It's not the sort of thing he would drop on most people so unceremoniously, to be far, but if he wants Alex to trust him, Angel has to prioritize transparency.

"I killed the wrong girl," he says frankly, although 'kill' was a gentle word for what he'd done to her. It had been so much more than that, the memory alone enough to make his stomach turn, vivid as it still was. "A gypsy. Her clan decided to punish me-- they cursed me with a soul, so that I would remember the faces and the terror of every person I'd ever hurt. I should have been consumed by guilt. For awhile, I was-- it took someone else to show me what a waste that was. That having a soul meant I should use the time I had as a second chance to move forward, and to atone."