Kellan could not finish the first sentence.
Tessa waited through the breath he needed instead of finishing it for him. Eli kept his hand still. There was blood on the side of his thumb where Kellan’s coat had caught against the fallen beam, and he found himself watching that small bright mark as if looking away might lose the words he was about to hear.
“After this,” Kellan said again. “When you decide.”
“About the reservoir?” Eli asked.
Kellan’s eyes moved toward him, impatient even now.
“Not only you.”
The answer struck harder than a rebuke should have. Eli had been the one listening; he had mistaken that position for the center of whatever Kellan meant. Beside him, Tessa adjusted the cloth beneath Kellan’s neck so he would not have to lift his head to see them.
“Tell us,” she said.
