[Location: Morningstar Manor, New York]
"…Are you talking badly about me, my king~"
The voice came from behind me.
Soft. Teasing. Absolutely unrepentant.
I froze.
Not metaphorically. Not dramatically. I actually stopped breathing for half a second, because the temperature in the room dipped—not in the way Erebus did it, not with pressure or weight, but with presence. Like the room had just accepted a new constant.
Grayfia's fingers tightened around the teacup in her hand.
Zeraphira's eyes narrowed by exactly three millimetres.
Selene made a delighted, borderline feral noise.
"Ooooooh?"
I turned—slowly, cautiously, as if I were afraid reality would punch me if I moved too fast.
She stepped out of the shadow beneath me just like Erebus.
