Lyra
Breakfast should have been ordinary. It should have been simple… bread warm from the oven, honey glistening in a clay bowl, Killian at the head of the table, Luca teasing as though the weight of the world didn’t sit on our shoulders and servants bristling by doing their thing. For a moment, I let myself pretend. Pretend that the rumors hadn’t spread, that Damon’s shadow wasn’t crouched outside our borders, that my heart wasn’t beating itself raw against my ribs with secrets I hadn’t yet spoken.
But the illusion cracked as soon as Killian’s eyes found mine. He didn’t even have to say anything… just one steady look, and I knew he sensed it. The truth pressed at my lips, desperate to come out.
I hadn’t slept. My mind had gnawed all night on Selene’s words, on the horror of them, on th
