“You came back.”
I held out my hand, my fingers cold and uncertain. It scrambled into my palm without hesitation, small and warm and steady. Real.
Yanking off my veil, I crossed the floor and climbed onto the bed, not caring about wrinkling the sheets or the way my limbs moved like they didn’t quite belong to me. The linens whispered around me as I sank in, the mattress plain but clean, the pillows giving without complaint. I curled in on myself, arms drawn tight across my chest, and the little creature nestled into the hollow beneath my collarbone as if it had never left.
We lay that way for what felt like hours, two quiet souls in a space that offered shelter but not belonging.
“Psst.”
My eyes snapped open, heart kicking against my ribs like it wanted out.
“Psssssst.”
Louder this time. Urgent. Mischievous. I pushed myself upright, my limbs heavy with sleep. The room had gone still, the kind of stillness that made every sound feel like a secret.
The voice was coming from the wall.
Barefoot and cautious, I slid off the bed, my dress clinging to my thighs. The floor was cold beneath my feet as I crept across it. I edged forward, squinting hard at the wall like it might blink first.
Step by slow step, I crept toward the only real decoration in the room, a woven tapestry of gods and monsters stitched in red and gold. My fingers brushed the edge of it.
There.
In the fabric, nearly hidden in shadow, was a hole no larger than a coin, perfectly round and too perfect to be a flaw. I leaned in, heart thudding. Something shifted … and an eye suddenly blinked at me from the hole.
I jerked back with a quiet gasp, my hand flying to my chest.
“Hello!” came the voice, soft and conspiratorial … and utterly delighted.
“Umm, hello?” I blinked, feeling like I was going crazy as I moved my face near the opening.
“I promise I’m not a ghost. Or a spider. Or a spy.”
A laugh threatened at the corner of my mouth, despite everything. “You’re sure?” I asked, tilting my head. “Because that’s exactly what a spy would say.”
“That’s true,” the voice murmured. “But my name’s Anysa. I’m your fellow chosen and your new neighbor. Did they put a tapestry of a lion biting a horse’s throat in your room too?”
I examined the tapestry. Yes, I supposed that was an accurate way to describe the gods in their animal forms fighting each other. I was surprised that Menelaus had allowed such a thing within his walls.
“Yes …”
“Yeah. Same decor as mine. Lucky us.”
She sounded unnervingly bright. Too bright, considering what was at stake right now.
I didn’t respond.
“That’s fine if you’re the quiet type,” she went on breezily. “I talk enough for the both of us. My mother claims I came out of the womb mid-monologue.”
My lips slid into another reluctant grin.
“You’re definitely going to like me,” she said. “I’m funny.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I can sense it. Your aura chuckled.”
I sat down beside the wall. My creature followed and nestled into my lap.
