POV: Ayla

The light that comes through the curtains is soft and ordinary. It falls across the foot of the bed in a pale stripe and does not feel like a warning. For a long moment I simply lie still and listen to the compound waking up around me. Footsteps pass in the corridor at a normal pace. Somewhere farther down the hall a door opens and closes without urgency. No one is running. No one is calling my name in the sharp tone that used to mean trouble.

I sit up slowly. The room is the same one I have slept in for weeks, but it feels different this...