The dormitory lights were off when Soren woke up the first time.
His left side was cold.
His right side was warm.
Both temperatures were wrong for a room that should have been one thing or the other.
Selah was on his left. She'd changed out of the field clothes but her hands were still on the wound, two fingers pressing the frost-seal flat against his ribs.
Therapeutic cold, dialed down to maintenance level.
Maren was on his right, palm flat between his shoulder blades, low heat pulsing in slow waves.
The heat reached the border of Selah's frost-seal and stopped there.
He didn't remember Maren following them back from the medic.
He just remembered the pain meds kicking in and the world going fuzzy.
Now it was dark. Their room. Maren's tail had come out, warm fur wrapped around his waist below the wound line.
Selah's frost crept across the blanket toward Maren's side in a thin line. The tail shifted to block it.
