Cierra:
The meditation chamber was small, dark, scented with incense and smoke that curled in slow, lazy spirals toward the ceiling. Stone walls pressed close, cold against my back, but the chill did nothing to ease the fire inside me. I sank to the floor, cross-legged, palms flat against the rough stone, and tried to breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Dominic lingered near the doorway, silent, his presence heavy, insistent, like a tether I didn’t know I needed. I hadn’t asked him to come, but he had anyway. He stayed there, still and watchful, letting me pretend I was alone while silently promising he wouldn’t let me fall apart.
I closed my eyes.
The darkness behind my eyelids should have been nothing but black. Instead, it was a door—a door I hadn’t wanted to open.
And it swung wide.
At
