The morning sun stream through the tall windows of the home hospital wing.
Noah woke with a violent start, his heart hammering against his ribs.
He blinked, disoriented for a moment, before the weight of reality crashed down on him.
He realized with a jolt of terror that he had overslept.
Panic surged through him as he remembered Naya's grim warning from the previous evening: if Adam did not open his eyes by morning, the risk of a permanent coma would become almost a certainty.
Noah whipped his head to the side, his eyes searching Adam's face. His heart sank.
Adam's eyes were still closed, his features as still and pale as marble. The hand Noah had spent the entire night clutching was still nestled in his own, limp and unresponsive.
"No, no, no," Noah whispered, his voice trembling with a rising hysteria. "Adam, please. You should have been awake by now. You have to open your eyes. You really must wake up, Adam!"
