Elle POV
The room is quiet again.
Not empty—attentive.
Blake’s presence lingers through the bond, steady and controlled, his focus turned outward now, but still threaded through me like a living warmth. I can feel his calm the way I once felt danger—instinctively, without effort.
I exhale and drift into the restroom, letting the door close softly behind me.
The space is dim, lit by gentle mage-light that glows against pale stone. Steam still curls faintly from the shower where water runs, waiting. At the far end, the full-length mirror catches my reflection.
I stop.
For the first time, I don’t look away.
The woman in the mirror doesn’t seem plain.
That thought hits me so unexpectedly that I almost laugh. Almost recoil. For so long, I’ve seen myself only as something that needed to
