His first reaction - no, no, don't you dare leave me again - is not helpful, so he swallows it down.

"Where did he come from? How can I find - where are you when you're not - like this?" Inside of someone else, and Zerxus feels a vicious stab of guilt; he's barely spared a thought for Neal since the moment he heard Evandrin. He knows his husband, he wouldn't use someone who didn't agree to it; Neal is here, in immense danger and almost entirely alone, because he wanted to help.

"How can I protect him?"