Something in him trembled; his feathers puffed, then smoothed again as he swallowed hard.
"I mean—" he corrected quickly, wing snapping toward the bundled sparrow. "*That* one. You shouldn't be walking around with that jinx."
Kaya looked at the injured, unknown bird. Then back at him.
"Speak," she said.
No please. No softness. Just a command.
He let out a long breath through his beak.
"You got attacked, right?" he said. "Something happened that you don't usually do. Something that felt… wrong, but you had to do it anyway."
Her fingers twitched at her side.
Images slid through her head: gun kicking in her hand, bodies dropping in the corridor, the number of bullets she'd fired without thinking about the count, the way her blood had burned when it touched stone.
She didn't answer.
He kept going.
