Page 23 of The Panther's Price

Lucien didn’t answer.

Evryn stood and paced a slow circle around the fallen pillar, letting the air between them charge with all the things they weren’t saying.

“I don’t get you,” she said. “You say you’re protecting me. But every time I look at you, you look like you’re tryingnotto be that guy.”

Lucien arched a brow. “What guy?”

“The one who wants to help.”

His mouth twitched. “Maybe I’m not that guy.”

“Maybe you’re lying to yourself.”

Her voice didn’t shake, but her hands did. Just a little.

“I think you’re hiding more than just where Eamon is. I think you’re playing me.”

Lucien’s eyes flared. “I’m not.”

“No? You’re the Queen’s son. Her weapon. You stalk me through the human border, youdon’tkill me, and now I’m supposed to believe you’re just doing this out of... what? Guilt? Curiosity? You won’t evenlook me in the eyewhen I ask where he is.”

Lucien stood slowly.

Tall. Controlled.

Dangerous.

“I told you—Eamon’s not your biggest problem right now.”

“But he’smine,” she snapped, voice cracking. “He’s the only family I’ve got. And I’ve trusted you more than I should. I’vebeen letting my gut guide me, but maybe I shouldn’t. Because right now? My gut’s saying you’re still deciding whether I’m worth saving.”

Lucien stepped forward, shadow trailing behind him like a cloak made of regret.

Their faces were inches apart.

His voice dropped to something ragged. “You have no idea how much I’ve already done to keep you alive.”

“I didn’t ask you to,” she whispered.

“You didn’t have to.”

The silence trembled between them, full of breath and heat and questions with no safe answers.

Her eyes flicked to his mouth.

His to hers.

Suddenly, a rush of cold. Asnapof pressure in the Veil.

They both turned too late.

The shadows behind themtwisted.

Evryn’s scream tore from her throat just as something lunged from the edge of the cathedral, all fangs and bone and black-glass eyes. A shadowbeast—one of the corrupted things that slipped through Veil rifts when the thresholds weren’t sealed tight enough.

Lucien shoved her behind him. His shadowsreacted.

They struck like snakes, lashing forward, slicing across the beast’s hide. It screamed, high and wrong, as Lucien moved with deadly fluidity, cloak flaring.

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