DAMIEN'S POV
Monday morning I woke at five.
Didn't try to go back to sleep. Just lay in the dark and let the day be what it was going to be.
Elara was asleep beside me. She'd stayed up later than usual last night, not anxious, just present with me in the way she was when she knew I needed company more than conversation. We'd gone to bed at eleven and she'd fallen asleep with her hand on my chest and I'd lain there for a while feeling the weight of it.
She stirred at half past five.
"You're awake," she said. Not a question.
"Yes."
She moved closer without saying anything else. Just shifted across the space between us until she was against my side, her head on my shoulder, her arm across my stomach.
I put my arm around her.
We lay like that in the dark for twenty minutes.
No talkin
