The first light of dawn crept through the cracks in the cabin walls, thin and cold.
The fire had burned low, reduced to faint embers. The scent of smoke lingered, curling into the stale remnants of blood and sweat that clung to the wooden walls. The cabin should have felt warmer, but the heat barely reached her.
Taryn stirred. Not because she was rested—her body refused to be still for too long.
Every muscle ached. The dull throb in her shoulder pulsed in time with her heartbeat, a slow, stubborn reminder of the night before. Her wrist ached too, stiff beneath the bandages, but she didn't move to inspect it.
She didn't need to.
She was still here. That was enough. For now.
A sound—soft, methodical.
Kah'el.
He was already awake, sitting near the hearth, the steady rhythm of his blade against a whetstone the only sound in the cabin. The quiet rasp filled the silence between them, precise, measured, unhurried.