Eryx POV
I stopped fighting the silence.
Because eventually…
It answered back.
She started coming more often after that first time.
At first, it was just her voice — soft, barely there, like wind slipping through cracks in the stone.
Then it became more.
I would lift my head from the floor, and she would be there, sitting across from me with her knees pulled to her chest, watching me with that quiet concern she always had when I pretended I wasn’t hurting.
“You didn’t eat again,” she’d say gently.
And I would huff. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’re lying.”
“I know.”
The chains would rattle when I shifted closer to her, silver biting into my skin. I didn’t feel it as much anymore.
Pain from metal was nothing.
Pain from losing her was everything.
Luca stirred inside me, restless. Not
