Chapter 45
Ariana did not move as she kept her eyes on Augustus standing in the broken doorway, as if he had always been there. He looked calm, almost relaxed, like nothing in this place could affect him, and that was what unsettled her the most. The darkness around him spread slowly across the floor, moving like something alive until it reached her golden light. The moment the two forces touched, the air shifted, and she felt a tight pressure settle in her chest, not painful, but unmistakably wrong.
"You shouldn't be here," she said, her voice steady even as tension built inside her.
Augustus smiled faintly, clearly amused. "And yet, here I am." His voice did not echo like hers had; it settled into the space, heavy and grounded, as if it belonged there more than anything else. That alone made her instincts tighten, because nothing about this place should have accepted him.
