Author's POV~
A month.
Thirty days.
And still… no sign of her.
No scent. No trail. Not a drop of blood or a torn scrap of clothing. There was nothing to prove she had even existed down there at all. It was like the earth had swallowed her whole and refused to give her back. Like Selene had vanished into the abyss and taken a part of them with her.
The office was quiet.
Aeron sat behind the large obsidian desk, fingers steepled, elbows resting on wood that had begun to splinter beneath his grip. The air inside was heavy—thick with something that wasn't just grief. It was a loss. Madness. A slow-burning, unending ache that had no name.
Lucian sat to his right, the chair beneath him creaking every time his leg moved restlessly. His injuries had healed weeks ago, but not really. The scars were beneath the skin—inside where no healer could reach.
Kael stood near the window, arms folded, eyes locked on the forest line like he was waiting for her shadow to reappear among the trees.
