The silence inside Lucien was unbearable.
Not peace.
Not calm.
Absence.
The bond was gone.
No echo of her heartbeat.
No whisper of her presence.
No fragile thread pulling him toward her.
Only a vast, hollow void where Seraphine had once lived inside his soul.
Lucien stood at the highest tower of Nightfall, staring into a sky heavy with storm clouds, his hands clenched so tightly blood seeped from his palms.
“She chose to disappear,” one of the elders whispered behind him.
Lucien didn’t turn.
“She chose to save you,” Kael corrected quietly.
Lucien’s chest constricted painfully.
Save him.
At the cost of herself.
He closed his eyes, memories slamming into him like blades.
Her defiance.
Her fury.
Her broken sobs.
Her fierce devotion.
She had been forged to kill him.
And i
