For one moment, a single, brief clearing, the weight of everything beyond the bedroom walls receded. The search through Nightshade's corridors. The poison's shadow. The unidentified traitors slipping through patrols. Ethan and whatever he had set in motion in the dark hours of her unconsciousness. The uncertain shape of the days ahead. All of it dimmed to something distant and irrelevant, background noise that had temporarily lost its claim on this particular room.
In its place, something quieter settled. Something more fragile, and more rare for its fragility, a stillness that resembled peace, a moment in which the world outside had no immediate grip on either of them.
