"I think… she's been watching us," he said. "Since the roof. That she'd noticed—" he chose the word carefully, and hated that he was choosing, "—things about me."
It was true. All of it was true.
It was also about a fifth of it.
Kori studied him a moment longer than was comfortable. Then she nodded slowly, reached and gripped his forearm once — hard, brief, the way she did instead of saying several sentences.
"Thanks for telling me," she said. "Obviously, that was not an easy thing to say."
"Huh?" Raizen frowned, trying to look away.
"I know how Lay is – how she scrambles your own words until you're confused yourself."
"The entire thing confused me as well-" Raizen started, but Kori didn't let him finish.
"-I don't think she's a bad person after all. Maybe a few misunderstandings got us here, that's all."
Then slowly, her head turned toward the stairs leading up to the attic.
