EMILIA’S POV

The door shut with a heavy thud, leaving me alone with him.

Lucien’s presence had been like a lifeline, a buffer between me and the storm that was the King. But now—now it was just the two of us. His fury. My trembling defiance. And the silence.

Goddess, the silence.

It pressed against my ears, filled my lungs like smoke, thick and suffocating. He stood across the room, his chest rising and falling with uneven breaths, every muscle in his body wound tight as a bowstring. His hands flexed at his sides, veins bulging, and though his face was angled away, I could feel the weight of his...