Elara's Pov
I woke to silence.
Not the type of emptiness, but the dense, ringing silence that comes after a great noise. My body felt strange, too light and too aware. The air tasted of ozone and wild magic.
I was lying on the cold floor of the observatory chamber. The cracked dome above showed a sky that was wrong. The moon now was no longer full, but it hung silver-bright and heavy, pulsing with a light that seemed to drip into the world.
The Last Moon had risen, and it had passed.
I tried pushing myself up. My limbs moved smoothly, but there was a new hum in my blood, a resonance with the fading lunar energy.
"Lucian?" My voice was a rasp.
He was already coming toward me. He looked... different. Not transformed, but kind of settled. The constant edge of predatory tension was gone
