Page 75 of Royally Arranged

Her glee disgusted me. But I didn’t have time to waste on calling her out.

I had someone to find.

Someone who needed to know he hadn’t been forgotten.

- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE -

HAWTHORNE

Lying on that stiff bed, barely able to move without pain shooting through my face, I stared at the plain gray ceiling. No one had spoken to me since I’d been left here. A guard had opened the door a crack late last night to shove a cup of water and some bread inside, but he had avoided looking at me during the exchange.

I wondered if those men who’d stood by, listening to me get pummeled, regretted any of it. Did they really hate me because I’d fucked someone in their sacred graveyard? I didn’t think the ghosts gave a shit. I should have worried more about real flesh-and-blood people, apparently.

Lifting my hands, I gazed at my fingers as I spread them. It was hard to imagine the sky was somewhere through that thick ceiling. That a place so magical still existed. A sky full of stars that I’d gazed upon with Nova in my arms. I hummed softly, and my fingers moved, playing an invisible piano. In my head I heard the song clearly; it was the same one Nova had encouraged me to perform at the coronation. Her belief in my ability had driven me to do something I never would have. To a passion I’d long abandoned.

Larchmont’s last words haunted me mercilessly:Nova was always one of us.

I hadn’t believed him. But the longer I lay here, throbbing in pain, my hurt growing beyond my earthly bruises until it coiled in my soul, the more I began to wonder. To think that everything between Nova and me had been fake ... it was too much.

But was it worse if it had been real?

I was going to be stripped of my crown. The Valentines didn’t need me. They had what they’d been after—what I’d promised Costello I was smart enough to prevent: a growing baby.

My baby.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.Squeezing my eyes shut, I clenched my hands and dropped them to my sides. Ten years in prison? All that time without being with the woman I loved. A decade where I wouldn’t get to know my own child. There was some irony in ending up a worse father than my own, even before I’d gotten to try my hand at it.

Noise clanked outside my door. Shifting, I looked over at the single foggy panel of glass. A figure was there—another guard? The door burst open, shining light into the room. It lit her up from behind, her hair a crimson halo. My angel had come for me.

“I’m so sorry!” Nova cried, dropping to her knees beside my bed. Her hands reached for my shoulders, cradled my bruised and swollen jaw. “Oh, are you all right? You look awful.”

Gently, like she’d turn into dust if I pressed too hard, I touched her cheek. “I knew Larch got some solid hits in, but I didn’t think he gave me a concussion. Am I hallucinating, or are you really here?”

“Of course I’m here!” Nova grasped my wrist, kissing my palm. “I didn’t know they did this, Thorne. When I got your messages, I wanted to respond, but I couldn’t.”

I stiffened, midway to pulling her in for a taste of her lips. “You ... got my messages? When?”

“Yesterday. As you sent them.” She studied my injuries, frowning in sympathy. I must have looked like death warmed over. I sure felt like it.

“You mean to tell me you saw my texts asking if you were okay, and you just didn’t answer me?” That cut me to my core. Nova looked into my eyes, sensing my growing despair. “I came down here, got ambushed by your brothers, because I thought something had happened toyou.”

She withdrew, covering her mouth. “Oh no. Thorne, I—I was in the dark about their plan! I swear it!”

Nova was always one of us.He’d said it. He’d warned me. Yet she denied being involved. Who was lying?Whycome down here to get me now? My skull was ready to split from my confusion.

“You said you couldn’t respond, what does that mean?” I asked, feeling like I was having the shit kicked out of me all over again.

Drawing herself up, Nova stood a foot away. “I wasn’t allowed. My mother—”

“Right,” I said, cutting her off. “I forgot. You do anything she tells you, huh?”Of course she does,I thought bitterly.She was always working with her family. She was always on their side.

She was always my enemy, and I was too blind to realize it.

I’d been so sure I was nothing like my brothers. No woman, no matter how beautiful or kind or compassionate oreverythingthat Nova is, could make me so naive that I’d ignore every warning sign. But I had. I’d fallen for every trick in the book, and some I hadn’t known existed.

I turned my back on her, facing the cell wall. A malaise unlike any other was choking away the energy in me. I’d felt so relieved to see her, but now I was swimming in despair.

“Please,” she said, the word squeezing from between her teeth. She was barely holding herself together. “I’m so sorry, but please, let me help you.”

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