I look up.
He’s watching me now, his hand still in her hair, his eyes tired, red, but sharper than before, like he’s forcing himself to stay present.
I shake my head slightly.
“Nothing,” I say, but it comes out too quickly, too tight to be believable.
He doesn’t push it.
Doesn’t need to.
Because we’re all thinking the same thing.
Everything that almost happened.
Everything that could have been taken from us.
Elijah shifts.
Just slightly.
It’s the first real movement he’s made since we got here.
He lifts her hand a fraction higher, pressing it closer to his chest, his head dipping just enough that his forehead brushes against her knuckles for a second before he stills again.
“I’m here,” he murmurs quietly, the words meant only for her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Something tightens in my chest.
Because I know he means it.
Because I know he would sit here for days if that’s what it took.
A quiet knock sounds at the door. All three of us look up at once.
It opens slowly.
Lucian steps in first, his presence calm, controlled in that way that always feels deliberate, his eyes taking in the room in a single sweep before shifting slightly to the side.
Evelyn steps in behind him. And she stops.
The moment she sees Lia. The moment she sees us. The blood. The stillness.
Her hand comes up to her mouth without thinking, her eyes widening as everything lands at once.
“Oh my God,” she whispers, the words breaking apart as she takes a step forward. “Lia!”
She hesitates near Jackson’s side, like she doesn’t know if she’s allowed to get closer, like she’s afraid of what she’ll see if she does.
“Is she...” she starts, her voice shaking. “Is she okay?”
Jackson nods quickly, too quickly.
“She’s alive,” he says, like he needs to say it out loud. “She made it through surgery. We just...she hasn’t woken up yet.”
Evelyn nods, her eyes filling, her hand pressing tighter over her mouth as she looks down at Lia.
“She’s going to wake up,” she whispers, more to herself than to us.
