Shadowlands
The world bent as Lucien’s shadows carried us through.
One heartbeat we stood in the forest; the next, we stepped into a realm that was not earth and not sky — a place between light and darkness. The air was thick and cold, pulsing with faint whispers that brushed my skin like invisible fingers.
The Shadowlands.
Lucien’s realm.
The home of everything that lived without a name.
The sky here was endless gray, the ground black glass that reflected no light. Shapes moved in the distance — shadows without form, watching. Waiting.
I swallowed hard. “So this is where you live.”
Lucien glanced at me, his expression unreadable. “Live isn’t the word I’d use.”
“What would you call it?”
He stepped forward, his long coat sweeping the ground. “Punishment.”
Something in his tone ma
