Ethan’s POV
The world came back to me in pieces.
First, the steady beep… beep… beep of a machine somewhere to my left. Then the smell of antiseptic and something faintly metallic.
A dull ache radiating through every muscle, like my body had been wrung out and left to dry.
My eyelids felt like lead, but I forced them open. The ceiling above me was a sterile white, too bright, too clean. A hospital.
For a moment, confusion fogged everything. My thoughts were scattered, tangled, and wrong. The last thing I remembered was Clara, her face twisted with desperation.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry and raw.
“Dominic?” The word rasped out of me like sandpaper.
Movement beside me. A shadow shifted, and then Dominic was there, filling my vision.
“Ethan.” His voice cracked, rough with exhaust
