ARIA
I swam up through layers of thick, syrupy sleep, my mind slow and heavy.
The first conscious sensation was warmth. A solid, radiating heat that enveloped me completely. The familiar scent of him... clean linen and something uniquely, essentially Kael filled every breath I took.
My eyes opened, the world blurry, then sharpening on his face. He was watching me, propped on an elbow, his dark gaze so soft it made my heart stumble over its next beat.
"Did you sleep at all?" My voice was a rasp, scraped raw from rest.
"A little," he said.
I frowned, my hand lifting almost of its own volition to trace the shadows beneath his eyes. "Liar. You need to rest, too."
"You need it more than I do." That infuriating, beautiful smirk touched his lips. The one I had ached for during the cold, empty weeks without him. "You're building a person."
Right.
The truth washed over me, not as a shock, but as a deep, resonant hum in my blood.
I was pregnant.
With Kael's child.
