HIS WORDS, MY WOUND

(Kael's POV)

I woke to the fading warmth of a hand that was no longer there.

The room was dim, the light slanting in through the high windows tinged orange with the last stretch of the sun. My head felt heavy, as though I had slept too long, but I remembered that Alaric had coaxed me to lie down, brushing his fingers through my hair until the world blurred into softness. He had kissed my temple and told me to rest, his voice a low promise that he’d still be there when I woke.

He wasn’t.

The space beside me was cold.

I sat up, scanning the chamber as if he might be leaning in some shadowed corner, smiling at me the way he always did when I looked for him. But there was nothing, no sound of him moving in the adjoining rooms, no scent of him clinging to the air except what lingered on the blankets.

A tightness coiled in my chest. I swung my legs over the bed, pacing to the window, then the door, then back again. Where could he have gone without waking me? Why hadn’t he—

A knock jolted me