I move to her side, gripping the rail of the bed like it’s the only thing keeping me from collapsing. My eyes blur with tears.
“Princess,” I whisper, reaching for her hand. It’s warm, warmer than it was before, and that alone nearly undoes me. I laugh, but it comes out wet and broken. “You did it, baby. You made it through the worst part. They said you need to rest. I get it, but I’m selfish and want you to wake up soon. When you’re ready, okay? I’ll be here.” My thumb strokes over her knuckles, tears slipping down my cheeks. I don’t bother wiping them away this time.
“I love you.” I remind her, through the tears.
39
EMMA
I’m floating.
Suspended in a vast, endless sea of darkness and weightlessness. Untethered.
Everything is heavy, my limbs sinking, my mind swimming through thick fog. I try to move, but can’t. My body aches, every inch of me wrapped in exhaustion, like I’ve been put back together piece by piece but not quite right. There is a dull, persistent pressure in my chest, not painful, justthere, an unfamiliar weight pressing down with every breath.
There’s warmth. Something solid and grounding, tethering me to the world I’ve been slipping away from. It’s so familiar I don’t have to open my eyes to know who it is.
Alex.
I’d know him anywhere, in any lifetime, in any world, I would always find him.
His hand is wrapped around mine, thumb moving in slow, steady strokes against my skin. I can feel the heat radiating from his skin and the quiet, unrelenting presence that has never left me. Even in the haze, I hear his voice.
“I love you.”
The words sink into me, wrapping around my ribs, stitching something back together inside my chest. They are a lifeline, pulling me closer to the surface, dragging me out of the darkness. I want to respond. I want to tell him that I love him, too, that I always have, even when I didn’t want to. But the words won’t come out. My body won’t cooperate.
I fight against the weight, against the fog pressing down on me, and finally, I manage to drag my eyelids open.
The room is dim, the soft hum of the machines are the only sounds filling the space. It takes a second for my vision to adjust and for the world to come into focus.
He is the first thing I see.
Alex is slouched in the chair beside my bed, elbows on his knees, head bowed in concentration. His fingers are still wrapped around mine, holding on to keeping me tethered to him. His hair is a mess, sticking up in every direction, and there’s stubble darkening his jaw. He looks exhausted, more so than I’ve ever seen him, but still he’s gorgeous. A sight I want to engrave in my eyelids and keep forever.
I try to speak, but my throat is raw and feels like needles as I try to form words. It takes a couple tries before I finally manage to create more than just moans.
“Told you… I wouldn’t die.” I breathed out, stopping in between words.
His head snaps up so fast I think he might give himself whiplash. His eyes are red and glassy with disbelief as they lock onto mine. He stares into my eyes like he can’t believe that I’m real.
“Em?” It’s a question to confirm whether or not I’m really awake or he just hallucinated it.
I want to say more. I want to tell him how much I missed him, and how I heard him even when I was trapped in the dark,and how I fought my way back because I couldn’t leave him and the life that we have ahead of us. But my eyelids are heavy again, my body already surrendering back to sleep.
I give his fingers a weak squeeze before the exhaustion drags me under again.
Time is strange.
It slips through my fingers like sand, moments blurring into each other in a hazy, dreamlike way. I wake up, then drift off again. I hear voices, feel hands squeezing mine, catch glimpses of faces hovering above me. But it all feels distant, like I’m underwater, floating between wakefulness and sleep.
Each time I wake, I stay a little longer. The room comes into sharper focus, the sounds clearer, the pain more real.
My brothers have been in and out, their voices familiar and grounding. Leo is the first one I remember seeing clearly. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days, but still, he smiled at me in that quiet steady way of his. “You scared the hell out of us, Em.” He murmured, brushing his fingers over my hair.
“Just keeping you on your toes,” I rasped.
He shook his head, laughing gently as he placed a kiss on my forehead.
