SERAPHINA’S POV
Celeste stared at him in disbelief. “You’re defending her?”
He did not answer immediately.
His gaze stayed locked on mine, something deep and unreadable shifting in his eyes.
“You’re just going to stand there and look at her like that?” she demanded, her body trembling with barely contained outrage.
Her eyes were on him, not me, as if I were an irrelevant variable in an equation. “After everything you promised me?”
The grip he had on her wrist tightened slightly, not in aggression but in restraint, as if he were holding back something far more dangerous than her fury.
“You made me a promise,” Celeste continued, her voice cracking at the edges now, “you said I would be your Luna. You said I would be the one standing beside you. Not her.”
Her gaze snapped toward me with venom sharp enough to sting even at a distance. “Never her.”
The words hung there, heavy and poisonous, as if she could erase what was happening simply by refusing to accept it.
