Selene's POV
My steps didn't slow until the guards did.
Just a subtle shift in their pace, like something ahead had already decided how this would go.
I noticed it immediately. Nothing here happened without reason.
My gaze lifted slightly, following the corridor ahead, and that was when I saw him.
Adrian.
He stood ahead, not blocking the path, not waiting in any obvious way, but placed there in a way that made everything else feel secondary. He wasn't doing anything, and somehow that made it worse.
The guards stopped first.
"My lord," one of them said, his head lowering a bit.
Adrian didn't answer. His gaze was already on me, not passing over me the way it had before.
"Leave," he said.
That was all.
The guards stepped back immediately, and within secon
