My eyes flutter open, unfocused, the room swimming in heat and shadow. Shapes blur together at the foot of the bed – tall, broad, doubled.Tripled.
I frown weakly.
There’s…more than one of them?
That can’t be right.
Koa…and Sol. I remember. But a third…? It’s not Finn.
I’m so confused but thinking makes pain flare behind my eyes.
Voices overlap – low, urgent, trying not to sound like panic – but my head can’t quite separate them. One sounds sharp. One softer. One…familiar.
“I told you,” someone says. “She doesn’t look right.”
“She’s worse,” another voice mutters. “Way worse.”
I try to track the sound and fail. My stomach twists hard and I make a broken noise instead, clutching at the sheet like it might hold me together.
Then—
him.
I don’t need to see him to know.
My body reacts before my brain can catch up, a sharp pull low in my gut that makes me whimper and turn my face into the pillow. Relief crashes through me so fast it almost hurts. My breath shudders out, tension easing just enough to make room for the ache underneath.
The doubled shapes blur again.
“Fuck,” he says under his breath.
The mattress dips as he moves closer – too close, but somehow exactly right. I feel him before he touches me. Heat. Weight. That steady, grounding presence that makes my spine loosen despite myself.
“She’s burning up,” one of the others says.
“I can see that,” myhimsnaps – then softer, tighter, “Lani?”
I try to answer. My throat won’t cooperate. Another cramp tears through me and I make a small, broken sound instead.
He swears again, quiet and vicious but it’s not aimed at me. I don’t think.
His hand hovers, then lands at my shoulder, firm and solid. Not gentle exactly. Careful. Like he’s afraid I’ll shatter.
“She’s shaking,” another voice adds. “Look at her.”
“I know,” he says, rough now. Controlled, but only just. “I’ve got her.”
And somehow – god help me – that makes everything ease another notch.
His hand slides from my shoulder to my back, broad and warm through the fabric of my borrowed shirt. My body leans into it without permission, chasing the contact like it’s oxygen.
I hear one of the others inhale sharply.
“…That’s not normal,” he murmurs.
He goes very still.
“What?” he says flatly.