The moment the glow in the recess fades and the second layer settles into quiet stability, something shifts in the air around us, and although the chamber no longer trembles and the distortion beneath the nexus has tightened into contained equilibrium, the silence that follows feels charged rather than calm.
I notice it first in the bond.
Not in Layla, because she stands steady and balanced within me, but in the thread that connects me to Axel and Atticus, because it deepens suddenly as if a second pulse has fused beneath the first and is now humming in alignment with the nexus itself.
Axel stiffens slightly beside me and presses a hand against the wall as if steadying himself, and Atticus inhales sharply through his teeth while flexing his fingers as though sensation has intensified be
