POV: Lucian
Something inside me broke.
Not metaphorically. Not gradually. It shattered—every restraint, every control, every careful boundary I'd built around the hybrid power since the day it first manifested. All of it gone in one terrible instant, destroyed by grief and rage and the weight of five centuries crashing into my soul.
The curse. All of it. No more bloodline to distribute the load. No more ancestors to drain. Just me, carrying the full weight of what my family had bargained for.
Just me, and the power that had been waiting for this moment since before I was born.
"Lucian." My mother's voice, distant and warped. "Lucian, you need to—"
I didn't hear the rest. Couldn't hear anything over the roar building in my chest, the pressure behind my ribs that felt like it would tear me apart from the inside if I didn't release it.
