If it hadn't been for the Embers, I might have rolled over and died from heartbreak. But one of them was always with me, just being there while I cried. Several times I woke up to find Alora sleeping next to me, her face pale and lined with exhaustion, her hands clutching at the bottom of the tank top that I wore. Mariko slept beside me, too, except I always ended up clinging to her so tightly that she had to pry my arms off of her when it was time for her to get up. Dani never lay down with me, but on the rare occasion that the others were gone she would kneel beside the bed and rest her head in her hands and cry. I never let on that I was sometimes awake when that happened because I knew my presence, especially if she thought I was asleep, was somehow comforting to her.