Page 117 of Aïdes the Unseen

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“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I don’t even know who it is?—”

Even as I spoke, a pressure mounted behind my eyes. Not memory this time.

A signal.

A call.

Like a thread being pulled taut from far away.

And then—a voice, filtered like it was underwater butreal,immediate, cutting across the chamber?—

“Irina. Can you hear me?”

I gasped. “Mara?”

Graven’s head snapped toward me. “Don’t answer her.”

“I’m not—I didn’t—she’s nothere, I don’t think—” My words came in the same stutters as my thoughts.

But she was close.

Closer than she should’ve been.

The dog growled low in his throat—ears pinned back, spine arched.

Melinoë stepped forward, a hand raised as though to shield the space. “You are nothersto summon here. This chamber predates her authority.”

“She’s just trying to check on me,” I murmured. But even as I said it, I tasted copper. More blood.

The light in the spiral dimmed slightly. Not fading—shielding.

Graven stood between me and the descending light now, his eyes hard, voice even. “I’ll sever the tether if I must.”

Melinoë didn’t disagree.

She moved to the edge of the light and pressed her palm against the curve of the chamber wall. The sigils flared again, this time in red-gold rather than the warm white from before.

“You can’t be touched here,” she said. “Not unless youinviteit.”

I took a breath.

Steady. Shallow.

The pressure eased.

But the blood didn’t stop.

Graven moved to me, hands at either side of my face. His thumbs brushed the edges of my jaw, tender.Grounding.

“Look at me,” he said, quiet but resolute. “You don’t have to go back. Not until you’re ready.”

“I don’t want to go,” I whispered. “Not yet. I’m just… not sure how to stay.”

The spiral beneath me flickered again.

Melinoë murmured something. It wasn’t Greek or Latin. Not in any language I remembered, but my blood responded. It slowed.

The tether frayed.

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