Joel's POV
Alice was awake.
For a second, I didn’t believe it.
I had spent days—weeks—standing in this goddamn room, watching the slow, shallow rise and fall of her chest, listening to the too-quiet beeping of machines, waiting—dreading—that any day, any second, that breath might stop.
And now, her eyes were open.
Brown, hazy, exhausted—but open.
Something inside me cracked wide open. Relief and disbelief warred inside my chest, a dam threatening to break, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Then she spoke. “You didn’t finish the story, pup.”
Koda let out a choked little laugh-sob, throwing himself forward to clutch her hand. And I—finally, finally—managed to move.
I stepped forward, slow and stiff, like if I moved too fast, she’d disappear, and I’d wake up to the same nightma
