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I took a deep breath, summoning the web. It braided up my spine with that familiar spark, spilling out from my skull into the air around us. His eyes definitely tracked its movement now, and the air between us grew electric as the tendrils moved towards him. But he didn’t look afraid, he looked as he always did. That unreadable calm etched into his features.

I surrounded his mind gently, not making contact yet. The memory of his previous rejections made me wince—each one had felt like taking a hammer to the skull. But there was no resistance this time as I latched onto that golden orb. His mind felt different from any I’d encountered—brighter, more intense, like stepping into direct sunlight.

His eyes remained locked on mine, fully aware, chest rising and falling deeply. I tried to ignore how intimate this felt, having him let me in like this.

But I didn’t hesitate.

Aether’s palm cracked across his own face.

He blinked, then blinked again as I released him. A laugh bubbled up my throat before I could stop it. The sight of Aether slapping himself was something I’d treasure forever.

“Feeling better?” He rubbed his jaw, but I caught that slight curl of his lips. My chest felt lighter than it had in weeks.

“Much.” I couldn’t help my grin. “Though I’m sure you allowed that too.”

“Don’t get cocky. It’s still the only hit you’ll ever land.”

“We’ll see about that.” The words slipped out with more challenge than I’d intended.

His expression sobered, but something sparked in his eyes. “When you do that, do you enter the mind fully, or access it from the outside?”

The question doused my momentary triumph. “Are you asking if I can read thoughts?”

“Obviously.”

“Not that I know of.” I shifted, Laryk’s dream flashing through my mind again. In that one, I did seem to have access to his thoughts, but none of it was intentional.

“Have you tried?”

“That would be quite an invasion of privacy,” I murmured.

“Says the woman who just made me slap myself.”

“Different kind of invasion.” I cocked my head to the side, meeting his stare. “Why, offering to be my test subject?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

I let out a deep breath, trying to ignore how the air seemed to crackle between us. With mind control, it was just a simple bond that could be manipulated—commanded. But this... this would mean actually entering his thoughts. My stomach flipped as I realized what I’d agreed to. I was about to attempt reading the mind of the most dangerous man I’d ever met—and he was going to let me.

“What number am I thinking about?”

Seconds later, the tendrils were fluttering back out of me, caressing his mind in pearlescent wisps. I searched for the access point, and when I found it, I hesitated. Instead of sending a command down the bond, I lingered there, letting the feeling settle in around me. I used the tendrils to search, oddly aware of their movements. It felt like there might be something in there, this space at the border of Aether’s mind, but—and then I felt it. Another point, leading deeper into the golden abyss. The tendrils reached out, closing in on the lock, and in an instant, my vision went black.

A woman—one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen—with jet black hair and golden eyes, running towards me with anguish streaked across her face. The desperation in her movements made me want to reach out, but the pain was too great, toomuch. I was moving away from her—floating, or flying? She screamed something, but I couldn’t hear her, as if my eardrums had gone numb. And then it was black again.

I snapped back to the training room, realizing I had nearly lost my balance in the chair. Aether’s arm was gripping my shoulder, keeping me straight up. His eyes were narrowed on me, but his forehead seemed to be creased in concern.

“What happened?” he said in a low tone.

“You didn’t see her? Who was that?” I asked, pulling out of his grip and blinking in the surroundings. It felt like I had been holding my breath.

“What do you mean? What her?” He stood, pacing towards the other side of the gym, hand dragging down his mouth and chin. I’d never seen him so... rattled.

“The woman, the one with black hair and golden eyes.”

Aether went chillingly still as he turned back to look at me, something dark pulsing in his glare.

He stared at me for a long time as if trying to figure something out.