Page 166 of Dragon 7

"Y-yes."

He took that in.

Every emotion he owned rose through the bond at once. Rage moved under sadness. Sadness moved under grief. Guilt rose around it. All of those emotions pressed against the inside of my chest.

"Everything happened so fast." The words tumbled out ahead of me. "People were being evacuated. I was terrified something would happen to you, Reo, Hiro. . .everyone. I wanted to help and I—"

My hands began to shake again. I looked down at them like they belonged to somebody else. "No. . .I don’t want to do this. . ."

"How did the sacrifice happen?"

I looked at him. "Why?"

"I want to know."

"Why do you want to know? I feel guilty enough. I feel horrible. I feel wrong. I feel like the pain of losing her will stay with me forever, and I don’t want it to. I want it gone. I want to just live my life and move on, and I don’t know if that will ever happen. I don’t know if I will ever be me again. . ."

He started to walk toward me.

“No.” I stepped back and put my hand up. "You’re angry with me."

"How could I ever be angry with my Tiger?"

"I feel your rage."

"This rage is for the world." He frowned. "This rage is for the fact that my Tiger had to sacrifice so much for us to win this war. You were the reason we won. There is no doubt in my mind."

I looked away. "I could have called you. . .I know that now. . .There was not any time, but. . .I knew you would say no. And there was this woman who saw timelines. And I knew that. . .even with the truth of those timelines you would want to try to save her. I wanted to save our baby. . ."

He crossed the last of the distance.

I tried to back away.

He pulled me into his arms.

“Kenji. . .”

He held me close to him. "How did it happen, Tora?"

I leaned my head against his chest. He was warm and smelled of expensive soap on the surface. Underneath the soap, smoked sandalwood and burnt ginger. Underneath that, the copper thread of a man who had walked out of blood and washed as much of it off as he could.

I shivered. "Why do you want to talk about this?"

"Because I think you were going to carry this alone. And that is what makes me angry most of all."

"I didn’t want you to know."

"Is that what we are?"

"Kenji. . ."

He pulled back from me, just enough that I had to look up at his face. His eyes held fury. "Never. . .keep anything like this from me. Never."

Tears spilled from my eyes.

“Never. . .” He raised his hands. His palms cradled the sides of my face. His thumb brushed the tears off my cheeks. "How did they do it, Tora?"

“Kenji. . .”