Ariane:
The silence afterward was unlike any I had ever known—not the absence of sound, but the presence of peace, heavy and honey-slow.
Seris lay above me, his weight a shield I didn’t know I craved, anchoring me to a moment that felt untouchable by time.
His breath mingled with mine, warm against my cheek, as our bodies slowly remembered how to exist apart from the storm we had summoned together.
He was still inside me—a thick, pulsing echo of what we’d shared, his warmth stitched into the spaces between my ribs, our souls still twined like smoke and starlight.
I didn’t dare move. Neither did he.
The world had fallen quiet around us, as if even the shadows knew not to intrude. And yet, reality crept in like a cold wind through a cracked door.
I lifted a hand, brushing the sharp l
