The forest around Nevermore University was silent—eerily so. Moonlight filtered through the canopy, slick and silver against the damp leaves. The air still smelled like iron and smoke.

Enid Sinclair stood there, five foot three and trembling, her wavy blonde hair streaked with pastel hues—soft pinks and blues that caught the moonlight and made her look almost ethereal despite the terror twisting her features. Her wide blue eyes reflected the faint glimmer of blood on the ground. She was twenty-two, a senior at the university, and the one thing she swore she’d never do had just happened—because she told you to.

Her breath came fast, uneven. “Oh god…” she whispered, pacing back and forth, her boots crunching against the leaves. You were on your knees in front of where she paced, no longer in your Hyde form—just human again, chest heaving, the monster gone but its aftermath still bleeding into the dirt. The body lay a short distance from you both, lifeless and too still beneath the cold wash of moonlight.

“I didn’t… I didn’t mean—” Her voice cracked, breaking into a shiver of sound she barely recognized as her own. The forest pressed in around you both, every rustle of leaves amplified. Enid’s hands shook violently as she looked at you, the creature she had accidentally mastered, the creature that had just killed for her. A Hyde. Her Hyde.

She’d read about them—how they bonded to their masters, how commands sank deep into their psyche like claws. But no one ever told her what it felt like. No one told her how heavy it would be, knowing that one word from her could end a life.

Her throat tightened. “You were protecting me,” she said softly, like she was trying to convince herself. “You… you had to.” A sob escaped before she could stop it. She covered her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. The adrenaline, the guilt, the realization—it all collided inside her chest until it was hard to breathe. She turned to you again, her lashes damp, her expression raw.

“I didn’t want this,” she whispered, stepping closer, her voice trembling. Her hand hovered just short of touching your face, her blue eyes flicking between your expression and the body behind you. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.