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He was ca his body to barricadefor unfire or another round of explosives But instead we heard only the sound of approaching feet Inside the fabric that swathed rew harder and harder to breathe, but I didn’t complain I didn’t even shuffleto see

"Coh the dense s Brooklynn’s formal title "Are you in here?"

Brook released the children’s hands "I’uards who’d been in front of the school thatthe sa word from their leaderfrom Brook

"The army arrived shortly after the first bomb was detonated," the soldier stated as she stepped forward, her stance fored the boy, relief swelling through me as I unraveled Zafir’s shirt from my face as I listened "We lost a lot of civilians in the blasts, even un battle"

The use of the word "civilians" ht She meant children

"Once the terrorists realized they were outnuet, the snipers took care of on their way out of the buildings Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single one of the who, exactly, was responsible for the attack here today"

Brooklynn sighed, and there was nothing rigid about her posture She looked deflated, defeated "Yes we do," she said siled curls "It was ht nearly blinded me and I had to shield , but not in the same way the students inside the walls of the Academy had screamed Her voice, the woman’s, was filled with so gled and struggled against me, and I had no choice but to release hilanced up in ti, and I realized she was calling out a name: "Phoenix!" she cried as the boy raced down the steps and ju him ferociously "PhoenixPhoenixmy sweet baby Phoenix" Her last words trailed into Parshon, and I wondered if it were simply habit, if she’d even realized she’d done it at all

It had been easier inside, where the confusion and ugliness of the attacks had been concealed behind a thick veil of smoke Out here, the destruction was all too clear, far too apparent We could all see just how azed down atnot to look at the bodies that littered the wreckage, trying not to releaolden hair I saw fro ht inmyself it wasn’t herIt couldn’t be her

But as I

I stopped in front of the girl lying facedown on the stairs, her lile bloodstain square between her shoulder blades She’d been shot while she was trying to escape

With tre to see the truth for olden curtain, her face, turned to the side, was ashen, and her wide eyes were vacant

My heart ached as I lifted her hand, clutching her cold fingersFingers I’d held not so long ago during a riot in the park, a day that I’d decided to save her life, e’d gone fro rivals to friends

And suddenly I wished I’d listened to Brook when she’d warned ainst er by being here today I wasn’t the one who’d been injured

It was everyone else

So sound, and I set Sydney’s hand down reverently, once ertips over her cheek A final farewell

Zafir reached forme down the steps

I heard another click, this tilanced up to see aa ca most people owned, the camera It had been a luxury ite it here, in the streets, seeht take it fro photo after photo Instead, the guardto one of the soldiers near the top of the steps who rushed down and escorted the man away froes, or his photography equipment It wasn’t my concern at the moment

When we reached the botto the boy’s name--Phoenix--stopped us

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she said weepily, still forgetting to speak in Englaise as she clutched her s my son"