The tension was palpable, the electrical ghost of Serena's power lingering faintly in the room, like the weather left over from a storm. Lucian's eyes were still on her, hard and unyielding. He could not deny her grip over him then, nor could he look away from how she wore herself, defiant, a woman decidedly in her own body. The change had occurred, and it had occurred swiftly and almost violently, but it couldn't be denied: Serena was other.
Elias stood beside him, stiff as stone, fists curled at his sides. His body went rigid, every muscle trembling under the strain of the moment. Lucian felt it, too — the tension between them, the weight of the past, the uncertainty of the future. They had been enemies long before that, their rivalry stoked by decades of bloodshed, treachery and ambition. And now, there they were, she and Serena, on the defensive, chained to the drive of Serena's power and the falling ranks, the rotting world around.
