Kell's heart gave a hard squeeze around itself. Painful, but good all the same. It was one thing to rationalize to himself, but it was quite another to hear it in her voice.

It was quite another to know what horrors Neria had come from, and to accept her arms around him, comforting him.

"No," he answered, and did not quite meet her eyes. "Though I would not have blamed you." He set his jaw, made himself look up and into her too-blue eyes. Searching out her beneath the uneasy feeling they gave him. It took work to find, but he didn't stop looking.

"Some things never change."