Chapter 25

Zarek PoV 

I headed downstairs, my footsteps barely making a sound against the worn wooden floor. The tension from the morning was still clinging to me. 

Lunette was nowhere to be found upstairs, and a faint sense of unease had settled in my chest, which was stupid because I shouldn't care what she was doing with her life at the moment, but I did anyway. 

I expected to see her in the kitchen or by the door, maybe lost in her thoughts as she so often was. 

But as I got closer to the kitchen, a different scent hit my nose—one that wasn't Lunette's. It was familiar and comforting, and yet it carried its own weight of complications. 

My brother, Axel.

Sure enough, there he was, sitting at the kitchen table, casually sipping a cup of coffee and a plate of muffins in front of him.

His long legs were stretched out in front of him, his expression a mix of boredom and the watchfulness he always had on him. <