"You idiot!" Snowcloud looked at Arran with tear-filled eyes. "I thought you had died!"

Arran didn't respond. She had repeated variations on the same words at least a dozen times in just the past half hour, and by now, he understood there was nothing he could say that would make a difference.

When he returned to the castle, he had expected her to be angry, even furious. What he had not expected was for her to hug him while nearly crying her eyes out.

In Arran's view, this was considerably worse than anything he'd been prepared for. Her anger, he could weather. But this, he had no idea how to handle. It was clear his absence had hurt her, and that she had spent the weeks he was gone in worry, fretting that he had died or been captured.

He had apologized, of course, but it seemed an apology wasn't what she wanted. As for what she did want, Arran had no idea.

Part of him blamed Ston