I WOKE TO the sound of birdsong.
For a moment, I forgot where I was. The bed beneath me was too soft, the sheets too smooth, the smell too unfamiliar. I blinked groggily, eyes adjusting to the pale wash of morning light spilling through the tall window. The ceiling beams above were dark oak, not the plain plaster of my own chamber.
Then warmth shifted beside me, and it all came rushing back.
Icarus. His arms around me. His chest beneath my cheek as I drifted into sleep. My nightmare, the fear that drove me here, the way I had clung to him as though the night would swallow me whole if I let go.
My breath caught. I stiffened, daring only the smallest glance at him.
He was awake.
Not fully, not entirely — his eyes were half-shut, his body loose in that half-sleep where the world still s
