Semua Bab Love's Healing Touch: Bab 81 - Bab 84

The sky was still dark with the last whisper of night when Elara came to. The hearth fire had reduced to a heap of warm embers, sending an orange golden light along the wooden walls of the cottage. She was resting in Adrian's arms, his deep steady breathing against hers. There was peace in him now—something other than the riled, protective man that had greeted her when he appeared in her world.Elara had shifted slightly to one side, enough to glimpse his sleeping profile. His face had relaxed with time, not merely with the physical mending that her love and care had wrought, but in spirit, as well. The ruggedness that had so long haunted behind his eyes had been reduced to ashes into something more vulnerable—something more open.She brushed her fingertips softly against the curve of his jaw. Adrian stirred in his sleep and drew closer, his arms contracting around her in a possessive hold. A smile crept onto her lips.But this peace, this moment, had not been discovered. It had been

The sun had risen early, and golden stripes stabbed through the hills, piercing through Elara's cottage windows' curved panes and gently falling on the wooden floorboards. The birds outside sang, their singing far away but continuous, a background to a dream not yet fully awakened. Elara stood at the stove, moving the bubbling porridge with one hand and grasping tightly in the other a small clump of wild chamomile she'd picked before dawn. She hesitated, looking down the passage at Adrian, who was still standing there. It was days since the fever had at last subsided, and his skin was now once again its usual color—but the darkness in his eyes did not hold.He had remained characteristically quiet since the village square stop, withdrawn even from his stoic withdrawal. While his physical form healed, Elara realized that something deeper—something more exquisite—was still off-kilter.By the time Adrian finally arrived, his footsteps were quiet. He said nothing, just sat beside the wind