"Ewww…" Atlas groaned, wrinkling his nose with exaggerated disgust.
"Shut up…" Aurora's voice was sharp, but beneath its edge lay exhaustion. Her lids closed, sealing away the human gaze, as the eye upon her forehead—alien, eternal—burst open. It shone. Bright. A yellow so searing it carved shadows into the blackened stone around them.
Atlas flinched, shielding his face with a half-raised hand. "Are you even human?" The words slipped out before he could swallow them.
The glow of that third eye wasn't simply light—it was a pressure, like a hand pressing on his chest, like the weight of an entire storm pressing down upon a fragile roof.
"I said shut up."
Her tone was a whip crack in the still air.
