Page 35 of The Panther's Price

Lucien’s voice broke through, quiet but firm.

“Because if you vanish, everything you are gets twisted into legend. And legends become lies. Manipulation.”

Evryn turned toward him, heart pulsing hard behind her ribs.

“Better a lie than a corpse.”

Lucien stepped closer. “You’re not either.”

Their eyes locked.

The others faded just for a moment.

“Well, how about we get you some real food and you tell us how your trip through the Veil has been so far,” Seraphine remarked, catching the tension between the two.

Everyn took a breath and let her lead her away. She would try to figure out Lucien later, when she wasn't so exhausted.

FIFTEEN

LUCIEN

The tension that swept through the ruins after the wind shifted didn’t fully break.

But nothing came, not yet.

No monsters. No spies.

Just the sharp silence of four predators testing each other’s teeth in a room built for war.

Lucien stood slightly behind Evryn, watching her back, watching the heirs. Watching the shadows shift like they might speak if he stood still long enough.

Seraphine’s eyes narrowed toward the horizon, then back to Lucien. “We’ll move at dawn.”

Calder didn’t move at all, but his voice was solid. “This valley isn’t safe for long.”

Lucien nodded. “I’ll keep her out of sight.”

Seraphine looked at Evryn again, studying her like a general mapping out terrain. “You’re raw. Untrained. But not untested.”

Evryn raised a brow. “Was that a compliment?”

“It was an observation.”

Evryn smirked.

Lucien hated how much he noticed that smirk.

Calder finally turned fully toward Lucien, slow and deliberate. “We’ll be in touch.”

It wasn’t a threat. Not quite. But Grimhart didn’t do casual farewells.

Lucien inclined his head once.

Seraphine said nothing else. She simply stepped back into the veil-carved arch where the sky thinned, Calder flanking her. One blink, and they were gone—faded into mist like ghost-kissed shadows.

Silence dropped like stone.

Evryn sat again near the edge of the circle, rubbing her thumb along a weather-smoothed shard of obsidian.

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