It's a start. There's something almost alarming about the way Jason sits, hunched, as though trying to keep everything about the room from caving in and overwhelming him. For the first time, I'm able to look upon him with some measure of calm, noting all of the years that he's skipped by entirely, the way that they leave him looking young. You can force a boy to become a man under the right circumstances. You can force him to stand tall, to look fear in the eye and drown out his own, but you can't force the growth to be even. Under that type of pressure, there will always be areas that fall short.

I can't even begin to count them in myself. But you make sacrifices, and given the opportunity to start at the beginning of the path again, I'm not sure there are many turns I'd take differently.

"You have people willing to go to great lengths to keep me from coming down here," I admit, glancing over my shoulder, ignoring the throb in my side. No one else here yet. "So why are you alone in this room?"