"I don't know if it's sense so much as stubbornness and denial," Krem admitted, a bit candid. Not getting caught up in his past made it so much easier to not let his past be too much a danger to him. It meant it wasn't a thing that could injure or torment him. It wasn't a thing that could touch him.

But he had still punched Dorian straight across the mouth that first fight club. Had still frozen in the midst of wrestling Thomas on the beach. He still flinched and retreated when men tried to hand him things too quickly, or pass things around him, or when women raised their voices too rapidly around him. These were things ingrained in his bones and his muscles now, as much as his swordplay was.

"I suppose so, for most of us."