were blue. Really blue. Like the sea when it is about to rain. And he was — he was asking me, not with words. Just his eyes. And I could not leave him. I do not know why. I could not leave him.”

Aleandro let a long moment pass before he spoke. He said it the way a man lays down a weapon he no longer wants to hold.

“Those blue eyes are looking at you now.”

Clare’s hand went to her mouth. The paperback dropped, forgotten, onto the floor between