The morning light the next morning was softer than I expected, spilling through the curtains in a pale gold glow. For a moment, I thought I had dreamed it all—the fight, the tears, even the way we had found one another again in the darkness. But when I shifted, I felt the warmth of him beside me, the steady weight of his arm draped across my waist.
I blinked, realizing the room around me wasn’t his but mine. My familiar shelves of books, the little table Lyra always kept neat, the faint scent of lavender on the linens. Somehow, for the first time, Varion had chosen to stay here, in my space. I turned my head, studying him. His face was calmer in sleep, the sharpness of his anger now completely gone, leaving only the man I had come to know—the one who, despite all his power, looked almost
