Yu sat numbly on the stiff paper on the examination table, pamphlets crumpled in his lap, his knuckles bone-white. His throat felt raw from swallowing tears and bile. Joy was saying something soft beside him, her warmth brushing over him like a blanket, but it was DK01's voice that slipped sharp and low into his mind.
{Host's emotional instability detected. Stress metrics spiking. Correction required.}
[Host…]
The clinical timbre deepened, almost like it leaned closer inside his skull.
[Yu. Your Incubus soul is starving. Do you understand? This is not merely fatigue from your human body—it is soul-hunger. You have not fed in days. Not from Theo. Not from Callen. Not from Adrian. That emptiness gnaws at you. It weakens your body, accelerates fatigue, and puts you and your offspring at risk. If you let it go unchecked… you will waste away. Starve. Until nothing remains.]
Yu shuddered, gripping the pamphlets tighter.
'Starve?'
His stomach flipped.
