Amara couldn't speak. She collapsed into him, her fingers curling into his jacket, sobbing with a violence that shook her entire frame. The terror of the last hour finally broke over her like a tidal wave.
"It's okay... I'm here," Julian whispered into her hair, his own eyes closed tight. "I've got you. I'm here." He looked at the chaos around them, the blood, the wires, the shadow of the man who had almost ended everything. "Let's go home."
As the paramedics swarmed the room, they lifted Sebastian onto a gurney. His face was a ghostly gray, his breath coming in shallow, wet rattles, but his eyes were fixed solely on Amara. He reached out a blood-stained hand, stopping the paramedics for one heartbeat.
"Amara... I'm sorry," Seb pleaded, his voice a ghost of the man he used to be. "I didn't know... that you did so much for me. Can you forgive me... one more time?"
