It had been fourteen days.
He did not say it aloud.
If he did, it might become real.
The mornings still began the same.
He rose before dawn. Stirred the embers in the hearth. Set water to boil. Cut bread in careful, even slices.
Two plates.
He caught himself every time.
Every morning.
The second plate would sit there a moment too long before he cleared it away, jaw tight, eyes unfocused. He told himself it was habit.
He told himself she would come home hungry.
The window in her room remained cracked open at night.
He did not close it.
Even when the wind shifted cold.
Even when ash drifted in from the burned fields beyond Frairdale.
Fourteen days.
Neighbors had stopped knocking.
Search parties had thinned.
They spoke softer now when they passed his house. Their voices carried that careful edge people used around grief.
"She wandered too far."
"The dragons were seen."
"We lost guards because of that girl."
He had heard that one.
He did not respond.
He walked the creek every morning.
The same path.
The same stones.
He called her name once the first day.
Not since.
If she were alive, she would answer.
If she were dead—
He swallowed.
No.
He would not think it.
The house felt wrong without her humming.
Wrong without the sound of pencil scratching paper late into the night.
Wrong without muddy shoes kicked carelessly by the door.
He stood in the kitchen now, staring at the empty chair across from him.
It had been two weeks.
And the quiet was louder than any dragon.
His gaze drifted toward the hallway.
He had not gone into her room.
Not fully.
He had stepped inside once to gather laundry from the floor.
He had not looked at the bed.
Had not touched the pillow.
Had not allowed himself to breathe in the faint trace of her.
Today—
The silence pressed too hard.
He moved down the hallway slowly, each step deliberate. The wood creaked beneath his weight in familiar protest.
Her door was slightly open.
Of course it was.
She never closed it all the way.
He pushed it gently.
YOU ARE READING
Ashes Embraced
FantasyA Dark Sapphic Romantasy A century ago, the Red Dragon Queen burned Frairdale to the ground. Now she rules from the cliffs above the lake-untouched, unchallenged, and unrepentant. When Cara steps into dragon territory, she expects death. Instead, sh...
