Mara
I woke to sunlight stabbing through the window, sharp and blinding. My eyes squinted against it as I reached across the bed—empty.
Lucian was gone.
I sat up slowly, the sheets rustling against my bare skin. Naked, of course. No surprise there. But my oversized t-shirt was nowhere in sight, and I hadn’t brought a single change of clothes to Neev. How could I have? We’d rolled in armed and ready for war, not comfort.
Lucian’s bag was still in the room, thank the goddess. I slipped out of bed, wrapping a corner of the sheet around me, and started rummaging through his things, hoping to find something—anything—I could wear.
As I moved, the night before hit me in waves. Flashes of the fight. Blood. Roars. Chaos. And that one terrifying moment when I thought I’d lost him.
When I arriv
