Book Four: Chapter 103

“She’s her old self,” Yuki continued. “From before. And she’ll talk to me, but I can never hear what she’s saying. I try so hard to listen, to hear what she has to say. Every time I feel like I can hear her words, she changes. It’s like someone throwing a sheet over a lamp, and the whole room dims. And now that I can hear her, all I hear is hate in her voice. And then I wake up, and I’m crying, and I hate myself, because I can summon spears of ice, or command Death himself, but I’ve let this mortal cut me deeper than any blade, and I feel weak.”

“Love and compassion are never a sign of weakness,” Mike said. “It takes a brave heart to believe in either of these things.”

She trembled beneath him, but remained silent. He stroked her hair for a little while longer and continued doing so even when he could tell she had dozed off. Once he was convinced that she was out, he slowly shifted her onto her bed and carefully covered her with a blanket before leaving.

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