Chapter 176

Maren

I wake to warmth.

Not the gentle kind—the kind that anchors. The kind that wraps around my spine and ribs and keeps me tethered to the world even when my body would very much like to drift back into nothing.

Kaelen.

I don’t open my eyes right away. I don’t need to. I can feel him—his arm curved around me, careful but unyielding, his fire banked low and steady like he’s terrified to breathe