Lucian
We boarded the helicopter that morning, bound for Goldenpeak. I glanced out over the landscape as it shrank beneath us, feeling a strange weight in my chest. Part of me wished I’d made time to visit baby Richard at the hospital, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind. That visit needed peace, not the storm I was carrying. I’d return with Mara. That felt right.
I was relieved to leave everything behind. But where we were headed didn’t sit right with me either. Goldenpeak was known for its women—women like the ones who had swarmed us at the hotel in Neev. Desperate. Artificial. Predatory. It made my skin crawl.
Darian suggested we spend the night at the duplex my father had bought for his grandparents. I shut that down immediately.
“I’ll pass. We’ll stay at a hotel,” I said flatl
