I laughed once, a sharp sound. "He made damn sure everyone would hear about it," I said. "It was maybe the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and that's saying a lot."

"If you hadn't already taken him to pieces with military precision, I would have given our prince a piece of my mind," he said with a sigh, and squeezed my hand. "Do you hate him now?"

"No," I said, looking down at his hands over mine, my other arm still wrapped around my chest. "Maybe I should, but I don't. Why were you mad at him?"

"Leah," he said, sounding injured.

I looked up at him, startled, to see Alluin giving me a chiding look.

"Dain has never done something like that before," he said. "He made some foolish decisions about level of force when he was young and first carving out a space for himself, but until last week, he had never killed someone for the sake of revenge." Alluin shook his head. "The courtiers have a dark opinion of him, and he's killed enough of them for trying to kill him that I suppose it's well-earned. But that? Don't insult me by imagining I would be happy with a friend of mine taking brutal, public revenge on his enemies."

Flushing, I looked back down at our hands again. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Good," Alluin said. "I might have been less... thorough, shall we say, than you were in my rebuke. He has, after all, never had to experience the terror of losing someone he loves. But he handled it piss-poorly."

"He has you and Zhiolas," I pointed out. "And both of you are soldiers."

Alluin squeezed my fingers. "You're a smart woman, Leah, so don't play stupid. Not only did Dain get to know us with the understanding that we sometimes put our lives at risk, but we are only his friends, however dear." He gave me a look that would have been at home on the face of any teacher. "You're his soulmate. Wherever the two of you settle, if you settle, will be pure and perfect, that emotion honed to its greatest potential. The two of you have been chasing affection. Don't ever think that he doesn't love you in a way far different from how he loves us."

My shoulders sagged. "I know," I said softly. "I just don't know what to do about it."

"His affection, or how he handled his fear of losing you?"

"Both, I guess," I said, making a face as I looked back up into his kind eyes. "But the second one is a lot more pressing, and answers a lot of the first one."

With a soft laugh and a smile, Alluin gave my hands a little shake. "You already made quite the impression on our prince. Have you been paying any attention at all to what's happening outside these four walls?"