After the scans we brought Nova back into the hospital room, which had warmed considerably by then. I settled onto the bed beside her and rested her head in my lap, which seemed to be the only thing keeping Ares from tearing through the walls and out into the forest to do something violent and irreversible. In this position I could feel every breath she took and track the steady thrum of her heartbeat through my fingertips. It was enough. Just barely, but enough.
She had been in the hospital for a few hours. The clock on the wall read close to nine in the morning and I had not moved from the room. The corridor outside the foggy glass panel in the door had grown busier as the morning came on, shapes moving past in flashes that I chose to ignore.
A knock came and Kate entered with a clipboard. She looked at Nova first and then at me. "How is she doing?"
"Warmer," I said, my hand moving through Nova's hair without really deciding to.
