Violet sat at the table, avoiding eye contact as Bishop ate in front of her. Her mouth was full of stewed Jackalope meat. It was bland and tasteless, but if her mouth was full, Bishop couldn't ask her about last night. All day they had ignored the siren in the room, doing nothing but their daily routine; training, eating, preparing for their mission to Alfheim, and whatever chores had been forced on their backs but never talking about the siren.

Violet raised her eyes to meet Bishop, the temptation to speak almost unbearable as he met her gaze. He was staring back like a leatherback caught under a kitchen light, chewing slowly and tempting her to speak even more.

But she knew that it would do nothing. They had both seen what had happened, and no amount of recounting the details would make Em appear at the dinner table.

"Okay, so this is stupid."

Violet's head shot up as she swallowed another spoonful of stew. Bishop was glaring at her, not in anger, but with frustration at everything she had just sworn they wouldn't talk about.

"Are you serious?" The words flew in a heated jumble as she slapped her hand on the table, making the stew clatter dangerously close to the edge of the table. "We went all day without talking about it!"

"Which is really stupid!" Bishop shot back as fierce as the Giant Frostbreaths down in the dragon pens. "We know Em is in the medical wing, so why aren't we doing anything about it!?"

"Because we have things to do!" Violet felt the bitter lie on her tongue, but it was so much easier to swallow the sour taste than face the truth. "Fae just gave us the biggest mission of our student lives and we can't walk in unprepared!"

"Oh come on! We spent half the day polishing silverware! We had time to go see Em."

"He just had a freakout." She stated, the bitter lie taking over her mouth. "He's already been here for two years. It about time he started panicking."

"So he's been fine for two years and all of a sudden he's homesick and can't handle being part of The Guard?" Bishop leaned forward, his normally calm demeanor overtaken by frustration.

"Well, it's not an easy transition!" Violet knew she was only adding false evidence to her lie. She was lying to herself as much as she was lying to Bishop. "He was born in a human family, remember? The Guard couldn't recruit him like they could any normal moonshadower. They had to basically kidnap him just to talk to him! On top of that, they changed his entire biology to make him a better soldier and now he's surrounded by the threats! He was just a kid two years ago!"

"And so were we, but we never panicked like that!"

Violet felt her anger welling up inside of her at the sound of Bishop's voice, swelling and building like the monster she was designed to be. Her hand wrapped around the stew, the anger seeping through her bones. With a swift flick of her wrist, she sent it hurtling towards Bishop and stormed away.

"Stop throwing food at me!" Bishop's tone struck her back like a knife as she drew her eyes to the stone stairwell in front of her. "You're a master in three kinds of martial arts and archery, but you're fighting with cold stew!"