Rowan's POV
I left before he woke up.
Ash was still sleeping when I slipped out, curled on his side with his face relaxed in a way it almost never was when he was conscious, all that careful guardedness completely gone, and I had stood there looking at him for a moment longer than I intended to.
Something had been strange.
Just for a second, in the early morning light coming through the gap in the curtain, I had looked at his face and seen something that made me pause. Something soft and unfamiliar that I couldn't pin a word to. I had stood there with that thought sitting in my chest feeling oddly like I was missing something obvious and then he shifted slightly in his sleep and the moment broke and I left before I could think about it any further.
The combat ground was empty at that
