The water had long gone warm.
Steam curled lazily around the royal bath chamber as Elara sat behind the king with a towel thrown over her shoulder.
Her fingers moved through his dark hair carefully, washing away dirt, dried blood and weeks worth of war.
The entire room was strangely quiet.
Not awkward.
Not tense.
Just...quiet.
The kind of quiet that settled between two people who had exhausted themselves arguing.
Elara absent-mindedly hummed under her breath.
A soft tune.
One she didn't even realize she remembered.
Kaelis closed his eyes.
The sound struck something inside him.
A memory.
A distant one.
Moon garden.
The smell of flowers.
Poison.
Darkness.
And a girl sitting beside him while he drifted in and out of consciousness.
The same song.
The same stupid humming.
The same girl.
His girl.
His chest tightened.
The realization made him strangely uncomfortable.
Not because he disliked it.
Quite the opposite.
That was the problem.
