[Isolde]
I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out a pair of delicate silver earrings that belonged to Phoebe. The nurse had asked me to hold onto them earlier at the hospital. They felt strangely heavy in my palm now as I handed them over to Liana, who accepted them without comment.
This time, she didn't ask to hold my hand. Instead, she clenched the earrings tightly in both hands, pressing them between her palms like she was trying to extract something from the metal itself. She began to mutter in that same guttural language from before, the syllables rolling over each other in stable rhythms.
The air in the room grew noticeably colder.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably only thirty seconds, the candle flames all shifted to that eerie blue colour again.
Liana's head
