When a strong man, in all seriousness, promises to turn the guts of your offenders, then words and tears somehow begin to pour out on their own.

As the cat told me, I sat pressed against Lucius's chest and cried so desperately that it seemed to me that the whole world was now collapsing around from my grief. I don't know how he endured this terrible flood of emotions. Someone pour them out to me so desperately that I would not be able to digest them for a long time.

“Tiiiho, doll,” the satyr whispered, stroking my hair and wiping the tears from my face while I laid out to...