CIAN
I pulled the blanket up over my mother's shoulders. Tucked it in around her sides. Her breathing was deep and even now. Peaceful. The kind of sleep that came from real rest, not from whatever dark place the poison had dragged her to.
The infirmary bed wasn't where she belonged. By morning.... By morning, I'd make sure she was back in her own room. In her own bed. Where she could wake up to familiar walls and familiar light and know she was back. Fully.
I stepped back. Looked at her face. The color had come back to her cheeks. The gray pallor that had terrified me was gone. She looked like herself again. Like my mother. Not like something death had tried to claim and failed.
Thorne had left hours ago. I'd sent him away myself when his eyes started drooping and his words started slurring together. He'd argued. Of course he had. But I'd pulled rank and he'd gone. Reluctantly.
