Chapter 43

Serena POV

Freedom never felt as fragile as it did the moment the guards unlatched the silver cuffs from my wrists.

I had only just returned to Lucien’s side after the Elders’ interrogation...exhausted, shaken, but cleared...when I saw Clara standing across the hall.

Her eyes were already on me.

Too calm.

Too calculating.

Like she had been waiting.

Lucien’s hand brushed my lower back protectively, his body tense and pulsing with the kind of rage that could level mountains if ...