Lucien woke slowly, the world resolving itself in pieces — the particular sterile smell of a hospital room, the soft, insistent beep of a monitor, a weight against his hand that took several long seconds to identify as another person's fingers, wrapped tightly around his own.

He turned his head, and found a man sitting slumped in a chair beside the bed, dark circles beneath his eyes, dried tear tracks still faintly visible on his face, watching him with an expression so raw and hopeful and terrified all at once that Lucien felt something in his own chest respond before his mind had fully caught up to why.

He didn't...