He reached out, brushing a stray curl from her cheek. His touch was featherlight, though she felt it all the way to her toes.
“You called for us.” His voice was low, a heavy rumble. “You were in pain.” A pause. “And youneededus.”
Her throat felt tight. Shehadneeded them, and they’d answered.
She swallowed, searching his face. “Does that bother you?”
His jaw tightened slightly, and for a moment, she thought he might pull away. But he didn’t. His fingers brushed absently over the sheet between them, as though searching for something to ground him.
“No,” he said finally. “But it terrifies me.”
The question slipped out, barely a whisper. “Why?”
Alarik’s eyes shifted to their hands, lying mere inches apart. Hesitationwarred in his expression—an uncertainty she rarely saw in him. Then, slowly, he turned his palm upward in silent offering.
Reiya stared at it for a beat before lifting her hand, pressing it lightly against his.
A quiet breath left him. “Because it’s easy to care for you,” he admitted, his thumb brushing the back of her hand in a slow caress. “Easier than it should be.”
A strange, unfamiliar warmth bloomed in her chest at his words. It settled somewhere deep, a place she hadn’t yet decided whether to protect or surrender.
She exhaled softly. “I feel . . . like a troublesome woman. I’m sorry.”
He huffed a quiet laugh, the barest smirk tugging at his lips. “So shy now. What happened to the woman bold enough to kiss my cheek after the archery lesson? Where did she go?”
Heat flared across her face. “Ah. That happened, didn’t it?”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly—enough to make him look so much like Kaelen. That smile alone was enough to spread warmth in her stomach.
She cleared her throat. “Where is Kaelen?”
“He went to speak to Solmaz.”
“You know Solmaz?”
“Kaelen does. I only knowofher. He suspects she holds valuable information. There’s more to her than meets the eye.”
Before she could gather her thoughts, the door eased open, and Kaelen stepped inside. His eyes swept the room, pausing briefly where she still lay curled against Alarik. Something flickered in his gaze—relief, maybe something deeper—before he crossed the room with easy steps.
“You’re awake,” he said, his voice warm.
She nodded, shifting slightly beneath the covers. “How long have I been asleep?”
He moved closer, resting a hip against the edge of the bed. “A few hours. It passed quickly.”
Her gaze flickered to Alarik, then back to Kaelen. “It’s kind of you both to stay.”
Alarik huffed a quiet sound, his thumb absently brushing over theback of her wrist where his fingers still rested. “Where else would we be?”
The certainty in his voice stirred a flutter inside—a warmth she didn’t know yet how to trust.
She wasn’t used to this.
With Castiel, there’d been words of comfort, promises of devotion, but beneath them always a shifting ground. At the time, she hadn’t seen it. She’d wanted so badly to believe that someone would stand with her, fight for her, that she hadn’t noticed the cracks forming beneath the promises he made. In the end, Castiel had proven a stranger in all the ways that mattered most.
But Kaelen and Alarik didn’t make promises. They simply stayed.
Without fanfare, without expectation.
