I drifted somewhere between waking and falling under again.There was warmth everywhere - in the blankets pulled up to my shoulders, in the pillow cradling my head, in the soft weight of the room itself. The ache in my body hadn’t vanished, but it had softened into something dull and far away, wrapped under the Luna’s presence like a bruise protected by careful hands.I sensed Orion before I registered sound.A quiet shift of fabric. The faint dip of the mattress. A change in the air - warmer, fuller, the way it always felt when she sat near me.My stomach tightened, a ripple of fear and comfort tangled together.She hesitated. Long enough that I wondered if she was struggling to rise… or struggling to leave.“Thea,” she whispered.I blinked, my eyelids heavy, vision fogged with exhaustion. Her face blurred, but her presence anchored me.“I… have to go for a while.”Something in my chest pinched sharply. Not panic. Not terror.Loneliness. Thin, familiar, unwelcome - rising
Last Updated : 2025-11-26 Read more