(Arielle)
The silence did not last.
At first, it felt like it might.
The bond had stabilised. The pressure had settled into something structured, something almost… controlled. For a brief moment, Arielle thought the system had reached a point of balance.
Then someone screamed.
It wasn’t close.
Not in the corridor.
But it carried—sharp, sudden, and wrong in a way that cut through the structure like a fracture line through glass.
Arielle’s head turned instinctively, her focus snapping away from the door.
The reaction in the bond was immediate.
Not disruption.
Recognition.
Her chest tightened slightly.
“That’s connected,” she said.
Kael didn’t hesitate.
“Where?”
Arielle closed her eyes for half a second—not searching, not guessing, but following the pull that had already begun
