TWENTY-SEVEN | FAELEN

Elijah

Elijah awoke slowly, the world shaping around him in soft, blurred lines as the sun rose outside. He became aware of the steady sound of Lily’s breathing, finding his own lungs moving in a gentle rhythm along with hers.

Her warmth seeped into his skin through the thin layers of their clothing. The night before formed itself in his mind’s eye as dawn light spilled across his frame of vision. They had shared a moment of peace, bodies pressing closer and closer as the moon had rolled across the night sky. His hands had tangled in her hair, in the fabric of her clothes, then splayed across her bare skin.

Though they’d edged around the darkest depths of their buried truths, he had learned other facets of her, of who she was, under the shroud of night. They had spoken until sleep had pulled at their eyelids and, at last, they had succumbed to it, entwined toge