AARYN
As soon as he'd closed the door on Elreth, insisting that she go off to appoint Tarkyn, he regretted it. It seemed wrong not to be close to her, as if a piece of himself was missing.
Determined to do what was needed, he pushed himself back up the stairs to his mother's room. But as soon as he opened the door and found her so deeply asleep that she was snoring softly, he asked himself what he was doing.
He stood in the doorway, watching her prone form curled up on the bed, and his years as a pup swam back like they'd just happened yesterday. All the fear. The gut-twisting fear. The constant heart-pounding and headaches. The way he would startle at the smallest noise and barely be able to sleep, convinced that he had to be there, at her side, to save her from… whatever was eating away at her.
