War broke out inside me, the need to go after Zeon and tear him to pieces fighting with my mother's instinct to protect my son, to comfort and cradle him against what the maji leader just did to hurt my precious baby.
Mommy won, partly because of Max.
"It is irrelevant what Zeon thinks," he said, voice low and subdued. "Only Gabriel matters now."
I really was a horrible parent. My son spun, his back to me, arms over his head, little spine hunched as he tried to hide between his own knees. His entire body shook with silent grief and the moment I bent to touch him he jerked away from me, pulling himself into an even tighter knot.
It didn't help when I looked up both Fates were turned toward me, sadness on their matching faces.
"Forgive us our selfishness," Sister Fate said. "Gabriel should never have been exposed to any of this. Perhaps we were wrong and he is simply too young."