She clawed at her own neck with both hands, finding nothing there, nothing to grab, nothing to fight, and still the pressure tightened and she made a sound that was meant to be a word and came out as something strangled and terrible—
She dropped.
Dew's head whipped toward her. Saw her on her knees. Saw her hands at her own throat. Saw no one touching her.
"What—"
The ice around Nyla's throat loosened. Just slightly. Instinct overriding intent.
Wish gasped. Air poured back in—painful, ragged, the best thing she'd felt in thirty seconds. She stayed on her hands and knees for a moment, just breathing.
"There's a curse," she managed. Her voice came out raw and destroyed. "Whatever you do to her—it happens to me."
Dew went very still. "What?"
Nyla laughed from the floor. Even barely conscious, even with her legs useless beneath her, she laughed. "Kill me and you kill her. Hurt me and she suffers. Touch me and you break her too—"
The ice vanished completely.
