I doubt this is the monster he expected to face. Instead, a crumpled, crying girl is falling apart before him. “This is all my fault.” I turn my blurry gaze back to the Fort, every bright color a mockery without her here. “She redecorated for me. To surprise me when I got back from the Trials.” Tears are falling in front of this stranger, but I can’t seem to find the will to care. “But it was her who never made it back. And it’s all my fault. This is all my fault—” “I couldn’t save her either.” The stranger sounds choked. It takes that thought for me to realize how much more he is than that.
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