KAREN'S POV

The room was warm with firelight, but I paced like a wolf trapped in a cage. My steps echoed across the stone, sharp and uneven, betraying the agitation thrumming in my blood. I could feel Damon’s eyes on me from the armchair near the hearth, but his silence only fanned my fury.

That vision of her—Eliana—standing inside Kristen’s hall, haunted me like a ghost. Alive. Radiant. No longer the trembling, forgotten shadow I had left behind years ago, but something more ...