Lucian's POV...
Where is Camilla?
The question was a drumbeat in my skull, pounding in time with my failing heart. Every second she was gone was a second she could be dying. Or worse.
I moved deeper into the carnage of the mall, my boots sticking to the blood-slicked marble. The air reeked of gunpowder, copper, and the sharp, acrid scent of fear.
My men—what was left of them—were already dispersing, shadows melting into the shattered storefronts.
The fight had been brutal, efficient, and final. We'd taken down James's guards, but the cost was written in the bodies around us. This wasn't just a skirmish; it was a declaration of war.
James would retaliate. I knew that with a cold certainty. I just prayed the price wouldn't be her.
But where was she? The luxurious silence that had fallen was more terrifying than the gunfire. It was the silence of a tomb.
