Lucy’s POV
I sat frozen in place, my body refusing to obey me. My mind screamed at me to move—to run, to fight, to do something—but fear locked me into stillness. My breath came shallow, quick, and ragged. This was it. This was how my story ended. Mauled by a lion in the middle of civilization.
I tried to shuffle backward, sliding clumsily on my butt, but it was useless. I wasn’t going anywhere. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. My heart thudded so loudly I was certain the creature could hear it, and my eyes—traitors that they were—remained locked on the beast.
And then something strange happened.
Those eyes.
Golden, glowing, intense—and yet familiar. Too familiar. Recognition stirred inside me, though I couldn’t explain it. Instead of drowning me in terror, those eyes
