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His eyes misted as he lifted her into his arms. “It should have been me. That laser was meant for me—”
His voice faltered, and he shook his head to clear his vision. A smear of blood glistened on her lips...a stain on perfection and evidence of his own negligence.
“Please...”
He should have prevented this. Somehow, he should have prevented it! He ran his fingers through the mass of flame-colored hair, golden highlights gleaming in the Phidian sunshine. He buried his face in its softness and held her close to his heart, hoping that somehow his words might filter through to her subconscious mind, as her life slowly ebbed away. “Forgive me, Jess. I love you. I always will...always. I could never tell you how much.”
An instinctive sense of danger pierced his grief. He whirled and rolled over his shoulder, just in time to avoid the laser aimed at his back. The blaster he picked up from close to where Jess had fallen made short and bloody work of his would-be assassin, but it seemed even Jess's last moments were to be denied him. He was compelled to leave her and concentrate on destroying the assailants who came at him from all sides.
If they could still rout Ayandos's men and free the Phidians, Jess would not have died for nothing.