The room was dim, the blinds half-drawn to soften the harsh evening light. The faint beeping of monitors and the sterile scent of antiseptic filled the air. Luke lay propped against pillows, his skin pale but his chest rising steadily. A bandage wrapped snugly around his torso, a reminder of how close death had come.
Lila stopped just inside the doorway, her breath catching. For a moment she couldn’t move. All the rage and discipline that had kept her standing outside crumbled into something raw and trembling.
Luke’s eyes fluttered open fully when he sensed movement. They found hers, and the corner of his mouth twitched upward in the faintest of smiles. “You… look like you wrestled a bear,” he rasped.
The laugh that escaped Lila was wet with tears. She crossed the room in quick strides
