Page 185 of Owned

Cold-blooded killer. Heir to Lucian’s power.

In the vision the enchantment had shown me, I had been both.

If I dared—

No.

“We will share her,”Lucian’s voice was smooth and mocking.“She will bend and break so perfectly between us—”

Fury lashed through me.

No. She wasours.

Titus, Valen, and mine.

Not his.

Never his.

The vision from the Spire filled my head and stretched into every corner of my thoughts.

Suffocating.

Tempting.

My pace quickened.

I could never be like Lucian.

Never.

Lucian’s chilling laugh, the vision—it was nothing more than a dark fantasy meant to torment and drive doubt between us.

Titus and Bastian had shaken off what they’d seen in that cursed place.

But I couldn’t.

And that was what scared me the most.

I could sense it, the creep of darkness—how easy it would be to remove them from the line of succession until I was the only one left.

One look in the mirror was all it took to remind me how like Lucian I really was.

I raked my hands through my hair and held them there, my fingers tangling.

“You’ll stand at my side. My heir. My true heir.”

There was no escaping his voice.

My eyes squeezed shut against the memory.

His mouth, his eyes, his pale gaze—how he’d said it.

Like I didn’t have a choice.

As though my betrayal was inevitable.

Valen and Titus didn’t understand.

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