Hushed Willows But damn girl, since you've come around

Reverie went still, struggling with the impulse to deny his request. No part of her wanted to revisit that day. But the words wouldn't come; she studied him for a moment, taking in the imploring way he looked at her, and after a moment the full story began to spill from her.

She couldn't remember the last time Akavir had looked at her with anything but wariness, anger, confusion.

So she told him of how Kel had come to them with Akavir's name in his mouth, how she hadn't wanted the healer there at all but hadn't wanted to further the tension already between them. She told him, in hushed and hesitating tones, of the way Kel had questioned her and the way she'd started to panic, and how she'd tried to leave the den then. Kel had stopped her, held her there while she shrieked. A little shudder ran through her as she recalled her helplessness. He'd been so much stronger than her.

Reverie remembered little after that. She'd come back to herself slowly over the days that followed, but even then, her memories of that time and her flight from Swiftcurrent Creek were hazy at best. Still, she recounted what little she recalled: the fog and the constant trembling, how she'd been able to think of nothing but her own misery. Lestan's anger; his hurt, when she'd blamed him too for what Kel had done.

She realized belatedly that she'd started to cry somewhere in the telling of it, and turned her face away from Akavir to wipe her tears. We should never have left Swiftcurrent Creek, She finished miserably when her eyes found him again. We were - we were both unwell, and I was too young to know what I was doing. I wasn't much older than Mae when I had Blossom. But I thought... I thought I couldn't trust anyone else.