"I don't think your powers are terrible, Nina," Matthias says slowly, carefully. He doesn't want to bring her any more pain than he already has.

"I didn't trust myself with them. They suit you better," he finally adds with a soft smile. Maybe if he hadn't been drüskelle, if he'd grown up with Grisha, learning their control and their ways. Then maybe he would have felt differently about it. But for him, it had been too much.