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‘You can tell me later. Save your energy. Just focus on my face.’
‘I love you,’ I whispered, every word making sharp pains radiate in my stomach. She had to know. I couldn’t die without telling her. ‘I love everything about you. I would have spent my life making you happy.’
‘You will,’ she sobbed, her hair sticking to her wet cheeks. ‘You don’t get to leave me like this.’
‘Next time...’ I panted as I battled a rolling darkness. ‘I’ll tell you sooner.’
‘Ewen...’ her voice died off as a wash of calm filled me, and I stopped fighting against the shadows.
FORTY-ONE
CORA
‘I need to see him,’ I petitioned the nurse as she wheeled me back into my hospital room.
‘I know, love, but he’s only just out of surgery and he’s not out of the woods yet.’ Her words were soft, but I had no intention of being a model patient.
‘All the more reason for me to be with him. What if he doesn’t wake up? What if he dies and I never get to hold his hand again? I don’t want to wait until it’s cold. Take me to him. Please?’
We’d been whisked out of the warehouse and to the private hospital that housed Ruby. I’d waited through x-rays and cast application and surgery times and I couldn’t wait a minute longer. My ankle would heal, but if I lost Ewen, I didn’t think my heart would.
The nurse chewed on her lip before giving me a small nod. ‘I’ll go and make sure the staff are ready to have you with him. You won’t be able to stay for long.’
Little did she know I wouldn’t leave him without a fight.
Half an hour later, she wheeled me into Ewen’s room in the private ICU. Wires and tubes snaked from his body as he lay asleep in his bed. I sagged in my wheelchair at the sight of his steadily raising chest, my eyes welling up.
‘He’s really alive,’ I whispered as she placed me at his bedside.
‘He is.’ The nurse looked around before whispering near my ear. ‘From what I hear, prognosis is very good. Nothing too major was damaged. The doctor will give you an actual run down but I pressed for a little information.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, reaching out and giving her hand a squeeze. ‘What about the others, is Maeve...?’
I couldn’t bring myself to say it. The Mac had held her to him as sobs wracked his body seared into my mind.
‘She’s gravely injured. They are doing everything they can.’
Her words hurt. Ewen would be devastated if he lost his sister.
‘Molly will be okay. She has a few broken ribs and is under pain management. The others have already been checked over and released, their injuries little more than cuts and bruises.’
She placed a jug of water and two cups on the little table beside me before giving my shoulder a light squeeze and leaving us alone.
Rhythmic beeping filled the space. Ewen looked peaceful, his face soft as he slept.
‘You have to wake up,’ I whispered as I slid my hand into his slack fingers. Their warmth permeated my skin as I bit back a sob.
‘I never got to tell you I love you, too. You can’t turn me into your little freak and then leave me alone.’ I sniffled as I smiled. ‘I need you.’
Nothing. Not the twitch of a finger or flicker of an eyelid.
I leaned forward in my chair and laid my head against my forearm on the bed. Lightly kissing his fingertips, I closed my eyes. Being near him filled me with warmth, even when worry clouded it.
Darkness had wrapped around the room by the time I stirred. Pushing my sticky hair back from my face, I looked up, disorientated.
‘Cora.’ The broken word hit me like a tractor.
‘Ewen?’
