CHAPTER THREE
Sleep did not come easily to May that night.
Every time she closed her eyes, she felt it again — that faint, terrifying, familiar tug somewhere deep in her chest. A sensation she hadn't felt since the night Nathaniel walked away under the dim streetlights of Osu, refusing to look back.
The bond.
It was supposed to have broken.
She sat up on her small bed, the fan humming above her like it was trying to sing her to calmness. Her heart beat in a stubborn rhythm — Nathel… Nathel… Nathel…
"No," she whispered to herself. "I'm done feeling this."
But the bond did not care about her decisions.
A soft glow flickered beneath her skin, right over her sternum. It burned gently, like a quiet flame waking from sleep. May gasped and placed her palm over it.
It pulsed once.
Then again.
Then stronger.
As if something — no, someone — had touched the other end of it.
Nathaniel had not meant to think about her.
He told himself that countless times as he leaned against his car outside his apartment in East Legon, staring at the sky like it held answers he didn't want to hear.
He had been gone for months.
He had sworn distance was the only way to protect her — from him, from his bloodline, from the curse of the destiny-bond that had destroyed couples before them.
But seeing her earlier…
Hearing her voice shake when she said his name…
Feeling the bond flare to life even though it should have been dormant…
It had rattled him.
He rubbed his palms against his arms, trying to calm the warmth stirring beneath his skin. The mark — invisible to normal eyes — shimmered faintly on his chest.
"Not now," he muttered. "May… don't feel this right now… please…"
But he sensed her.
Her confusion.
Her fear.
Her longing.
Even after everything.
He turned toward the road as if he expected her to appear—like the bond was pulling her toward him across the entire city.
It shouldn't have been possible.
He had suppressed it.
Closed it.
Buried it.
So why was her heartbeat echoing in his ears?
By morning, May had decided she was either going mad or… the impossible was happening.
She arrived at her shop in Adenta, but her mind kept drifting, lost in the pressure building behind her ribs.
Her friend Ama noticed immediately.
"Ei May, you look like somebody who has seen a spirit," Ama teased lightly.
May tried to smile. "I'm fine."
"You're not. You're shaking. You didn't sleep?"
May hesitated… then whispered something she swore she would never admit again.
"I felt him."
Ama froze. "Nathaniel?"
May nodded, her voice barely a breath. "Last night."
Ama's expression softened. "May… he broke your heart."
"Yes… but the bond…"
She swallowed. "Ama, it woke up."
Ama's eyes widened slightly — not in disbelief, but in knowing fear.
"Then May, if the bond really awakened…"
She moved closer.
"…it means he felt you too."
The room went silent.
May felt her heart drop. "No… no, he wouldn't—"
Before she finished, her phone vibrated on the counter.
The screen lit up.
Nathel.
Her breath stopped.
Her fingers trembled.
Her pulse raced wildly.
Ama's eyes widened. "Pick it."
"I can't."
"May, pick it!"
The phone rang again, louder, like the universe itself was insisting.
With a shaking hand, she answered.
"Hello…?"
Her voice cracked.
There was a long, heavy pause on the other end — a pause that felt like every memory they shared was breathing inside it.
Then his voice came, low, rough, and unbearably familiar.
"May… we need to talk."
The bond throbbed between them like a heartbeat shared.
And for the first time in months, she whispered his name — the name she had tried to bury.
"Nathel…"
The line went silent.
But the bond did not.
It burned.
Alive.
Awake.
Calling.