The first thing Samantha noticed was the silence. Not the kind of silence that carried a threat or a presence, the kind that screamed something is off. She blinked awake, stretched, and felt an odd lightness in her limbs. For a moment, she swore the sheets beneath her had changed texture overnight—soft, almost silky, instead of their usual familiar weight.
Marcus stirred beside her, murmuring something incoherent, but his voice had a sharpness she wasn't used to.
"Marcus?" she whispered, nudging him gently. "You… sound different."
He opened one eye, peered at her, and raised an eyebrow in a perfectly exaggerated way, the sort of expression Samantha had seen Kai pull when annoyed. "Different?" he asked, his tone almost mockingly precise. "I could say the same about you."
She frowned, sitting up. "What—no, I mean… your voice. The way you said that. It's—" She stopped, realizing she couldn't find the words.
