I take two steps into the chamber before darkness wraps around my eyes.
Not a blindfold. Not fabric. Solid shadow, pressing against my face like a palm.
My hands fly up, clawing at nothing. There’s nothing to grab. Just weight, heavy and absolute, blocking out everything.
Panic surges—finally, cutting through that unnatural calm—and my breath comes fast and sharp.
I need to see. I need to—
“Shh.”
Ethos.
But his voice—it’s different now. Not in my head.Aroundme.
I turn toward where I think the sound came from, spinning in the dark, but it moves. Shifts.
He’s circling me.
My body starts to relax even though I’m anything but.
No. No, I need to stay afraid. Fear keeps me sharp. Fear keeps me alive. I can’t let it go, I can’t—
“You’re safe, little queen.”
What the…
Behind me now. Close.
Close enough that I feel—what? Heat? Presence? I don’t know, but the airchangeswhere he is. Gets heavier. Warmer.
I step forward, trying to put space between us.
The voice follows.
“You came to me.” It moves again—left, then right, always circling. “So brave.”
I want to argue. Want to scream that I didn’t have a choice, that the snake led me, that I would’ve died out there.
But did I really not have a choice?
The thought slides in like oil. I could have stayed in the void. Let those things tear me apart. But I followed. I crossed the threshold.
I chose this.
Didn’t I?
“You took what you wanted,” he says, and each word lands with weight. Not just sound—something more. Like I can feel them settling on my skin. “What youdeserved. They would have kept it from you forever.”
The air shifts again. Closer this time.
I can feel him now. Not touching, butthere. Like standing too close to a fire—you know it’s there even with your eyes closed.
My skin prickles with awareness.
“But you reached out,” he continues, voice low and approving. “You claimed it.”
I try to step back.
