Lucian's POV
I ran.
No—I flew.
The village vanished behind me, a smear of stone and torchlight. Trees whipped past like shadows too slow to catch me. The wind screamed in my ears, but not as loud as the rage boiling inside me.
The bond kept pulsing. It wasn’t just fear now.
It was pain.
Her pain.
Victoria.
I clutched at the fire clawing through my chest, unable to breathe, my own body fighting itself. My fangs had dropped, still wet with another woman’s blood—but now it tasted like bile. Disgust. Guilt.
She was in my room.
She was supposed to be safe.
I had locked it—sealed it with my scent, a silent warning to any parasite crawling around the halls of that cursed palace. But I should’ve known better. My family never obeyed rules unless they were bleeding from the consequences.
