Sera's Pov
The air was suffocating.
Thick with smoke, dust, and something heavier—despair. The scent of scorched earth clung to my nose, mixed with the faint coppery sting of blood. My throat burned with every breath I took, like the very air had turned against me. I could still hear muffled cries, the groans of the wounded, but they felt distant—like echoes from another world. Like we were all floating in some suspended, fractured space that hadn't quite caught up to the horror of what had just happened.
Because right now, all focus was on Lucian.
He was furious.
Not just annoyed. Not simply displeased.
No, this was fury in its most distilled, terrifying form—silent and coiled like a predator preparing to strike. The kind of rage that made the air crackle with tension. You could feel it, deep in your bones, as if the very pack bond trembled beneath the weight of it.
