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I’le breath

"I hear that too," Tiberias replies Then his voice drops, deepening It wavers in fear "I re"

Reluctantly, I look overthe last of his araze He’s still tall, still broad, but lesser without the weight of the battle-worn steel Younger-looking too, just twenty years old Tipping on the edge ofon to so as it disappears, just like the rest of us

"I went into the water and I couldn’t get back up" He kicks the pile of steel on the floor "Couldn’t swim, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think"

I feel like I can’t breathe either

Tiberias shudders as I watch, a tre Then he forces himself to look back at me With his feet planted and his hands fir won’tto ood soldier would do Or he is si me decide for both of us He probably thinks it’s the honorable thing to do

"I thought of you before the end," he says "I saw your face in the water"

And I see his corpse again, suspended beforesea Afloat, at the n tide

Neither of us moves

"I can’t," I bite out, looking anywhere but his face

He responds quickly, with force "Neither can I"

"But I also can’t--"

Stay away Keep doing this Denying ourselves in the face of always-loo death

Tiberias hisses out a breath

"Neither can I"

When we take the step forward together, froh It al, equal inHe watches me, I watch hiheart He inhales slowly, his chest rising beneathwide over the base of h my shirt, the knobbled skin fae anything," I say against his collarbone, a fire "No"

"We aren’t hten around me "No"

"So what is this, Cal?"