Kell resisted being comforted at the very best of times, and now was no exception. His lips twitched as she took his face in her hands, pressing together in a grim line, his eyes nearly shut. This close his eyelashes were darker than his hair, coppery in the firelight. His hands found her shoulders, curled against the fabric of her clothes, gripping.

It took him several long seconds to meet her eyes, and then he swallowed that impossible pain with a cut-up sigh.

... he could not think that it would have been better if she had not come. Even this chance to see Neria again, to reconcile, to have this much was better than what they'd had.

"You aren't to blame," he answered, his voice deep and soft. "You no more asked to wake up in the blood than I did. From that moment there was no stopping this."