Ariane:
When I woke, it was with the disoriented breathlessness of someone who had been pulled too fast from drowning sleep.
Soft warmth cradled me on either side—Kaelen’s broad, bare chest, his hand curled loosely against my waist, and Varek’s strong arm draped over my thighs like a heavy, comforting weight anchoring me back to reality.
Their breathing was deep and even, a slow symphony of safety that sang so sweet it almost made me doubt everything that had happened to me.
The dream—or what I now thought had been a dream—lingered like smoke behind my eyes. The feeling of Seris’s arms around me, the pull of the void during the free fall, the shivering stars breaking through darkness…
How had I even opened that pit to hell?
I lay still, listening to the slow, steady thud of their h
