Aria woke to the feeling of being stared at. The lamp was turned up again, and she blinked for a moment before she realized that Niall was sitting on the other side of the circle of light, his blue eyes on her face.

“Hello,” she said tentatively. “My name is Aria. I don’t think I said it last night, if it was night.”

His eyes flicked away and then back to her before he nodded.

“You understand English, don’t you?”

He nodded again. She sat up. He looked a little better after sleeping, the dark circles under his eyes fading. The red rings and underlying bruises around his wrists and ankles were much fainter, too. Owen’s singing had helped, then, though it couldn’t heal his tongue.

“Where is Owen?”

His mouth twitched, and then he picked up a notebook and pen and wrote. He turned it to show her. You should refer to him as Lord Owen.

“Oh.” She considered a moment. “I’m sorry. He didn’t tell me.” Those blue eyes on hers seemed a little softer. “I’m sorry about what they did.” He stared at her, and she felt suddenly that she was being measured.

He went to get food.

“Good. I’m hungry, and I bet you are, too.” She smiled, trying to lighten the mood, but he merely stared at her. “When did you last eat? Well, how often do you normally eat? Owen, I mean Lord Owen, didn’t seem to need to eat every day.” The title felt awkward and strange in her mouth, but she thought she would oblige him until Owen came back and made his wishes known.

Normally we eat every three or four days. They fed me once a month. After considering her face a moment, he added, Grenidor lies.

“Did you hear us last night?”

Only the part where you accused Lord Owen of being a murderer. He wrote the words with irritated force, then glanced up at her again.

“That’s not what I meant! I just wanted to hear the truth.” She was going to keep justifying herself, as thin as the words sounded, but he started writing again.

Grenidor is one of the directors of the experiment program. He devises the tortures that are inflicted on our people. He turned the paper around so she could see it with an angry flourish, then stopped to add, If you cannot believe Lord Owen’s word over Grenidor’s, you are the stupidest human I have ever met.

She winced. “You’re right. It was stupid. I’m sorry, and I owe him an apology.”

He scowled at her, only slightly mollified.

“How old are you?”