Chapter 21: A Taste of Power
The night was thick with silence, the kind that pressed on the skin like an invisible weight. Only the rustle of trees and the faint murmur of the river nearby broke the stillness. Seren sat hunched by the fire, her knees drawn to her chest. She couldn’t stop shaking—not from the cold, but from the memories of what had happened hours ago.
Lucien’s eyes haunted her, those crimson orbs burning into her soul. His voice, velvet and venom, still lingered in her ears: “Your blood sings to me, girl. You are not what you think you are.”
Even now, she touched her wrist, half-expecting to see the phantom press of his hand. She had been powerless then, utterly frozen beneath his presence. If it hadn’t been for Kaelen and Lyra… she swallowed, hard, fighting the tremor i
