Caleb had nearly forgotten how beautiful Meridian is in the daytime. The night here stretches almost endlessly, and he has spent more time as an outlaw on planet Earth than he would like. The soft breeze pulls the windmill that creaks as it spins, but all he can think about is his people. He has failed them.
"It's all my fault. What kind of leader am I?"
Cornelia is mere footsteps behind him. Though she tries to hide it, her golden heart is bigger than her ego. "You're a wonderful leader." Her voice lowers to a murmur. "You don't know how wonderful you are."
With a gasp, he turns to face her. She is taller in her Guardian form, reaching his height, and that is how he rationalises the way his eyes fall to her lips. Sometimes he thinks he would rather live in her blue eyes, underwater where everything is soft and surreal and peaceful all at once. Caleb takes her by the hand. He is drowning, drowning, drowning.
And then the others pass by and he is dragged back to this world again, this bleak, hateful world that has trapped his friends in dungeons and taken the light from his life. A world where young princesses are exploited, where children starve, where the people live under tyranny, where they have forgotten the meaning of the word 'hope'.
He steals a glance at Cornelia once more, and for the first time lets himself imagine a life after the war.
