By order of Elias, Varren, and the poor nurse from the infirmary who was the first to be greeted with the sight of me unconscious and bloody, I was to rest. Some might even call it confinement. Imprisonment.

When Bren and I had said goodbye, he'd told me see you soon. I'd promised Seraya and Reverie I would give them the gossip when I returned. I had fully intended that to mean I'd see them the next school day.

Unfortunately, I was a prisoner of coddling. My bed was my prison, and what an inescapable prison it was.

The first night I returned home, I crashed immediately in that bed not knowing I would never get to leave again (and in spite of the fact that all I had done prior was sleep). In the morning, Yvonne brought me breakfast on a tray and sat with me while I ate. All was well until Elias barged in—clean, combed, and shaved this time. My excitement at seeing him had since fizzled out. I knew what always followed disaster: questioning.

I stuffed a bite of sausage in my mouth, eyeing him warily. The fork was unusually heavy in my hand. Yvonne had changed the bandages earlier, but I hadn't had the strength to look at the wound. Her little cringe at the sight told me more than I needed to know. She hadn't commented on the bruise forming where Vesper had punched my jaw, but I'd glimpsed it briefly in the mirror the night before and hated it. Faint pink and red, promising a nasty purplish-green later.

Elias was less delicate. He nodded at the cut with disdain. "Varren told me it had to be stitched."

I tried not to wrinkle my nose at the fact that, in a school full of magic healers, no one had treated my wounds with magic. I failed, of course—and Elias took notice. Of course.

Folding his arms, he paced about my room. There was plenty of space to roam now that the floor had been cleaned. He stopped by the desk where I'd laid the stone flower and studied it. "I was also informed the assailant used magic against you to alter your memories and perception of your surroundings."

Yvonne tensed. I looked away. "It was nothing dire. More of a small suggestion."

"The spell had to be undone. You're lucky you faced no permanent consequences."

"You don't know that."

"Celestine." His voice hardened in a way purely meant to chastise me. It didn't hide the slight quiver to it. "This attack was planned and purposeful. It is this sort of thing that I am here to prevent—"

"But you weren't here, were you?" I snapped.

Elias had always guarded his expression religiously. Rarely ever did he let me see anything but what he wanted to be seen. He could play a different sort of man, but he could never change. However, this time, a small crack appeared in the mask he liked to wear. He shifted his focus to Yvonne, pulling away from the pale red flower.

Rather than help him, she stood. She smoothed out her skirts, gathered up my old bandages and dirty dishes, then headed for the door. "I'll leave the two of you alone." It closed behind her with such finality that both Elias and I deflated.

We stared at each other like a pair of agitated hawks. First to move would get ambushed, then we'd both go down. Better to circle and wait.

Elias sighed and rubbed a hand over his face with such weariness that I regretted imagining him as a cunning and vicious predator. He grabbed the chair from my desk and hauled it to my bedside. When he sat, it was with the heaviness of a man who knew no rest—the kind of collapsing exhaustion that left me wondering how he had been on his feet until then.

"You have every right to be angry," he said, gaze low for once. "The things that have been done to you are cruel, unfair, and unjust. I regret my part in them—I truly do, even if you will never believe that. I am sorry for the way you have suffered. I am sorry that I wasn't here when I could have helped you. I am sorry that your blood is on my hands."

I hesitated, surprised to find my anger numbed. I'd imagined countless things I would say to him when he finally tried to apologize, all the sorts of mean, thorny things I could muster. I'd imagined it would feel good to deny him his apology, yet here I was. Numb.

The anger wasn't gone, but it was lessened. The embers of it still glowed. I steeled myself."Your words are pretty, but what merit do they have? They won't change anything."

"If you will allow me the opportunity, I want to make amends for the future. You are my ward, Celestine, for better or for worse."

"You didn't choose that. I was dumped on you the same way I was dumped into everything else about this. Do you know what my uncle told me? My mother will suffer if I fail, and I was only chosen because I'm easy to control. I bet at the end of my six months—success or not—he'll have me killed off for real!" My voice hitched, the frail thing. I blinked against my rising tears. I need someone who won't be missed, the king had said. I put those words away with everything else.

Elias pursed his lips, his frown darkening. "That won't happen," he said.

"You don't know that!"

"It won't happen."

I clamped my mouth shut, abruptly ending whatever argument I had started to form. The air prickled with his promise. The hollow, pulsing magic inside me soothed. Slowly, I too relaxed, and I nodded at him. The least I could do was open the door like he asked, pull back my thorns and let him breathe. "Fine," I relented. "Thank you for your apology."

Satisfied, he clapped his hands against his knees and stood. "If that is all, it is about time for me to pick up an item I commissioned."

I clicked my tongue against my teeth. "Leaving again so soon?"

"It is a relatively quick errand, but it will take me out of this town. Away from the academy." He walked to my window, arms folded again. "It's only for a few days—I must go to Bevuin, you see."

My heart skipped. Bevuin. The jewelry shop. Mother. "You're a cruel man."

To my surprise, he chuckled. He was smiling when he turned to me. It was such a foreign thing that I was taken aback, momentarily distracted from his answer. When I came to, I realized he had said, "You could come with me if you'd like."

My skin flushed as the embers stirred to life again. "You know I can't. I'm confined to rest. The house is my prison and all that. Not to mention that if my uncle finds out, I'll be punished for it. He'll see this as running away."

"I'm not going to tell him," Elias said. "As far as he and the school know, you will be resting. Just not here."

I puzzled through his proposal for any sort of trick, some way that I would wind up in trouble and he would benefit. All roads led back to the remorse in his face. There had been no lie in his apology. I studied him. "You're telling the truth?"

"I am."

"Then I will go with you." To Bevuin. To Mother. To home. I was going home.

This time, it was contagious when he smiled at me. The light touched his eyes. The trouble between us was momentarily forgotten. "We can leave whenever you're ready."

They'll work things out. Slowly :)