The air left my lungs in a violent, soundless rush. Not crying... this was something else, something breaking apart inside my chest. My body shook with the force of it, a tremor so deep I felt my joints might give way.
I fisted my hands in Kael's shirt, clinging, my knuckles bleaching white. The ground was gone. He was the only thing holding me to the earth.
"I'm sorry." The words were shredded things, torn from a raw throat. "I'm so—Kael, I'm so sorry."
"Don't." His reply was a reflex, sharp, almost a flinch. His palms cradled my face, his touch so careful it fractured me further. "Don't you apologize for her."
"It is my fault." The confession erupted, a flood I couldn't dam. "All of it. If I had never walked into your world… she never would have touched you. You never would have had to—"
