"I guess," Noah said, even though he felt anything but. He wanted to be. He wanted the other day to have never happened. He felt better, though, bolstered, now that Cremisius was here.

"It's like I shut down. Like...I went to sleep and I just woke up." He'd had no time to process anything, he just wasn't and now he was, and he felt terrible that he couldn't hold on to at least make sure Cremisius hadn't been too badly injured. He couldn't help also wondering what Ronan had been doing for the past two days, if he would even notice Noah's absence, if he really didn't want to see him again.

"I'm sorry. About what Ronan did," he added, miserably.