The morning light seeped softly through the curtains when Aveline finally woke, warm and well rested.
She stretched beneath the covers, letting out a sleepy yawn as she sat up. Her eyes drifted almost at once to the bouquet of flowers resting beside her in a glass vase. Sunlight touched the petals, scattering into a delicate shimmer of color across the room, as though the blooms had stolen a little of the dawn for themselves.
A small smile tugged at her lips.
She knelt down on the bed and leaned forward to take in their fragrance, closing her eyes as the sweet scent filled her lungs. It was lovely. Gentle. Familiar, in a way that made her chest soften. And… it brought Theron to mind.
She remembered the look on his face when he had given them to her. That brief, unreadable softness. The quiet way he had watched her accept them, as though her reaction mattered to him far more than it should have.
Then, little by little, last night returned to her.
Aveline froze.
