Born of Ash and Night
But it’s the scar that steals the air from my lungs.
It starts at the edge of his left eyebrow, a pale, jagged line cutting cleanly through perfect skin. It slices down past his eye—missing it by a mercy that feels deliberate—over his cheek, down to his jaw.
Old. Healed. Permanent.
Not ornamental.
Earned.
His eyes are steel-blue, colder than I remember, sharpened by years of command and survival. They flick over me once—measuring, assessing—and then lock onto my eyes.
Both of them.