Page 41 of The Panther's Price

She looked at him, really looked.

“You’ve done things,” she said gently, “but I don’t think they’re who you are.”

Lucien’s jaw tightened. “You don’t know me.”

“I’m starting to.”

He turned, eyes catching hers, silver and warm andterrifiedof what that kind of knowing could mean.

“Stop that,” he said softly.

“Stop what?”

“Looking at me like I’m not a monster.”

Evryn didn’t blink. “If you were a monster, Lucien... I wouldn’t still be here.”

He looked away before she could see the truth cracking through him.

He was falling for her. Harder than he wanted. Faster than he could control.

And it was going to destroy them both, especially if his dreams were the signs he assumed they were.

EIGHTEEN

EVRYN

The shadows didn’t feel right.

Evryn had learned, in the short few weeks since falling into the Veil’s cracked-open heart, how to read them—not with her eyes, but with something under her skin. A second heartbeat. A hum.

Right now, that hum was shrieking.

Lucien stood across from her in the basin, circling slowly, his silver gaze narrowed in focus as they worked through another round of shadow training.

He was trying not to look at her too long.

Ever since the night of the kiss. Ever since the dream hewouldn’ttalk about butcouldn’thide from his expression.

She pretended not to notice.

Pretended it didn’t cut her a little more each time he stepped away before something real could surface.

But her shadows noticed.

They coiled tighter around her legs, flickering with tension.

Lucien raised a hand. “Good. But don’t tighten your shoulders like that?—”

A sound tore through the basin.

A whistle, fast and sharp—then a crack.

Lucienmovedfast, yanking her down behind a toppled pillar just as a bolt of darksteel shattered the stone where she’d stood.

Evryn hit the ground hard, shoulder slamming into packed earth.

Lucien was already drawing blades, his voice a harsh whisper. “Stay down?—”

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