Chapter 185

SEBASTIAN

I woke to the sound of machines breathing for me.

At first, I thought I was still trapped in the wreck—metal groaning, fire crackling somewhere close—but then the scent hit me. Antiseptic. Sterile. Too clean to be death.

My eyelids felt like they were stitched shut. When I forced them open, light stabbed straight through my skull, white and merciless. I hissed, trying to lift a hand to shield my eyes, and pain detonated down my left side, sharp enough to drag a sound out of my throat.

“Easy.”

That voice cut through everything.

I turned my head slowly, teeth clenched, and found Diego sitting beside the hospital bed, elbows braced on his knees, hands clasped like he’d been praying or preparing for war.

There was a bruise blooming along his jaw, dark and ugly, and his eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion.

“Diego,” I croaked. My throat felt like sandpaper. “What…”

“You’re alive,” he said simply. “That’s the important part.”<