The smile she gives him in return is small and tinged with sadness. "I don't have anything to offer in return for such kindness," she says softly. "I promised to protect you before and I couldn't even do that. I just..."

She looks away from him, resting her chin on her knees and sighing. "I wasn't close enough to do anything before. But you have a bodyguard, you don't... you don't need a friend following you everywhere. too. But even if I'd been there, I can't protect you from anything magical. The best I could do is offer myself as a shield - and even that might not be enough."

She's dancing around another subject, one she isn't ready to talk about yet. Not now. Not so soon after losing everything she'd worked so hard for. "I feel like I was supposed to meet you," she says after a moment of silence, "but I'm afraid of getting too close. I don't want to get to know you just to be told to stay away when your family finds out I'm... normal." Because to a family as powerful and rich in magic as his, a girl with no family, no history, and no magic in her blood means nothing.