"Was what me? If you sensed the rumble in my stomach, I apologize. I was imagining a feast of your enemies."

"Could I be hearing Raith's thoughts?"

"Perhaps. Your tether is weak, but it still exists."

"You good?" Raith asks.

I swallow hard, nodding. "Good." But I try to take a step forward and the room sways slightly around me. Raith is immediately at my side, his arm around my waist.

"Slowly," he murmurs, his breath warm against my ear. "You've been unconscious for two days. Give your body time."

I nod, leaning into him as I find my balance. The tether between us pulses stronger with the physical contact, and I feel a rush of protectiveness from him that nearly takes my breath away. It's fierce, almost possessive, and tinged with something that feels dangerously like fear.

"He worries he cannot protect you," Typhon observes, stretching his diminished form. "The fire human has grown attached. This complicates matters."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I reply silently.

"It is neither good nor bad. It simply is. But attachments make one vulnerable, and you cannot afford vulnerability. Not with siphons hunting you."

"It felt a lot more like they were hunting him. Not me. Didn't you see how that void lion made no attempt to kill me when I tried to save Raith? It was only blocking my path."

"I would rather they are trying to kill you. The possibility of siphons not wanting to hurt you is… troubling."

"You're cute when you're this small, you know. I feel like you should be perching on my shoulder."

"Don't get accustomed to it.”

Raith is still holding his arm around me, waiting patiently for me to find my balance as I mentally chat with Typhon.

I wonder if he feels anything from me through the tether. Can he sense how my heart races when he's close, how my skin heats where he touches me? How the thought of him dying had driven me to create the tether in the first place?

If he does, he gives no sign of it as he guides me toward the door. His face is composed, neutral, though his hand at my waist is gentle. Even if part of me wishes he’d let that hand slide lower, to touch me the way I know he wants to. The way I want him to.

His hand inches slightly lower, almost as if triggered by my thought. I look up sharply at him and see confusion and… something else in his eyes.

A sharp knock interrupts the moment. Raith tenses, moving slightly in front of me as he calls, "Enter."

The door opens to reveal Bastian, immaculate as always in his black legacy uniform with silver and gold trim. His pale eyes widen slightly at the sight of me on my feet.

"Thorne," he says with a polite nod. "I'm glad to see you're recovering. The password is fish slap,” Bastian says smoothly.