"Mm, good. Don't leave 'ntil I wake up." She really should stay awake. He said he'd prefer it. But he was warm and real under her cheek and fingers, pressed close and smelling like Bereck. It'd been a long day and a lot of feelings. He said sleep.

So alina yawned one last, soft time, and drifted quickly off into the deepest sleep she'd had in nearly twenty years.