KAEL'S POV
I woke up with the kind of stillness that only came after chaos. The fever was gone. The ache in my bones had dulled into something bearable. I was warm… too warm.
It took a second to place the feeling.
Aria.
Her body curled near mine, her breathing soft, chest rising and falling in a rhythm that tugged at something deep inside me. Her hair was a mess. One hand loosely fisted in the blanket. I didn't remember falling asleep, but I remembered everything before that. Every breathy sound. Every look. Every time she told me to stay still, to stop grinding like some animal, to let her take care of me.
Fuck.
My hand dragged down my face, trying to scrape off the memory—but it clung. The kind of night you didn't just forget. I rolled carefully out of bed, doing my best not to wake her. My eyes caught the trail of discarded clothes on the floor, the pill packets by the table, and the half-drunk water bottle beside them.
