The room was too quiet after that.
Dawn light crept in through the thin gap Lexus hadn’t fully covered, painting the stone floor in pale gold. The city outside was waking—distant voices, the clatter of carts, life continuing as if nothing had fractured during the night.
Anna lay curled against Lexus, still half-wrapped in his arms. At some point she had stopped shaking, though she hadn’t noticed when. What she did notice was warmth. Solid, steady, unmistakably real.
She shifted slightly, testing the moment.
He didn’t pull away.
Instead, his hand traced slow, absent circles along her spine, not searching, not demanding—just there. The kind of touch that said stay.
“You should rest,” he murmured, his voice rough with exhaustion. “Your mind took a beating.”
She huffed softly. “Says the
