LUCIAN’S POV
The moment I saw Sera, I knew something had changed.
It wasn’t the way the moonlight clung to her, silvering the edges of her silhouette.
It wasn’t even the ease in her—how she stood without tension, as if she no longer needed to brace herself against the world.
It was the pressure. A quiet, undeniable gravity that rested the way power does when it’s finally allowed to settle into its rightful shape.
Her presence was layered now, deepened, humming with a resonance that made my chest clench with fierce pride.
And regret.
I’d missed this. Missed the becoming.
I hadn’t allowed myself to actively think about her over the time I was gone, because I didn’t think I could bear the weight of my duality, especially when Zara hardly left my arms.
But at the s
