Page 143 of The Prince of Broken Crowns

I slip my arm out of his grasp and turn to face him. “Please just give me some space. I need to think.” I lower my voice. “And you being here is making this situation worse.” I give a pressing glance at the people gawking at us.

He suddenly notices this and stiffens. “I …” When his gaze lands on me, he must see something in my expression that causes him to realize I’m a few seconds away from freaking out. “Promise me you’ll talk to me later.”

I nod, spin around, and hightail it out of there. I don’t slow down until I make it to my dorm room. Only then do I become aware that I don’t have my phone—the society took it—which means I can’t go inside my room.

Crossing my fingers that Lily is inside, I knock on the door.

“Freak,” someone whispers from behind me.

Normally, I throw them a challenging look, but right now, I’m feeling way too vulnerable. So, when Lily opens the door, I breathe in relief as I squeeze past her and rush inside, stumbling a little due to my dizziness.

She closes the door and hurries after me as I walk into the living room area. “Oh my God, are you okay? I’ve been so worried about you.”

I sink down into a chair and yank my hand through my hair. “I honestly don’t know. I feel a little sick and guilty that River has to clean up my mess. Plus, I lost my phone.” I’m babbling. Thank God, I managed to keep quiet to River about my aunt.

I lower my head into my hands. I have a headache, and I’m so exhausted I can feel it in my soul.

She takes a seat beside me and places a hand on my back. “Hey, everything will be okay. River doesn’t look at it as if he’s cleaning up your mess. If anything, it’s Noah’s fault for getting into the mess.”

“Did he tell you why he was in this mess?” I ask since I told River to hear the truth first before he judged.

“No one tells me anything. River and Finn especially keep a ton of stuff from me.” Bitterness edges into her tone. “I’m surprised they even told me what happened to you. And they didn’t tell me much.”

I lift my head and find her staring at me with hope in her eyes that maybe I’ll offer that up.

“I got jumped,” I offer her part of the truth, but I question if I should tell her the entire story. It might be dangerous for her to know. “By someone at the school, I think,” I add when confusion crosses her features.

“Someone jumped you?” She shakes her head in astonishment. “What did they do?”

“Knocked me out and dragged me into the woods. River found me because of this.” I tap the watch on my wrist. “He gave it to me the other day and apparently has a GPS in it.”

“That’s good. I mean, not that you were jumped, but that he gave that to you. But …” Her lips are parted in shock. “Why would anyone jump you?”

Again, I could tell her about the society, but Finn has stressed to be careful talking about it. Plus, I saw society members running around on the football field in cloaks and with knives. Add what they did to me, and I think Finn was right.

“Because I’m a northsider?” I shrug. “I don’t know.” It’s the truth, too.

Normally, when stuff like this happens, it’s due to my mother or father screwing me over. But this is a different world where my parents couldn’t be involved. River said it may have had to do with his initiation, but the society was already after me before that.

Her blonde hair is smoothed back in a ponytail, her makeup is done, and she has on white pants and a lavender top. It’s obvious she was heading somewhere before I showed up.

Needing a break from talking about this, I ask, “Are you heading out?”

“To class, but I can skip if you need me to,” she offers as she reaches for her bag. “Wren can take notes for me.”

I stop her with a shake of my head. “Go to class. I’m fine. I think I’m just going to go to sleep, anyway.”

She hesitates. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, we’ll talk later.” I force a smile that actually aches.

She frowns. Then, with a quiet sigh, she gets up and leaves the dorm.

I sink back into the chair and stare up at the ceiling, my brain straining to grasp what happened to me yesterday. One minute, I’d been hurrying to get to Noah, and the next, I was jumped. Then I blacked out and woke up in the woods.

Not being able to recall anything that happened between the blackout and when I woke up gives me an icky feeling that makes my stomach churn.

Maybe River is right. Perhaps I should get checked out by a doctor. But I’m not about to let him pay for one. I’ll go to the free northside clinic. I’ll skip class today, which isn’t ideal, but is necessary.

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