SERAPHINA’S POV
I dreamed of firelight.
The bonfire crackled as it had last night, gold and amber shadows flickering across faces I barely registered until one came into sharp, intimate focus. Lucian.
His gaze was steady, calm, gentle. He leaned closer, and the hush of people laughing somewhere behind us faded like smoke.
‘May I?’
His warmth skimmed my skin as he leaned in. I knew what came next—
But then things shifted.
His features blurred, shifting into something equal parts familiar and strange—sharper cheekbones, a broader jaw, darker eyes shadowed in regret.
Recognition jolted me, an electric shock racing through my veins: Kieran.
Suddenly, the emotions hit different—raw, aching, tangled with years of hurt and yearning and what-ifs.
My chest tightened. I tried to pull away, to reject the dream’s cruel fusion, but I found myself leaning in instead, pulled by a force I had no control over.
