[Nothing happened, she says. But of course something happened, just by looking at the way she reacts. The other side of him may be too dense to even understand things like romance, but this Alfendi realizes, with a feeling like lead sinking to the bottom of his throat, what exactly it may mean.]

[He opens his mouth, looking a bit shocked, disappointed even, but doesn't say a word. Now's not the time to ask about that. Whatever went on between them happened. It's in the past. Right now, with a murder that will certainly happen tomorrow, with a target painted so brilliantly on Elizabeth's back...he has to find the remaining pieces of that little group and extinguish them. It's the only way to get this whole charade of a game to stop.]

Thanks, Elizabeth. [Those words mean more to him than he can say. He's a mad man who somehow has not made himself the subject of a witch hunt in other people's eyes. He's grateful for that. He's...grateful for her, some semblance of an island in the middle of this metaphorical chaotic sea.]

[And then she reveals that, the wound in her side, and his eyes widen when he realizes the implications.]

Shit. [He didn't even think of that. It should've been obvious, considering that most of them got stabbed in places that would be excruciatingly painful. And yet Bigby was up and ready to tear the poor person's throat out when he was attacked. It was obvious, why didn't he think of that before? Was he that blinded by his own trust of the man?]

I-I can't believe it. I mean, I still don't know how the damn drugs work, because Rhys said that Hitsugi woke up during her murder too...but she's dead, that's the difference. She woke up too late. But Bigby, he woke up just in time. But that's...how didn't we see it, Elizabeth?