Lucien gasps for air, wheezing out a broken laugh, flat on his back at the base of the shattered tree, staring straight up at a sky full of unfamiliar stars that are, at the moment, spinning gently in a slow, entirely indifferent circle above him.
"I'll take that as a yes, then." he snorts.
Wind knocked clean out of him, he pushes himself, wobbly, mind hazy, every single inch of him throbbing.
But not with pain.
With something else entirely.
Power, humming low and steady just under the skin, unfamiliar and entirely welcome.
His vision clears slowly.
