The world around me felt suffocating, as if the weight of my own existence had suddenly doubled. The cold night air pressed against my skin, but it wasn’t enough to douse the fire burning inside me. The fire of uncertainty.
Lucas’s words echoed in my head—Come with me, and I’ll show you what you truly are. Or stay with him, and let them chain you before you even know your own strength.
My breath hitched.
Damon stood rigidly beside me, his entire body coiled like a predator ready to pounce. His golden eyes burned with barely restrained fury, but beneath that rage, I saw something else.
Fear.
Not of Lucas. Not of the Council closing in.
But of me.
Lucas tilted his head, waiting. Expecting.
I could feel the moment stretching too thin, like a fragile string that would snap at any secon
