Lucien’s thoughts
I’ve been waiting for this moment, knowing it was coming. It always has been. The pulse. The crack in time that echoes through the marrow of my bones, through the space between seconds. She has always been there, just out of sight, just beyond reach. But never fully seen. I never saw her face, only the echo of her presence, the broken threads of the future that revolved around her.
I never wanted to understand why, but now I do. I see her now, between them, her small form tucked between Ashar and Riven. I’ve watched her before. Not in this form. Not like this. But it’s her. I knew it from the second I laid eyes on her at the auction, from the second she stood there, trapped, her collar a heavy chain that didn’t belong on her. Her aura, that hum, that unbearable pulse, i
