"I'm frightened," she said. "Still. About Aria. About what almost happened." She looked at the window, at the dark glass reflecting the room back at them. "I spent five years being sick, Alexander. Five years of Aria holding everything together while I was falling apart. And I kept thinking....when I get better, I'll protect her. I'll be strong enough to protect her. And then I got better and the Vitalis Radix worked and I had my life back." She paused. "And she nearly died anyway."
"She didn't die."
"She nearly did."
"But she didn't." His voice was gentle. "She's in that room sleeping because she's stubborn and brilliant and she wrote an antidote formula while she was dying. She saved herself, Mei. You raised someone who saves herself."
Mei pressed her lips together. Felt the tears coming and did what she'd done for twenty five years...breathed through them, held them back, stayed composed.
"Don't do that," Alexander said.
She looked at him. "What?"
