Elira knew the moment she opened her eyes.
Not because of a sound.
Because of the silence.
The apartment had been quiet in a usual way before. Morning traffic. A neighbor's footsteps. Water is running somewhere down the hall.
Now there was nothing.
No distant voices. No movement. No ordinary life leaking through the walls.
The air felt held.
Elira sat up slowly, the sheet sliding off her shoulder. Her wrist still throbbed beneath the bandage. Her throat was dry. Her heartbeat was steady in a way that didn't belong to fear.
Too steady.
She swallowed.
"Kael," she whispered.
He was already there, present in the way he always was, but sharper now. More awake.
Do not move.
Her stomach tightened. "Why?"
Because you are being watched.
Elira's pulse finally jumped. She forced herself to keep still, eyes scanning the room. The chair. The counter. The narrow window.
Nothing looked different.
Which meant everything had.
"How?" she asked, barely moving her lips.
The door has been marked.
Cold slid down her spine. "Marked by who?"
Kael's voice held a faint edge of contempt.
By the same people who prepared this place.
Elira's mouth went dry. "You said this apartment was safe."
A pause.
Not denial.
I said it would keep you alive for a night.
Her chest tightened until it hurt. "That's not the same thing."
No, Kael agreed. It is not.
Elira's hands curled into fists on the mattress. Anger rose, thick and shaking.
"So you knew."
Kael did not answer immediately.
When he did, his voice was calm, almost clinical.
I suspected. I confirmed it when the visitor came.
Her breathing stuttered. "The man outside the door."
Yes.
"You let him test the lock."
Yes.
Elira stared at the wall as if she could burn through it. "You let them confirm I was here."
They already knew—a pause. I needed to know how close they were willing to come.
Her throat closed. "You used me."
Kael's presence pressed closer, heavy and controlled.
I used the situation. Survival is not moral. It is effective.
Elira's hands began to tremble.
"You told me not to answer. You told me not to open. You let it happen anyway."
You are alive, Kael said.
The words landed like a slap.
Elira's eyes burned. "That doesn't make you right."
It makes me necessary.
A faint sound slipped through the room.
Not footsteps.
A soft click, like something shifting in the wall.
Elira froze, breath trapped.
Kael's attention sharpened instantly.
There, he said.
Her gaze flicked toward the corner near the window. The shadow there seemed slightly wrong, like it didn't belong to the light.
"What is it?"
Kael didn't answer with a name.
He answered with a command.
Don't look at it directly.
Elira's stomach turned. She forced her eyes away, focusing on the cracked ceiling instead.
Her heart began to pound.
"Kael," she whispered, voice breaking, "what is in here with me?"
Kael's voice lowered, dangerous and pleased.
A witness.
Her skin prickled. "A person?"
No.
The pressure behind her eyes grew tight. Not pain. Warning.
Elira swallowed hard. "Then what?"
Kael's presence coiled around her spine like a hand closing.
A tether. A pause. They don't need to enter anymore. They can pull you from a distance.
Panic surged so fast it blurred her vision.
"No," she breathed. "No, no—"
Quiet. Kael's tone sharpened. Fear feeds the tether.
Elira pressed her palms into the mattress, forcing herself still, forcing herself to breathe slower even as terror screamed in her blood.
She could feel it now.
A thin, cold sensation at the edge of her awareness, like an invisible thread hooked into her ribs. It tugged once, gently.
Testing.
Elira's breath hitched.
Kael went still.
Then, quietly, he said, They want you conscious when they take you.
A whimper escaped her before she could stop it. "Stop them."
Kael's voice was calm.
I can.
Hope flared, desperate and bright.
"How?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. She felt him weighing it, calculating costs in a way that made her stomach sink.
Then he said, By taking more.
Elira's fingers curled into the sheet. "More of what?"
Kael's voice slid through her like cold smoke.
More of you.
Her pulse thundered. "No."
A pause.
Then Kael spoke gently, which was worse than cruelty.
You do not have time for pride, Elira Vale. They will pull you apart if you let them. I will not allow my vessel to be dismantled.
"I'm not your vessel," she whispered, shaking.
Kael's presence tightened, not painful yet, but absolute.
You are what holds me in this world. That makes you mine.
The tether tugged again.
Harder.
Elira gasped, pain flashing through her ribs like something had hooked beneath her skin and yanked.
She doubled over, clutching her chest.
Her vision swam.
Kael's voice cut through it.
Now. Decide.
Elira clenched her teeth, tears spilling.
"If I let you take more… what happens to me?"
Kael's reply was quiet and honest.
You will lose the illusion of being alone.
The tether pulled again, and this time Elira felt something inside her slip, like a lock giving way.
She screamed.
Kael moved.
Not with her body.
With her blood.
Heat surged through her veins, violent and immediate. Her wrist wound flared as if reopened from the inside. Her heart slammed, then steadied into a complex, controlled rhythm that did not belong to panic.
Elira's spine arched.
Her mouth opened, but the sound that came out wasn't hers.
It was a low, ancient command spoken in a language her tongue had never learned.
The room shuddered.
The shadow in the corner convulsed like smoke caught in the wind. The tether snapped taut, then recoiled as if it had been burned.
Elira collapsed forward, gasping, shaking.
Inside her, Kael settled deeper, satisfied in a way that made her stomach turn.
There, he murmured. I sealed it.
Elira lay on the mattress, trembling. Her body felt heavier, fuller, like something had poured into the empty spaces and claimed them.
"What did you do to me?" she whispered.
Kael's voice was close, almost intimate.
I anchored myself.
Elira's throat tightened. "So you can fight them."
So they cannot take you without taking me.
Her breath shook. "That's supposed to make me feel better?"
Kael's answer came without hesitation.
It should make you feel owned.
Elira's eyes widened, a sob catching in her throat.
The apartment felt different now. The air changed. The light seemed sharper.
And somewhere deep inside, beneath her fear, she felt it.
A new weight.
A new presence.
Not just Kael's voice.
Kael's hand is on the steering wheel.
Elira swallowed hard.
"I can feel you," she whispered.
Kael smiled inside her.
Good.
A sound echoed from the hallway outside.
Footsteps. Many times.
Approaching fast.
Elira's heart slammed.
"They're coming," she whispered.
Kael's voice turned calm, almost amused.
Let them. A pause. Now they will learn what it means to touch what is mine.
The lock on the apartment door clicked.
And Elira realized with sick clarity that the safe place had never been meant to protect her.
It had been meant to hold her still long enough for someone to come collect her.