Her hand stays at Lakshmi's cheek, not needing to be held in place, but so glad for the contact that she's sure she should condemn herself for it.

"You said this place was a prison." Or maybe she didn't speak it in such words, but the sentiment had been close enough. "And that leaves me as good as your jailer."

That had hurt almost as deeply as all the rest, but those things felt too difficult to speak of for now, how Lakshmi had raked her claws right across her belly and the wounds did not feel even close to healing. "And you have— this temper."

A monstrous temper, it seemed like, that made her ready to tear the people she cared for to ribbons.