Nyx's POV
'Frost? Is that you?' I whispered into the empty room, my voice barely a breath, swallowed by the dark. Every nerve in my body was hoping and praying that the voice was just a byproduct of my own sleep-deprived, treacherous brain conjuring phantoms.
'I am always here,' she replied, and somehow, those three words that used to assure me felt much longer and far more damning.
'And for the record? The cockroach story was surprisingly convincing. You're a better liar than you look.'
A cold pit opened up in my stomach, hollow and sinking. 'Don't tell me you were… you were there for that?'
'We are bonded, child,' she reminded me, her tone shifting into that ancient, melodic cadence — the one that made the fine hairs on my arms rise and my skin feel like it no longer belonged to me.
'I feel the pulse of your blood and the flicker of your thoughts. Our connection transcends the simple boundaries of consciousness. It is a tether of souls.'
