"Have you ever done something you truly regret?" Chaol asked, his bronze eyes flickering in the candlelight of her bedroom.
"What kind of something?" Celaena asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. He knew she didn't like those kind of questions, but she'd answer them anyway.
"Like hurting someone, or letting them go." He leaned a little closer to her, tucking a strand of her silver-blonde hair back behind her ear.
"Sam. Everything I held back from him, and left until it was too late. I regret that more than anything." Her voice grew soft at the end, almost cracking on the last two words.
"Aside from Sam," Chaol said. "I know you loved him, and you left some things until it was too late, but you have to have done something else you regret."
Celaena was silent for a moment, and her ringed eyes almost seemed to empty of any emotion in that silence.
"Yes," she said, her voice as hollow as her eyes. "There's a girl I once knew. I hurt her in ways you can hardly imagine. I first met her when she came to Arobynn for training, and the next time I saw her was when he sent me after her. Not to kill her," she said hurriedly at Chaol's slightly shocked expression, "but to capture her and bring her back to the Keep. She owed Arobynn a great deal of money, and he knew she had it, but she'd hidden it somewhere. He wanted me to force the location out of her. And then I saw her again, and-" Her eyes grew more horrified with every word until Chaol laid a calloused but gentle hand on her cheek that snapped her back into reality as she choked on her words.
"Tell me everything."