She sees his face change, and she smiles a little, though it's a half-broken expression. "Jeff won't even call him my dad. He just calls him 'That Man,' and I'm pretty okay with that."

Athena hugs herself in lieu of his being able to do it. "God... They just picked whatever we'd fucking hate most for people to see, huh."

She can't help thinking of Kirigan (the Darkling), of Jeff's own memory, of the nightmares in the interim.

Athena bites her lip. She promised Kirigan. She did. But it's Raylan, and if she can arm him against possible future attack...

"Kirigan hates regular people. I mean... I don't know if that's true any more, his memory, he said it was from hundreds of years ago, but..." She takes a deep breath. "I promised I wouldn't say what it was, but Raylan, if he doesn't have a reason to help people against the Shadow Man and Mathias... he won't."

She scrubs her hands through her hair. "And I understand why he won't," she adds softly. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to."