Grace
Consciousness bled back slowly, like dawn filtering through the dense canopy of a forest. Sounds, muted and blurry at first, sharpened into the rhythmic whir of helicopter blades and the sharp barks of Enforcers. My vision, blurred by sleep and a grogginess I couldn’t explain, gradually focused on the scene before me.
Charles was sitting nearby, silhouetted by the coming dawn, looking at a tablet, his jaw clenched tight. A small, warm body was pressed against my bare chest. I looked down, and so much tension I hadn’t realized was still there bled out of me.
Cecil was curled up against me, nuzzling me like she did when she was a baby.
I blinked slowly. It was over?
I looked past him into the growing sunlight. The scent of rain and blood lingered in the air.
“Hey,” he said
