Saved Us All

I looked at Cindy and then at Gabe before closing my eyes. "I couldn't save him," I said in a voice that wasn't my own. "I tried. I did. Kenmei said, use love. I swear, I tried."

Gabe knelt on the other side. "Who?"

"Dorian," I whispered. "He protected me, all of us, but he's gone. I don't know where." The words came out choppy and garbled, but I couldn't make myself stop crying.

"It's okay. You're okay," he said, but I heard the anguish in his voice.

Cindy pulled me into a hug. "It isn't your fault, Snow."

But that wasn't true. It was my fault.

I thought of dying.

Would there be rest?

Could I shut out the agony?

The way Dorian looked at me. His kiss. What he did. Saved me. Saved us all. Abernathy's words to Dorian rang in my mind: "Very few have the capacity to love like you."

"Where could he be?" I wailed.

"Let's get her out of here," Gabe said to Cindy, and I felt his hands pull me into his arms.

"My mom?" I asked as they pulled me from the rubble.