Chapter Twenty-One – The Lull Before the storm

The hollow lay hushed in the pale light of dawn.

Moonlight had long fled, and in its place a thin wash of early sunlight slipped through the broken stone ribs of the ruin’s ceiling. Smoke curled in lazy ribbons from the dying firepit, drifting up to be caught in shafts of pale gold. Outside, the marsh shifted in slow, restless breaths — murky water glimmering between reeds, fog moving like a spirit searching for its name.

For the first time since fleeing the council, the world seemed to pause.

Selene rested against Rowan’s chest, her head rising and falling with the steady rhythm of his breath. The heat of him seeped into her bones, grounding her in a way nothing else ever had. Lucien sat beside them, cross-legged and still as carved moonstone. His pale fingers stroked gently through her hair, each pass soothing the tension from her scalp. His silver gaze — always sharpened, always analyzing — now softened to something