Lilith Luna Dusk's POV
The door clicked shut behind us, and silence wrapped itself around the room like smoke — dense, suffocating, sacred.
I didn't look at Damon.
I walked forward, away from the chaos, away from the broken girl sobbing in silk behind us. My heels made no sound against the marble, and yet each step echoed like thunder in the hollowness I carried.
This wing of the Ironclad estate was colder than I remembered. Darker. The furnishings screamed power, the scent of leather and oak thick in the air. There was even a fire burning in the hearth — crackling, defiant — but it did nothing to warm me.
Nothing could.
I stood before the gilded mirror near the bookshelves. My reflection stared back, regal and untouched, save for the mark burned into the hollow of my shoulder — hidden now beneath silk and shadow. I lifted a hand to it, fingertips hovering over where Damon's teeth had been just hours before.
The bond hummed softly beneath my skin.
Real, he'd said.
