Still Breathing

Chapter 28

Ashes and Embers

The sun was high in the sky by the time the ringing in their ears stopped, the adrenaline fading to a bone-deep weariness. They had stumbled away from the burning facility, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the nightmares they'd left behind.

Now, huddled in the shade of a looming overpass, they finally allowed themselves a moment to breathe. To process the magnitude of what they'd just survived.

Rose watched as her friends tended to each other's wounds, a lump lodging in her throat. Nina was wrapping a makeshift bandage around a gash on Tobias's forearm, her usually steady hands shaking. Sebastian and James were taking inventory of their meager supplies, voices low and strained.

And Max...Max hadn't left Margot's side since they'd emerged into the daylight. He held her now, cradling her against his chest as if she were the most precious thing in the world. And in a way, Rose supposed, she was. They all were, to each other. The last remnants of a life that no longer existed, bound by the unbreakable ties of survival.

As if sensing her gaze, Max looked up, meeting her eyes over Margot's bent head. The raw, naked emotion she saw there stole her breath. Love, fear, grief, relief...all tangled together in a knot so thick it was almost tangible.

Slowly, carefully, he eased Margot back just far enough to cup her face in his hands. His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones, wiping away the tracks of her tears.

"I thought I lost you," he rasped, his voice cracking on the words. "When I couldn't get to you...I thought that was it. I thought I was going to have to watch you die."

Margot shook her head, fresh tears spilling over. "You saved me," she whispered. "You brought me back. Like you always do."

Max let out a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob. "I will always come for you, Margot. Always. No matter what."

And then he was kissing her, fierce and desperate, like a man drowning, and she was air. Margot clung to him just as tightly, her fingers fisting in his filthy, blood-stained shirt.

It was a kiss born of terror and relief, of the bone-deep knowledge of how close they'd come to losing each other. A reaffirmation of the love that had kept them fighting, kept them breathing through the darkest of nights.

Rose looked away, her own eyes stinging. She felt like an intruder, a voyeur to a moment too intimate, too raw for public consumption. But at the same time, she couldn't help the flicker of warmth that kindled in her chest.

Because this...this was what they were fighting for. These small, shining moments of connection amidst the ruins. The love, the humanity that even the darkest of hells couldn't stamp out.

Sebastian's arm slipped around her waist, tugging her close against his side. She went willingly, gratefully, breathing in the solid, steadying scent of him.

"We're going to be okay," he murmured into her hair, so soft she almost didn't catch it. "We're going to make it through this."

Rose turned into him, pressing her face into the crook of his neck. "How can you be so sure?" she asked, hating the waver in her voice. "After everything we've seen, everything we've lost...how can you still have faith?"

Sebastian was quiet for a long moment, his breath ruffling her hair. Then, gently, he pulled back just far enough to look down at her, one hand coming up to cradle her cheek.

"Because we're still here," he said simply. "Despite everything this nightmare has thrown at us, all the horrors and heartbreaks...we're still standing. Still fighting."

His thumb traced the delicate skin beneath her eye, the touch achingly tender. "And as long as we have each other...as long as we hold onto what makes us human...they can't beat us. Not really."

Rose felt the truth of his words settle into her bones, shoring up the crumbling foundations of her hope. He was right. As long as they had this - this fierce, defiant love burning at the heart of them - the darkness could never truly win.

They would keep going. Keep fighting. For Chris, for all the friends and family they'd lost. For the chance to build something new from the ashes.

Together. Always together.

She stretched up on her toes, pressing a soft, sweet kiss to Sebastian's lips. A promise, a vow.

No matter what came next...they would face it as one.

Around them, the others were stirring, the spell of the moment broken by the demands of survival. They had wounds to dress, supplies to gather, plans to make.

But as Rose looked around at these faces, these brave, battered souls that had become her entire world...she felt a flicker of something that might almost have been hope.

They had a long road ahead of them. A fight that was far from over.

But they also had each other. A family forged in the fire.

And in the end...that might just be enough to see them through.