The heart monitor was silent, but Elias's chest still rose and fell.
Ava pressed her fingers to his wrist, counting the beats—thready, irregular, but present. His skin was cold, too cold, as if the frost he'd summoned had never fully left his veins. She pulled the thin blanket over his chest and looked up at the others. The generator room was dim now, lit only by a few emergency lamps and the faint green glow bleeding through the cracks in the walls. The children huddled nearby, their faces blank with exhaustion. Lyra sat cross-legged at Elias's side, her small hand covering his, her lips moving in a soundless murmur.
"He's still with us," Ava said, though her voice sounded hollow. "But I don't know for how long. The Severance... it did something to him. Maybe to all of us."
Dr. Voss li
