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I muttered under my breath as I changed, then leant against the wall and slid to the floor, resting my forehead on my knees.

Sing to the locket. The fractured voice shot through my head, coming from deep within me.

But I couldn’t, not yet.

Sing to the locket. Sing to the locket. Sing to the locket.

Her voice got louder, turning from haunting to an angry assault of overlapping voices filling my head.

I squeezed my eyes shut, rocking back and forwards. Fighting the urge to give in.

Time passed, hours perhaps, and the voice showed no mercy.

It rose to a screeching peak and tears pricked my eyes, trailing down my cheeks.

The door to the bedroom finally clicked, unlocking itself and signalling that we could leave for dinner.

Helion emerged from the washroom, wearing a fresh grey button down and slim-fitting trousers tucked into combat boots.

His jaw was pressed into a sharp line as he looked down at my tear-streaked face, but he paused for only a moment before walking towards the door.

“Wait,” I said, but he ignored me and disappeared into the hallway. I trailed after him, placing the locket over my head and tucking it beneath the collar of my tunic.

“Speak to me,” I demanded, voice echoing over the vast hallway as I tried to keep up with his strides.

“Why are you being so difficult! If you could just speak with me⁠—”

He spun and the words turned to ash on my tongue. The amber flecks in his eyes were dancing uncontrollably, like embers from an open flame burning with a barely contained rage.

He advanced on me until my body pressed against the wall. My heart fluttered like the wings of a trapped bird as he caged me, hands braced on either side of my head.

“Stop,” he said, voice trembling with something I didn’t understand. “I am angry with you. And if you keep pushing me right now⁠—”

He let out a frustrated noise. But I didn’t dare flinch away.

“I need time for my head to clear so I don’t do something I’ll regret and fuck this up even more.” He pushed away from me, body heat retreating with him, leaving a trail of gooseflesh over my skin as he continued down the hallway.

I stood there, trying to remind myself how to breathe.

The absence of amusement in his eyes had been replaced by a deep mournful anger, making something crack open inside my chest.

Regret? Did I feel bad for using him to feed my power?

I pushed those thoughts down as soon as they surfaced. Because I was going to do it again.

I needed to sleep with him to find out how to save Rythos, yes, but it would also give me enough power to escape him.

I slowly walked down the hallway, staying a distance behind him, biding my time until he let down his walls enough for me to get what I wanted.

The dining table overflowed with lavish spoils that would cause murder in the Mortal Kingdom. Food that I would have only dreamed about once, was now all at the reach of my fingertips. Yet my plate sat empty in front of me, my stomach twisted into knots as I clasped my hands in my lap.

The silence was suffocating and uncomfortable, swimming through the air as if it were alive.

Helion sat next to me, button down shirt shoved up his corded forearms, the muscles flexing as he pushed neglected food around his plate. Still ignoring me.

Edgar silently drank his sorrows on the other side of me, deep bruises under his eyes matching the colour of his crumpled tunic.

Kaezlyn glared openly at me with her burgundy eyes from across the table, red hair sleeked back into a thick braid the rested over her shoulder. The angles of her face looked sharp enough to cut glass, or perhaps that was the anger radiating off her.