LUCIEN
Once she was gone, the silence dimmed the lights of the chamber.
The untouched food, the half-empty wine, the faint, stubborn trace of her scent lingering in the room — it all gnawed at me more than it should.
I should have turned away. I should have forced my mind to focus on the wine, the shadows, anything but her. But— I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe her out of my system.
Theron stirred within me, his presence coiling like smoke around my thoughts. ‘You should’ve kissed her when you had the chance,’ he murmured, his voice low, dark, and irritatingly teasing.
I growled, controlled but fierce. ‘Shut up! She’s a liability.’
‘Then why do you sound like a starving man?’ Theron’s smirk was like a storm in my mind, sardonic and dangerous.
‘She’s not mine.’ I mutter
