Chapter 406 Promise Of Survival

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    If she really perished here, that lost chance would be the single wound she carried beyond the

    grave.

    She recalled him barreling through smoke to shield her with his own body. The shock of it had nearly broken herposure, tears threatening to spill.

    She knew that if she asked whether he regretted that reckless charge, he would answer exactly as she had. Never.

    So her resolve mirrored his. No regrets.

    “Julius, you and I—we are going to make it out alive,” she murmured, more oath thanfort.

    His soot–linedshes trembled. She was unchanged–no matter how bleak the odds, Quinn carried light like antern in a storm.

    With her near, hope always found a way to breathe. They would survive. They had to.

    Suddenly, hurried footsteps pounded through the smoky corridor. A voice cut the haze. “Someone’s here!”

    Figures burst through the gloom–firefighters in heavy gear, and behind them, Rowan. They lifted Julius from her side and eased the unconscious Serena off Quinn’s shoulder.

    The weight vanished so quickly that Quinn lurched forward, catching herself on trembling knees before darkness threatened the edges of her vision.

    A heartbeatter, strong arms closed around her, shielding her from the heat that licked at her back. The familiar scent of pine and clean soap told her everything she needed to know. It was Rowan–her brother, alive and here.

    “Don’t be afraid, I’m getting you out,” Leander said, voice raw with worry as he tightened his hold on her. Tears shimmered in his eyes, turning the firelight into trembling shards of silver.

    Moments earlier, he had seen her through the smoke, a slight figure bent beneath the weight of Serena slung across one shoulder while she half–dragged Julius with the other hand. Every step she took left a dark smear where her injured leg scraped the floor, yet she never loosened her grip on either of them.

    Relief that she was alive had mmed into him, followed at once by a crushing ache at the sight of her wounds.

    b17:43 /bWed, Sep 17 N

    Chapter 406 Promise Of Survival

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    Worst of all was the guilt. Even with the hallway ready to erupt, she had refused to abandon Serena–and she had done it mostly because of him.

    “I’m sorry I waste, Quinn.” Leander swept her into his arms, cradling her like something fragile that might break if he so much as breathed wrong.

    Quinn rested against his chest, the steady hammer of his heartbeat grounding her while a firefighter carried Julius toward the exit.

    iJulius /iiis /iisafe/ii… /iiThank /iigoodness/i.

    Nestled in Leander’s arms, she felt a peace she had almost forgotten existed. iHe /iistill /iihasn’t /iiregained /iihis /iimemory/ii, /iiyet /iihe /iiran /iiback /iiinto /iia /iiburning /iibuilding /iifor /iime/i. iMemory /iior /iinot/ii, /iia /iibrother’s /iilove /iinever /iilies/ii. /i

    Exhaustion crashed over her, heavier than the smoke. Pain dulled into distant numbness, and the world slipped to gray. Thest thing she heard was Leander shouting her name, panic sharper than the wail of sirens.

    She drifted through a dream that seemed to stretch for centuries.

    Faces appeared and vanished, lips moving in urgent whispers she could never quite catch.

    Footsteps echoed near her ear, soft then loud,ing and going in waves.

    iWho /iis it ithis /iitime/ii? /iShe struggled to lift her eyelids, but they felt as heavy as iron.

    “Forgive me. This is my fault.” She soon recognized the familiar voice to be Julius‘

    “If not for me, you would never have been dragged into this. Perhaps I was destined to walk alone from the very beginning. Perhaps we should never have been together.” Julius sat beside the bed, eyes fixed on Quinn’s motionless face as he murmured the confession into the dim hospital light.

    Quinny motionless beneath the sterile hospital lights, herplexion drained of all color, as fragile as porcin left in winter frost. The sight yanked Julius back to that night in far–off Doria when a bullet punched through her small body and the world seemed to freeze around the spreading bloom of crimson. Now, the same suffocating terror crushed his lungs, and this time he was the reason.

    for

    “Quinn, I used to be angry–furious that you refused to forgive me, furious at your stubborn pride. I made one mistake, and you condemned me to a lifetime of regret. I hated you loving me so little, but tonight I finally understand the person I hated most was always myself.” His confession slipped out in a hoarse whisper.

    b17:43 /bWedb, /bbSep /b17 bN /b

    Chapter 406 Promise Of Survival

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    b35 /b

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    From the moment he was born, Julius felt like a walking error, an anomaly the world never asked for. Everyone he dared to love seemed destined for misfortune.

    Each word seeped into Quinn’s ears, dragging her toward consciousness.

    iDon’t /iihate /iiyourself/ii, /iiJulius/i.

    She had so many things left to tell him, yet hershes felt pinned beneath stone, refusing to

    part.

    “Thank you for saving me,” Julius whispered, his fingertips brushing the baster curve of her cheek.

    Years ago, when she was still a child, she had pulled him back from the brink of death and given him a reason to keep breathing.

    “You once wished that peace would find me year after year. Tonight, I wish the same for you. If your safety demands every piece of me, I’ll surrender it. I told you before that anything you wanted would be yours. That promise hasn’t changed, Quinn, so rest easy–your desires wille true.” His voice, hoarse, carried endless sorrow.