Lucien’s POV
She wasn’t the same.
Not in the way she moved. Not in the way her eyes searched the trees as though she could see through time itself. Not even in the way she touched me—soft, grounding—but laced with a power I could feel hum beneath her skin like a wild current.
Elena had changed.
And I didn’t know whether to be terrified… or in awe.
The walk back from the Hollow was deathly quiet. The forest that had once screamed with life bowed around her now, silent and still like it recognized her as something sacred. Or dangerous.
I kept glancing sideways, trying to catch glimpses of the woman I knew—the one who’d flinched when I first touched her, who’d stared me down with that quiet defiance even when she was scared out of her mind.
She was still there. But now she wore somethi
