LUCIAN’S POV
I hadn’t slept in two days.
Not that anyone could tell; over time, I’d become adept at masking exhaustion, shielding it behind a practiced façade.
But when I saw Sera standing at the edge of the campsite, frozen in shock at the sight of me, I knew no amount of composure could disguise what was written all over me.
There was that wall between us now; I could feel it as surely as the fire’s heat against my skin—almost as if it had been fortified.
Yet beyond the distance, what struck me hardest wasn’t hostility. It was her calmness, unsettling and serene.
It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t resentment. It was something colder, quieter.
Acceptance.
She’d already accepted my absence before I could even process what it meant. When Judy pulled her aside earlier, I didn’t need to hear the words to guess the conversation.
And when Talia obliviously paired us together, Sera’s decision to stay—to work with me—felt both like mercy and punishment.
