Anna flinched at Ven's hand touching her shoulder, but she forced herself to relax. She lightly reached up and twisted her fingers through Ven's for a moment, forcing a smile onto her face. But then it was gone and her bright blue eyes trained on the wizard's. She didn't hesitate and stepped into the circle. "Master Wizard, you threaten that we will appear to be dead to the world. Does it not occur to you that maybe being dead is a good thing, at least for some of us? You threaten that we will be in unimaginable pain, but do you really think that any of us hasn't experienced more pain than we aught to, in order to be driven to become wizards?" She asked him, trying to put on a show of bravado, but her voice was trembling. She was absolutely terrified of the man and was sure she was going to pay for posing those questions. But she legitimately wanted to know.
She expected to be glad about her brothers thinking she was dead, but instead, all she felt was terror. Alex would hear. Poor, frail, sick Alex would hear, and it would break his heart. And her other brothers would kill him, either directly or by just... not caring about him. And it would be her fault. But she couldn't back out now, she couldn't she wouldn't she didn't dare.
Rather than panic and flee she beckoned to the others to come across into the circle with her. In particular she wanted Ven to come over and wrap his arms around her again. She'd felt safe when he'd found her freezing, when she was nearly dead from her fall and the dip in the river. She'd felt safe when they were being chased by the Chimera, even. She hadn't been unafraid of anything since her father died. But she had been when they had been running together.