"You're right," he tells her, letting her flash and flare and scold at the heartless workings of what she calls ka and what he's always known as fate, the thing even the Lion Himself could not and would not avoid. "It isn't fair, and you're right to be furious. You've never done a thing to deserve this pain, and of course I don't think your friends deserve it either."

He presses his mouth against her hair, holding her close. "But if we can't stop it, and we can't fight it, then I'm glad, very glad, that you aren't standing alone to face it."