"Honestly, I hadn't realized we'd moved on. You mock yourself too often, and unless you know more men than Loki like that, it's an easy assumption to make, especially since I don't know your long list of associates. And yes, it did make an impression. Because the last two fights we've had have been on his behalf."

And this is probably going to be a third if they keep going. He furls his wing again.

"You're a grown woman, Adele. And I have no business telling you who to associate with. My only concern about him is that if he breaks before you're gone, that you're close enough to him that you might become a casualty of it. Hopefully, I'm as wrong as I can be, and, believe it or not, that's one plate of crow I'll happily eat if it means you don't become a target. But just like you wouldn't forgive yourself if you fried me, I won't deal well at all with you getting hurt or worse. And it'll just eat at me more if it was someone you'd trusted who did it. There's few people I give that much of a shit about; I can't afford it. Not with who and what I am. If you want to call that posturing, then yeah, I guess I'm posturing."