Victoria's POV
The swamp didn't feel like a place.
It felt like something alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
Every step I took sank slightly into the damp earth, the ground soft and unsteady beneath my boots. The air was thick, heavy with moisture and something older, something that clung to my skin and settled into my lungs.
It was too quiet.
Not peaceful quiet.
Wrong quiet.
The kind that made your instincts itch.
I tightened my fingers around Lucien's hand without thinking. He didn't look at me, but his grip shifted immediately, firm and grounding, like he knew exactly what I needed before I said it.
"You're thinking too loud," he murmured.
I exhaled slowly. "I can't help it."
"You don't have to help it," he said. "Just don't let it control you."
Easy for him to say.
But I leaned i
