Chapter 15 The Permission

• The smell of food drifted through the room, warm and inviting.
• It was the kind of scent that pulled you from sleep, tugging you gently from the fog of dreams. My eyes fluttered open, and for a moment, I was confused. The cabin was still quiet, the morning light filtering through the cracks in the walls, casting soft shadows over the wooden floor.
• I blinked, trying to orient myself, and then the memories came flooding back—Paxton, the fever, the heat.