"Man, Ravyn made the whole situation ten times worse. He said it was proof of what he'd always thought about you. That you were inconsistent and couldn't be trusted. He claimed that was the reason he never really liked you in the first place."
Voren's expression stayed mostly the same but something in his eyes got a little colder when he mentioned it.
"I told myself you probably needed some space. That I was crowding you too much, and maybe if I just stepped back and gave you room to breathe, things would eventually find their way back to normal. So I left again. And this time I stayed gone for years."
Seraphine stayed completely still on her back beside him on the bed, staring up at the ceiling right alongside him like they were both watching the same old movie playing out above them.
"When I came back," Voren continued. "It was even worse than before."
He let that hang there for a second before he kept going with the story.
