#Chapter 130: New Normal

Ember I wake to sunlight streaming through the curtains and the warm weight of Kaine's arm draped over my waist, his breathing slow and even against the back of my neck. This is our room now—not his quarters that I'm borrowing, not a guest chamber I might be asked to leave, but ours, with my patrol jacket slung over the chair and Clara's drawings tacked to the wall beside the mirror. "We belong here," Nara murmurs sleepily. "Stop questioning it." I'm working on that. The door creaks open and small footsteps pad across the stone, quiet for about three seconds before Clara's whisper cuts through the hush—loud enough to wake the dead. "Mom? Dad? Are you awake?" Kaine groans into the pillow, and Clara takes this as an invitation, scrambling onto the bed and landing between us with all the grace of a cannonball. She's already buzzing with energy, curls wild from sleep, announcing that Grandpa said they could have breakfast together again, bouncing hard enough to make the mattress