Scarlett’s POV
I waited until the sun was high enough to burn the frost off the trees.
Jasper was asleep again. I checked his pulse three times just to be sure. His chest rose and fell beneath the blanket, slower now, stable. His hand still bore the bruises from clenching his side, but his mouth had softened. His face, too.
He looked… young. And exhausted.
He looked like someone who still had so much to lose.
I leaned down and kissed his forehead, so lightly he wouldn’t stir.
Then I slipped outside the tent, zipped it shut behind me, and walked straight across the frost-hardened clearing to where Elias was seated alone near the edge of the camp.
He didn’t flinch when I approached. Just kept slicing a dried apple with a small utility knife and eating it, one thin crescent at a time.
