Chapter 36: the distance between us
The storm outside wasn't natural. It wasn't the kind summoned by clouds or wind. It was something darker—something ancient. Thunder cracked like bones snapping and lightning split the sky like a jagged curse. Inside the mansion, the tension was just as violent.
Cain stood at the window, arms folded, his jaw clenched so tightly that his teeth ached. His eyes scanned the storm but his mind... his mind was with Selene.
She had left.
Vanished after that awful moment—Eira's desperate, forceful kiss and Selene's shattered expression. Cain could still feel her pain like a second skin. She had run, and no one knew where to. Not even Leo, with all his tracking magic, could find her.
"I swear," Cain muttered, voice low and ragged, "if something happens to her..."
Behind him, the room was silent except for the occasional rustle of Eren flipping through one of the demonic history tomes. He hadn't spoken much since the betrayal, his face tight with guilt. Eira sat alone by the fireplace, hugging her knees, eyes fixed on the flames. She hadn't spoken either—not since Cain had shouted at her. Not since Leo had refused to even look her way.
Suddenly, the house shifted. A low pulse thrummed through the floorboards, as if the very walls were alive and trembling.
"Did you feel that?" Leo asked, rising from the far corner of the library. His violet eyes narrowed, glowing faintly. "That wasn't just magic. That was her."
Eren was already moving. "Mother."