He had wondered if maybe she was falling asleep and remained silent so as to not bother her. He was a bit surprised when she spoke again, though not of what she spoke. He carefully smoothed her hair down, not sure how to react.

He shouldn't have said any of those things at all, really. But he had, and to a certain extent it was a relief to have that out there.

Loki gave her a crooked, painful smile. "Don't be silly, dearest. Everyone knows there's no such thing as monsters." It was the most patently ridiculous thing he could say, in a place such as this where monsters apparently were quite real.