NOVA’S POV

I woke up in a different room.

Not the sterile hospital suite I remembered. This one felt like a luxurious prison...soft lighting, dark wood paneling, a massive medical bed with built-in restraints, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a private forest. My body still ached, but the pain was distant, muffled by whatever drugs were still in my system.

Dr. Elias Crowe stood at the foot of the bed, watching me with those dark, unreadable eyes.

“You’re being moved to my private recovery wing,” he said calmly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “Better monitoring. Better care. No one will disturb us here.”

Us.

That...