MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
He was beautiful, he was peaceful, and he was a sacrifice.
"Will you do it?" I asked, my voice a broken whisper.
Julian looked at me, and I saw a flash of my mother’s madness in his eyes—a fanatic, selfless devotion to a design he didn't choose.
"I've been sitting in this grove for twenty years, Gianna," Julian said. "I've watched the sun rise and the sun set, waiting for a brother I’ve never met. I'm ready to be the bridge. But you have to ask yourself... when he’s cured, when the Shield is human again... will you be enough for him? Or will the monster in you miss the monster in him?"