MATED TO MY BROTHER'S ENEMY
“I’m asking because I get what it’s like, carrying everyone else on your back.”
Garrett stepped closer then, eyes wide like he’d just seen a ghost, or maybe a miracle. “You’re not controlling us. You’re… letting us in.”
“Exactly.” Lyra grinned, and you could almost hear the tension in the room pop like a bubble. “Empathy isn’t about twisting people. It’s about actually listening, letting yourself be seen too.”
Tormund shuffled nearer to the fire, old hands stretched out to the flames. “That thing that killed your brother, totally backwards from this. It stole feelings, twisted them, made people hollow.”