This time, he stood right beside her. “It’s time for you to get some sleep, Madelene.”
She shook her head.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. It was gentle, but she could feel his strength. He spoke softly. “I know you don’t want to leave him, but I wasn’t asking if you wanted to. You are going to go to bed now.”
She stepped back from him and looked up into his eyes, tears threatening. She shook her head again, furrowing her brow.
His dark eyes were filled with sympathy as he sighed. “He’s going to need you when he wakes. That means you need to sleep.”
She looked down at Simon and shook her head more adamantly, panic setting in. She couldn’t leave him.
“I really don’t want to carry you out of here, Madelene, but I will if I must.”
She took another step back, still holding onto Simon’s hand. But she wasn’t going to win this battle. She didn’t doubt for a second that Ash would do exactly as he’d said. With a defeated sigh, she nodded.
She pressed a soft kiss to the back of Simon’s hand and tucked it under the blanket. She bent down and whispered into his ear, “Please don’t leave me.”
Ash rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “He’ll be looked after. I promise.”
But what about her? She felt selfish even thinking that, and perhaps she was, but she needed him. And not just because he took care of her. Her heart needed him.
Gwen was outside the door waiting for her. She led her to another room and tucked her into bed. Even with the sun rising, she could feel exhaustion settling over her like a heavy blanket.
“Please promise you’ll wake me if he—” She couldn’t bring herself to say dies. “If anything changes.”
“I promise, but I also need you to promise me you won’t leave this room until I come to get you.”
She nodded and gave a silent prayer as her eyes slid closed and tendrils of sleep dragged her into darkness.
Chapter
Twelve
Simon’s eyelids were as heavy as iron gates, but slowly he managed to lift them. Every inch of him hurt, and his head pounded as he scanned the room. He wasn’t sure where he was. Raven House if he had to guess, since the last thing he remembered was riding toward the gates. Sunlight glowed through the curtains, so it was no longer nighttime. In the chair next to his bed sat the last person he would have expected to be watching over him.
“Fogg?” He was weak and barely able to get the word out.
Fogg raised a brow as he approached the bed. “I told Ash you were too stubborn to die.”
“I’m definitely not dead. No offense, but yours is the last face I would see on the other side.”
“Unless you’re in hell.” Fogg shrugged.
“I’ve no doubt I’ll be going that way, but I don’t imagine they have soft beds.”
Fogg held a glass of water to his lips, and he took a sip. He didn’t have the energy to argue.
“Madelene?”
“She’s here.”
Simon sighed with relief. She was safe. “Raven House?”
Fogg nodded. “I’m glad you made it here. God knows what would have happened to you if you hadn’t.”
“I had to. I couldn’t just die somewhere random and abandon her.”
“Perhaps if you’d come here before your errand, you wouldn’t have had to shake hands with death.”
