= Sera =
The first thing I did was listen to Elias breathe.
Slow. Deep. Even.
I lay still beside him in the darkness, staring up at the shadowed ceiling of the bedroom, counting every rise and fall of his chest. I had learned his sleeping patterns months ago—how his breathing deepened when he fell into true sleep, how his fingers twitched when he was drifting between dreams. Elias was not an easy man to deceive, and I had never been careless around him.
Not once.
Tonight would not be the first.
When another long minute passed and he didn’t stir, I carefully shifted beneath the blanket. The mattress dipped slightly as I slid my leg free, but Elias didn’t react. His arm remained sprawled across the space where I had been lying moments ago, heavy and warm, claiming territory even in sle
