"I must admit to being unclear on why you insisted my brother lie to me," Alastair told her. "Sylphs are entirely fictional here. You are in no danger, and knowing ahead of time that you are not human but do not know your own powers would have helped us be more prepared to host you."

"I thought you just turned into a cloud of smoke like that lady Bells banged and I didn't get why Gray was being so cagey about it," Raiden admitted. Oh, look, all the candy was gone now.

"Gray and I are going to be having a conversation about need-to-know information," Alastair declared as he stood up, and if Gray looked extremely miserable about that, the good news was that it wasn't Arden's fault. The bad news was that he couldn't exactly explain that to Arden at present.