I sighed and pressed my fingers together. I wanted to trust him, but he’d burned me before. “If you’re doing this just to manipulate me, then I’m going to make your life debt literal and kill you. You know that, right?”

He flinched and bowed his head. “I am sorry that I’ve given you reason to doubt my honor so thoroughly. It is an error I intend to fix, starting now. Ask me anything and I will answer.”

I didn’t even hesitate. “Did you know the empress planned to kill me when you asked me to take the job?”

“No. But after we arrived, Nilo informed me that he’d been hearing whispers about something happening in less than two weeks, which is why I urged you to work quickly. I did not know the full extent of those plans until yesterday morning when I spoke to Empress Nepru. Chira and I both tried to talk her out of it.”

I did the mental math. Yesterday morning was after we’d investigated the garage and the route the kidnappers had taken. The tight knot of hurt unclenched in my chest. He hadn’t known that the empress was going to kill me when he’d kissed me.

“How did you get her to promise to let me go if I found your nephew?”

Torran gave me a grim smile. “I have a few levers of my own, things she would not like to be made public. I will not say more than that.”

I drummed my fingers on the table. “If I ask you to do something, do you have to because of the debt?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“What if it’ll make me happy?”

His expression softened. “Your happiness is my goal, but the debt doesn’t require me to do anything against my will. I might choose to do something that will make you happy, but it’s still my choice.”

I let out a slow breath, relieved. I could deal with the debt as long as I knew that he was free to make his own choices. “What did you say after you recklessly cut yourself?”

“Cho wubr chil tavoz. My life is yours.”

“That doesn’t sound like you have much of a choice,” I said with a frown. “What am I supposed to do with you? Do I need to look after you or something? Is there a manual for this stuff?”

Torran’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he fought to keep a straight face. “I’m not a pet. I can look after myself. There’s no manual because you don’t need to do anything. I am here to look after you.” He leaned back in his chair. I thought it was meant to make him look nonthreatening, but it emphasized the breadth of his shoulders and the hard planes of his chest.