Heiko’s eyelids fluttered as if lifting heavy stone gates, and for a heartbeat River thought she had imagined it — a cruel trick of her desperate mind — but then his fingers twitched beneath her trembling hands, and a broken gasp tore out of her throat. His eyes, those storm-gray eyes she had looked into a thousand times, opened unfocused at first, then sharpened as they found her face hovering above him, drenched in tears, lips trembling, her entire body shaking with the raw fear of nearly losing him forever.
“Heiko…” River choked, her voice shattering as she cupped his face with both hands. “Heiko— please— please look at me—”
He blinked again, a slow, confused motion, as his breath steadied, as if he had just been pulled back through deep, dark waters and was trying to remember how air
