She could have awoken Hook a few days before and filmed it, but to nail it in the councilmen’s thick skulls that her process was absolutely perfect, she chose to give them a demonstration.

She led them to her lab, facing away from the King and his daughter, towards Hugo Ross’s capsule. Edgar, Jenny, and Bastian, her colleagues, were already ready; they’d injected anticoagulant and prepared the plasma where she liked the subjects to rehabilitate. None of it was entirely necessary, but come on, the guy had been frozen for a long-ass time, he deserved a bit of TLC.

Despite all of her confidence, Aurora was trembling when she pressed the enter button of her keyboard and saw bluish lights flare up either side of the capsule, telltale signs of the program activating. This was it: her ultimate proof, the one thing that was going to determine whether Rupert Evermore was going to open his eyes by morning.

If they gave their okay, she had no intention of adding any delays; everything was ready for a second subject.

Come on, Hook.

His skin progressively lost the greyish hue but his eyes remained resolutely closed. Aurora found herself pacing from her desk to Hugo, observing charts first, then the subject himself. Nothing. Not a movement, not a single blip on the medical equipment attached to him.

For the first time, she wondered what would happen if she failed. It wouldn’t be good. Not only would she most definitely lose any hope to ever reawaken the King in her lifetime, but she’d also earn herself a set of considerable enemies she didn’t need.

She’d researched Hugo before coming up with an offer for him; he had a whole troupe of people who openly claimed their willingness to die for him. Dangerous people.

Shit. Had she killed Captain Hook?

Bip.

The first noise coming from her computer resonated through the room like a fire alarm. Soon, it was followed by a few rhythmic, steady beats, getting stronger each minute.

“The subject is at an adequate temperature,” Jenny said enthusiastically.

The girl had never hidden her humongous crush on Hook, not that Aurora could blame her. She wasn’t the only workaholic half in love with a frozen subject.

“Brain functions?”

“Regular.”

Yet the man’s eyes were still closed behind the translucent capsule protecting and preserving his body. The others had always opened them right away.

“If you intend to stare at me all day, the least you could do would be to give me a shirt. I’m not a piece of meat, Stephenson.”

The words were weak but she’d never heard anything more comforting. He was okay. She sighed in relief as her heart restarted.

“Your eyes?” she asked.

“They hurt like a motherfucker.”

Shit. That wasn’t part of the plan. What if they’d been damaged in the process?

“Open it,” she ordered Bastian, who promptly obliged.

Hugo Ross stumbled out, falling to a crouch, then, slowly, he straightened his spine and stood in his all glory, completely unashamed. Not that there was anything to be remotely ashamed of; the man was built like a statue and had just about as much fat on him as a piece of marble. Biceps, triceps, lats, deltoids, pecs – every single one of his muscles was defined and delectable. She was pretty sure all the females, and some of the males, in the room licked their lips.

“Damn, I feel like I’ve been trampled on by an angry horde of bulls.”

“You’re doing very well,” she assured him.

In fact, his performance was practically superhuman. No one had expected him to stand up by himself, hence the wheelchair next to his capsule. His speech was also incredibly good; the slurring was minimal, almost non-existent.

“We’ve got a plasma thermal bath ready with your name on it.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you, darling,” he said suavely.

Gone was the disturbed, frightened, unstable man she’d met two years back. This Hook was the one everyone at school raved about, the one who had good girls wanting to be very bad.

“My sentence is carried out.”

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded and replied, “Yes. You’re a free man, Captain.”

He breathed out in something akin to relief, slowly opening his deep brown eyes.

“Can I borrow your phone?”

Beaming as he effortlessly answered any question the Council could have come up with by displaying his perfect understanding of the world around him and his sound state of mind, she handed over her mobile.

He looked at the date first, and then went directly to check social media; he didn’t bother to disconnect from her account, simply typing “Hook is back” as her status.

Within seconds, there were more interactions than she’d ever received: comments full of hearts, fireworks, and encouraging messages.

Aurora wondered what it was like; she’d never been loved like that, not even by one single person. His popularity was a foreign concept.

“Okay, let’s go take this bath. My ship will be here within the hour.”

In fact, his ship was there twenty-three minutes later.

Aurora had been in plenty of boats, and the occasional plane, too, but Hook’s vessel was something else altogether. It mostly looked like a sailboat, and she might have mistaken it for one if she’d seen it on the sea; given the fact that it floated above firm ground in front of the royal palace, she was missing something.

She didn’t get to say goodbye to Hook, unlike the rest of her team; there were more important things to do today. Reluctantly, she followed the Councilmen back to the throne room, where she awaited their decision.