The cards were in Dareth's hands again, but he wasn't shuffling them with the same confident ease as an hour earlier. His fingers moved slower, his focus faltered now and then as his gaze kept drifting back to Elara's face. The woman who had clutched a blanket with trembling hands not long ago was now leaning back on the couch with a lopsided smile, having just taken one of the old chess pieces from him-one he'd jokingly called a "rare vampire relic" in the last round.
She laughed. Not loudly. Not with carefree freedom. But with a real smile. And for Dareth, that was enough.
He didn't speak. Just watched her. And slowly, something inside him began to loosen. Not his vigilance. Not his sense of duty. But the tight knot of tension he'd carried on his shoulders for days. Because he could se
