The Rules of Magic (Practical Magic #2)(55)

He was in a shared room, which meant Franny had to edge past the man in the bed closest the door. He was exceedingly old and she could tell he was dying. There was a dark circle tightening around him like a shroud, instant by instant. Franny paused to take his hand, and the old man clutched at her, grateful. “Are you here to see me?” he asked. “Will you say good-bye to me?”

“Of course,” Franny assured him.

Haylin had been dozing, but he rose up through his half sleep, brought fully awake by the sound of Franny’s voice. He was pale and much thinner. There was the dark stubble of a beard on his face. The old man now soothed, Franny went on to Haylin’s bed. She dumped her backpack on the floor and lay down beside him, careful not to disturb the IV tubing inserted into his vein. She circled her arms around him.

“Franny,” he said. “You came.”

“Of course,” she said.

“It’s always been us,” Haylin said.

Franny told him how Lewis had come to the city to fetch her. “He’s never really liked me,” she said. “He’s always preferred you.”

“You’re wrong,” Haylin told her. “He’s crazy about you. I have a photograph of you on my desk and he sits there and stares at it, lovesick.” Hay chuckled, then clutched at his abdomen, in pain. Franny had brought along a protection spell. She tied a blue string that had been coated with lavender oil around Haylin’s wrist, then kissed his open hand.

“Is this to bring me back to you?” he asked.

“It’s to make you well.”

She delivered the bag of jelly doughnuts, which brought a grin to Haylin’s face. “You remembered.”

“Of course I did.”

Hay then launched into praising Cambridge, how much Franny would appreciate the narrow streets and the riverside. She could take a class or two at Radcliffe. They could get an apartment in Central Square. He had been taking extra courses, and planned to graduate a year early so they would have more time to spend together. She submitted to this dream of happiness, but only briefly, until she gazed out the window. The crow was on the windowsill, watching, his head tilted. He knew what she was thinking. She was too afraid of the curse to ever place Haylin in danger. Franny slipped off the bed. It was too difficult to be near him. She poured Haylin a cup of water.

“Franny,” he said. “We were meant to be together. Your coming here proves it.”

She had no idea what she would do next, if she would stay or go.

“You can’t leave me now,” Hay urged, and she might have said she would never leave him again, but just then a tall blond girl stepped into the room, breaking their intimacy. The girl was perhaps twenty, pretty, with a huge smile, her cheeks flushed from walking along the Charles River, which she complained about as soon as she arrived. Her sleek cap of hair was in place despite the windy day. She wore a plaid skirt and a blue cashmere sweater and a scarf knotted at her throat. She, too, carried a bag of jelly doughnuts.

“I’m freezing!” the girl declared. “And oh, my God, Hay, I was out of my mind with worry last night.” She went to Haylin’s side. “I didn’t even get to call your parents until this morning. They’ll be up tonight.” She pulled off her scarf. “I didn’t leave here until the doctor assured me a hundred percent that you were fine.”

“I am,” he said roughly, his eyes still on Franny.

The girl had been so intent on Hay she hadn’t even noticed Franny lurking by the window, wearing her ill-fitting black coat. “Oh, hello!” the girl said brightly. “I didn’t see you there.”

Lewis tapped on the window glass, but Franny was distracted. Her heart was pounding. She’d gone white as a sheet, her freckles splotchy across her pale face. “Hello,” she said. Her voice cracked with the fever of resentment.

The girl came forward and stuck out her hand. “I’m Emily Flood.”

Being in such close proximity to this interloper caused a series of images to flicker behind Franny’s eyes. “You’re from Connecticut and you went to an all-girls private school and you’re Haylin’s roommate.”

“Why yes! How did you know all that! I’m not officially a roommate, but since I’m there every night, I guess so! It’s a good thing I am. Otherwise who would have called the ambulance? Hay is so stoic. He would have shivered there uncomplaining until his appendix burst.”

“Oh,” Franny said. “It was you who saved him.”

“Franny.” Haylin seemed truly in pain now.

Emily looked at Hay, then at Franny. “You’re Franny? I’ve heard so much about you. How brilliant you are.”

“Well, I’m not. I’m actually stupid.” Franny went to retrieve the backpack she’d dropped on the floor when she climbed into bed with Haylin. “And I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

Hay got out of bed, gripping his side, lurching forward so that the IV stand nearly toppled. Emily caught the IV and righted it, but no one was paying much attention to her.

“Franny, do not leave,” Hay said. “Things changed. You were gone for two years.”

He had the nerve to reproach her with Emily Flood standing right there. If that pretty roommate of Hay’s spoke to her again, she couldn’t be held accountable for her actions.