Jack's POV
One week. Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours . That was how long I have spent staring at plain walls and the rhythmic beep of monitors, and the terrifying stillness of her.
It was how long I had spent slumped in this uncomfortable chair beside Kai's hospital bed, feeling like I'm clinging to the edge of a cliff by my fingernails.
It was so hard to look at her.
There were shadows on the skin around my eyes now, deeper than the ones cast by the dimmed overhead lights.
Stubble were beginning to darken my jaw, and if she was awake to rub her palm on my face, she'd tell me to get a shave.
But she wasn't awake. She closed her eyes last week and she was yet to open them...so, here, I was standing watch over her.
Looking less like royalty and more like a man on the verge of collapse.
I haven't left her side. Not even once. Not for council summons, not for meals brought by worried mom, not even for a proper shower.
