Page 29 of The Panther's Price

He nodded once. “She’s dangerous.”

Evryn narrowed her eyes. “And you’re not?”

His gaze didn’t flinch. “I’ve never promised to be anything else.”

She snorted, sharp and bitter. “So my choices are to be a banner or a bargaining chip.”

“No.” His voice was steady. “Your choice is whether you become what they say you are, or stay who youknowyou are.”

Evryn studied him. “And what if I don’t know that either?”

He stepped closer. Not a threat. Not exactly. But there was something coiled in him, something that never stopped watching the exits.

“Then we figure it out together.”

Before the moment could settle, her mind replayed something else. Something he’d said earlier.

Evryn’s brows furrowed. She tilted her head just slightly. “What did you mean back there?”

Lucien stilled.

She didn’t blink. “You said you hadn’t killed me yet.”

Silence. Cold. Crackling.

“You said it like it was a decision you’d already weighed.”

Lucien’s jaw flexed.

“Did the Queen send you?” she asked quietly.

Still no answer.

Her voice dropped further. “Were youfollowingme back then because you were meant to...?”

He turned away, shadows curling tight around his boots.

Evryn stood, heart pounding. “Lucien.”

He looked over his shoulder, face shadowed, voice low.

“I didn’t know what you were. Only what I was told.”

Evryn felt something twist in her stomach—rage and betrayal and fear colliding.

“So youweresupposed to kill me.”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.

Her arms wrapped around herself like armor. “And now?”

Lucien stepped forward, voice like a fracture.

“Now I’d kill anyone who tried.”

She didn’t move. Didn’t speak. But she didn’t run, either.

And Lucien, for the first time, looked afraid. Not of her, but of what she might say next.

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