Inside, Liora shifted beneath the blanket, some unconscious part of her sensing his absence, reaching for the safety his presence provided even in sleep. But she did not wake.
Morning crept closer with agonizing slowness.
And neither of them knew that the balance between safety and danger had already begun to crack, hairline fractures spreading through foundations neither had realized were being built.
---
Liora's eyes suddenly snapped open, her heart already racing before consciousness fully caught up.
For a disorienting moment, she had no idea where she was. The ceiling was wrong, wooden beams instead of stone. The air smelled wrong, pine and smoke instead of silver and suffering. The sounds were wrong, wind through trees instead of the mechanical hum of the pack house ventilation.
Her body went rigid with panic, muscles tensing for fight or flight, her mind scrambling to place herself in space and time. Not the cage. Not the penthouse. Not.....
The cabin.
