Selene's POV
I gasped loudly, my breath slicing through the tension-heavy silence like a blade.
"El… Eldric?"
But the most shocking thing was that my mother gasped at the exact same time, her hand flying to her chest as though her heart had suddenly forgotten how to beat, except she did not say Eldric; she whispered, shattered and breathless, "Lance."
And the entire room froze so deeply it felt as though time had stopped spinning altogether, and everyone, from Lucian's warriors to the vampires to my closest companions, stared at the man who had just walked in with a mixture of disbelief, suspicion, realization, and dawning horror creeping onto their faces.
I felt my heartbeat pounding in my ears as the truth began unraveling in my mind.
