Selene's POV~
I was sleeping soundly in my room when everything changed.
It was already midnight. The palace was quiet, wrapped in a silence so deep that even the candles seemed afraid to flicker.
I had been alone, curled beneath my blankets, drifting in a dreamless sleep. But suddenly my brows furrowed, my chest tightening for no reason at all.
A strange pressure pressed against my back, a presence so familiar yet so heavy that it dragged me out of sleep in a single breath. My eyes flew open, my body stiff, and when I slowly turned my head, I met a gaze that looked exactly like mine.
Eyes that carried centuries of burden and were filled with immense pain.
"Father," I whispered in a hoarse voice. "You are here."
Before I could say anything else, before I could even sit up properly, Maximus's voice cut through the darkness, sharp and urgent. "Get up, my daughter. We have to get away from here. Now. Hurry up."
