listen to my aching heart

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?

Rexanna shifted how she was sat; if Sam squinted so he couldn't quite see the holes were her eyes had once been, she almost looked normal. But he could hardly stand there and squint the whole time, so he went to sit by her, gently so he did not move the bed too much.

The way she spoke of him was like a disappointed mother, but not the way his own mother had once been. Had this conversation been with her, he knew it would have started with something like It's things like these that make me wonder if a pathetic coward like you could be my son, Samuel. No, Rexanna was gentler, but he still curled into himself as she said he was mad, ashamed to have hurt someone he respected.

Her request made him tilt his head, surprised. Would she not want her husband, someone more comforting than himself? He had wanted to take Nate to the Voice after Long Night, but he supposed that could wait, if it meant he could atone himself to Rexanna. Anxiously he took in a breath, thinking it all over, then nodded. "Yes, I could do that. I'm...sure The Voice will have words for me too..."

Sam sighed, lightly tapping along his ruined knuckles. "...You...um...do you understand what I was trying to do? I know it was a stupid idea but I didn't mean for things to go like this."

Samuel

Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change?