“I’m in love with you, Vi. If I hurt you, the way these others had, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Making you think I was like your family, like you couldn’t live up to my standards, it was the only way I could inspire you to train hard, to hold your own against me. I thought”—he licked his lips—“I thought if I gave you something to focus that rage on, you’d let your warrior out again. Just like you did when we first met.”
