"I'm sorry, honey," he said wretchedly, new tears rolling down his cheeks. "God . . . I'm so sorry." He moved his hand across the mattress, extending it to Rose and Aille. "I . . . promise." He met their eyes, their beautiful faces blurred by his tears. Let the Voice give him warts and hives and bleeding sores. Let it do whatever it wanted to him. He didn't care. He wasn't going to put his family through this torment again.

"Never again." His heart cried out it's anguish to the Voice as well as to them. He was tired of being the chosen one. He was tired of hurting the ones he loved. And being hurt.