But he’s all alone, missing you.
The shower spun around me. The music died. My breath became labored as I put my hands on my knees and dry-heaved.
“Kid, what’s wrong?” Nyx asked.
“Charlie,” I gasped, my chest burning with the beginning of a panic attack.
Nyx whispered a steady stream of encouragements about how capable my little brother was until I could breathe again.
Blindly, I grabbed one of the bottles off the shelf and lathered the soap all over my hair and body.
It smelled like mint.
I scrubbed with all my might.
Digging my nails into my skin after the dirt and blood were gone, I focused on the invisible fog. It still clung to me, insidious and cold. Voices whispered across my flesh.Mother’s dead because you?—
“You’re clean. Calm down, Alexis.” Nyx’s voice brought me back to reality.
Both of my forearms were covered in red marks.
My vision warped, and for a second, it looked like poison spreading beneath my skin.
I whimpered.
“Snap out of it, woman!” Nyx shouted.
I inhaled shakily and stood up straight, pulling myself together. “What would I do without you?”
“Struggle,” Nyx said.
I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. “Nyx—is my power the fact that I can talk to you?”
She slithered around my neck. “When we speak,” she asked slowly, “do you feel a tingling, like a euphoria in your head?”
I exhaled, and water sputtered off my lips. “No.” All I felt was crushing despair.
“Then it’s not your power.”
I opened my eyes and stared at the spray. “Then what is?”
“Kid, if I knew, I’d tell you. I’ve seen crazy things in my life, but these last two weeks take the cake.”
We both sighed.
I perked up. “Are you my protector, then? Like Nero and Poppae and the birds on the doctors’ shoulders? Are we somehow bonded, and is that why?—”
“No,” Nyx hissed and cut me off.
I jolted at the vehemence in her voice.
“No,” she repeated softer. “I’m already bonded to another.”
My heart sank.
“Who are they?” I whispered, jealousy burning my chest.
“I’m bonded, kid—I want to tell you but I’m physically not able to.” Nyx’s scales slid against my neck, like she was rising. “Spartan oaths are serious business. They swear fealty above all to their animals, and when we accept them, we’re tied to the same oath. But my person is... gone. The oath won’t let me speak of them, not directly.”
