"I—I think I love him…"
The words left my mouth before my brain could shove them back in.
They just… hung there. Naked. Awful. True.
Mara gasped softly, one of those tiny, sharp sounds that slice straight through silence.
"Oh my," she whispered, voice trembling with something that wasn't quite surprise. "I thought you would never realize."
Realize?
I blinked—slow, confused, and very much offended by whatever that meant. "Realize what?"
There was a tiny pause. I heard her heartbeat jump, faster now, fluttery like a trapped bird. "The bond," A beat passed then she murmured before immediately sucking in her breath. "Oh—you haven't realized."
She said that last part to herself, like a confession that wasn't meant for human ears.
My eyebrows shot up. "Realize what? What bond?"
Silence. The kind that weighs down on your shoulders. I tilted my head toward her, trying to make sense of her breathing—quick, shallow, panicked.
