[It's difficult to focus on Noah unless Ronan looks at him, really watches him and solidifies the other boy's presence in his mind. It's difficult for him to do that with the crushing knowledge of Gansey's loss.

So he doesn't look at him. It's easier when Noah is just a voice, when it doesn't matter if he's corporeal or not, and Ronan's tightens his fists, because he remembers when he'd blamed Noah for being alive, when Gansey's death back then had been so easy to place at Noah's feet. Now Gansey is gone and Noah is dead again and everything is falling apart, just when they were starting to pull together again after being spat out in this hell hole.

He shakes his head sharply at the question, forcing his voice to be steel when he speaks.]

It doesn't mean shit. You think this was a two-way trip?

[There's a pause, and Ronan exhales, glaring down at the carpeting in front of him.]

Even if he is home, he's fucking dead. You know it, right? You told him.