Zinna’s fingers toyed restlessly with the edge of her sleeve, her gaze distant as she spoke—her voice low, like the words were reluctant to be born.
“I didn’t think Connor would ever trap me anywhere. Not him. He knows how much I fear being held against my will. It’s one of the few things I’ve never been quiet about. He knows that.”
She shook her head slowly, her mouth tight with hurt. “I never thought either of them—Connor or Kalil—would use their power on me. Not like that. But one argument—just one heated moment that might have passed with time—and Connor took away my choice. My will.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, troubled.
“That place… it’s supposed to be a neutral plane. A place where magic doesn’t function. A level field where no one has the upper hand. But his magic worked there.” She paused, her voice barely a whisper now. “Only his did. And the emptiness of it… even I could feel it. And I don’t have some deep connection to the magical planes like the rest of you. But even I knew that place felt wrong. Hollow. Like the air itself didn’t want to hold us.”
Her hands stilled, clasping together in her lap, but her knuckles were white.
“I want to believe it was just a mistake. A desperate choice. I want to find some way back to the friendship we used to have. But I’m not there yet.”
Zinna looked up at Nymera then, her expression open but clouded with sorrow. “I’m still too afraid of them both. Of what they can do—of what they already did. Maybe when Ba returns...”
Her voice broke slightly as she tried to steady it with a breath.
“But for now? I’m scared, Nymera. Scared that one wrong sentence, one moment of frustration, and I’ll be snatched away again. Taken like a thing, not a person. Just gone.”
She blinked rapidly and looked down again, hands trembling faintly.
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