136: Heavy and charged

Alora’s POV

That night, sleep evaded me. Rune was down in the dungeon, shackled, powerless in ways I had never seen him before.

The Rune I knew had always been invincible, larger than life, but now he was caged like an animal. A part of me felt satisfaction, but it was small, too small to drown out the restlessness gnawing at my chest.

Just as I was spiraling deeper into my own head, a small, familiar sound broke through the haze. I heard Navaeh stirring.

"Shit," I whispered under my breath, pushing myself up on my elbows. She had been asleep for hours now, but I knew what that meant, she was probably hungry and in need of a diaper change.

As much as my mind was trapped in thoughts of Rune, my body moved automatically, falling into the role I’d come to cherish more than anything in this world.

Being Navaeh’s mother was the best thing that had ever happened to me, something pure and beautiful amid the darkness that surrounded everything else.

I reached over to the bassin