Lucien did not move from where he stood, yet somehow the space between us shifted the moment he chose to speak.
"Careful, little brother," he said, his tone light, almost conversational, though there was something beneath it that didn't belong to casual words. "You've always had a habit of mistaking instinct for certainty, and it never ended well for you."
Rowan didn't react immediately, but I felt the change in him anyway.
It wasn't visible to anyone who didn't know what to look for, yet it was there in the way his shoulders settled just slightly differently, in the way his focus sharpened without becoming aggressive. This wasn't the kind of tension he had shown with Kael. This was older. Quieter. More controlled.
"You didn't come here to give advice," Rowan replied, his voice steady, though the edge beneath it was impossible to miss.
Lucien's smile widened just enough to acknowledge that truth.
