The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 0731

I'm honestly not aware of much as we fly to...wherever the hell we're going. I mostly just concentrate on my mom's warm presence at my side, and the soft murmuring things she says to me, even if I don't know what they mean. Still, something about them dulls the

gnawing ache in my heart.

An ache which seems to get bigger and bigger as the moments pass, like a cliff, or a quarry, with unsteady edges - my whole world threatening to just tilt in and smash to pieces at the bottom.

But my mom holds me together. I feel her healing magic sweep through me as she strokes my hair, feel her healing all the little cuts and bruises from the battlefield, the tiny scrapes and bumps. I only lift my head to stop her once, when the magic brushes against the cuts on my palms.

The ones Gibson left with that slash of his knife in the moments before he opened Tony's throat.

"No, please," I croak, shaking my head. "I need them - they're all I have left -"

"Oh sugar," mom whispers, stroking my cheek. "We all have to heal sometime."

I nod, knowing she's right. "Can you - can you not heal it smooth? Can you leave scars?"

"Yes, baby," she whispers. "We'll leave you the scars so your hands can always bear witness to what Tony gave for you. Okay? I promise."

tears slipping down my

whispers. I tuck my face back against her shoulder and sob as I feel her magic sweep over my palms, ending the physical

know she tries to smooth it as best she can, I

Luca's mark, which claimed me as his minutes before he rejected

door closed. I'll never not bear it. Every time I look in the mirror and see it I'll remember that moment, that terrible mistake. "Now now, baby," mom murmurs, stroking her hand long over

support too, and I

it's bone deep. Perhaps deeper, to beyond whatever is

the helicopter

I don't know what the hell she must have paid to have the whole place cleared out for just the four of us - but, well. Money we have and

a very strong man's arms the moment we land. I look up at him curiously kind of confused, but he just smiles gently at me and carries me away to our room. There I'm bundled away into a bed in a dark room. Cora and Daphne cuddle in around me, quite quiet, while mom oversees the delivery of cart after cart

puts on movies that I don't watch, and we all sit very calmly for a long, long time. Mom gives me a sip of the birth control potion, murmuring something about. case," and

drooping.

realize what's happening, I whip my head up to glare at her. "You drugged me," I murmur, my lips barely moving as the sleeping medicine

baby," mom murmurs, stroking a hand over my hair.

about whether or not I'm mad to

next to me in a very lush robe, her hair lovely and shining as it falls around her shoulders. She flicks through the TV channels and sips from something in a mug that