The promise hung in the air between us. Heavy with implications I wasn't sure I could fulfill.
Mera's breathing slowed against my shoulder. Her tail loosened its grip on my wrist as sleep pulled her under. The woman who tracked her finances with spreadsheets and negotiated everything like her life depended on it had let herself be vulnerable enough to fall asleep against someone she'd known for less than a month.
That meant something.
I finished the ramen in silence. Aurora had curled up on my other side, her head resting against my arm, her green eyes half-closed. Cheon continued her work at the kitchen island, but her tablet rested flat on the counter now. She wasn't typing. Just watching.
Noel sat in the armchair with her legs crossed, her violet hair catching the lamplight. She looked like a painting. Something Renaissance masters would have killed to capture. The aristocratic features, the calculating eyes, the way she held herself even when no one was observing.
