LUCIAN’S POV
Kieran went still when he finally settled before the moonstone.
I watched the shift happen in his body—a slowing of breath, a lowering of shoulders, a gradual unclenching of muscles that moments earlier had been coiled like a beast ready to rip through mountains.
His hands pressed flat to the pale surface, the stone thrumming with a pulse that answered the rhythm inside him.
In that instant, a feeling I had always forbidden myself to acknowledge around him surged up, unbidden.
Envy.
Not of his strength. Not of his title. Not of his place in the world.
But of that tether between him and Sera—frayed as it was, fractured as it might be, cracked down its divine center yet still undeniably alive.
He could feel her pain.
I could not.
He could reach her.
I could not.
