Later, when she brought him another bowl of water, the dog drank in slow, deliberate gulps, then turned back to the glass. Elena spoke to him through the glass, low and steady. The mastiff’s ears tipped forward at her voice. “Valorian,” she tried, the name arriving uninvited, a word with steel in it.
Elena smiled through the exhaustion. “Valorian,” she said again softly. “That’ll be your name for now.” His ears flicked at the sound, as if he’d been waiting for someone to call him. His tail thumped once, a polite punctuation. “Valorian,” she repeated, and his gaze softened, like the word fit him.