Before dawn fully arrived, the world slipped violently out of its fragile calm.
The silence of the room was first broken by a subtle vibration—something shifted in the air, like the pressure that brushes against a house’s walls just before a storm. Darkness still clung to the windows, pierced only by the dim glow of interior lights filtering through the curtains.
Andromeda stirred sleepily in bed.
She lay next to Lucian, just as they had fallen asleep the night before—not too close, but no longer distant either. His head was tilted slightly to the side, a thin mask of peace stretched across his face. He was still asleep.
And then, everything changed.
A sharp, explosive crack shook the house, as if a massive steel ball had crashed from the sky and split the floor open. The windows shud
