Has to hurt, the way you've snatched her up short. It has to hurt. You know that. She won't feel it otherwise. And she needs to feel it, if this is going to work.—and you need to feel it, too.

You lean down over her. Looming. And something in her eyes that you've seen before, the start of it—a spark of something that might save her, save you both, and you know just how to fan it into a flame—