Chapter 27

Lucien’s POV

I didn’t sleep.

All night I paced the war room, the torches burning low while my mind churned with a single name. Serena. The longer the hours dragged, the more the air around me warped with unease. I told myself she simply needed space after what happened at the lake. She’d come back when she was ready. She always did.

But there was a pressure beneath my ribs that refused to ease, an invisible hand tightening around my lungs every time I tried to breathe. An ...