~Aria~
Morning doesn’t arrive with birdsongs, but with the hushed stillness of stone walls and the heavy warmth of a body beside mine.
For a few stolen breaths, I don’t move. I lie there, pulse fluttering like a caught bird, as my eyes adjust to the pale slant of light spilling through the carved shutters. It touches kael first— the long stretch of his chest, the rise and fall of his breath, the shadows tracing the sharp ridges of his muscles.
I’ve never seen him like this. His scars soften into stories instead of threats, his jaw unclenches and the cruel twist of his mouth is replaced by something so dangerously human it makes my chest ache.
Without permission, my gaze drifts lower, roaming the terrain of his body: the powerful breadth of his shoulders, the deep cuts of his muscles
