Raya took a slow, trembling breath as she sat across the table from him, her fingers tightening slightly around the fork she hadn’t yet touched. Her heart was pounding in her chest, so loud she was certain Kaius could hear it from across the table.
The room felt still, like the very air was holding its breath in anticipation of what she was about to do. She closed her eyes slowly, shutting out the scrutinizing gaze of the man before her, and whispered internally to the part of her that had been buried for too long.
Come forward, she told it. Let him see you now.
Her body shivered once, a single ripple that danced through her skin like static, and then it began.
Kaius's breath hitched audibly as he leaned back slightly in his chair, his eyes wide and fixed as he watched the transforma
