Elias came to awareness slowly.
He didn't wake with the usual jolt of a nightmare or the gasp of a drowning man. Instead, he simply drifted into a state of consciousness that felt unnaturally still.
He felt… lighter. It felt easier to breathe now than before. The tremors that had plagued his hands for weeks had vanished. Even the skin of his wrists, which had looked translucent and fragile in the cell, seemed to have regained a flush of life.
The stabilization was complete.
Elias lay on the silk sheets, staring at the carvings on the ceiling. He felt the weight of Cassian's arm across his chest, a warm, heavy anchor. But it wasn't just the physical weight he felt.
