HELENA POV
The blanket beneath my hands was rough in places, soft in others. The kind of blanket you didn’t worry about getting dirty, the kind that smelled faintly of sun and grass and something familiar I couldn’t quite place.
We were by the thermal lake and it was beautiful.
Steam rose from the water in lazy spirals, carrying that faint mineral scent I had always associated with rest, with sore muscles easing, with breathing slowing down whether you wanted it to or not. The grass around us was green and bright, damp with warmth, the earth alive under my bare feet.
Silas sat close to me, not touching, but near enough that I could feel the heat of him. He looked… unguarded. Not careless, but at ease in a way that still surprised me sometimes. His shoulders weren’t tight. His jaw wasn
