The silence following Amara's declaration was not the peaceful kind that follows a storm's end, it was more like suffocating stillness that precedes a tectonic shift. Hansen stared at the glowing silver mark on her neck, his eyes wide, bloodshot, and frantic. To him, that little mark wasn't a symbol of devotion or a sacred bond, it was a parasite. It was a glowing brand left by a predator to claim his only living kin as property. It was the ultimate desecration.
"You... you don't know what you're saying," Hansen whispered, his voice cracking with a terrifying mixture of grief and denial. "They've poisoned your mind so deeply you're defending your own cage. Amara, look at me! I'm your friend and ally! I'm the one who stayed awake with you when the nightmares came! That thing standing there, that creature, he's just a beast in a thousand-dollar suit using magic to rot your brain!"
