Her name rips from me like a confession dragged through broken glass.
She flinches, then her shakes her head, her eyes fluttered shut as if praying for deliverance.
I hear her heartbeat stutter, feel her pulse race under my thumb. She doesn’t have to look at me; I can taste her fear, her confusion, her suspicion that she’s in a cruel trance or a dream.
But when she does, when she finally lifts her face cautiously to mine…it’s like being staked anew through the chest.
“Lucien,” she whispers.
My name from her lips is a blade and a benediction both.
Then she attempts to fuckingdislodgeme. Like a pesky tick she wants gone.
Fury surging, I drag her into the nearest alcove, out of sight of the mortals still dancing, still laughing, unaware that death and desire have collided a few paces away.
The shadows swallow us whole.
She pulls once against my grip, but it’s half-hearted. I press her back against the cold stone wall, my body braced against hers, my breath shaking from the effort not to tear her apart just to prove she’s real.
Two and a half centuries of hunger come roaring back all at once as I rip the mask from her face.
And gods, the sight of her bare features nearly undoes me.
“W-what are you doing here?” she whispers.
I ignore hers and ask a question of my own. “How is this possible?” My voice is rough, too low. “How are you alive?”
Her entrancing eyes search my face, my eyes. “Is it truly you? No, it cannot be.”
“Believe it,” I seethe. “And answer me.”
Her lips part. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“I can’t,” she says softly. “Not yet.”
The words ignite me. “Not yet?” My laugh is pure venom. “I’ve waited two and a half centuries, Elara. I burned half the world to ash for you. You owe me an explanation to start. And the truth to end.”
She meets my eyes then, steady, sorrowful but defiant. “If you are truly him…” She pauses, her throat working, a tremor flickering through her composure. “Then you burned the world because you thought I betrayed you, didn’t you?”
Rage flares, blinding. “Didn’t you?”
Her head jerks back as if I’ve struck her. Shock flashes across her face, quick and unguarded, before something softer breaks through. Hurt and disbelief. Her voice fractures when she finally speaks. “No.”
“No?” I snarl. “You fucking dare to deny it?”
The denial cuts sharper than any blade. For a moment, she looks lost, her gaze darting as though she’s searching for the memory itself and finding only darkness. Her hand rises to her temple, fingers trembling. “I remember chanting and fire. Screaming. Hands dragging me down. But after that—nothing. It’s gone.”
I freeze. “Gone?” I snap.
She nods slowly, her eyes wide, glassy with confusion. “It’s as if someone reached inside my head and stole the night from my mind. I woke covered in blood that wasn’t mine and the world was…empty. Silent. I thought you were dead.”
“Dead?” The word scrapes from my throat. “I was. Except by the thinnest sinew. The shallowest shred of life.Afteryousold me out to save yourself. Offered my blood for your coven’s power.”
Her lips part in protest, tears catching the candlelight. “Lucien?—”
“You staked me in the heart with these two hands,” I snarl, catching, gripping them tight in mine, “and walked away.”
