My frown grew until I felt like my face was going to be stuck like that. “Do I even want to know what that means?”

“Probably not.” He was closer now, no more than a foot away. “I get it.”

“Get what?”

Zayne’s pale gaze caught mine. “I get why it takes hours for you to fall asleep.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how he was aware of that.

“And I get why you’re so angry.”

Drawing in a sharp breath, I took a step back from Zayne, as if I could put physical distance between what he was saying and me. “I’m not...” I shook my head, not wanting to get into this conversation with him. “I’m not angry. I’m actually hungry.”

“Really?” he replied dryly.

I arched an eyebrow. “Why do you sound like you don’t believe me?”

“Maybe because you ate two hot dogs from a street vendor less than an hour ago.”

“Hot dogs aren’t very filling. Everyone knows that.”

“You also ate fries and half of my falafel.”

“I did not eat half of it! I had, like, a bite of it,” I argued, even though I’d had two...or three bites. “I’d never had a falafel before and I was curious. Not like you can find them in the hills of West Virginia.”

“Trin.”

“And beating the crap out of the Raver in an inhumane and indecent manner burns a lot of calories. Whatever I ate has been used up and I’m now in a caloric deficiency. I’m starving.”

He crossed his arms. “I don’t think that’s how calories work.”

I ignored that. “We can go back to that place and get you another falafel,” I said, starting past him. “I might get one myself. Then we can falafel together.”

Zayne caught my arm, stopping me. The warmth from his hand and the jolt of the contact was unnerving. “You know you can talk to me, right? About anything, anytime. I’m here for you. Always.”

A lump formed in my throat, and I didn’t dare look at him as I felt the drawers start to rattle again.

Talk to him?

About anything?

Like how I hadn’t really known Misha? Hadn’t known that a man I’d loved like a brother had not only hated my guts but had orchestrated my mother’s murder? Tell him how I hated Misha for all he’d done, but somehow still missed him? How I wanted desperately to believe that the bond had been responsible, or that it had been the demon Aym or this Harbinger creature that had caused Misha to do such horrible things? Did Zayne think I could tell him that what I feared most was that maybe the darkness in Misha had always existed and I’d never seen it, because I’d always, always been so wrapped up in myself?