Elara's POV
Warmth reached me before awareness did. It wrapped around my body slowly, pressing into my skin and bones in a way that felt deliberate, protective. For a suspended moment, I remained still beneath it, reluctant to open my eyes because the last thing I remembered had been cold, the kind of cold that bites through fabric and into marrow. Snow against my back. Air sharp in my lungs. His mouth at my neck. The heat that followed.
The contrast was disorienting.
When I finally let my eyes open, I found myself staring at a ceiling carved from dark wood, polished and heavy, the beams thick and deliberate, as if built to endure centuries. Soft amber light flickered across it from somewhere to my left, and when I turned my head slightly, I saw the source, a low-burning fire set into a
