Lucian’s POV.
The sound of her body striking the stone floor was sharp enough to echo through the kitchen before the room fell completely silent.
She slid across the polished surface, the faint scrape of fabric and skin against stone telling me exactly where she stopped somewhere near the cabinets along the far wall.
Her breath left her lungs in a harsh rush, followed by the faint metallic scent of fresh blood bleeding into the air.
Everybody stood still, I could hear it in the room. The sudden stillness of bodies frozen in place, the way several servants held their breath as if silence alone might make them invisible.
I stepped forward, the slow rhythm of my boots striking the stone floor, sending a quiet ripple of tension through the kitchen. A servant fumbled with something metall
