Ariane:
After dinner, I went upstairs and began drawing a bath. I tried to give my serpent friends a night off. Steam laced with moonroot and lavender curled around me, around the room. I hissed as I slid into it; the scent alone was coaxing my bones toward sleep. Before, the serpents, whom I had named Nythra and Azreth, refused the night off, slipping into the water and washing the day from my skin. I was so tired, so damn tired, and yet, all I could think about was Seris.
Once I was dry and tucked beneath the softness of the sheets, I murmured a sleepy thank-you to my silent guardians. And then I let go, let sleep pull me under.
I expected stars. I expected him. But the space that formed around me was different—darker, storm-lit, and windless. The sky here pulsed a deep, bruised vio
