My hope stuttered and panic reached into me, demanding I accept the truth. That he was really gone. That my world was going to be absent of him for the rest of my life. And that thought was enough to tear my heart in two, never to be repaired. We hadn’t had enough time. And he was too young to die here, broken and cold in some cave. Fate was bloodthirsty and callous, taking him like this when all he’d wanted was to save his sister. It broke me in a way I didn’t think I’d ever heal from.
