Dawn broke through the windows.
Pale light crept across the floor, illuminating dust motes that danced in the stillness. The kind of beautiful morning that mocked everything happening inside these walls.
Selene hadn't moved. Still on the floor where she'd collapsed. Still holding the space where Damian had been before they'd taken his body. Her fingers pressed against cold stone, tracing the outline of where he'd lain. Her dress was wrinkled, twisted around her legs. Her hair had come loose from its pins, falling in tangled waves across her shoulders.
The bond wound was agony. Mara's suppression drug made it feel like the mate bond had shattered completely. Like half her soul had been ripped away. Like she was dying slowly from the inside. A constant burning in her chest, radiating outward through her veins. Every breath hurt. Every heartbeat felt wrong, incomplete.
