(Isla)
I left the library after he did.
Not immediately. I stayed in the chair for a while after his footsteps faded down the corridor and looked at the space where he had been sitting and turned over what he had said.
The bond is real. Nothing happens that you don't choose.
I had expected the careful version. The measured words of a man managing a situation. What I hadn't expected was the honesty underneath it. That he had admitted it cost him something. That the idea of never claiming it was not something he found easy. And then in the same breath had said but what I want doesn't override what you need.
I put the book on the shelf and went downstairs.
The kitchen was past breakfast but I hadn't eaten yet and Dena saw me come in and without a word put bread and fruit on a plate and
