At least Iris was looking better than she had when Caspian had last seen her. He noticed that the color had returned to her face, and she was grinning with her usual cheery energy rather than looking like she was going to lose her lunch. He was relieved that she didn’t seem to be upset with him for taking off so suddenly after they’d had such a good time in the historic district. He felt like he’d done plenty of things worthy of being scolded even though most of it had been out of his control. The near kiss had been by choice. He still wished he could go back in time and hit himself for being so stupid. Trying to make a move on an amnesiac girl was [i]weird[/i]. No matter how he looked at it, he should have waited for her to get her memories back before he tried doing something like that.

Coming back from his distracted thoughts, he cleared his throat and returned her smile. [color=#b97703]“I was just coming by to ask you that,”[/color] he said, stepping into her bedroom when she moved aside to let him through the open doorway. [color=#b97703]“I’m okay, but I’m pretty beat. We ended up covering security details for hours.”[/color] He couldn’t say much more than that, since everything the council had discussed was confidential. Iris didn’t strike him as the type to abuse the information if he confided in her, but he wasn’t allowed to tell her anything anyway. The fewer people knew about the military’s security methods, the safer they would all be in this civil war.

Ambling over to the sofa, he collapsed tiredly on the cushioned furniture and looked over the room. Although Iris didn’t have many belongings, he could tell that she had made herself at home since she’d moved in. There was just something different about sitting in a room that hosted an occupant than one that had been empty. It was warmer somehow. But, then again, maybe that was because everything about her felt warm to him.

He glanced up at her and gestured for her to sit down on the other side of the sofa, so they could talk without gazing at each other from different heights. He couldn’t go into detail about the changes they had made to the security in the capital, but there was still one thing he could tell her about.

[color=#b97703]“At the end of the meeting, we received word that the prisoners escaped,”[/color] he sighed, sinking down in his seat as the weight of Jacob’s news seemed to bear down on his shoulders. [color=#b97703]“They got out of their cell and are supposedly somewhere in the city. If you see or hear anything that sends up a red flag to you, tell one of the guards right away. These people are dangerous, Iris.”[/color] He frowned at her solemnly. [color=#b97703]“Although I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that, since…”[/color] He trailed off, remembering what she had told him about her mother. From the memory she’d regained, he’d concluded that her mother had been a casualty in the fight against the Scourge.

Not wanting to touch a raw nerve, he changed the subject. [color=#b97703]“Anyway, what have you been up to?”[/color] he asked, offering her a somewhat forced smile as he tried to lift the mood. [color=#b97703]“Did you ever get your appetite back for dinner?”[/color]