Carina

Elias nodded. "How long were you planning on staying with him before you left with me?"

"Derik..." Elias repeated. "Is...?"

Elias paused to take this all in. So this was how Jerica ended up at Aerik's. Femola caught her and tried to feed her to the dragon thinking she would ...

Elias pursed his lips in thought. "How long were you supposed to be a prisoner there?" he asked. "And is that why... everyone attacked you? Because you're supposed to be ...

Elias had to do a double-take. " Prisoner ?" he repeated in disbelief. "That..." He scratched the side of his head with scrunched eyebrows like he was trying to piece ...

Mel scrunched her nose. "Well, I actually am, so..." she mumbled, mostly to herself. It was ironic, yes, but it didn't mean she didn't know her reds from greens, especially ...

Elias nodded slowly, trying to understand. Jerica took orders from the king to assassinate people, but she felt safe with Aerik. Did that mean she ran away? Was that Femola ...

Mel wished she could remember more of history. She only remembered the Modern Age leading up to how powers were developed, and before that, she only remembered learning about archaic ...

Mel shrugged when Elias turned down her suggestion for a robe. "Suit yourself," she said, and then slung the bag across her shoulder again. The four of them continued to ...

"Well, were you safe with Aerik?" Elias asked. "No fights?"

Elias mused his next thoughts out loud. "I think you'd probably still yell a lot," he said idly. "But always come from a good place."

"That's okay," Elias said patiently. "You've got a lot of time to figure that out. I can also be patient..." He paused, letting out a small playful smile. "Sometimes."

"Well, you don't need to hide it from me," Elias said gently, trying to look and sound as empathetic as possible. "I know we don't know each other that well, ...

Elias nodded, but he had to stop himself because he didn't want to give off signs that he had picked up on this. "It's a defense mechanism," he said. "We ...

"No one wants to," he agreed. "But sometimes we have to."