Adrian’s POV
I never let her go.
All night I held her against my chest, her head tucked under my chin, my arms locked around her like I could force life back into her with nothing but sheer will.
I watched her face carefully, searching for a twitch, a flutter of lashes, anything. Nothing came. Her breath was so faint that every few minutes I had to press two fingers under her nose just to be sure she was still in the world. Sometimes I counted to ten before I felt the whisper of air. Ten seconds of pure terror that this was it, she was gone, and I’d failed her again.
Dawn bled gray through the windows and the healers crept back in. Same scared faces, same useless mouths.
I didn’t put her down. I sat on the edge of the bed cradling her like she weighed nothing and snarled, “Fix her.”
