"The mute Beta you married..."
A pause. A breath. A blade slipping between my ribs.
"...is nothing more than a cover."
A cover.
The words hang in the air like shards of broken glass—sharp, cold, impossibly foreign.
My body is failing me. Every nerve is alight with poison, every muscle weighed down by the slow crawl of whatever he's pumped into my veins.
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
My voice comes out sharper than I expected. It cuts through the dim air of the garage, through everything in this place.
Soren's face goes still for just a moment—blank, unreadable, like a mask that's slipped and been hastily reset.
Then he laughs.
Not a quiet laugh. Not a mocking one. A full, unrestrained burst of amusement that echoes off the concrete walls.
He drops onto the grimy floor, clutching his stomach like I've just told him the funniest joke in the world. His laughter ricochets off the walls, filling every corner of the garage, pressing against my ears like something alive.
