of me.
Looking completely panicked.
Ah…