The chill that settled in Selene’s room after Marcus’s report was deeper than the night air. It was a cold that seeped into the bone, born of a revelation that stripped away the simple truths she’d clung to. Spliced lineage. The words echoed in the silence, a ghost haunting the space between Caleb’s protective embrace and the vast, watching darkness outside.
Marcus slipped away from the window, leaving them with the weight of his words. Caleb closed the glass, his movements deliberate, but his mind was a storm she could feel through the bond—a tempest of strategy, fury, and a fear so profound it tasted like iron.
He turned to her, his golden eyes holding a new intensity. “We need your father,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “Now.”
They didn’t bother with dressing properly. Selene pu
