We didn’t set an alarm for the first time in 4 months.
The sun was already high when I woke up to Aria’s warm weight on my chest and Darius’s arm around both of us. No urgent knocks. No scouts. No whispers in the dark. Just quiet.
Aria was awake but content, playing with a loose thread on my shirt, gold eyes bright and curious without that ancient weight in them.
“Morning, little moon,” Darius murmured, kissing the top of her head. “You sleep okay?”
“Mmm,” she hummed and reached for his face, smearing drool on his cheek. “Dada.”
He grinned like she’d just handed him a crown. “Dada right back.”
There was a soft knock and Elias poked his head in, holding a tray like he’d been practicing this for hours. He was in his pajamas with his training dagger still somehow strapped to his thigh -
