She nodded over to the chair that Soren was sitting on. His head rested against his shoulders, body relaxed, almost like he was about to slump out of the chair completely. I shook my head fondly, realizing he hadn’t wanted to climb over me in order to get to bed, lest it disrupt my sleep.

That was it. I had to tell him about this after tonight. I trusted him with my emotions, my trauma, I swear I did. I knew something had been holding me back from telling him. And I knew that he would be upset, maybe even angry, that I didn’t tell him about what was going on while the others knew for months. Keeping this secret needed to end.

Taking a deep breath, I creeped across the room and toward the door. Diaval made a “hurry up” motion with her hand, eyes rolling so far they were practically in the back of her head. We exited the room and quietly shut the door, and she let out a huff of exasperation.

“Honestly, I offer my time and services, and I’m nearly stood up by you having a nap.” She flicked her fingers, taking off the sting of the words. “Poor Soren’s gonna have a backache for days.”

“Sorry,” I said. “He told me a story and I fell asleep.”

Diaval raised an eyebrow. “A story? Color me impressed.”

This time I rolled my eyes. “Just because you have zero faith in the entire male population doesn’t mean everyone does.”

“I resent that,” Diaval argued. “I have zero faith in everyone equally.”

I decided not to continue down that rabbit hole, lest I tear my hair out. I was already possibly going to confront one of the things that’d caused me immense trauma for a hundred years, in a way that didn’t involve ripping his guts out, and I couldn’t let my emotions go so unchecked already.

Instead, I let Diaval lead me to the courtyard, marveling at how quiet the palace was at night. The once-white marble was now a shiny black with not even the moonlight reflecting from its stone. Soren’s household in the palace was relatively small as it was, making it not so loud during the day, but at night, I could hear a pin drop. Everyone was asleep or getting there. I wondered, for those thralls that stayed and converted, did they ever have a night when they could sleep without fear of murder, before we came?