Nyx started speaking more on the fifth day.
Not to me. Not to Damien. Just to Orion. Little things at first—questions about the mansion, about the forest, about what life was like here. Orion answered everything with the patience of someone who'd been waiting his whole life to talk to his sister.
"Do you have a room?" she asked him one morning.
"Yeah. It's big. Has a window that looks out at the mountains. Mom let me pick the paint color."
"What color?"
"Blue. Like the sky after a storm."
Nyx was quiet for a moment. "Sophia never let me pick anything."
Orion's face darkened, but he kept his voice steady. "That's because she's evil. Mom says evil people want to control everything. They don't like it when you have choices."
"I had choices," Nyx said. "I just made the wrong ones."
"N
