Silence can cut sharper than words.
The question she'd ripped from somewhere raw and unguarded still hung in the frigid air between them, brittle as thin ice over deep water: Why do you care?
Silver watched Eli's face with the desperate intensity of someone whose entire future might depend on his answer. She could see the war playing out behind his eyes—something vulnerable and real fighting against whatever force kept him locked behind carefully constructed walls. His jaw tightened until the muscle jumped beneath his skin, but the words she needed to hear remained trapped somewhere he couldn't or wouldn't reach.
