No one moved.
No one spoke.
The room had become a cage.
Not with walls
But with pressure.
Selene felt it settle into her chest, tight and unrelenting.
The air had changed.
Shifted.
Thickened.
And at the center of it
Lucian.
He stood perfectly still.
Too still.
But his eyes
They were alive.
Moving.
Tracking.
Tearing the room apart piece by piece.
Watching.
Calculating.
Dissecting.
Selene didn’t speak.
Didn’t move.
Her gaze followed the same path slower, quieter, but just as sharp.
The house manager steady.
Too steady.
The assistants nervous.
But normal nervous.
The kind that came from fear of authority.
And then
Her.
Lucian’s aunt.
Elegant.
Composed.
Untouched by the tension crushing everyone else.
Too untouched.
Selene’s fingers curled slightly against h
