Healing Embrace

Golden morning sunlight spilled across the heavy suite blankets, dragging Valera upward into consciousness without a single trace of pain.

For several quiet beats, she lay motionless beneath the thick covers Malachi had provided. She let her gaze wander over the shadowed patterns on the ceiling. There was no piercing agony in her side. The suffocating, leaden weight dragging at her limbs had vani