Page 15 of Forbidden Dark Vows

But my legs still keep moving until I’m sitting beside his bed. Harry’s eyes are closed and he looks like he maybe shouldn’t have survived.

I sit on the uncomfortable plastic seat and study his face. His eyes are swollen and bruised. There’s a shelter over one of his arms, and a tube inserted into the back of his hand. But I still can’t help smiling at him even though he’s asleep.

The nurse told me that he was lucky, but they had to perform emergency surgery to correct a brain hemorrhage following trauma to his skull. I take off my coat, sit back and watch the monitor beeping regularly beside the bed. I wonder how much he remembers of the accident or if he even knows that he’s in hospital.

Now that I’m here, it feels like it was the right thing to do, which is strange considering I hardly even know Harry. But I make myself comfortable and settle in for the long haul. I’ve already made up my mind that I’m not going anywhere until I know that he’s alright.

I must close my eyes and doze off because when I open them again, Harry is watching me from the pillows, his expression unreadable. “You’re awake.” I stretch my arms above my head and yawn.

“Ruby?” His voice is hoarse. “What are you doing here?”

“Someone had to come and talk some sense into you.” I sit on the edge of the bed.

Then it hits me that he probably doesn’t even know that Alessandro is dead, and I pray that he doesn’t ask me.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a truck.”

I can’t help smiling. At least he still has a sense of humor. “Do you want some water?”

He nods with his eyes, and I fill a plastic cup with tepid water from the jug on the bedside cabinet and hold it to his lips. There’s nothing awkward about being here with him like this. I can’t explain it, but it feels like I’ve always known him, well, known him a lot longer than a couple of days anyway.

He slumps back against the pillows like it hurts too much to hold his head up.

“Do you remember what happened?”

“Vaguely. The snow… St. Louis…”

“St. Louis?”

But Harry is lost inside his memories, and I wonder if he’ll ever be able to erase them. “I tried to stop him. Bright lights…”

He closes his eyes again, and looks so peaceful, I hope that he’ll drift off to sleep.

“I thought I was going to die…” Tears well in his eyes and trickle down the side of his face.

“It’s okay,” I murmur. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“What do you think happens to people when they die, Ruby?” he says, and my heart skips— that, after everything—he remembers my name.

“I’ve never really thought about it.” It’s a lie. I thought about it a lot when my dad had his stroke, but all I knew was that if he died, he wouldn’t still be here.

“I think our souls go someplace else.” He’s still watching me with huge watery eyes. “I saw it…”

“Harry.” I reach for his hand and squeeze it. “I’m glad you’re still here.”

“I saw her… My mom.”

I swallow. You hear stories about people having near-death experiences, but how can anyone prove or disprove them? But, I believe him. I believe that’s what he thinks he saw anyway, and if that’s going to help him recover, there’s no way I’m questioning it.

“She was only forty when she died. Too young.”

I nod. My dad was younger than that when he had his stroke.

“I sometimes think…” More tears spill. “…that I’ll be the same. I’ll die young.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

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