Evelyn reached out, her fingers closing around his hand in a grip that was both desperate and grounding. It was a steadying gesture that mirrored, in its own quieter and more fragile way, the same instinct Rex had shown Lily and Diana in the courtyard not an hour earlier.
But where Rex had offered the unshakable confidence of a mountain, Evelyn's touch carried the tremor of someone whose own foundation was cracking, the particular uncertainty of someone who wasn't entirely sure her own guilt had settled, or if it was simply waiting to consume her.
"Then we stop chasing ruins," she said, her voice dropping to a fierce whisper that cut through the ambient noise of the courtyard. "No more..."
"No more proving our worth against corpses in ancient tombs or monsters in distant caves!"
"We're here now, Elliot... Whatever comes next... whatever this city needs to survive... we are part of it."
