Then—one blink. Slow. Deliberate.
His hands dropped to the bed, trembling. His breaths still came hard, but he wasn't clawing anymore.
"Good. That's good." The doctor nodded to Toni. "Let's get him extubated. He's breathing over the vent."
I pressed myself into the corner, heart slamming against my ribs, watching as they worked. As they eased the tube from his throat with practiced hands. As Sebastian coughed—wet, wretched, gasping—and then sucked in his first real breath since before the fall.
The sound broke something in me.
I slid down the wall, knees buckling, and sat on the cold hospital floor with my hand pressed to my mouth.
He was awake.
He was alive.
The nurses moved around him, checking vitals, adjusting monitors. But his gaze—bloodshot, wet, barely open—searched the room until it found mine.
His cracked lips parted. A rasp of sound, wrecked and raw, shredded from the tube.
The room held a stillness that was louder than sound—all of us afraid to break it.
"Are you an angel?"
Chapter seventeen
Candace
Footsteps thundered down the hall.
Damien burst through the door, tie loosened, breath ragged. His gaze went straight to the bed.
"Sebastian?"
"He's asleep," I said quickly, pushing myself up from the chair I'd collapsed into after the chaos. "He woke up—confused, panicked. Tried to rip out the intubation tube." I gestured to Sebastian's still form, peaceful now beneath the blankets. "They had to sedate him again."
Damien's shoulders sagged. He wiped the sweat from his brow and sank into the chair beside mine, elbows dropping to his knees.
"I should have been here."
Guilt creased the corners of his face. Honest and raw.
I smiled despite everything.
Emma really did find a good one.
"Don't beat yourself up," I tried. "He woke up confused—it didn't matter if it was me or you."
His eyes went glassy.
I stayed silent, the truth nowhere near a comfort. Scratches covered his neck and jaw where he'd clawed at himself, a small bandage near his throat from the worst of them.
Damien saw it too. A single tear slid down his cheek. He swiped it away, covering the moment with a cough.
"I'll give you two a moment alone," I announced, rising from my chair.
"Thanks," he croaked.
I slipped into the hallway, the door clicking softly behind me.
